Chatbot Market Research: Best Practices
The oldest and most traditional way of selling something was to go from door-to-door and talk to people about a product. Although this method has now been replaced by modern marketing strategies and formats, the insight gained from door-to-door sales is still relevant: the best way to find and convince a consumer to buy your product is to interact with them. It is this reason that forms the basis for the argument in favor of chatbots for your company.
In recent years, chatbots have proven to be very effective for businesses. Studies show that 70% of millennials have had positive chatbot experiences, and 27% of chatbot chats have resulted in successful conversions. With this in mind, there’s no better time than now to integrate chatbots into your company. However, to leverage the power of chatbots, it is critical to first consider the unique needs of your customers. Here, we cover some of the best practices when it comes to implementing chatbot functionalities to better assist your customers.
Do Market Research
As you plunge into the world of developing a chatbot, remember to rely heavily on market research. The purpose of a chatbot is to engage with your current customers (and target customers) almost as well as a human would. So, focus your market research on consumer needs when it comes to interaction. Consider the conversations that normally take place between your business and the customer, and use these as a template for your chatbot.
While conducting market research, be sure to speak to your customer care staff. They are a great resource to learn about unique and frequent customer queries, concerns, and complaints. Depending on your product or service and the conversations your customer care staff have on a regular basis, you can develop an appropriate conversation tree for your chatbot.
Similarly, enlist the help of your sales and marketing teams. These teams are most familiar with consumer needs, and how to best communicate the value of your product/service in terms of those needs. They excel at starting conversations and engaging with your target market. Use these insights to further tailor your chatbot for maximum impact.
Finally, once you’ve already set up your chatbot, you can use this functionality itself to conduct market research. Chatbots like Pulse are designed specifically for market research purposes based on the hypothesis that “while surveys are one way to get that question answered, they’re also super boring. Conversations/chatbots are not.” Thus, Pulse enables professionals to “connect via simple Q&A and changes how market research is conducted.” Using this premise, you could also use your chatbot to send your customers and target market bite-sized Q&A to keep them engaged, while also learning about them.
Understand the Technology
Even with all the customization in the world, your chatbot will never be human. So, there is really no reason to pretend that it is. While developing the chatbot, build a conversation tree that maps out possible conversations it could have. Subjective questions are handled well by humans, but not so much by bots; try to avoid these wherever possible as they will only lead to both the robot and customer getting confused.
It is important to remember that chatbots represent cognitive business disruption. While there is no doubt that businesses stand to profit from the adoption of so-called “futuristic tech”, it is worth noting that there are many nay-sayers out there. Thus, it is crucial to managing perceptions about the implementation of this sort of technology into your business. Ohio University recommends combatting the nay-sayers by reiterating the importance of cognitive computing technologies, providing clarity about AI’s benefits and limitations, and always staying current. In terms of chatbots specifically, this means that you should let your customers know when they are interfacing with a bot as opposed to a human. Some businesses offer the option of speaking to a human at any moment, in the event that the chatbot cannot provide sufficient information. This is a great option and caters well to the portion of consumers who might prefer talking to a real person. It also lets your customers know that if needed, there is somebody they can turn to for answers to non-direct questions.
Make Sure Your Chatbot Reflects Your Brand
When you started your company, you probably spent a lot of time thinking about what your brand would stand for. You most likely wondered, “If my company was a person, what would they be like?” Think about your chatbot in a similar manner. While your chatbot is not a person, that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t have a personality. In fact, a great chatbot personality can increase your success rates.
With this in mind, set a tone of voice for your bot, with some standard responses based around the same. An opening message that is friendly and attention-grabbing is a great place to start. Be sure to appeal to a possible need in the consumer’s life and welcome them into a conversation. Consider the example of a chatbot for a law firm. When it comes to law firm branding, research shows that personalization and a focus on the client make are usually more successful than messages that only emphasize a lawyer’s skill. Thus, an ideal chatbot for a law firm would reflect the personality of a lawyer who is there to help and has a real interest in the client. Insights like these as a result of market research allow for chatbots to appropriately reflect brand identity; and in turn, make the company stand out amidst the competition.
Another way to gain insights is through the use of big data. Successful bots use the information received from big data to better interact with people. Keep updating your chatbot with consumer insights from big data to get consistent chatbot chat results. Whether you’re a small or big business, using big data to improve your chatbot’s “personality” will ensure that it is always up to date and can assist customers quickly and efficiently.
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When used correctly, chatbots can elevate your business operations and boost customer satisfaction. In today’s world, people want answers immediately; and utilizing a chatbot is an easy way to cater to this need for instant gratification. Even if you don’t have much tech-related knowledge, there are plenty of apps that will guide you through the process of creating a customized chatbot for your business. The most important thing to remember is to involve market research and the resultant insights at every step along the chatbot development journey. Only then will your chatbot be able to fulfill the demands of your customers in a quick and efficient manner.
