5 Ways AI and Chatbots Can Add Value to Your Small Business

From after hours assistance to data collection, chatbots are thriving in the small business realm

Being a small business owner can be incredibly stressful. There are potential risks around every corner and you’re always looking for ways to mitigate those risks while adding value to your business. Luckily, new technology and digital trends like artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots might very well be the solution for you.

When you decided to start a business, you likely had little idea about the tools and technologies you’d soon be using. It’s certainly true that digital trends have shaped the future of small business marketing across the world, from the United States to India and beyond. And no digital trend has shaped the future of business more so than chatbots.

Before we go much further, let’s define chatbots. There is plenty of confusion around this technology with many people not quite understanding what they are, what their purpose is, and how they can be used in business. Many people hear the words AI and chatbots and, thanks to filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, imagine a dystopian science fiction future. But that’s just not the case and robots have not taken over New York City. The reality is far tamer but, for your business and customers, the advantages are plenty.

So, what exactly are chatbots?

A chatbot is a computer-based service which has been created to imitate human conversation. It uses AI, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to carry out these conversations.

A chatbot can remember past conversations using learning algorithms and use that information to help it in future conversations.

Those conversations can be with both customers and staff members, making it useful at every level of your business. It’s often feared by many people that AI will take jobs. That’s simply not true. Instead, it will take over the monotonous tasks that the majority of workers despise, freeing up their time instead for more meaningful, fulfilling work. Humans will always be needed in the workplace, and there are situations that a chatbot simply can’t handle. Take for instance a yelling customer. A chatbot wouldn’t understand his complaints amidst all the shouting and gesturing. Sure, it can understand intent, but we’re nowhere near to the point where these software programs understand irate hand gesturing. Despite this, chatbots have advanced enough for your staff members to see what the benefits are and how positive these AI systems can be for managing workloads and productivity.

Related: Best Ways To Use AI In Your Small Business Marketing Strategy

How exactly can a chatbot add value to your small business?

Chatbots can be used in many different ways in your business, making life easier for you, your staff members, and your customers. There’s no downside to a hard-working, well-trained chatbot. And it’ll only get better with time as it learns new information from new interactions.

Here are some of the ways that chatbots can add value to your small business:

After hours assistance

The beauty of a chatbot is that it doesn’t need to go home and sleep for eight hours each day. It also doesn’t need an hour for lunch, numerous cigarette breaks, and hourly trips to the coffee machine or water cooler. In short, a chatbot could soon become your most trusted employee. And where this impact can really be most useful is in round the clock assistance.

Your customers want — no, demand — to be assisted at all hours.

When they need help to complete a purchase, they expect an answer immediately. A chatbot can be that source of information for your customers’ queries. Consider Clickatell Touch. It’s a live chat interface with chatbot capabilities for customer support. It’s able to integrate with your website, social media channels, and chat apps. The benefits are many and include increased sales, streamlined support, and reduced costs.

Process automation

Every process that’s automated within your small business means time and money saved. Chatbots can help you with exactly that. They can assist with basic logistics tasks like bookkeeping and scheduling. These are essential tasks that would otherwise have taken up a significant amount of a staff member’s time. Instead, a chatbot can complete those tasks in an instant with the information it receives.

Data collection

The best way to ensure your small business is successful is to keep your customers happy. And the best way to do that is by finding out what they want and when they want it.

A chatbot can use its interactions with your customers to create a personalized profile of each. These profiles can be used to inform product suggestions.

AI can help you to understand why your existing customers return to your store and it can help you find new customers.

Problem-solving

As previously alluded to, every business has massive amounts of data. A chatbot can assist you by combing through all of this data and even analyzing it. It’ll be able to do this for your customers, your sales, your employees, and more.

Give your chatbot the correct data-set, and it can solve many of your business’ problems.

You or members of your staff simply don’t have the time in the day-to-day churn of business to not only look through those sets but give it the proper attention it deserves.

Smarter recruitment and hiring

Smaller businesses are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to their next great hire. Big businesses are able to attract talent simply because their brand is well known. Let’s be honest. Wouldn’t you prefer to work at Nike rather than Jim’s Sneaker Shack (apologies to Jim, he’s probably a great boss)? Instead of having to manually go through hundreds, or even thousands, of resumes, a machine learning algorithm is able to make this process far easier, highlighting the best candidates with the most relevant experience as they apply. AI can also figure out what processes led to the most successful hires in the past.

Related: What is the future of artificial intelligence chatbots and the millennial workforce?

As you’ve seen, there’s no doubt that digital trends like chatbots can be a long-term asset for your small business. Soon, they won’t be a trend at all. They’ll just be an essential office tool. If you’d like to learn more about how to include chatbots in your office, read our recent article which discusses how pairing your human staff members with chatbots will improve the customer experience. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Finding ways to make your customers happy?

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