What metrics can a chatbot give you that websites can’t!
Important insights and KPI’s
To meet the increasingly growing expectations of guests, the hospitality industry is turning to technology. And that is why hotels are finally starting to implement messaging strategies! Therefore, making it easier for travellers to get in touch with them via Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, among others. Finally, hoteliers are realizing the importance of messaging to build loyalty, to increase clients’ engagement and as a way of improving the overall guest experience. Indeed, guests report higher satisfaction ratings when using social media channels to communicate with the hotel. So, besides being able to engage with their guests on their preferred channel, hotels can provide real-time offers and upgrades, gain customer insights and improve internal operations.
Undoubtedly, chat can give you important metrics and KPI’s. Broadly speaking, KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators are performance measurements that show how effectively your hotel is achieving its goals. One can use KPI’s to measure the success of a company’s customer service, the quality and effectiveness of the support and more. On this week’s post, I am going to underline 4 insights that only messaging and chatbots can give you:
Retention Rate
This metric is a great place to start because it will tell you at a glance how helpful and useful is your chatbot. As it is implied, by retention rate, I am referring to the number of users who come back within a brief period of time. In a certain way, one can compare retention rate with loyalty programs. How? Well, if your chatbot has a high retention rate that means that your users are truly loyal to your brand and in the future will use your bot again. Therefore, the fluctuation of this rate helps you assess your chatbot’s shortcomings and measure its success. In addition, whenever you introduce a new feature or made any changes in your chatbot, you can compare the before and after metrics, therefore measuring the success of the alteration.
Interactions per user
Did you know that approximately 4 in 10 people interact with a chatbot once, which can be a sign that the bot didn’t provide the answers the users were looking for. And that is why the number of interactions that each user has with your bot is a simple but at the same time solid measurement that will help you get a clear idea of the chatbot’s performance. All you have to do is measure the number of messages sent and received by a user. The right number will depend on the chatbots’ purpose. If your chatbot’s primary purpose is to sell, several interactions can mean that clients are interested and asking a lot of questions about the product, which can easily escalate into a sale. On the other hand, on service-oriented bots having many interactions can mean that users aren’t understanding the answers they need quickly enough.
Goal Completion Rate (GCR)
Like any other business, every chatbot is built to accomplish a certain goal. In fact, even the persona or personality of the bot is created in such a way that the goal is focused on. This metric is crucial because it will tell you if your ultimate goals are being accomplished. A higher number of conversations and new users don’t exactly mean success. If the assigned goal is not met – the chatbot cannot be titled as performing well. In such cases, one has to look at the current strategy and work to determine how it can meet the goal associated.
Click-through Rate (CTR)
Even though CTR isn’t currently a major metric, there is no doubt that it will become one of the most important ones to look out in the future! Before starting to better analyse this rate, there is an important clarification to be done: Chatbots’ CTR is different than Websites’ CTR. So, in this post, I am merely examining chatbots’ CTR which is the number of clicks users do before making a purchase/booking. Generally, clicks are most likely positive indicators from users but they can also be a sign of failure if the chatbot experience is supposed to be self-contained. Meaning that if the sales/service process ought to be accomplished merely through your bot, high CTRs can be a major red flag! This metric can be very useful because it can help you predict users’ behaviour and see how you can improve your strategy. That is, if you see people only click until a certain step, for instance, they stop when they check the room details. With this information, you can start working on new solutions and therefore improve your conversion rate.
Instant Messaging and bots are set to become the main communication channels in the next few years! AI-powered bots’ potential goes way beyond customer service and present a huge opportunity for sales and marketing! Don’t be afraid, embrace the change!
NB: This is a viewpoint by Mariana Marques from HiJiffy. HiJiffy brings chat to the hospitality and travel industry, enabling customers to effectively connect with you through instant messaging apps.