Some find them very practical, while others find them rather useless. In short, chatbots are far from unanimous on the web… But they are often used and beneficial for companies in financial services, insurance, banking, internet and telephony, travel and online sales, etc. to have a more efficient customer service.

Between January 2017 and January 2018, there were over 2 billion messages exchanged between businesses and their customers via the 100,000 bots on Facebook Messenger.

In fact, these “virtual agents” are in fact equipped with artificial intelligence (or a computer program) that enables them to analyze, understand and answer a whole range of questions that customers may ask them. The chatbot already remembers the “intentions” customers may have when using the chat window.

For the website of a company offering Internet services, for example, the intentions could be: “cancel my contract”, “I’m moving”, “my box isn’t working”, etc. Then, thanks to a script, the chatbot will be able to respond to the person according to their request.

What’s more, chatbots can now have almost human-like conversations thanks to improvements in this Natural Language Processing technology.

The benefits:

• cost reduction (automatic service)
• improved customer service (available 24/7 and creating interactivity with customers)
• can handle large volumes of requests
• they improve over time (by gathering information, intentions)

Here’s the “Chatbot Report 2018: Global Trends and Analysis“, if you’d like more details and data on chatbots.

For further information:

These are not to be confused with the chats you can add to your website via platforms such as Zendesk, Pure Chat, Intercom, etc… (there are a multitude of them)

A cat looks a lot like a chatbot in terms of design. However, here it’s not virtual agents who will answer your customers, but you and your customer service team!

Depending on the software you choose, you’ll have the space you need to respond to every one of your customers’ requests. This will also enable you to analyze the most frequently asked questions and thus create your own database to make your customer service more efficient.

You can have live conversations during working hours (or at any time), and recorded conversations when you’re not connected to the chat room (your customers can still send you their requests).

Chat often offers you the possibility of sending files (photo, video, PDF, etc.), links (to an article, FAQ, etc.). It’s a personalized customer service that can be adapted to the customer’s needs and expectations.

And just like the chatbot, you can link the chat software to your website, application, CRM, etc. to offer optimal service.

Do you prefer chatbot or live chat?