Using Chatbots for Your Small Business Branding

Essentially a company interface, chatbots can leave a powerful first impression of your brand

Considering how much artificial intelligence (AI), big data and the internet of things (IoT) are changing by the day, chatbots have evolved in such a way that business owners can ask them to do absolutely anything they want. Well, only what you’ve “taught” your chatbot to understand, to be more exact. But still, it’s mesmerizing. Especially when you consider how they can be put to work to improve your small business branding.

While this type of smart, conversational machine intelligence has been around for decades, its functionality is constantly changing. And that’s what small business owners need to understand. Chatbots are not the definition of artificial intelligence. They’re not robots either. They’re simply an innovative application used to message and speak to customers on behalf of a business.

What are chatbots?

The whole artificial intelligence buzz is what confuses small business owners. It’s too complex for their liking. But chatbots are not complicated at all.

If used correctly, chatbots can be one of the most beneficial communication channels for your business.

Currently, there are hundreds of different chatbots to choose from and to consider for your business operations. But you cannot try to use them all. It’s important that you choose the most affordable option with the least amount of infrastructure needed to create brand awareness and to market your small business branding. Whether your business requires a menu-based chatbot, a keyword-based chatbot or a contextual-based chatbot, it needs to be easily integrated into your current business system. Clickatell’s Touch solution, for instance, is a good example of that. It can help you to streamline customer services and reach your goals by seamlessly connecting with your existing platforms.

How are chatbots used to improve small business branding?

Put simply, chatbots are company interfaces. It’s an always-on communication channel which allows your customers to communicate with you whenever and however they choose to, using text messages. This in itself immediately improves small business branding since customers are bound to be left impressed by your brand’s ability to respond to and resolve their queries quickly and efficiently. Some chatbots have progressed by accepting voice commands and, eventually, they’ll accept image commands too. But, for now, chatbots are mainly text-based and are used as private chat solutions for customers needing to ask questions.

The information recorded in a conversation can be stored for future marketing purposes, allowing businesses to analyze their customer’s behavior and get to know their customers better. However, there are a set of rules and regulations involved and businesses need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure customers are comfortable with businesses keeping their information.

With so many benefits to offer, it’s a no-brainer why more small business owners are utilizing chatbots to assist in customer service automation and time-consuming day-to-day tasks.

But, again, the reason for making use of a chatbot needs to support your business goals, improve your small business branding and, hopefully, boost your bottom line. Not every type of business product or service will benefit from using chatbot texting as opposed to face-to-face or over the phone communications, so it’s important for you to weigh up your options.

If, however, you feel that your small business could benefit from a texting platform, here are a few ways to use chatbots to help grow your small business branding and add a competitive edge to your business.

Service solution for customers in moments that matter

The more technology evolves, the more your chatbot can “learn” and grow too. These smart tools can record and store any interactions with multiple contacts at the same time. Based on this information, businesses can remarket to their customers as well as assist them with links to items they think will interest them from their search history with a particular brand. This is beneficial for shoppers because it makes the experience faster. It can also be used as a questions portal; for instance, customers can ask businesses certain questions and an in-depth answer is guaranteed minutes, or even seconds, after. This 24-hour service offering is ideal for customers who want to ask questions after working hours, as businesses will now always be able to assist them. And, another bonus is that the more complex the questions and information is that you feed your chatbot, the more expansive their knowledge will be.

A simple and seamless sales process

As much as a chatbot can assist with internal relations, it can also speed up the sales process by providing customers with the right information at the right time in the sales funnel.

When customers are clued up on products and services, the purchasing process is naturally more successful.

Chatbots can also identify hot leads for businesses and use that information to target specific customers. So, if you consider using a tool like Clickatell Touch to assist by servicing existing customers, it’ll give you more time to spend fixing and focusing on your small business development strategy.

Cover multiple roles

Small business resources are usually quite limited. This is unfortunate in some cases where customers require one-on-one time with certain (non-existent) departments. But, on the positive side, chatbots can cover a vast variety of jobs without you needing to hire individuals to help you out in these moments. Chatbots can assist you with marketing, customer service and more in a fraction of the time that it would take you as a team, so machine intelligence is a helpful addition for situations like these.

Boost social and website engagement

Using one chatbot solution which is able to integrate into various platforms, makes keeping up with your customers extremely easy. Using Clickatell Touch, you can communicate with your customers via Facebook Messenger, website chat, WhatsApp and more, and receive replies to a single web-based interface. This will help you keep tabs on your social platforms and to communicate with customers the minute you receive a message, whether you’re logged into these separate platforms or not. Naturally, when you improve the way you communicate with your customers, your small business branding will generate more interest.

Improved online payment structure

This is especially important for e-commerce brands as you’ll be able to streamline your payment structure to ensure that all activity happens within one application, and with ease. Customers tend to abandon their carts when they’re transferred to various platforms before they can pay for their item. They expect payment to be as quick as the click of a button, so it would be in your best interest to offer your customers just that.

Grow your small business today

As you can see, there are many reasons to use an artificial resource to improve your business operations and to change the way you communicate with your customers in real-time. Take the time to test out all the relevant options for your business and see how much value they can add. If you do choose to use a chatbot solution, invest in one that is already built for immediate results, and always remember to market your chatbot so customers know what, where and how to find your business’ chat interface.

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