What are Chatbots?
A chatbot is a computer program that can conduct an interactive conversation, simulating a chat with an actual human being.
There are two main types of chatbots - standart chatbots, featuring a relatively limited level of sophistication; and ‘smart’ chatbots, which offer more sophistication and flexibility thanks to their artificial intelligence capabilities.
What are the Benefits of a Chatbot?
Adding a chatbot to your application, or your website, provides the user with a more dynamic experience and creates the impression of a better and faster service, even if the chatbot can’t actually provide all the answers or information required.
The Advantages are clear:
Reduced costs - the chatbot provides your customers with a useful service at almost no expense to your company
Better service - your users don’t have to wait for a representative to respond or call them back
Higher engagement rates - users are more likely to respond to an active chat window than to make the effort to call or message you.
The Meteoric Rise
Thanks to the numerous benefits, along with some recent technological developments, chatbots have become increasingly popular in the last 2 years. Facebook, for example, introduced the option of adding a chatbot to its messenger platform in mid 2016, and within a few months there were already over 10,000 active chatbots.
How to Create an Effective Chatbot
Just like any other feature, the main objective is to create a chatbot that offers a user friendly experience, which makes it easier for users to find what they need and motivates them to act.
So how do You do it?
Today’s technology still doesn’t enable the chatbot to provide a comprehensive service that caters to the users’ every need. Therefore it’s important to take a moment and consider how and where you should integrate your chatbot into the customer experience in a way that would be most beneficial.
Step 1 - Defining the chatbot’s role - in order to determine where to integrate the chatbot, you should first define its purpose - will it be used to make initial contact with customers? Provide answers to FAQ’s? Or maybe help users to complete certain tasks?
Step 3 - Designing your Chatbot - in order to create an effective chatbot it’s important to remember that it is designed for human beings, and more specifically - your potential customers. Therefore, when choosing the scripts and styles, you should always keep your target audience in mind.