Not sure where I got the idea from, but somewhere in my head, I thought chatbots were an AI agent to reduce the pressure on customer service centers/agents only.
I have been schooled. Well, not the so hard way.
I kicked off the year getting engaged with leading on the Product side of a chatbot related project. And I have found myself getting drawn into the delivery of chatbots in various forms: The first, building a custom chatbot solutions from the ground up (Started building with Dialogflow and had to change to Azure Bot service), customization of a template (we went with intercom Custom bots ), and in the last two weeks I proposed/presented the need for a chatbot as part of an interview process.
In my short experience, I have discovered this AI agent can deliver:
- Improved Marketing experience – AR (augmented reality) & VR (virtual reality) is fast becoming a big-budget center for innovative web/mobile-based marketing campaigns. With its natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, creating an immersive experience for customers could never be better. Its ability to replicate a human creates an avenue for creative marketing managers to develop and implement an experience with a product or service just as they would with any experiential marketing activation.
A much-needed innovation given the current climate of social distancing.
- Customer Acquisition – Heighten the willingness and probability of the customer buying your item or signing up for your service. A chatbot is able to make informed, targeted suggestions about what to buy, increasing the chance of a sale. Take a peep at some global e-commerce sites and how they are using this. Little wonder some giant Fashion retailers are constantly investing majorly in improving this.
- Data & Analytics – It goes without saying with this one. As a customer interacts with the chatbot, you are able to build unique profiling which then becomes a great ground to understanding your customers and allow you to continually measure, analyze, and refine customer engagement strategies. Much better is its capabilities in helping you as a business owner to predict what your customer wants before they ask for it – predictive analytics.
- Cost Savings – Predictive analysis means you are spending less time developing and launching what your customers do not want – effective use of R&D budget. FAQs answered by the bots means your customer service agents are spending more time tackling more complex issues for customers- better use of man-hours.
Should I go on?
Without a doubt, I have had (and still having) a great time becoming somewhat of a specialist with conversational AI. I look forward to more opportunities to use this to help businesses make processes smarter and more sustainable for long term growth.
Everything Digital Tech and More 