Are Chatbots Effective?Could Chatbots Be a Boon for Your Business?
Are Chatbots Effective at Streamlining Customer Service?
An automated frontline solution sounds promising. And in many ways, it’s as good as it sounds: 24/7 customer support, virtually costless interactions, and a happier, less stressed customer support team.
But, do the benefits justify the investment? And, are there any downsides to consider? In this chapter, we pivot from talking about features to benefits by discussing what customer service chatbots can really do for you.
Customer Service Chatbots
In this article, we take a look at what customer service chatbots are, how they work, and why they’re beneficial. We also talk about potential downsides, discuss the role they should play in your overall customer service function, and examine whether they’re right for your business.
Benefits of Customer Service Chatbots
It’s not surprising that chatbot usage is on the rise. The direct benefits are substantial for both customers and merchants:
Customer Service Chatbots Deliver Secondhand Benefits
The immediate impacts of customer service chatbots are self-evident. However, the long-term benefits are equally important in preserving and enhancing merchant profitability.
Individuals satisfied with today’s support experience are more likely to shop with you again in the future. Plus, while chatbots help your customers, they can also collect valuable data.
Information about sales preferences and common questions can help you develop target marketing based on individual shoppers’ needs. This type of personalized service can help build customer loyalty for life.
Bots can handle many of the repetitive, frequently asked questions that don’t require human decisioning, letting you reallocate staff to where they’re needed more. Advanced chatbots can even offer feedback surveys and record customer interactions for training and development.
Finally, streamlined customer service practices can significantly decrease customer disputes (also known as chargebacks). This is achieved by cultivating goodwill between the customer and the merchant, and providing rapid response to inquiries that might otherwise have devolved into disputes.
It’s crucial to note, however, that this is only true when chatbots are properly deployed. Otherwise, chatbots may have the opposite effect. A bad chatbot experience could result in greater customer frustration and thereby increase your chargebacks, as we’ll see in the next section.
Are There Downsides to Using Chatbots?
Chatbots have the potential to improve the customer experience… but only if they’re deployed right. In fact, a poorly implemented bot is arguably worse than no bot at all.
We’ve all been there: stuck in a loop, typing “chat with a representative” in the dialogue box, or getting answers that are just plain wrong.
Over-reliance on any single technology or solution can be problematic, and chatbots are no exception. The stakes are high here. A bad bot experience can actively damage your brand, kill conversions and, worst of all, send an irritated customer straight to their bank to file a chargeback.
Customer service chatbots still require close supervision and human oversight. AI technology continues to improve every year, but chatbots you can trust with full, genuine autonomy are still many years away. Other potential downsides or limitations to using chatbots include:
Chatbots are powerful tools overall. But, without monitoring by human agents, they can lead to trouble. They may even prove to be a security liability, as we’ll see in the next chapter.
