10 Reasons Every Consumer Brand Needs a Chatbot This Holiday Season
Santa’s little helpers are no longer just cheery elves building wooden trains. The true stars helping consumers buy gifts this holiday season are chatbots.
Whether it’s on Alexa, Facebook Messenger, a website or any other platform, chatbots are now a strategic must-have for engaging target audiences.
According to a PWC study, chatbots have matured to the point that 27 percent of consumers weren’t sure if their last service interaction was with a human or a bot.Gartner predicts that chatbots will power 85 percent of all customer interactions by 2020. Business Insider Intelligence agrees the timing is right for businesses to leverage this inexpensive and wide-reaching technology to engage with more consumers.
Here are 10 reasons why consumer brands should leverage chatbots this holiday season.
1 | Chatbots open up a new sales channel
Nearly half of consumers are willing to buy items through chatbots, and on average, users are willing to spend more than $55 on purchases facilitated through chatbots. The good news? Chatbots are relatively inexpensive and quick to deploy for brands to leverage this new channel this holiday season.
2 | Messaging apps are the most engaging platforms on the planet
Text messages have a 98 percent open rate. Today, 66 percent of consumers prefer to interact with brands through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, which boast 20 percent more active users than social networks. Chatbots provide a way to interact with consumers in a way that is familiar and flexible. They can help brands grow their following and engage with users on a deeper level than with any other social platform.
3 | Users like chatbots more than consumer apps
According to Quantcast, only 1,000 of 1 million apps have over 50,000 users. Apps simply do not have the draw they used to. Apps are still valuable, but chatbots are keenly optimized for mobile engagement. Chatbots used for events increase user adoption and engagement by 24 percent, versus ordinary event mobile apps.
4 | Generate more sales with instant response times
Delayed responses to consumer inquiries can dramatically affect sales, especially during the holidays when consumers have an urgency to purchase gifts. Sales conversion rates start to drop dramatically when a consumer has to wait more than five minutes for a response. The chance that consumer will make a purchase decreases by 400 percent after 10 minutes. Chatbots give brands the opportunity to engage with customers instantly, capitalize on their interest, and convert them to purchase.
5 | Provide a top sales associate that works around the clock
Good sales representatives know their audience and can answer questions based on expertise to help the potential buyer understand the product. Chatbots allow brands to essentially clone that sales rep hundreds or thousands of times, providing an advantage over the competition.
6 | Increase sales with real-time, actionable analytics
Unlike traditional website analytics, chatbots allow you to measure performance and adjust in real-time to maximize impact. If the chatbot isn’t answering specific questions accurately or directing users to the right pages, bot trainers can update scripts and user workflows to course correct. These modifications are especially valuable during the holiday season because they allow brands to track trends in behavior and adjust to maximize conversions.
7 | Higher click-through rate than email and social ads
The average click-through rate (CTR) for email is five to 15 percent. However, the CTR on external links sent by a chatbot on Messenger is 15 to 60 percent. Chatbots also have a much higher conversion rate than social ads, driving up to 266 percent more clicks than the average social ad in some cases.
8 | Bots can reduce bounce rates and cart abandonment
Chatbots can increase the average time spent on a webpage by up to 40 percent while still helping users find what they need, fast. Chatbots can also significantly reduce cart abandonment. Most companies remind users that they have items in cart via email. Chatbots are tying customers back in more effectively, with a 619 percent higher engagement rate than email.
9 | Good bots can significantly lower operation costs
Chatbots cut costs by over $20 million in 2017 and will account for cost savings of over $8 billion annually by 2022. A report by BI Intelligence states that annual salary cost savings when using chatbots is between 29–46 percent. E-commerce companies can invest those resources into other functions of the business and better support holiday retail initiatives.
10 | Chatbots are essential to staying on the cutting edge
16 percent of Americans own a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa today. These conversational interfaces are at the forefront of modern consumer engagement. Consumer brands need to leverage interfaces or risk missing out on powerful opportunities to connect with users.
If you’re ready to reap the powerful benefits that chatbots can offer, Wizeline can help.
From website bots and Alexa Skills to Messenger bots and everything in between, our collaborative chatbot experts can help you come up with the right strategy.
Our team will help you choose the best solution for your objectives, whether it’s an out-of-box implementation for a particular use case or a highly-customized bot that meets your specific business needs.
When you’re ready to start brainstorming ideas for your ground-breaking new chatbot, click here.
To learn more about how Wizeline is helping businesses succeed with chatbots, check out a few of our case studies or our blog below.
Case Study: Digital Arts Network partners with Wizeline to build Australian Open chatbot
Case Study: USA Rugby partners with Wizeline to launch the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 chatbot
Case Study: pmNERDS increased conversion rates and decreased workload for community managers
Case Study: TWG and Wizeline improve the customer experience with artificial intelligence
Originally published at www.klug.chat.
