Customers expect quick responses from businesses and increasingly prefer text communication channels: website chat, messengers, and social networks. In this communication, chatbots act quite effectively as the first dataset line of support. In this article, we will look at how chatbots work and how they help businesses improve customer experience.
What is a chatbot
A chatbot, in simple terms, is a computer program that interacts with users, simulating human communication. Its work is based on natural language processing (NLP) mechanisms.
Basic chatbots work by looking for keywords in a message and generating a response based on pre-set templates. More advanced AI-powered bots can take into accountreducing the onboarding period for a sales manager the context of a conversation, understand the nuances of speech, and provide more accurate and natural responses.
What is a chatbot for?
Companies use chatbots to solve two big problems.
1. Reducing the workload of operators and managers #
Chatbots answer questions about products or services, order status, make appointments, book tickets, tours, etc.
Bots take over simple first-line support tasks, allowing operators to optimize their work:
reduce overtime,
provide uninterrupted support at a high level,
focus on solving non-standard problems.
This approach helps businesses overcome the challenges associated with high customer expectations. For example, bots understand the essence of a request and forward it to the appropriate specialists, which significantly shortens the path to solving the problem.
2. Collecting leads and increasing conversion into sales #
Chatbots also help automate marketing processes:guide customers along the user journey, increasing conversion at every step;
collect feedback;
send out mailings about discounts and special offers, reducing advertising costs.
Types of Chatbots
Chatbots differ in types depending on their purpose and level of complexity. Let’s highlight the main ones and tell you what they can do.
Chatbots based on production rules. They follow a set conversation structure and use information from the knowledge base available to them. Such chatbots are suitable for answering frequently asked questions and performing simple tasks. Example: a chatbot that helps find store opening hours or basic information about a product.
AI-powered chatbots detect customer intentions and sentiments, learn from human interactions, and conduct personalized conversations. Example: an online store bot that suggests products based on previous purchases.
Hybrid chatbots combine rules-based and AI approaches. They solve simple tasks within a script and use AI to respond to more complex queries. Example: a help desk bot that quickly escalates non-standard issues to human operators.
Voice chatbots process voice commands using virgin islands send speech recognition technology and generate a response using Text-to-Speech speech synthesis. They are usually found in smart devices.
