What Chatbots Are and How They Can Help Enhance The User Experience–

“Click here to instantly speak with an assistant” That’s a message that is being more and more commonly seen when you go onto a website. The use of chatbots can be extremely useful to consumers that are first time visitors on a site that need some assistance in selecting a product.

What Are Chatbots?

According to the dictionary, chatbots are a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet. What exactly is that and how can it be useful to a business? Chatbots, besides being a computer program, use AI in order to simulate what it would be like to talk to a real human. They are most often used in order to facilitate customer service and help consumers answer questions instantly. Instant answers are available due to a giant database that is stored on the back end of the chatbot service, potentially allowing chatbots to answers any question the consumer might have regarding a product or something about the brand.

People are impatient and most often want an instant solution or answer to their question. By having chatbots available on websites, consumers are able to keep browsing and instantly buy a product with their questions answered. Chatbots drive business.

How Sephora has successfully implemented Chatbots.

Sephora, a beauty company that has been around since 1970 (wow). The company started using chatbots in 2016. If you come to think of it, that’s a while considering how far chatbots have come since then. The initial system was designed through a Canadian app called Kik, that is kind of like a messaging app. The system targeted a younger audience, one that was already present in Sephora’s market, but they wanted to expand into it more. Even though consumers are able to communicate with the brand through platforms such as Instagram, having an integrated chatbot system makes for a more personalized experience. Research shows that once someone started a conversation with the brand, they would send at least 10 messages.

Later, the brand started using the Facebook messenger app to connect customers with a Sephora Assistant. The assistant is able to book appointments, answer questions, and even color match a lipstick. Appointments increased by 11% with the use of the system. Consumers like things to be easy and hassle free. Besides making appointments, you are able to upload a picture of anything really and through Artificial Intelligence, the system was able to match the colors from the image with options from Sephora’s product line to match the color! The system also has the ability to match a color to an outfit, pulling from specific hues in the image to match it! You can even try on the makeup through Facebooks bot use of AI (augmented reality). You are able to get your makeup done virtually and see what it would look like on, with the option of purchasing the products “used” at the end on Sephora’s website.

Sephora’s Chatbots Now.

Sephora still offers the virtual makeup experience, but through their own app now, using whats called the Sephora Virtual Artist App (SVAA). This program still offers the same “makeup trying experience” through their system. Although it sounds amazing, there have been some comments regarding the usability of the system and how friendly the navigation is on the app once you are using to actually virtually try on products. You can read all about it here.

When going to Sephora’s website, right next to the favorites and cart icon, there is a chat icon. After clicking on it, a chatbox appears on the bottom right hand corner of the page. It asks you which category you want to know more about. After selecting from the available options, it asks specifically what you need assistance with and it connects you with an assistant. I did the process just this morning, and within minutes I was already chatting! The system seemed to be very responsive, at least for what I used it. Only thing is, I really don’t know if I was connected to a human on the other end or if I was still talking to a robot.

All in all, I think that chatbots can be quite useful for surface level questions about products, but can get to be annoying when you have a real issue and are constantly redirected to a robot until you throw your phone out the window and get a hold of a human (HA). That’s how I have felt about them in a couple of instances, automated systems can’t always be your solution. But I do believe that there can be a balance of both to create just enough efficiency! By having chatbots, I think that companies are able to save time (and money) by answering basic questions, despite not always having the answer, on multiple occasions, chatbots have solved my problem.