What you’ll read: Chatbots aren’t here to take over. Their immediate responses, demographic appeal, and trustworthiness make them a marketing all star.
Even when everything goes right, there will still be times when your customers need to get in touch with you. An increasingly popular way for modern businesses to open the lines of communication is through chatbots. These AI programs are designed to simulate the kind of conversations your support representatives would have with customers. Chatbots can help you automate services like returns or schedule changes, but beyond that, they have major benefits when it comes to creating long-term customer relationships. If you haven’t yet joined the chatbot revolution, it may be time to pledge loyalty to your robot overlords.
Chatbot’s immediacy goes a long way with customers
Our always-online, connected world has completely changed expectations when it comes to waiting for service,. In fact, 75% of customers expect businesses to service them within five minutes of online contact. Unless you have an army of customer service reps manning phones 24/7, that’s probably not a demand your company can meet.
By incorporating chatbots or AI assistants into your customer service suite, you’ll be able to immediately appease customers who may have otherwise become disenchanted with your business. AI may not be able to solve every customer concern immediately, but what matters is that they feel that their requests are treated with urgency. Even directing customers to other customer service channels, like email, online forms, and phone numbers saves them the effort of having to find that information themselves. In turn, the customer will remember your company as one that’s easy to deal with, increasing the likelihood of repeat business.
Become the best CRMer you can:
CRM Hack: Monitoring the User’s Heartbeat
What Does It Mean to Treat a Customer’s Email With Respect?
To Lock or Not to Lock Customers (into CRM Journeys)
What the Efforts to Promote Responsible Gaming Look Like Form the Inside
The AI tool hasemographic appeal
It’s well-documented that Millennials and Gen Z, two very important consumer demographics who grew up with the internet, abhor phone calls. Giving them other options for customer service could mean the difference between getting their business and never hearing from them again.
On the other hand, almost 60% of Generation Z and Millennials have used private social messaging for customer service. This kind of technology and interaction comes naturally to them, whether they’re talking to a human or a chatbot. Additionally, “Generation Z and Millennials are more likely to agree that chatbots make it easier and quicker for their issues to get resolved, and are also the most likely of all generations to have used all forms of AI for any purpose, as well as for customer service.”
Chatbotsncrease trust with customers
It’s hard to understate how important reliable customer service is;
To build trust with customers through AI interactions, keep the following things in mind:
- Be transparent: consumers want human-like interactions, but they don’t want to feel deceived. Make it clear that they’re conversing with AI upfront.
- Personalized conversations: customers define personalization as “positive experiences of being made to feel special,” and 72% of customers expect service to be tailored to their interests.
- Reliable responses: a good chatbot should be able to resolve 80% of common customer queries; anything less and you’ll risk looking unreliable.
By the end of 2021, it’s estimated that around 85% of consumer interactions will be handled without live human agents. The robot revolution isn’t just coming; it’s already here. By implementing AI responses into your customer service strategy, you’ll instill confidence in consumers, which leads to high satisfaction and lifetime value.