Are You There When Your Members and Prospects Are?
The chatbot market is expected to rise to $1.25 billion U.S dollars by 2025, which is a significant increase from 2016’s $190.8 million U.S dollars. Gartner also predicts that 25% of all customer service operations will use AI virtual assistants by 2020. As the popularity of chatbots continues to grow, all businesses need to take advantage of the benefits of AI technology. If you are still deliberating, here are the benefits of using chatbots for your business.
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Reducing Operational Costs
Chatbots automate customer service operations such as query collection, providing instructions, and repetitive answers. Funding your agents to be available 24/7 all year-round is costly. According to IBM, businesses spend $1.3 trillion to respond to 265 billion customer service call every year. You can use chatbot technology to answer up to 80% of routine queries and free up your agents and free your customer service agents for more critical queries. Consequently, you can slash your customer service costs by up to 30%.
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Around the Clock Customer Service
Chatbots are virtual assistants that do not need sleep, customer breaks, vacations, and are not prone to illnesses or disasters. They provide 24/7 customer service assistance to your customers. You can also update your virtual assistants to collect information from customers, sell your company’s portfolio and catalog, and make a recommendation based on previous customer preferences. Both your business and clients will stay happy after interacting with chatbot technology.
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Customer Retention
Did you know that 91% of unsatisfied customers will not return for a service? If you keep losing new clients, there is a high chance that your business will sink. As more customers continue to seek immediate responses, not being able to respond immediately will leave them unsatisfied and cause them to find solutions from your competitors.
Chatbots provide instant answers and engage clients as soon as they visit your website. They also inform a client that their query has been received and direct them to customer service agents, which will help you gain their goodwill.
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Consistent Customer Service
While human beings can deal with queries that you cannot automate, they also work depending on their mood. Personal problems, general dislike, hunger, and the time of the day can affect the productivity of your customer service agents. If your agent is not in the right mood, they may not give your customers a satisfying experience.
Chatbots, on the other hand, work tirelessly and always adhere to rules. They only respond as programmed, in a polite manner, which provides consistent customer service. If you need responses in multiple languages, you can achieve it with a program – a skill that may be challenging for your customer service agents. Once you program the virtual assistants to work in various languages, you will improve the customer service experience in your business.
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Extended Marketing Avenue
Chatbots do more than improve customer service- they can also market your business. How? As they engage your customers, they can sell products to your customers in a personal way. Since these virtual assistants retain customer query data, they can recommend products based on a customer’s previous queries. You can also improve your business’s customer reach by automating responses on multiple platforms. It would be impossible to expand your reach at the same rate if you do it manually. Lastly, virtual assistants also eliminate gaps in your sales funnel by responding immediately to customer queries. They smoothen the transition between engagement and conversion to improve your marketing and sales.
Conclusion
Utilizing chatbots for your business has numerous benefits. They cut down operational costs, provide 24/7 consistent customer service, extend your marketing, and help you retain customers.
For more information on chatbots click this link.
