Chatbots and first line messaging

The increased use of chatbots

Chatbots allow users the capability to enhance customer understanding, improve first line communication and make sales workloads more efficient. Modern chatbots are utilised by companies in order to develop quick and accurate customer service, guiding the user before reaching a human representative. 

Chatbot technology allows automation of first line communications to find quick solutions to common questions, and often shares first-hand brand information that is most useful to the customer. 

The question is: how can chatbots support you, and where should we draw the line?

What are chatbots used for?

There are a handful of types of chatbots, such as first-line, generative AI, rule-based chatbots, keyword based. As well as hybrid options that combine the above features. Chatbots work to suit your needs, acting as a sales representative or as a supporting tool; a kind of virtual assistant. Some chatbots can include optional real life agents to manage your queries for you if you still want that human touch without an in-house sales team behind the scenes.

Why does conversational style work so well?

Chatbots can be programmed to be as conversational or professional as you like. Such as providing set questions and answers, or integrating artificial intelligence to understand and sell your brand through generative text processing. Conversational content is becoming increasingly common, giving the ease of human dialogue before an agent can interact directly.

How can AI chatbots ease your workload?

AI is driving the future of chatbots, alleviating workload and automating responses. AI chatbots certainly have their place within the market. They can help ease the role of customer service representatives who are managing a large CRM of enquiries, customers and troubleshooting issues on a daily basis. 

AI technologies are helpful to gauge the extent of enquiries and glean relevant information or required actions. That way the query can be transferred to the right professional early on. Some queries can be entirely handled by AI when rules and instructions for streamlined responses have been set. It’s not like talking to ChatGPT, your AI powered chatbots will be clued-up on the rules and regulations of your business and can be scripted on what to say.

A personal customer experience

First-line chatbots in particular allow the user to ask a question to the bot, or alternatively choose from a selection of curated frequently asked questions. After this step, the chatbot can provide a pre-modelled answer to the query, or will refer to a real life customer service rep if the query is more bespoke. This allows the team member to predetermine queries, before providing the customer with information or a solution. Thus allowing more time, more effective information and a more personalised experience from the offset. Also  speeding up processes and adding value without the pressure of an immediate response.

What are the benefits of chatbots?

Chatbots offer a range of benefits for your website or programme, whether designed to troubleshoot, provide product suggestions or answer questions. 

Benefits of chatbots include:

• Saving time and increasing efficiency for customer services reps
• Improving understanding and personalisation of requests
• Answering commonly asked questions
• Sharing relevant website URLs and company guidance documents
• Responding in your company tone of voice
• Gather lead generation information to engage
• Transfer contacts to relevant departments
• Reducing time spent on spam queries

Some chatbots can:

• Specify country locations or blacklist certain IP addresses
• Provide generative AI responses
• Integrate queries into your CRM
• Book meetings and pay for goods or services
• Create relevant product recommendations
• Gather insightful feedback on the overall customer experience
• Review how your agents are performing

There are many chatbots and bespoke features available. It is always worth doing a needs analysis to understand what features are most important for your business.

Limitations of chatbots

When might chatbots not be suitable for your business?

It’s worth noting that the potential for a chatbot should be evaluated for every business, as it doesn’t always add the value or effectiveness that is expected. This may depend on your type of business, your company goals or the typical customer queries.

Depending on what kind of questions or solutions you need to provide, chatbots can alleviate simple queries, predetermined responses or predict using generative responses; however this does not guarantee the perfect result every time. Natural language processing is great, but often the emotional nuances of human speech are what builds trust and connection with customers, especially if covering difficult topics or complex solutions.

Handling complex requests

If your business is particularly technical, other routes might be more suitable. For example, interactive forms, customer helplines, FAQs, and guides. Alternatively using a first-line chatbot is a good first step, complex requests can be handled internally after the first reply. Based on how your team operates and the scale of the business, it might not add enough value for a high complexity solution.

We have found that in recent years, demand for chatbot technology has increased, showing that both companies and customers are understanding the technology and see the value in first-line communications. Particularly for e-commerce, chatbots can provide a wealth of useful information to customers all over the world, reducing time spent and enhancing operation efficiency.

Interested?

If you are considering a chatbot to enhance your processes, we would be more than happy to discuss the options with you.

A needs analysis is a good first step to understand what communication methods are right for you, and whether you want to go ahead.

We call ourselves the digital team, however all of our conversations with clients are human to human! Feel free to get in touch.