Are Chatbots the new apps?

According to the reports, we use apps more every time, but only some of them already well positioned; In terms of discovery and new apps, the trend is downward.

We no longer want to spend our time searching and testing new apps whose numbers have increased dramatically despite the fact that the boom of having an application has passed.

As we see in the previous image, there are at least millions of applications in the most popular stores, Google Play and Apple App Store, where new apps have a more difficult path to be known.

As for the most popular apps, there are only the big names, so the opportunity to approach the client is through chatbots.

The barriers presented by the apps for users are:

1. Having to look for them

2. Waiting it to download

3. Register in it

4. Learn to use it

5. Remember that you have it installed

On the other hand, using Chatbots, which can be in the preferred attention channels of clients such as Whatsapp, on your website as Web chat, you can even create a landing page that is a chatbot, chatbots on Twitter or the super popular and still free, Facebook Messenger.

The advantages of the Chatbots are undeniable:

1. You do not have to download anything

2. It is not necessary to register to use it

3. Do not look for it, it’s on your website or in your customer service channel

4. It is intuitive, we all know how to use chat and write or select something with the mouse

5. If you need it, it will always be in the same place

Some added values of the chatbots are

1. They never get tired or bored even if they are constantly asked the same question and have to answer it daily

2. Give consistent and aligned answers to the brand’s strategy

3. They are ready to assist you immediately, at any time and day of the week

4. Respond quickly and accurately

5. You can get additional information from the users as part of the conversation

Of course, chatbots are not perfect and are not a panacea for customer service and attention, but they can help and improve your perception by automatically and immediately attending to most requests.

You have to be careful before implementing one with:

1. Manage the expectations of the users, who know the limits of the chatbot so that they do not believe that it is the next Siri or Alexa and want to ask any topic

2. Have an agile and phased development, listening to customers and solving the most common and simplest needs first

3. That it is useful for the clients, it does not matter that it uses rules, buttons or artificial intelligence, it must bring some benefit to the users

4. Before developing something, we must be clear about the objective, it is more important to think about the design of the experience than the technology to use

5. Having a process for a human to take the conversation, although most of the simple queries can be taken by the virtual agent, it is vital to have human operators who can serve the clients when the complexity of the request is very high for the chatbot

The potential of automation is already within your reach, you have to identify the processes likely to be and work on a design to free experienced operators from repetitive tasks and focus on high-value customers or generate new business.

With the knowledge generated by the interactions of the chatbot with the users, usage and satisfaction data are generated that must be analyzed to implement improvements in the experience and improve contact with customers, taking even a more active role as a marketing channel not only inbound, it must be converted into a relevant one for outbound campaigns and updates, taking care not to saturate people with annoying and unsolicited messages and having a clear and simple unsubsribe process.