Why Use Chatbots in Customer Service

It is a reality that chatbots are transforming the customer experience. In one of our last articles, we mentioned that Chatbots use artificial intelligence simulating a conversation with a person through a chat interface.

Little by little, brands have realized that chatbots are essential for their company and that they can be very useful in customer service.

How can chatbots improve customer service?

Currently, chatbots can help the user in many different ways, for example, offering advice on products, buying tickets, and many others, but always with an objective behind it, to improve the customer experience.

There is no doubt that customers are becoming more intelligent every day, they don't want to be deceived and expect companies to live up to their expectations.

Un Gartner study predicts that by 2020 customers will manage 80% of their relationship with companies without interacting with a human being. It is a fact that speaks for itself.

Another interesting fact to highlight, according to Juniper Research, chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of more than 8 billion dollars a year in 2022.

One of the differentiating aspects of a company with the competition is the customer service, this must be the focus of your strategy, seeking their satisfaction.

But in order to be able to offer a customer experience positive and effective through chatbots, we must make the systems understand the customer through their own language and from any device. We will achieve this through artificial intelligence and technologies of Natural Language Processing (NLP is a field of computer science, artificial intelligence, and linguistics that studies the interactions between computers and human language.)

5 ways in which the Chatbot service can improve the customer experience:

1- Instant customer support

Time is precious for customers, they want things right away, they no longer want to wait, they have less and less patience. Have you ever been put on hold with music on the phone? Customers are looking for agility and resolution.

2- Personalized service

Customer service provides valuable information and recommendations for user decision-making based on customer references.

3- Access to a large audience

Chatbots can be implemented on many messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype, and many others. This flexibility is a great advantage for companies because it allows them to reach a large audience.

4- Total Availability

A chatbot doesn't rest, it's connected 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Customers can start a conversation at any time as long as there is a chatbot implemented on the platform they visit. This means that a chatbot can solve customer problems during non-working hours.

5- Chatbots can predict

Chatbots collect and analyze information to provide results based on conversations made by other users.

What are the main sectors that are using chatbots the most?

Chatbots will be one of the Main trends in 2018, although in 2017 we have already been able to see how big brands have started to use them, above all, in Marketing.

Some of the sectors that are using this type of virtual assistant the most are touring, The bank, Health, e-commerce and business management. Below are some examples of chatbots in different sectors.

sightseeing

La KLM airline It is a leader in the innovation, technology and customer service sector, but above all, it is recognized for its personalized attention. Michel Pozas Lucic, Vice President of Innovation and Customer Service at AirFrance-KLM, says that from research and practice they know that the way they interact with their customers and the experiences they experience on their trips has a great impact.

KLM has about 90 million customers and they can't serve them all personally through a conventional chat with a human behind them. That's why KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has introduced the BB messaging chatbot (BlueBot) that allows customers to book their tickets without having to speak to one of their agents. But if this Chatbot cannot answer the questions of its customers for whatever reason, it has the support of 250 people.

Below we can see the original video that KLM has prepared to present the service of its Chatbot BB (BlueBot).

In Spain, within the tourism sector, we can see how Renfe also has a bot although it still needs to be improved a lot because it responds by offering varied information depending on the questions asked to it.

Bank

This year, Caixabank won the award at best artificial intelligence project 2017 The Banker with the ImaginBank Chatbot. It is the first artificial intelligence solution in a Spanish financial institution.

The imaginBank Chatbot allows users to discover discounts and exclusive experiences. You can talk to the chatbot through their Facebook page or Facebook Messenger.

Cheers

In the health sector, we find some examples of Chatbots like Your.md or Florence.

Your.md uses artificial intelligence to guide and provide the user with the best health information within their chat.

Florence is an online personal health assistant that helps us manage and monitor health and well-being, and reminds us to take our medications. This chatbot does not provide medical advice, but it does suggest that we should not use it for medical emergencies. One of its characteristics is to provide information to the user about the medication they are taking and it also indicates what we should do if we miss a pill. Currently, the Florencia chatbot has more than 2,000 daily users.

Ecommerce

In Spain, the first Spanish supermarket to implement chatbot technology It was Tudespensa.com. TIDI, that's what your virtual assistant is called, allows users to make inquiries or search for products from your store. You can interact with this chatbot through Facebook Messenger. This is a clear example of RULED-BASED bots.

One of the chatbots to highlight in ecommerce is that of Levi's. This virtual stylist assists shoppers through Facebook Messenger to find their perfect piece of clothing. This chatbot understands real language, which means that it analyzes the text to deduce exactly what the user is looking for.

Business Management

For example, ACCIÓ, the agency for business competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia with 40 offices around the world, has a chatbot on its website that answers user questions. His own chat offers the option to talk to a bot or with an agent from your agency.

As we have been able to verify, in Spain, Chatbot technology is still emerging, but there is no doubt that this year will make the big leap. Chatbots will be fundamental to business strategy because they will help us understand the needs of our customers. They will allow us to know preferences, likes and dislikes and, in addition, they will allow us to plan services and get closer to our target audience.

As we have already mentioned before, it is very important that the customer is understood in real time, and this can only be achieved thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP). The Chatbot will use natural language processing to communicate with customers, being able to ask questions and understand the answers, identifying all the relevant information in the conversation to automate and enhance the customer support process.

How can we help you?

If you need more information, do not hesitate to contact us.