State of Chatbots for SMEs — Morph.ai
Chat, as a channel, has been breaking all the records of digital interactions world has ever seen. While social channels did a similar magic more than a decade ago, the overwhelming expanse with which chat has propagated across various segments of the market is unprecedented. Spanning across geographies, age groups and cultures, chat has given digital marketers access to many, hitherto untouched, audience segments in the market. Most of our grandparents, middle-aged shop owners of the neighbourhood, industry labourers and a huge bulk of disapprovers of technology accumulated to this giant pool of population unreachable by digital marketers.
But chat has broken those barriers!
Chat, the digital townhall for common masses
While advanced technology is sweeping over the world, it’s the simplistic technologies that penetrate through the socio-cultural walls built by humanity. It’s the simplicity of chat that made it touch lives deep inside the digital pyramid. You don’t need to be tech-savvy, modern or rich to be able to utilise this channel to the fullest of its potential. Chat represents the most basic format of communication, like writing a letter, but less cumbersome, real-time and much much smaller.
This simplicity gives common people a chance to feel a technology without the fear of getting overwhelmed. And so now, your father, who would frown at you in 2015 for being stuck on your mobile screen, would now be indulged on conversations with his old pals from school or cousins he hasn’t met in years. And once your father gets a hang of it, he’ll make sure all his friends and all his cousins are onboard. The social spread of chat has been like a wildfire.
This newfound social bond is yielding digital trends unlike ever before. Seemingly unsurprisingly, this recent study from Buffer shows that 70% of online referrals come from untrackable sources, most of which are attributed to chat.
Can we continue this on chat?
Chat is a mode of real-time, yet async conversation. With chat, you can be in a conversation, while also working on your excel sheets in the office or preparing dinner at home or, at times, while listening to a lecture in school! Unlike a phone call or a face-to-face conversation, it is not hindering your routine tasks. This possibility of multitasking dissolves chat in your life like salt, not adding volume, but certainly adding flavour.
This comfort makes my dad not just chat with his buddies, but also his dentist to finalize his next appointment, his gym trainer to ask a query about his diet plan, his insurance broker to renew his policy, and almost everyone he transacts with.
48% see messaging as less hassle than picking up the phone to call companies.
And this trend is visible everywhere. People are switching to messaging as a preferred channel over emails and calls, and in many instances over app installs and website browsing.
Time to embrace the change: Chatbots for SMEs
While the consumers have made their move, businesses are not far behind. Many enterprises and iconic brands have stepped in on the chatbot action over the past couple of years. While Facebook claims to have 300,000 chatbots, it is nowhere close to the 80 million businesses that exist on Facebook. SMEs are picking up the pace and an increasing number of them are moving to chat automation solutions. But it’s crucial, to do it right.
The ease that chat brings to people, also means that businesses will need to develop scalable techniques of handling all the chat. While the larger businesses can rely on manpower, smaller businesses need to find more cost-effective ways to scale.
While you can find a dozen chatbot vendors a google search away, using chat in the right way is not what everyone understands. Most of these 300,000 businesses mentioned above have not been able to impact the audience in the way they would have liked. The primary reason being, most tools automate chat from an ‘email mindset’.
Most tools automate chat from an ‘email mindset’
Chat is a new and unique marketing channel and to utilize it efficiently, you need to use a tool that is fully tuned towards leveraging the unique powers of chat as a channel. Chat automation, unlike email automation, would never scale without personalizing your approach towards the user. On chat, users are accustomed to chatting with the people they know closely. To enter into this close circle, the chat needs to be close to the person, understand her preferences and be a helping hand or a fun friend rather than a pestering automation.
Morph.ai — Personalized Chat for Small Businesses
Morph.ai is the world’s first and only truly personalized chatbot tool. Our personalization engine MARK acts as a marketing assistant for small business owners as well as enterprise marketers to help them utilize chat for growing their business.
We have worked with companies of all sizes and industries like banks, insurance, mortgage, retail chains, fitness gyms, healthcare, automobile and even sports clubs. Having worked at a large scale for over 200 companies, the product delivers a perfect balance of automation and control to help small business owners run their chat marketing campaigns effectively.
Morph.ai offers a unique set of smart features that MARK has learnt over time and packages them into one of the most powerful chatbot design tools out there. We have discussed more on MARK here and here.
Check out below some glimpses of what these unique chat experiences can look like.
How can chatbots be used by dentists and dental care clinics in the US?
Dental clinic websites are not always convenient to navigate through. While leads generated on the website drive significant revenues, most websites cannot process the users in real-time and often lose them to competitors. Being able to instantly cater to each incoming website lead can by itself boost your deal conversions.
A chatbot can help a first time user with browsing the services available, clarify some queries, booking appointments with the dentist etc. The same channel can also be used to communicate test reports and specific reminders.
Would it be useful to have a chatbot for Salon or Gym in the USA?
Fitness gyms, yoga centres, Spa centres are increasingly adopting chat to communicate with users. These kinds of subscription-based services need a consistent interaction channel with the customers to retain their users and developing loyalty.
Chatbots can help update the users about diet plans, exercise routines, booking training slots, running a loyalty program or even for consultation with their personal trainer. The effect of word of mouth can work wonders as Facebook Messenger chatbots from Morph.ai come bundled with useful options for social sharing which can power referral programs for gyms and salons.
Interested in using the Power of Chat for your business?
We are compiling some in-depth insights into campaign performances, chat marketing strategies and the magic of our AI engine MARK. Be the first one to get access to the exclusive report. Stay tuned.
Morph.ai is a state-of-the-art marketing automation tool that uses chatbots to boost marketing and lead-generation campaigns for businesses. Request a demo with us today to try out the magic.
Originally published at blog.morph.ai on December 10, 2018.
