Are you currently using a traditional chatbot on your website or your company’s internal support system? Or, maybe you’ve been avoiding using a chatbot altogether because you don’t think they’re capable of providing high-level support?
While it’s true that standard chatbots can fall short, conversational AI is a game-changer. Here’s why taking advantage of this technology will benefit your business.
1. Conversational AI is superior chatbot technology
Over the years, you’ve probably engaged several chatbots that weren’t very helpful. Unfortunately, this is all too common when businesses use standard chatbot technology. Rather than being intentional, they install an application that gives only basic answers and you still have to contact customer support to resolve your issue. Those businesses may as well not have a chatbot at all.
Whether it’s used by customers, website visitors, or your employees, a good chatbot will provide fast support, relevant answers, and is capable of resolving issues without involving an agent. Conversational AI makes this possible. For instance, integrating a conversational AI chatbot into your internal helpdesk helps employees resolve technical issues without input from a live agent. Unlike with standard chatbots, an AI-powered system will deflect far more tickets through automatic resolution.
AI bots are better than rule-based bots
Traditional chatbots often miss the mark because they’re powered by a rule-based program that uses simple keywords and phrases to provide pre-written responses. If you don’t account for all possible queries and responses, your chatbot won’t be all that helpful. It might be great for basic questions, like “how do I change my password?” However, the context of more nuanced questions will be lost.
You need a chatbot that can handle questions like, “How do I add someone as an administrator to my account without giving them access to my billing information?” This type of query can only be answered with conversational AI because it requires generative AI to work. To answer this question, the system will need to search your content for relevant answers and then piece together a response that either contains a definitive solution or provides summaries and links to individual web pages related to the topic.
This isn’t something you can accomplish with a traditional chatbot program unless you spend countless hours programming every possible query and response. That will be a never-ending task. Instead, it makes more sense to use AI that can spin up personalized responses and continue learning and improving as time goes on.
Conversational AI technology is superior
Chatbots that use conversational AI provide humanlike interactions that flow more like a real conversation rather than delivering short one-liners that sound like a robot. On top of that, the AI-powered system can dig deep into your web-based resources (like your knowledge base) to find detailed information relevant to a query. The result is a better user experience all around.
There are a couple of things that make this technology superior to rule-based bots.
· Natural Language Processing (NLP). With NLP, a conversational AI chatbot will learn words and phrases to the point where it can generate language to converse with users. This is better than the programmed, robotic responses that often disregard nuance and sound impersonal. Just the fact that a bot is conversational is enough to tip the scales in your favor where customer satisfaction is concerned.
· It gets better with time. Conversational AI continues to learn and improve the more it's used. In essence, the conversational AI chatbot you implement today will be even better several months down the road. If you stick with a traditional chatbot, it won’t get any better. You can program more responses, but you can’t make the conversation flow like a human-to-human chat.
When your goal is to provide customers with a smooth and natural support experience, you really can’t beat conversational AI.
2. People want self-service options
While good customer service was once regarded as a live interaction, that’s changed. Today, people only care about solutions. As long as they find answers fast, it doesn’t matter if it comes from a human or a bot. In fact, most people prefer finding their own answers and solutions without speaking to a live support agent. Don’t worry, people can and will rate your customer service positively even when they never speak to a human. The key, however, is having a superior automated system that works. This is where an AI-powered chatbot helps.
Using a conversational AI chatbot aligns with most people’s preference for self-help options, but with better results. A conversational AI chatbot can provide superior self-help service to both customers and employees. According to data published by CMS Wire, 50% of employees use an AI chatbot instead of asking their manager for advice. However, if they don’t find what they’re looking for, they can still get help from a live agent.
3. Your support team will get some relief
Support teams often become overwhelmed with help desk tickets and email requests. By implementing a conversational AI chatbot, you can deflect a large number of tickets by helping people resolve their issues automatically.
When your agents have fewer tickets to manage, they have more time and energy to spend on pressing issues as opposed to handling simple, repetitive requests that can be easily resolved by reading a simple guide. Using an AI chatbot empowers your agents to provide superior service where it matters most.
4. You can offer 24/7 support
A conversational AI chatbot can make your customers feel taken care of around the clock. When a customer has an issue on a Saturday morning at 3am, for example, they can talk to your chatbot and get resolution. They won’t have to wait until a weekday and then get up early to call your company’s customer service team.
Conversational AI is the future of great support
If you want loyal, happy customers and productive employees, you need the kind of support that can only be delivered through conversational AI. Although it’s just starting to become popular, there will be a time when AI-powered chatbots become the standard for customer support.
