5 advantages of using chat bots in messengers
There is a joke that a chat bot is the worker of your dreams. It works around the clock without breaks for lunch, will never get fired, and will not demand an increase in its daily allowance. However, the characteristic of “never getting sick” is still debatable — sometimes the program needs to be corrected or improved.
In any case, it is a virtual manager to whom you can entrust a significant part of your professional duties — from customer consultations to automating certain processes. Additionally, with its help, working time, money are saved, and profits even increase.
What is a chat bot, where are chat bots used, how exactly, what can they do, and will this program make your business work easier — read on.
Do you need an artificial worker?
In fact, a virtual consultant can be “invited” to almost any field that is related to active communication and a lot of repetitive tasks.
Chat bots are actively used everywhere, from sex shops to various government organizations.
They can make life easier even in such a delicate field as recruitment. In many specialized companies, recruiters have sighed with relief thanks to the chat bot, as it has taken on at least 50% of routine correspondence.
Which businesses are thinking about creating a chatbot?
Those drowning in volumes of information
If a potential client cannot quickly find the necessary product or information on your website — they simply leave and do not return.
This is a normal reaction from a customer and definitely a flaw of the company or organization. With the help of a chatbot, this can be avoided — if the response options are anticipated from the very beginning.
Those suffering from routine
That is, a lot of working time is focused on processing repetitive queries. For example, if it concerns transportation services, 95% of clients will be interested only in:
- are there tickets from point A to point B,
- how long is the journey,
- how much does the ticket cost.
Thus, the chatbot can process 2,000 tickets within a day. Handling this number of tickets manually, with similar responses, would require at least four cashiers — assuming 12-hour working shifts for each.
Other companies may see a similar pattern, regardless of whether it’s in the B2B or B2C business segment.
Script and structure: what you need to know to be friends with a chatbot?
Whether you decide to deal with it yourself or reach out to a company that has been creating virtual consultants since 2022, one of your first tasks will be to understand — or better yet, immediately write out the so-called chatbot script. This is a step-by-step algorithm of actions, responses, and reactions of the artificial intelligence to client queries.
Each next step can be triggered either by a corresponding button: “price”, “location”, “size”; or text entered by the person. Thus, the script can initially include not only “yes” and “no” answers but also more complex options.
Most scripts have three blocks:
- Trigger — a user action that starts the process for the chatbot. This can be not only an inquiry, but also the user spending a certain amount of time on a specific page.
- Condition — who is buying, a regular or new customer, what time, discounted product, etc.
- Bot’s actions — its responses and further processing of the received information.
A simplified example of a chatbot, or rather, one of its tasks in a computer store, could look like this:
(C — Client, B — Chat bot)
B: How can I help?
C: I need a laptop with a battery that lasts 28 hours.
B: The models XXX777, XXX888, and XXX99 meet your request. Would you like to know more about each? (or — Unfortunately, we don’t have models that meet your needs. Perhaps you’d be interested in other models…?)
C: Price for XXX888?
B: The price is 45,000 UAH.
C: Warranty?
B: The manufacturer’s warranty is three years. Would you like to place an order?
C: No. (The “Yes” answer will also trigger other follow-up questions from the virtual manager regarding address, phone, and delivery conditions).
B: Thank you for your interest in our store. Have a nice day!
This conversation could develop differently depending on the product specifics or the particular user, as well as your preferences.
Also, at the initial stages of creation, you need to understand what the overall structure of the chatbot will be — the logic it follows in response to different user actions. The more detailed you write it, the more effective your artificial manager will work.
What kinds of chatbots are there?
Chatbots can be integrated into websites, configured in social networks and messengers.
The optimal solution is to provide communication via a messenger, such as the Viber or Telegram chatbot. These are popular platforms where personal communication and business interaction blend harmoniously.
The differences between chatbots on these platforms, it’s mostly about design, some settings, and purely technical nuances.
Telegram and Viber bots can be created both based on Python — custom-made — and using constructors.
If you decide to use a chat bot constructor for Telegram or Viber, you should remember that bots created on publicly available platforms will have more limited functionality.
A custom bot, on the other hand, allows for:
- Integrations with 1C systems,
- Complex integrations with CRM;
- Custom admin panels tailored to your needs.
This is something you can’t say for a bot created with a constructor.
There is also a significant difference in subscription fees. For bots created using a constructor, the fee is monthly but depends on the number of subscribers, meaning there may be an additional charge for new ones. For custom bots, the hosting or server fee does not depend on the number of bot subscribers and is more stable.
What does a chat bot give you?
No matter which technical solution you choose, each of them will provide your company with:
- Saving working time, salary fund, and sometimes even the nerves of managers. Consultants and tech support will only join the dialogues when necessary. The chatbot will inform them about this need.
- Increasing online sales volumes. The chatbot is trained to push the buyer towards the logical conclusion of the conversation — making a purchase of a product or service. It also accepts payment, in just 2 clicks and 24/7.
- The chatbot for the messenger solves a number of tasks for your business — and can even create sales funnels.
- Timely and detailed customer surveys. Additionally, data collection can be set up as a casual conversation with an ordinary store assistant — “Did everything work for you, what exactly did you not like, and why?”
- Analyzing and segmenting the customer base — by age, purchases, preferences, location, etc. This is the perfect foundation for further segmented mailings.
Bots in Telegram or Viber are gradually becoming full members of teams that help redistribute resources. You can take a risk and create a chat bot yourself, but it’s more effective to set the task, and SMS Club will solve it, taking into account all the needs of your business.
