Introduction: Chatbot For Businesses

A chat-bot is a computer program put together to answer questions without the need of a human operator or assistant. And, even though the different types of chatbots serve similar purposes they are different. After hearing about these you might consider having one for your business or make a plan to use one in the near future.

Chatbots may have limitations because they can only do so much. Using one might be a life saver depending on the type of work you do and what your business offers. An operator can provide more detailed information depending on the complexity of things, especially when a rule based chatbot is in question. But, you can leave the most common tasks to chatbots and have it get the job done.

Pre-programmed (Rule-Based) and AI Chatbots

Pre-programmed bots

Pre-programmed bots have programmed answers based on common questions that a business o entrepreneur may expect, these are the most common bots and also considered simple to use and put together. If you’ve made it this far I believe you’ve visited quite a number of websites and had your fair experience with chatbots.

Websites and blogs collect emails and may suggest you join their mailing list and sometimes that pop-up is actually a bot. You may get something like:

“To make sure you don’t miss our next post we’d love to send our articles straight to your mailbox would you be interested?”

In case of a NO:

“We appreciate your honesty. Thanks for visiting us don’t be a stranger. I’ll be here if you change your mind”

The bot is obviously not improvising it doesn’t have such capacities. You might get the same prompt if you visit the same site as a different user or during a different session.

AI bots

AI bots are more interesting as they don’t rely on call to action these tend to learn more about the customer. We have Natural Language and Machine Learning Chatbots.

The natural language bots rely on language processing to understand exactly what the customer wants. Unlike machines we’re not always logical we don’t always use the right word nor finish sentences. These bots not only understand but respond in a familiar manner not exactly coping from us but we get a response based on how we express ourselves to begin with, which gives a natural feel to the conversation.

Machine learning chatbots

Natural language processing and Machine Learning bots have a lot in common, these are also referred to as “smart bots” but machine learning focuses more on the study of things and behavior. Like using previous conversations or scenarios to help the bot learn. Artificial neural networks are used as what we can consider artificial brains that are used to feed chatbots with data.

Why Do People Use Chatbots?

24/7 Support

We sleep, as for chatbots that’s not even a language they understand. Basic issues can be taken care of just like that at anytime. And we don’t get to pay a dime extra for that.

Chatbots are great for information gathering

The example of a rule based chatbot answers this clearly. Chatbots can be a great tool to gather information of visitors on our websites, social media pages and more.

People are OK with using chatbots

We have more and more people willing to use chatbots these days for quick responses and information. People don’t mind for as long as they’re informative and maintain the context of the dialogue. I hope this introduction changes your views about chatbots and leaves you curious enough to learn more.

This piece was previously published on Medium by me. https://samwritessecurity.medium.com/introduction-to-chatbot-for-businesses-1af5eb4b5879