The Power of Chatbots as Business Tools for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you’re likely looking for anything to give you the edge over the competition. And with messaging apps surpassing social media platforms, conversational networks are on their way to becoming the new norm. The adoption of chatbots is growing rapidly, and they are ideal business tools for small businesses.

For customer service and customer experience, chatbots are unbeaten. So, if you’re not already using them to grow your business, read on to find out more about the power of chatbots for startups and small businesses.

Wait, what is a chatbot?

Before we get into the reasons why chatbots are powerful business tools for small businesses, we need to understand what a chatbot actually is.

A chatbot is a computer program designed to mimic human conversation using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP).

They’re used most often over the internet and many of them use a chat interface for communication. Chatbots are compatible with almost all of the major communication channels such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and more. You can also design them specifically for use with private chat and messaging services.

Because of the use of AI, machine learning, and NLP, chatbots can relay complex information and make informed decisions instead of simply sending out the same information over and over again. They can be personalized in order for consumers to feel as if they are “speaking” to a “real human”.

So, how can they benefit your small business?

Interest in chatbots has skyrocketed. This is because, for the first time, people are using messenger apps more than social network platforms, which have previously dominated in the marketing industry. As a small business owner, it’s time to sit up and take note of the power of chatbots as business tools for small businesses.

They provide an interactive marketing platform

Chatbots create a super customer experience. And this can be used for an interactive and highly personalized marketing campaign.

This type of marketing will give you an edge over your competition and can help to build brand loyalty as well as your customer base.

Using a chatbot can help you reach out to a wider audience, allowing the audience to interact with your brand on a personal level. Using a tool such as Clickatell Touch gives you the opportunity to create a tailored chatbot without breaking the bank, but still providing a quality customer experience to your audience.

Always available

Consumers want 24/7 service. And while this might seem unrealistic, it is the truth of today’s fast-paced, tech-centric world. Chatbots are operational and ready to engage with their target audience 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Human salespeople and customer service staff can only (realistically) work for five to eight hours a day before becoming exhausted. For your small business to succeed and for your customer experience to continue successfully, a chatbot is the perfect option. Your clients will have their queries answered at any time of the day or night, and they won’t have to wait in phone queues for someone to answer their call. Always being available also means you are always making profits.

Understand your audience better

By using chatbots and similar business tools for small businesses, you’re able to gain real and accurate insight into their clients’ preferences. You can use the data your chatbot collects to present personalized offers and improved answers to your client base.

For example, if many clients send in queries about specials during certain seasons, you can send them perfectly timed SMS messages with promotional offers before these seasons begin. Understanding your audience is key to small business success. You’ll be able to communicate with them on a personal level. And personalized communication is what today’s customers want from businesses.

How can you implement them in your strategies?

So, now you know what chatbots are and how they can help your business. But, how do you actually use them? Some of the top ways that chatbots can be implemented in your strategies are listed below.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Chatbots are a lot smarter than many people assume. They’re able to use AI and machine learning to “remember” conversations and the information in those conversations. They can use this information to help future users.

You can (and should) use chatbots as a frontline customer relationship manager both to field questions or concerns and to gather and save the data from these conversations. This will make your marketing team’s jobs much easier, since they’ll be able to create campaigns using this information. Their messages will be more personalized which will make for happier customers.

Make recommendations

Unfortunately, as a small business owner, you don’t have the ability to give every customer one-on-one attention. This is where chatbots come into the picture. Chatbots can make recommendations to users by accessing a variety of data collected from previous conversations and interactions.

Chatbots help to free up company time by providing a dynamic form of 24/7 sales support.

This sales support can make thoughtful recommendations to every user. Let’s say that someone clicks onto your website in search of new cat toys for their furbaby. Your chatbot can open a conversation by asking them what they’re specifically looking for and provide them with the perfect (purrfect) recommendation. This will ensure return customers and will improve customer experience.

People expect personalization

One truth that all small business owners know all too well is that people expect personalization. But, they don’t want it from a human salesperson. Now, more people than ever prefer to interact with chatbots and messenger services rather than make phone calls.

This means that small businesses need to step up their game and integrate chatbots into their marketing strategies. If you’re still not convinced about the power of chatbots as business tools for small businesses, read our article on how they can increase customer engagement for your business.

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