Chatbots in customer service: everything you need to know!

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed customer service. Many stores are closed or only open under certain conditions. Life unfolds more and more from home. And the same goes for your customers' purchases.

Just think about your own behavior over the last few months: What was your first point of contact with a company to ask about a product or service? It was probably your website with a live chat or chatbot. Good customer service on the Internet is more important than ever. And chatbots can go a long way toward optimizing it and ensuring a high level of service for your customers.

In this article, we'll show you how you can benefit from a chatbot in customer service, during and after the times of COVID. In addition, we give you tips on how to implement your own chatbot.

The number of chatbots has been growing steadily even before the coronavirus crisis. A trend that is not expected to change in the coming months. For example, about 53 percent of surveyed customer service employees say they intend to use a customer service chatbot for the next 18 months. Companies that already use a chatbot indicate that they can see numerous benefits for themselves and their customers. For example, 84 percent say prioritization of tasks has improved and 82 percent have been able to increase the number of requests resolved on first contact.

From a company point of view, you can see a very positive assessment of chatbots. But how does it look from the customer's perspective?

There are also positive comments on the topic of chatbots from the point of view of customers. In your report "Status of connected clients", Salesforce surveyed more than 8,000 consumers around the world. The result: more and more consumers see it as the task of companies to adapt to the preferences and communication habits of their customers. 75 percent say that chatbots or voice assistants play a decisive role in this.

The effects of chatbots on customer satisfaction can already be measured today. A study by LivePerson and Forrester Consulting concludes that chatbots increase customer satisfaction. About 50 percent of the companies surveyed cited increased customer satisfaction as the biggest benefit of chatbots.

The studies mentioned above make one thing clear: Chatbots they have numerous advantages for businesses. To take advantage of these advantages, a customer service chatbot can be used in the following three areas:

Customer inquiry support is the most obvious application for a chatbot in customer service. Especially with repetitive queries, the chatbot can deliver great results and reduce customer service workload. The result: Your customer service team receives fewer inquiries from customers, has fewer monotonous tasks to perform, and can therefore focus on handling the most complex inquiries.

What's more chatbot is available 24 hours. Give your customers immediate feedback without waiting long for a response.

Another application is the generation of new clients. In this area, there are also recurring tasks that a chatbot can perform. Especially the first contact with potential customers is often a standardized process. As soon as the first contact is made, the chatbot can relay the conversation to a human coworker in customer service or in the marketing / sales department.

One area that is often overlooked is internal communication support. A chatbot can help within the customer service team with simple organizational tasks, such as coordinating meetings or searching for information in internal documents.

In summary, it can be said that chatbots offer the following advantages in customer service:

• Chatbots can respond to customer requests immediately.
• They are available 24 hours a day.
• Chatbots give your customers additional options to communicate with your business.
• Chatbots can handle monotonous tasks.
• This allows your team to prioritize tasks and focus on complex tasks.
• Additionally, a chatbot can simplify internal organization and information access and search.

Not all chatbots are the same. In order for your chatbot to be able to perform the aforementioned tasks satisfactorily, there are a number of points that you must keep in mind. First, it is important to understand that there are two different types of chatbots: rule-based chatbots and AI-based chatbots..

With rule-based chatbots, all possible questions and answers are defined in advance. It is decided on the basis of keywords, what response is shown to the user. For example, if the user's question contains the word "opening hours", the bot will display a list with the opening hours on the different days of the week. If a question is not defined, the chatbot cannot answer it. Therefore, this type of chatbot quickly reaches its limits.

AI-based chatbotsOn the other hand, chatbots based on Artificial Intelligence are more suitable for complex applications. However, you need a good preparation to implement them in your company. To do so, we have outlined the most important things to consider before implementing a chatbot.

In order for your customer service chatbot to answer customer inquiries as independently and comprehensively as possible, you need a knowledge base, or better yet, a knowledge graph.

There is a big difference between having data in the form of texts, images or PDF and having it in the form of knowledge. Data that has already been processed into knowledge puts the information in context and gives it meaning. This enables you to provide concrete answers and solve your customers' problems.

The consolidation of data and its preparation in the form of a knowledge graph serves as the basis for the chatbot to understand and answer questions in natural language. It really forms the foundation for a chatbot to function and provide real value to the user.

When it comes to implementing a chatbot, you need to involve as many teams in your company as necessary, not just your IT department.

Especially your customer service and your sales team are important. Both teams are in contact with customers and know exactly what their problems are. It is best to organize meetings with teams and listen carefully to what individual team members can tell you from their experiences.

Trying in your own company is as important as accumulating experience. It is recommended that they first test the chatbot within the company. This allows you to gain valuable insight into your chatbot's user experience and areas for improvement.

At the same time, it allows you to slowly prepare your employees for upcoming changes and an overall focus on conversational AI. If you introduce the chatbot as a new step-by-step tool and involve your employees, they can develop it together rather than implement it from above.

If you need help with the implementation of your chatbot, do not hesitate to contact us.