Traditional methods of customer service often fall short when it comes to effectively meeting the rapidly evolving expectations of contemporary consumers. While businesses must still adhere to the old methods, it is imperative that they also explore new ways on the side to deliver superior experiences to the customers at every step of their journey. This is where AI chatbots come in.  

Chatbot technology is steadily becoming a large part of the daily lives of people today. An increasing number of business organizations are opting to engage customers through chatbots owing to their capacity to deliver intelligent round-the-clock digital support. Apart from impacting the system of customer support, chatbots also help in automating functions across both sales and marketing verticals.

What exactly are chatbots?

The term chatbot is derived from “chat robot”. It technically implies a computer program that tends to stimulate human conversations via text or voice communications. In the contemporary landscape, such programs are customized and used in a variety of ways. Here are a few of the most popular ones:

● Chatbots communicating through smart speakers

● Chatbots functioning on smart home devices

● Chatbots function on diverse messaging and chat platforms like Facebook Messenger, SMS. LINE and WhatsApp

With chatbots, it becomes possible for people to interact with software that gives them prompt answers and guidance, rather than conversing with a person like a support agent or sales rep. Chatbots can connect with customers by talking or typing. 

They help influence customer relationships by responding to requests a lot faster while seamlessly meeting expectations. Owing to the potential for delivering instant responses 24x7, chatbots help in freeing up customer support teams to apply their emotional intelligence to more complicated queries.

Today almost 50% of the customers do not care whether they are dealing with AI-enabled assistants or typical, human customer support professionals. Hence, bot-driven automation can be competently used to fill the gap in the customer service hierarchy, while ensuring improved value. 

It becomes a lot easier for businesses to offer improved prompt assistance at multiple touchpoints of the customer journey with AI bots. This technology helps streamline customer service processes and elevates the levels of customer engagement. The value of AI-derived business shall quadruple to over $4 million by 2022 as per Gartner, customer experience playing a major role.

AI helps chatbots to deliver personalized experiences to diverse customers. A wide range of procedures can be automated with AI. Modern customers expect real-time responses from brands whenever they interact with them. AI makes such rapid responses possible.

How are AI-enabled chatbots changing the domain of customer service?

● Personalized and accurate recommendations: Artificial Intelligence aids in the analysis of client purchasing decisions, as well as in the creation of suggestions based on those findings. These suggestions are meant to facilitate the creation of focused marketing initiatives that contribute to an increase in client interest. Today it is feasible to provide relevant and efficient suggestions to the customers with the help of AI chatbots. Natural data can be used by AI for analyzing purchasing trends and subsequently conducting predictive and prescriptive analyses to increase engagement. AI also helps in discovering methods for creating and shaping customer experiences. Up-selling and cross-selling opportunities, in particular, shall increase quite a bit as a result of improved suggestions.

● Efficient and Friendly Service: Customers desire service that is courteous, rapid, and efficient. To be assured of their optimal satisfaction, businesses can’t overlook any of these three factors. AI chatbots can satisfy this need for consistent, proficient customer service. They ideally provide more consistent support than human agents and make fewer mistakes. With chatbots, it becomes easier for the customers to obtain the information needed by them, right at the time they require it. Customer service can make or break a business, and hence it needs to be focused, responsive and unwavering. The functionalities of chatbots are truly expansive. They can be used to answer simple questions, expedite conversations, help in complicated situations, as well as minimize touchpoints. AI-powered virtual assistants especially help navigate the process and converse with them. Technologies like machine learning, voice assistants, and natural language processing enable AI chatbots to make it easier to approach customers online.

● Supports real-time data-supported decision making: Modern companies can employ data analytics and biometric tracking to interact with customers on a deeper level with the help of AI. Facial expressions can also be taken into consideration, as they help facilitate a more tailored and personalized customer experience. Customer service requests, engagement times, response times, and feedback can be improved considerably with the usage of real-time data. Both customer interactions and trends can be augmented with AI-enabled chatbots. Real-time data allows for personal engagement with the users, as well as visual analysis. This information can be pretty helpful for you in terms of providing dependable customer service and support, as well as fostering deeper relationships.

Digital disruption is increasing customer expectations rapidly. Modern business buyers and consumers tend to be pretty well-informed while being less loyal in comparison to predecessors. These consumers always try to explore differentiated experiences that are based on trust and understanding. In this modern competitive market, any business that does not seamlessly meet the demands of these investors will invariably lag. To keep pace with the ever-evolving world of business and customer service landscape, the usage of AI-enabled can be a great idea. While obviously, chatbots cannot fully replace human customer service agents, they can play a major role in complementing the support-chat experience. Chatbots go a long way in providing customers with direct ways to get what they need in real-time, at any point of the day. They significantly help in lightening the load of the service center agents as well. As an increasing number of contact centers continue to deploy customer service chatbots, this technology will continue to get more sophisticated and be able to answer various higher-level issues and challenges.