How Can You Use Chatbots to Help Your Business?
I personally know a lot of entrepreneurs who used to think that a chatbot is not the right solution for them. The common excuses include: “We’re too small for that”, “It’s not something we can afford right now”, or “I don’t think I need it”. When I asked them why they think this way, I found that most of them have a very limited idea of what a chatbot can do for their business.
While many companies use chatbots for customer service concerns, a lot of people are still unaware that chatbots can be used for more than just providing support and answering questions. Here are some solid use examples of how companies in various industries can use chatbots.
eCommerce Stores
One of the reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts is because the checkout process is too complicated. When you have a chatbot guiding the customer, this will help simplify the purchasing journey because you’re not leaving the customers on their own. The chatbot will also be able to instantly answer questions a customer might have about your product which will encourage the customer to hit that purchase button ASAP.
Food Businesses
You don’t have to be a Pizza Hut or Starbucks to have a chatbot. Even if you have a home-based cupcake business or a small sandwich shop, you can streamline orders and deliveries by using a chatbot. A chatbot allows your business to entertain multiple customers and it also frees up your phone line so you can concentrate on fulfilling orders. More customers served means more revenue.
Event Companies
There are different ways event companies can take advantage of chatbots such as ticketing, confirming event attendees, reminding guests of schedules, and also conducting post-event surveys. An organizer for a business conference can use chatbots as a method of delivering relevant information about the event. Chatbots are also useful for huge events like trade shows and concerts to manage hundreds or even thousands of participants more efficiently.
Research Organizations
The typical way to conduct a survey is to ask respondents to fill out digital forms where you leave them to answer on their own. Switching to a chatbot, however, makes the experience more interactive and you lessen the chance the respondent not completing the survey. This is because a chatbot provides a conversational feel that is more engaging.
Learning Institutions
With online learning becoming more popular, schools, universities, and other educational institutions need to be able to address the needs of students while still keeping them engaged in learning. Chatbots can help make online learning more interactive. It can be used to conduct quizzes, learning exercises, and deliver other instructional modules. Instead of students only learning from videos or answering online test questionnaires, a chatbot conducting a quiz makes the learning experience much more interesting and engaging.
Healthcare Companies
Chatbots can be used to conduct online consultations, address minor health-related questions, provide information about drugs and medications, and track their own health symptoms. Clinics can also use chatbots in scheduling appointments, giving outpatient reminders, and alerting patients about prescription refills.
Banks and Financial Institutions
Banking transactions follow a stringent process that a human agent can find repetitive. For example, when customers want to check their account balance, calling an agent to do this means the agent has to perform several qualifying questions to confirm the identity of the customer. While this can be done through telephone voice prompts, many customers usually find these pre-recorded prompts tedious and time-consuming.
With a chatbot, however, you can get immediate information by sending instant messages. The Wells Fargo chatbot is a great example of how this is done. Just by asking a question through an instant message, the Wells Fargo chatbot can tell you how much is left in your account and even give you a summary of your expenses for a certain expense category.
Recruitment Teams
Sorting through job applications can be tedious and very time-consuming. If you are a big company, a job post will surely get thousands of applications but at the same time, it is not unusual for small companies to get hundreds of applicants as well.
Instead of using a human resource to review all the CVs one by one, recruitment companies and HR departments can use chatbots to prequalify applicants. The chatbot can help companies in screening applicants, scheduling interviews, onboarding new employees, training, and delivering information on company policies.
Maximizing the potential of chatbots for your business
These are just some examples of how businesses in various industries can utilize chatbots. Keep in mind that it’s not about replacing humans or stealing jobs away. It’s more about allowing us to work smarter so we can also explore more fulfilling possibilities.
Originally published at https://masterofcode.com on July 22, 2020.
