The advancement in technology and evolution of artificial intelligence have developed what today is called Chatbot. Chatbots started to make an appearance in 2011 as artificial intelligence combined with messaging platforms as a way of supporting companies interacting with their customers.

I have personally started using chatbot as a consumer and I absolutely love it! Such a quick and engaging dialogue that really sounds real.But what is a chatbot? A chatbot is a piece of artificial intelligence which carries out interactive human conversations based on pre-made phrases. Basically, an automated pop-up screen that you see when browsing through a website.

It sounds strange, but developers are making chatbots more human-like, able to recognise speech patterns and capable of interpreting non-verbal interaction to make the communication even smoother and interactive. Gartner estimates that 85% of conversations will be with chatbots in 2020. Over the years the evolution of Chatbots has reached a very good degree of maturity, from exchanging pre-made phrases in a simple conversation (simple chatbots) to personalised users messaging utilising data, which then handles complex consumer intents (smart chatbots).

Chatbots are gold dust for businesses and playing a significant role in marketing. With a good understanding of your customer journey, specific messaging and conversations can be successfully programmed in the bot. You can see the ROI in improved customer satisfaction, efficiency and of course, cost reduction.

Consumers are getting more impatient than ever in getting what they want and when they want it. Our challenge is to address their needs as soon as possible and chatbot is exactly the solution that sits behind the scenes. It works 24/7 and never calls sick. More and more businesses and marketers are adopting chatbots to enhance productivity and collaboration which can improve the efforts of a whole team.

Chatbots can help you to:

∎ Improve customer service, so troubleshooting or answer a question. This comes very handy especially when your customer has to stay on the line waiting for the next operator to be available.

∎ Streamline the shopping process, in fact, according to Matt Schlicht, founder of The Chatbot Magazine, marketers and business owners can improve the customer journey during each of the following conversational commerce scenarios.

▬ Customer visits the online store for the first time

▬ Customer adds a product to their cart

▬ Customer looks at a product

▬ Customer places order for the first time

▬ Order is shipped

▬ Order arrives

∎ Personalise communication, for example by providing product recommendations based on your customer’s purchased history

∎ Improves response rates. Chatbots responds to 100% messages converting more visitors into buyers.

∎ Automate customer service queries and FAQs, reducing your employee’s workload.

Chatbots are opening a myriad of opportunities and we should embrace them all, however, as with any emerging technology there are lots of benefits but also risks and challenges such as:

∎ Poor implementation can lead to negative experience and bot may not be able to handle complex queries

∎ Spamming bots may reduce consumer trust

∎ VIP customers may not be recognised and handled ineffectively

∎ Potential to be hacked

∎ Language limitation may lead to customer frustration

∎ Lack of trust from consumers as soon as the machine is recognised.

If you are considering integrating a chatbot in your marketing strategy is a fantastic idea. However, this technology is still at its early stage, make sure you consider carefully whether to develop it in-house or through a trusted partner. There some important hurdles to overcome, that can potentially damage your brand. Also make sure that branding, tone of voice and placement are consistent across your user experience so that you can continuously strengthen your brand-consumer relationship.