How can chatbots improve customer service?

In recent years, more and more customers have moved online which means that businesses need to adapt their business strategy to handle all the incoming customer inquiries. As a result, intelligent chatbots have become a popular customer service tool. They are an easy way to improve customer service while reducing costs.

Chatbots help speed up response times because they can handle multiple customers simultaneously and respond to common customer questions, so the support agents can focus on more demanding tasks.

However, when a business is considering the introduction of a chatbot, it is important to look at the benefits associated with customer support chatbots and possible limitations to see if they are the right decision.

What is a customer service chatbot?

Chatbots for customer service are computer programs designed to simulate human-like chat conversations to solve customer queries. They work by using AI (artificial intelligence), natural language processing (NLP), and advanced machine learning to achieve these human conversations and give the most accurate instant responses.

They are used by organizations to help customer service teams, increase efficiency and handle more customer service inquiries at once. When a customer or a web visitor reaches out to customer support via digital channels, the chatbot is there to offer a helping hand with solving problems and answering questions. Chatbots can be integrated with different social media platforms, messaging platforms, or apps for better communication flow and seamless experience.

We are going to explore how beneficial chatbots can be in customer service and if businesses should take advantage of them.

What is the role of chatbots in customer service?

Chatbots for customer service are used mainly to automate repetitive tasks and provide quick assistance to your customers or web visitors. They can also handle a wide range of tasks such as answering common queries, guiding customers in resolving simple issues, gathering information and real-time feedback from customers, or directing them to an appropriate human agent for further assistance. Because chatbots can gather information about customers, they can understand their needs and offer more personalized support. This leads to improved customer relationships, reduced waiting times, and leaves more time for customer service agents to focus on more complex tasks.

However, chatbots are only computer programs that can’t completely replace real human interaction. They lack emotional intelligence and empathy, they can have a poor understanding of a human language, and they can’t assist with more complex issues. All these factors are important because they can lead to frustrated clients and negatively impact their experience and entire customer journeys.

Why are chatbots beneficial for businesses?

Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular across many industries because of their many advantages. If you want to improve your customer support experience by offering 24/7 customer service or decreasing waiting times, chatbots can be the right option.

Let’s look at some specific benefits that come with implementing a chatbot:

Increased efficiency

With a growing business, the amount of support tickets increases. Chatbots can help here by resolving customer requests in a time-effective way giving your customer support team more time to focus on tasks with higher priority and increase business productivity.

Chatbots can handle multiple customer inquiries at the same time which reduces the waiting time in a queue. This way, people can get real-time answers compared to more traditional ways, such as sending emails or filling out web forms. Responding to those can take from a few hours up to a few days.

Improved accessibility

Chatbots provide 24/7 customer service even when your customer support team is not available. They can communicate with customers and answer questions or direct them to the company’s self-service portal. If the chatbot for customer support can’t solve the query, it can provide information about available hours when the customer can contact a customer support agent.

Cost savings

Even though chatbots can be more expensive to implement, it is a one-time investment that allows you to scale down on hiring more people for your customer service teams. This can ultimately reduce your customer service costs while keeping customer satisfaction rates up.

Scalability

As your business grows, the amount of customers increases as well. Instead of adding more manpower and hiring more agents, chatbots will be able to handle incoming queries during peak hours when the traffic is high.

Improved customer experience

Chatbots can respond within seconds to any customer inquiry and offer necessary assistance in real-time. With the constant technological development, chatbots are also capable of improving their customer interactions by analyzing the customer’s input and providing more human-like dialogue.

What chatbots don’t solve?

Let’s not forget that chatbots are only computer programs and they come with a fair share of disadvantages and limitations. They should be considered more as an assistant to customer support, rather than a replacement. Here are some examples you need to keep in mind if you consider implementing them.

Complex issues

It doesn’t matter how human-like chatbots may sound, they still can’t replace humans. They are mostly programmed to solve simple tasks and respond to simple questions that can be answered with straight facts. Their response capabilities are limited which means that they can have difficulty responding to multi-part questions. This can result in customers still needing more assistance from support agents.

Of course, there are AI chatbots with advanced features on the market that can eliminate some of the problems that we just mentioned. However, these chatbots also cost more and are more complicated to implement.

Emotional support

Another disadvantage that can cause customer dissatisfaction is the lack of empathy and emotional intelligence. Customers that reach out for help are often already feeling frustrated and this is something a chatbot can’t identify. There are many occasions when chatbots can come across as insensitive. This can cause a bad customer experience and harm the reputation of your business.

Lack of personalization

By providing a personalized experience, you will be able to stand out from your competitors. Based on the Personalization Pulse Check report, 91% of consumers are more likely to engage with brands that recognize the customer and provide relevant recommendations and offers.

Although chatbots have the potential to provide this personalized experience for each customer individually, it is still far from perfection and not every chatbot is capable of doing it right now. You can integrate chatbots with your internal systems to provide access to information about customers. However, not every chatbot has these capabilities and you have to keep in mind that if you want more advanced support features for your chatbot, the price quickly stacks up.

Technical limitations

Chatbots are programmed to answer basic questions that are in their database. When a customer asks a question outside their database, it can confuse the bot. We’ve all experienced it when a chatbot tries to understand the question and ends up stuck in a circle. Another problem is that many chatbots struggle with comprehending human language, such as slang or misspelled words. All these things combined can confuse the bot and leave your customers frustrated and without relevant answers to their issues.

Limited decision-making abilities

Chatbots are not human, therefore they are not capable of making decisions and only stick to their pre-determined responses. This can become a problem when a customer needs help with deciding what product or service is the most suitable for them. A chatbot can give them a recommendation based on their predefined responses, but it can’t offer opinions that are outside their programming.

Error-prone

Chatbots are far from perfect. They are prone to errors and providing wrong answers or solutions. As your company changes and grows, it’s crucial to keep your chatbots updated and to avoid as many errors as possible. Businesses also often make the mistake of choosing a chatbot that is not suitable for their particular business goals which can cause more harm than good. It will lead to unsatisfied customers and wasted money.

Do chatbots improve customer service?

Chatbots can improve customer service to a certain degree. On the other hand, according to a study done by Userlike, around 60% of people still prefer to speak to a human agent rather than use chatbots even if it means they have to wait longer.

So yes, it is true that chatbots can help your employees and make their job easier, but you have to keep in mind that they can’t replace your human agents completely.

Let’s talk about a few things that can be improved by introducing chatbots:

First of all, they can automate routine tasks, which gives your employees more time to focus on providing personalized customer care and solving complex issues. Chatbots can book appointments, answer frequently asked questions, check order details, etc.

Chatbots are also useful in assisting your sales teams with their efforts. They can gather information about a potential customer and based on that they can recommend suitable products or services recommendations that will fit their needs. This helps leads get to the next stage of the sales funnel.

Chatbots can have an enormous impact on customer experience and satisfaction. In today’s competitive market, it is difficult to stand out from your competitors and build a loyal customer base because customer expectations are rising rapidly.

Therefore, the question is, do chatbots affect the customer experience positively or negatively?

It can go both ways and it mostly depends on how they are implemented and used. You should strive for a balance between automation and real human interaction to achieve a positive customer experience.

Conclusion

As we discussed, chatbots come with many benefits as well as disadvantages. First and foremost, you need to consider if a chatbot is suitable for your business and what type of chatbot you can implement that will fit your needs. Badly designed and implemented chatbots can lead to frustrated customers.

Most customers still prefer to talk to a real human agent. Therefore, it’s crucial that you give them this option. Yes, chatbots can provide quick answers and efficient service but they lack a personalized touch that only a customer support representative can offer.

When you are considering the implementation of chatbots into your customer service efforts, you must choose a provider that suits your business. Reading a few detailed reviews can give you a better understanding of what each of them offers and how are people feeling about them.