Chatbots are an incredibly hot topic right now. The implementation of chatbots in several industries has become a new normal. The integration and amalgamation of messenger apps and bots allow businesses to utilize applications. Such as Facebook Messenger, LINE, WhatsApp, and in-app chat as tools for customer engagement.
Chatbots as a Solution as Businesses Continue to Grow
Nowadays, customers expect lightning-fast response times and want the purchase process to play out simple and handy. Customer expectations are escalating by the minute and customers continue to expect more up-to-date customer service, an easy-to-navigate shopping experience, secure & easy payments, quick deliveries and many more. For many years, customer service has always been a determinant of a good and bad company. It can be a deal breaker or maker for most businesses. No matter how cool your products are or how many deals you offer, customers only care about how well your business treats them.
Moreover, the surge in smartphones and mobile e-commerce has raised the bar as companies need to accommodate to higher volumes of traffic. Notably, the year end and holiday season is no exception to this, and with the high volumes of transactions, mistakes are inevitable. The truth is, employees are not always nimble to handle every complaint and meticulous issue. Here, chatbots come as an indispensable tool, one that allows businesses to attract clients in a more personalized manner.
Getting More Personal with Customers Using Chatbots
The chatbot revolution not only elevates the customer service experience. Even fashion e-commerce enterprises, like Sale Stock, are extending their high-level service via chatbots. Popularly known as Soraya, the human-like chatbot from Sale Stock is making it easier for customers to get whatever they want when they want it. Soraya is able to provide faster responses, gather more data about their customers. And create a more enjoyable shopping experience.
Targeting young females in Indonesia by utilizing social media and messenger apps. Sale Stock understands how to position itself among many big competitors in Indonesia. By making Soraya chatbot speak like a human being who is characterised as a cheerful and young Indonesian female. Interaction with customers become seamless. “Sista” is how Soraya usually addresses her customers to maintain a personal and casual interaction. By continuing to deliver consistent yet relevant messages and also immediate responses to anyone who comes asking about their products. It leaves a positive impression of the Sale Stock brand itself.
Also read: “Facing the Change in Hospitality Industries With Chatbots“
Salestock’s Soraya is available on several popular social media and messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and LINE, and just recently, Sale Stock launched a conversational-based shopping experience on Blackberry Messenger. With these many integrations, customers are able to receive immediate responses, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unlike human customer service representatives, chatbots are always on, feeding into the ever-increasing eagerness of consumers for engagement and response.
Chatbots are not just about answering customer enquiries by enabling artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. They are able to pick up a goldmine of data along the way. This allows enterprises to learn customer habits and keep tabs over purchasing history of each interaction in order to present personalized experiences with every tap of the finger. According to a Business Insider Intelligence research, optimizing chatbots in the business workflow for customer service can help a company save up to 30% in customer support services by cutting down the time spent waiting for a customer service agent especially when sourcing for easy information about shipping details, tracking numbers or even forgotten passwords.
Chatbots Aren’t Made For All
The technology has pitfalls. According to Garindra Prahandono, Chief Technology Officer of Sale Stock, who spoke at the 100th Qiscus TechTalk, chatbots are not made for all businesses. Chatbots are not a one-size-fits-all solution. There will always be the need and desire for person-to-person interaction for many customers. In fact, the latest research shows that 86 percent of consumers feel that there should always be an option to talk to a real person if they are engaging with a chatbot.
There is a requirement for businesses to examine their objectives and see if bots really helps. They have to be used in the right context to understand client needs and ensure a proper response. In other words, they should be built around specific business frameworks.
Health Care and Consultation Services are Heading a Different Path
Let’s examine the healthcare industry, a strictly-regulated business sector that does not allow any reckless decisions to be made for patients. Here, chatbots are not capable and should not be allowed to give any medical advice for patients, or even prescriptions, due to its limitations in understanding complex logic and contextual conversations. The human touch is needed to accommodate to patient needs.
No doubt bots can be very helpful in healthcare. Rather than act as a doctor or nurse replacement. Chatbots can ease up many time consuming tasks in this domain. Halodoc, one the biggest e-healthcare companies in Indonesia. Has already implemented chat and bots in its mobile app to help patients reduce the hassle of finding a doctor, queueing, making a schedule and reminder for appointments. And also completing administrative processes.
During the 100th Qiscus TechTalk, Bridestory’s CTO, Doni Hanafi, also shared his experience of implementing chatbots on his wedding marketplace startup. If Salestock has Soraya, Bridestory has Hilda, a virtual consultation assistant for people. Who want to find the best vendors for their wedding event. Similar to the use of a bot with Halodoc’s, Hilda couldn’t completely replace interaction between humans. Hilda acts as a bridge to ease up the registration process. Such as filling up forms or recording some necessary information about customers’ wedding plans afterwhich Bridestory’s wedding consultant, who is human, will take over the process until the end. It is also able to facilitate interactions between Bridestory’s account managers and their vendors or partners. To check for service availability on a selected date or request.
The Ideal Scenario
The usage of chatbots in several industries is crucial. But the application should be adjusted to individual cases and considerations. The implementation of Hilda and Halodoc’s chatbots are slightly different from Salestock’s Soraya.
While Soraya simplifies the purchasing flow so customers do not require to directly interact with the seller. Hilda and Halodoc still requires a human employee to establish conversations with the customer. For example, you can gain an insight about your symptoms via chatbot. But you will still need to schedule a meeting with a doctor to obtain your personal prescription and reference for further treatment. Similarly, with choosing vendors for a wedding. It could be too overwhelming and complicated for chatbots to recommend the best vendors that customers are looking for due to its limitations of processing queries.
Takeaways
The idea of automating and scaling one-to-one conversations using technology appeals to lots of brands and services out there. But for some businesses, chatbots may fail to deliver user experiences. That are as seamless, enticing and streamlined as we envisioned them to be. One of the main limitations of chatbots is the lack of its ability to properly empathize. That is why businesses who utilise chatbots should always have a human representative ready to jump in. Humans are really good at conversations. We understand jokes and slangs, we can read between the lines. And we are able to leverage contextual information when giving someone a response.
