Are Chatbots Useful? 5 Pros and 5 Cons of Their Usage

The major role that chatbots play in many businesses where it is used is in relating to the customer. In fact, businesses see them as tools for optimizing customer care services and improving the quality of customer relations. Bot-builders pre programme the bots with responses to common questions that customers ask when they converse with customer service agents. The way chatbots work, they’re able to suggest questions that the customer should ask and give the appropriate programmed answer. This makes chatbots very useful to a lot of businesses.

Many companies are already beginning to hop on this trend of using a chatbot. It is seen as one of the ways to automate their business to be more productive, save time and also reduce cost as well. But some are still puzzled. Let’s attempt to answer that question they have in their minds- are chatbots useful?

Pros

They can provide customers with a personalized experience

These bots actually employ the use of machine learning to know people better. They are therefore able to offer a personalized experience to customers based on the information that they gather. Chatbots are also able to reach out to the right target audience and make proper adjustments to ensure that they meet their needs. Although it respects individual privacy, it is also able to learn by interaction what different users like and what they need. And then it makes suggestions quickly to help them out.

They’re faster and still very accurate

Chatbots respond to the demands of customers faster than human agents can and are very precise in providing the clients with the information that they need. This makes the process of communication faster and leads to an increase in the number of purchases made. With chatbots, your service delivery is faster. This is a crucial factor in enhancing customer satisfaction.

You can also use bots to increase the credibility of your company. This could be done by sending out the latest industry news to your customers ahead of your competitors.

They can work round the clock

Since chatbots are machines, they don’t need breaks as humans do. They are alert 24/7 and are always working. Humans will definitely feel tired and hungry. They need to eat and sleep. But with chatbots, you do not have to worry about any of these. Another advantage that the bots have is the ability to handle multiple requests and chats simultaneously without making a mistake. It’s an absolute win-win situation. You can expend your human resources on other parts of your business to increase productivity while the bots answer the customers immediately at their request. This saves their time (and makes them much happier).

They’re more economical

Although it is not possible yet to totally replace humans with chatbots in customer service relations, some reports already show that using chatbots reduces the amount you spend on customer service by as much as 29%. It is also easier to develop a chatbot than it is to develop an app. Startups and small businesses that do not have enough yet to fund a customer relations department would find chatbots very useful.

Customer satisfaction increases

Chatbots are able to work round the clock to provide quick and relevant responses to a customer’s query. This is, therefore, a factor in increasing the satisfaction of the customer at the business. According to a survey carried out in November 2017 on more than 1000 adults in the USA, 64% of the participants said that they prefer getting help from the chatbot at any time of the day. 43% of them claimed that the chatbots resolved their complaints faster.

Cons

Chatbots may not be useful for all businesses

The businesses that tend to benefit the most from the use of chatbots are mostly businesses that provide a service to the customers. For instance, travel companies, retail companies, pizza delivery services usually have a stereotypical and predictable chat with their customers when they order for their services. So, it is easier to create a bot for businesses like these. But other types of businesses that don’t provide such simple services to their customers, didn’t think bots were so useful. However, this is changing. Companies in various industries are adopting chatbots. Some are even using them to sell products like insurance.

Builders pre-program them

A bot cannot operate beyond the codes that the programmer writes. If a customer has to resolve an issue that is too complex for the bot to handle, it just keeps repeating the solution and this is not always cool with the customer. Chatbots never work outside of what they are taught. It is unable to think or suggest anything on its own. You can solve this by routing complicated queries to human agents by integrating a Live Chat function in the bot.

They have a limited audience

According to Kik statistics, as much as 60% of the people using chatbots are teenagers. Also, more than 80% of bot users in the world are from the USA, while most of the other users are either from the UK or from Canada. This implies that you have to sit down and analyze your target audience and the product that you are selling before you decide to add chatbots as one of your marketing strategies and customer care service delivery.

They can make mistakes

Bots are usually fast and precise in their delivery to the customer but they are not humans and are unable to improvise. Sometimes it is possible that the request of a user confuses the bot. it is also possible for it to lose track of the ongoing conversation and start to give responses that are incoherent with the conversation.

But now, bots are fortified with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This helps them hold conversations in a better manner. And customers can request to speak to a human agent if their queries are complex or they want them addressed in a better manner.

Language limitation

Builders program bots with a limited amount of information. This is one of the reasons why it becomes very easy to go off track while conversing with a customer. The moment the customers ask a question or say something that is not programmed with it, it loses its way. But Engati’s chatbots are built using a proprietary NLP engine that solves this problem.

Conclusion

Chatbots are very useful in enhancing customer satisfaction. They help save time and reduce costs for the customer and business respectively. They’re worth investing in to take your business to a whole new level.