How Chatbots Are Changing The Way We Interact With Brands

By Katie Tejada

Chatbots now play an integral part in the marketing strategies of some of the most forward-thinking brands around the world, including Slack, Facebook, and WeChat. With messaging apps becoming more and more popular, many businesses are starting to turn to chatbots to help improve the customer experience. There’s no doubt that this trend will continue to gain steam soon. Chatbots are already proving their worth by increasing customer engagement and driving new business value for many organizations worldwide.

Why Use Chatbots?

Many companies have started turning to chatbots for customer interaction because they can provide an excellent user experience at any time of day. That means companies can answer customer questions or provide information even outside their normal operating hours. Having this type of channel available saves time and money for both the customer and the business.

Luckily, it’s not hard to build an AI chatbot that can talk and understand language, especially in today’s digital world. But what is hard is integrating that same AI into a brand’s identity and personality. It requires serious attention to detail and an understanding of conversational tone as well as consistency across multiple touchpoints.

Two Types Of Chatbot Experiences

Let’s start by dividing chatbot experiences into two categories: on-demand and conversational. On-demand chatbots—like flight trackers, restaurant recommendations, and weather reports—generate all of their responses at once through a set database. You interact with them by asking specific questions. They’re typically found on smartphone apps or websites like Google Assistant, Siri, and WebMD. Conversational bots have an ongoing back-and-forth relationship with users, who ask specific questions but also can engage in more freeform conversation. These types of chatbots live inside messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, or Slack, or on one-to-one platforms that facilitate more immediate interactions.

Ways You Can Use Chatbots In Your Business

When chatbots first emerged on social media sites as an automated way for businesses to respond to consumer queries, many users saw them as impersonal and irritating. That’s because if you asked a question that wasn’t in their database, they would give you a flat answer—or worse, refer you back to a generic email address where you could request more information by clicking through page after page of links. But today's chatbots don't just communicate, they can actually learn how best to interact with each user individually through machine learning. This means that every time a customer interacts with the chatbot, it takes in the new data and learns how to respond better in the future. These types of interactions then become more natural and can make customers feel more connected to the brand itself.

Some of the most common ways businesses use chatbots are:

• Expedite customer service requests
• Provide information about your company or industry
• Drive user behavior and lead generation
• Give customers 24/7 access to products and services
• Host a text-based trivia game or contest
• Act as a booking agent for your services
• Identify people who need help and use those leads to generate business through other channels (such as social media advertising)

Better Customer Service

Although chatbots can’t handle all customer requests, they’re great for answering simple questions and helping customers complete tasks. They also have much higher response rates than traditional support systems and higher open rates of over 90% compared to email which gets around 22%. However, when compared to customer engagement on social media, chatbots are still gaining traction. Regardless, these systems are already proving to be beneficial in helping companies provide better customer service in less time.

Conversational Marketing

Customer service chatbots can be a helpful addition to a conversational marketing strategy because they can interact freely with customers, answer questions, and gather feedback. This means they do not always require human input from another source to provide relevant information. Sometimes, they can understand a customer's needs based on current activity and respond before the customer even needs to ask a question. AI-powered customer support chatbots allow for a more personalized experience and can simplify communication between businesses and their clients/customers.

The fact that chatbot systems are a non-intrusive interface boosts their appeal even further. It also provides an opportunity for brands to deliver automated content while monitoring consumer behavior in real-time, thus eliminating manual processes involved in customer acquisition efforts such as online advertising. Ultimately, having a more conversational environment helps build customer engagement and trust in the long term.

Conclusion

In just a few years, chatbots have changed how we interact with brands. Since 2019, they have seen a use increase of 92%, making it the communication channel with the largest growth. In some cases, they’ve replaced customer service representatives altogether; in others, they’ve made them more efficient. The potential is nearly limitless—they can be used for anything from ordering pizza to scheduling meetings. The technology is here and marketers need to be prepared if they want to stay relevant. There will always be room for human interaction—but chatbots may soon take over as our preferred digital brand connection point.

About The Author

Katie Tejada is a writer, editor, and former HR professional. She often covers business innovations, CRM solutions, and developments in HR, as well as recruiting, finance, and law. When she’s not writing about these industries or analyzing trends and reports, she enjoys spending time with her family.