Why a business needs a chatbot, how it is useful and how to launch it
Today, the presence of business in social networks is not just additional development opportunities, but a necessity. Some companies even promote their products and services exclusively on such sites, since it is often easier to find an active target audience there.
According to research by Deloitte , social networks are the most visited pages on the web. At the same time, each person has an average of 4 instant messengers installed on their smartphone. In this regard, the market for chatbots is actively growing, which is used by businesses to automate many internal and external processes, as well as to optimize the work of staff and increase efficiency in general. Processing messages of the same type is not all that modern chatbots are capable of. So, according to Accenture , 57% of company executives say that it is with the help of such solutions that it is possible to increase ROI (return on investment) at minimal cost.
The results of Credence Research show that the exponential growth of the chatbot market has begun since 2021. At the moment, they are most actively implemented in the United States. But experts believe that by 2027 Asia will already outstrip Europe and North America in terms of the share of virtual assistants used.
This article will discuss why and how to integrate a chatbot into your project.
What business tasks does a chatbot solve?
Before launching a chatbot, you need to clearly define the tasks that you plan to solve using this tool. First of all, the required functionality depends on the scale of the business, because only large companies need machine learning and the development of complex algorithms for bot actions. For small and micro businesses, simpler and more cost-effective solutions will suffice.
You can highlight the main processes that automate and optimize the chatbot:
- Customer support:
- Direct sales:
- Studying the target audience and increasing customer loyalty:
- Communication within the company:
first of all, chatbots answer customer questions, help them make a decision regarding the product, form an order and, thus, greatly facilitate the work of the company's technical support. Fast response at any time is an indicator of customer focus, as well as the ability to reduce personnel costs while improving the quality of service.
So, according to MIT Technology Review Insights , already 90% of companies process user requests much faster with the help of chatbots.
the work of the sales department cannot be carried out smoothly. Here again, a chatbot comes to the rescue, which will not only advise the buyer, but also send a link to pay for the goods directly to the social network or messenger - all this 24/7. Such a tool is implemented by the payment service ProProfs Chatbot . With the help of a chatbot, you can collect data, redirect the client to the payment page, and then generate a check and send it to the mail.
Thus, you get the opportunity not to interrupt the sales funnel, increase conversion and, very importantly, accept online payments under 54-FZ without having to purchase an online cash register. Everything is convenient, legal and not expensive (you will only have to pay a standard agency commission from each successful transaction).
the chatbot can collect statistics about customers when an order is formed. Based on the preferences and specified parameters, it will be possible to draw up a portrait of the target audience as a whole, as well as make more individual offers. Also, a chatbot is an excellent lead generation channel, with its help it will be possible to send out promotions and discounts, further stimulating sales.
the chatbot can be used as an internal corporate database for quick search and dissemination of information among employees, notification of important events and current news. This feature is a great addition to the main features of the bot.
How to implement a chatbot in your project
There are two main ways to build and run a business chatbot:
- Contacting a specialized agency or a freelancer
- Creating a chatbot in the constructor
This option is suitable for large organizations, since it comes with serious costs. In IT companies, their own staff can develop and implement a bot, but other businesses cannot cope without the involvement of third-party specialists. Usually, in such cases, AI and ML technologies are implemented in the project to prepare the chatbot for a variety of scenarios.
The process of selling such a product is very laborious and requires not only significant investments, but also a lot of time. Therefore, it is not suitable for everyone.
For representatives of micro, small and medium businesses who cannot or do not want to spend so much money and time to launch a bot, the b2b services market offers a more budgetary solution - creating a chat bot in a specialized online constructor.
Popular ones include Aimylogic , Bot Kits , Botsify , Chatfuel , Chatgun , Gupshup - and of course Botmother , with which the teachwiki service has been successfully working for a long time: we will talk about this below. No programming skills are required to work with the platform, so any entrepreneur can cope with the task on their own.
It is important that some of them allow you to collect the first bot for free. So you can first test it on regular and most loyal customers, identify shortcomings and problems, get feedback, make corrections and, possibly, launch another chat bot, but more complex.
Unfortunately, it will not work to create a unique product: the bot will come out a little template and will have basic functionality, but this is enough to automate and increase the efficiency of many business processes.
According to Community Spiceworks , 40% of IT professionals report that chatbots completely replace humans in solving entry-level tasks. At the same time, the final product is constantly being improved.
An important point is the possibility of cross-platform implementation of a chat bot created in the constructor. Consider the joint project of Botmother and the teachwiki service : the bot can be launched simultaneously on sites such as Telegram, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte and Viber. Your potential customers will most likely have an account in at least one of them, so the tool will not go unnoticed.
Such a chatbot is created for direct sales. A B2B tool allows entrepreneurs to receive notifications of incoming payments, generate links to pay for a product or service, and send them in any convenient way. This is comfort and convenience for both parties.
Cases of using chatbots in business
- Tidio - payment service
- Yellow is a retail chain of supermarkets and a food brand
Businesses all over the world and in Russia are actively adapting to changing conditions and introducing chatbots to solve both routine and more complex tasks. Here are a couple of successful cases:
A chatbot with a payment component of the service can be launched on several sites at once. The buyer selects goods or services, enters delivery information, and the bot generates a payment link and sends it to the client, no matter what platform he currently uses. This is how the conversion to sales increases, because a person does not need to go to sites, re-form and pay for the order.
In this case, the chatbot is launched in Telegram. There, customers can choose their "favorite product" for discounts, make a shopping list, get information about promotions and discounts. The advantages of this solution: automate daily processes and reduce the cost of technical support.
Conclusion
A business that wants to be relevant needs to constantly adapt to changing needs and consumer patterns of customers. A chatbot is an accessible, understandable and potentially productive tool that can be used to automate various work processes and increase their efficiency. I hope this article was useful to you, I wish you to find a project in which you will believe!