The customer is always right.

What helps customer, helps business.

The above sayings are keystones for any customer-driven business model. If you are among other businesses today, you likely struggle to improve customer service and may have lost money because of it. According to Microsoft, the expectations of customer service continues to rise around the world.And while talking of manual customer service, anyone who has ever contacted a company through customer support very well knows how frustrating the process is. But is there any way to handle customer queries efficiently without hiring more employees?  

Well, there is. Enter chatbots.

The use of AI chatbots in the customer service industry is quickly evolving. According to a fact, more than 67% of consumers worldwide used AI chatbot for customer support in the past year. And it is estimated that around 85% of all customer interactions will be handled without a human by the end of 2019.

Now the main question arises that what is a chatbot and how it benefits in the customer service process?

Here is all you need to know about chatbots and how they can improve your customer service experience, and give the customers what they want- convenience and speed.

 So let’s get going

What is AI Chatbot and How it Differs From Manual Customer Service? 

Technically speaking, a chatbot is an interactive AI software that can simulate human conversations with customers through calls, messaging applications, chats, etc. Gone are the days when customer support was a time consuming and frustrating process. With the advancement in technology, the trends in digital marketing and customer support have dynamically transformed. New and improved tools have been introduced to simplify the transactions between humans and machines, AI chatbots being one of them. Chatbots are not just intelligent tools that help to improve conversations but also helps in increasing sales and profits via customer satisfaction.

Let’s take an example to understand more

AI Chatbot in Customer Service and Other Business Aspects

Now we all know how AI chatbots are different from manual customer service process but how it aligns with your customer service and other business aspects? Let’s start with some questions first

What if you have limited resources to handle customer service?

What happens when all of a sudden, your customer base increases exponentially?

And what will you do when all of a sudden your product stopped working, and your customers start yelling for responses?

The solution to all the above problems is quite simple- AI chatbots.

A chatbot can handle millions of customer queries very efficiently. And in case of a sudden increase in customers, more servers can be added very easily without spending any extra. That is why chatbots are continuously edging down into the most boring business interactions and gaining more popularity than ever. They already took a prominent position in developing business strategy by giving significant advantage from customer service to lead generation. Every other industry is now using them. Be it finance, education industry, food apps, social networking sites, or even medical and entertainment industry.  It is found that 53% of consumers prefer to chat online rather than directly calling a company for customer support. The reason behind this is pretty simple; people value time and convenience.

AI chatbot enables a firm to

• Improve customer satisfaction and serve as a means to handle a large number of customers very efficiently. 

• It ensures better performance and boosts in business revenue. 

• AI chatbots are also capable of performing a variety of operations like the collection of data, solving customer queries, generation of customer reports, and so on using your brand’s voice.

But chatbots are not only for catering to these end-customer problems. People also prefer them for many other reasons. In fact, the introduction of Millennials in the global workforce compelled businesses to think about other uses of AI chatbots. These uses included tasks like saving costs, handling assignments, creating employee engagements, etc. With all these great features, it is pretty easy to say that chatbots will take the business world by storm. And we will, for sure, see this technology more in the coming future.

Here’s a list of top 5 AI chatbots for 2019

While talking about chatbots, many companies offer a wide range of AI platforms to help brands develop suitable chatbots. These AI chatbots helps them attract and retain customers. They also add value to a brand’s marketing strategy by tailoring the company’s responses to customer’s queries. So if you’re thinking of upgrading your current standard chatbot to a more powerful AI chatbot, we have got you covered. 

1. Botsify 

With a user-friendly interface and easy installation, any person having minimal technical knowledge can handle it very efficiently. It lets you create chatbots for sites like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and others without coding. It offers a free 14-day trial, and it’s pro-plan costs $50 per month.

2. Watson Assistant 

Developed by IBM, Watson Assistant is a pre-trained AI chatbot available in the market. It offers continuous improvement in its functioning by honing its conversational abilities. It comes with a visual dialogue editor, so you don’t need any coding knowledge to develop it.

3. Chatfuel

Chatfuel is again one of the most easy-to-use chatbot platform specifically designed for Facebook. It offers conversational rules and various editing tools that help you create your chatbot very easily. It is a freemium tool where some features are free. The premium plan starts at $300 per month.

4. LivePerson

With the ability to build chatbots from scratch, LivePerson offers you easy integration with most messaging channels like your website, text messaging, mobile app, Facebook Messenger, etc. It also provides an analytics dashboard that helps to determine the impact of chatbots on your business’s operations. The standard price starts from $40 per month.

5. Custom Chatbot

While all these available software can very well help companies to achieve profits and smooth functioning for their organizations, a unique and original custom chatbot works excellent. It not only suits excellently to your business needs but also makes your company stand out in the market.

Unlike traditional off-the-shelf software, with a custom chatbot, you can start small and can add more features later on to fit the company’s specifications. We, at Matellio, helps you build your own AI chatbot that excellently suits your business needs. It includes all the benefits discussed above with many more like natural language processing engine, smooth transfer of conversation to appropriate support agent, drag and drop builder, GIFs, etc. You can build Custom chatbot to serve as a service advisor, an event assistant, or a personal avatar. We offer a 15-day free trial with cost-effective pricing.

Top Benefits of Integrating Artificial Intelligence Chatbots in Customer Services

AI chatbots offer multiple benefits to its users besides reliable and consistent customer experience. And while talking of that, the real winner is your customer. Chatbots enhances customer satisfaction in several ways by providing them some advantages like quick answers, ease of installation, reliable service, etc. 

Here are some top benefits of using AI chatbots for customer service.

1. Round the Clock Customer Service

What if when you get all your answers in seconds without the need to repeat your information time and again. Well, AI chatbot helps you with this. Chatbots use natural language processing to analyze the customer’s question and deliver a response that meets the customer’s needs. Moreover, you do not need to wait for any person to be available every time to solve your problem. You have to shoot your question, and you will be provided with the right solution. Also, if you find that the issues are way ahead to be handled by a chatbot, then you can design an offline chatbot to take over when no one is around. In this way, your customer does not have to wait for anyone, anytime.

Sounds great, isn’t it?

2. Fewer Errors 

AI chatbots make fewer mistakes while answering a user as compared to humans. That’s because of the cognitive technology that interprets user’s responses and provides them accurate answers. Moreover, chatbots don’t just use AI to answer the questions; they also use it to learn and automatically improve the quality of service they provide.

3. Fast Response 

Even if you have got a large team of customer service providers, there may be times when some or all may not be available to handle your customer’s query. In that case, it is for sure possible that you may even lose a prospect or future client. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou Thus, it is very crucial to provide best-in-class services to all your potential users. And what could be better than to choose AI chatbot? Besides improving your response rate very efficiently, it also ensures hassle-free support at cost-effective prices.

4. Quick Order Placement

Besides fast support AI chatbot also offers firms the ability of immediate order placements. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in the global world, more chains are now investing in automation technology. AI chatbots provide automated ordering while leveraging already-popular messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Amazon Echo, Slack, etc. 

Customers have to make a few clicks, to place the order.

5. Fast Tracking Records

It is found out that 41% of companies struggle to compile and use customer satisfaction data. The solution to the above problem is, of course, AI chatbots. Along with the hassle-free working environment, chatbots helps to track customer satisfaction data. With the rise in the adoption of big data analytics along with AI, the growth rate of the global market increased tremendously. So it is evident that AI, when linked with chatbots, can offer significant profits. It improves response rates, live chats, and handles younger crowds very efficiently. Besides that, it also helps you to make better decisions in terms of your business expenditures regarding customer services.

6. Smooth Journey and Better Customer-Engagement

Imagine that you are looking for something on a website, but it is taking too long, or you are unable to find it. But what if you get an assistant to do that for you? It would be great, isn’t it? Well, that’s the magic of AI-powered chatbot. To connect with more audiences, we must not forget to understand their needs. Chatbots, with their ability to understand, helps your customers with the exact solution to what they want. That enables your business to transform prospects into rewarding clients and incites customers to spend more. Not just that, it also offers video content or discount coupons to keep them engaged.

7. Consistent User-Experience

Finally, AI chatbots can help you build an excellent on-brand experience. As all the chats are automated, so there is very little chance of missing conversation and mails, or mistyping that can result in poor customer service. Besides this, it also helps the companies to optimize cost and automates the end-to-end business process. By personifying the chatbots, you can also engage several customers on many different levels. That can help you increase the traffic on your site and thus can create ample opportunities for your business.

How Artificial intelligence chatbots can Help?

 To conclude, we can say that automating the manual customer service process not only benefits the customers but also benefits the organization in many ways. Chatbots are more than “the wave of nature” in customer service. They are the future of business operations and can help you grow and fulfill your goals efficiently. Whether you have a big company like Facebook, or you have just started, you need to interact with customers. And while using chatbots, you can create more opportunities to engage with customers in new and different ways. Remember, the goal here is not to present experience as a professional would do, but to ensure customer delight in a more presentable way that customer leaves satisfied.