Leveraging AI Chatbots for Personalized Customer Support
While an outstanding product or service is undoubtedly crucial, the quality of customer support truly sets businesses apart. A robust and attentive customer support system can turn casual buyers into loyal advocates, propelling businesses to new heights of success. It is the lifeline that connects businesses to their most valuable asset: the customers.
Businesses that invest in providing exceptional customer support gain a competitive edge. Customers who have confidence in a company's support system are more likely to become repeat customers, increasing their lifetime value and contributing to long-term profitability.
AI chatbots offer a valuable solution for delivering personalized customer support. Powered by cutting-edge natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, these chatbots possess the ability to understand and respond to customer queries in real time.
Understanding AI Chatbots
To truly appreciate the impact of AI chatbots, it is essential to understand their definition and characteristics. AI chatbots are computer programs developed to simulate human conversation through natural language processing and artificial intelligence algorithms. These chatbots possess the ability to understand user queries, provide relevant responses, and learn from interactions to improve their performance over time.
The evolution of chatbot technology has been remarkable. Initially, chatbots were simple rule-based systems that relied on pre-defined responses. However, with AI and machine learning advancements, chatbots have become more advanced and capable of handling complex tasks.
Modern chatbots leverage machine learning techniques, such as natural language understanding and deep learning, to comprehend user intent and generate accurate responses. They can interpret context and emotions and even engage in multi-turn conversations, creating a more human-like experience.
Personalization in Customer Support
The benefits of personalized customer experiences are manifold. Firstly, personalization enhances customer satisfaction. When customers receive support that is customized to their specific circumstances, they feel more empowered and appreciated. This leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and a greater likelihood of repeat business.
However, delivering personalized support at scale can be challenging. As businesses grow and the number of customer interactions increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a high level of personalization across all touchpoints. Human agents can struggle to keep up with the sheer volume of customer requests and may find it challenging to consistently deliver personalized experiences. This is why AI chatbots are born.
These intelligent bots can gather customer information from various sources, including previous interactions, purchase history, and demographic data, to personalize their interactions. AI chatbots can understand customer intent and emotions by employing natural language processing and sentiment analysis.
For instance, a customer seeking fitness gurus could interact with an AI chatbot. The bot would have knowledge of online personal trainer qualifications, such as certifications, expertise in specific fitness areas, and years of experience. Based on the customer's preferences and goals, the chatbot could recommend suitable personal trainers who meet the desired qualifications.
They can also proactively offer personalized product recommendations, suggest relevant resources or articles, and even anticipate customer needs based on historical data. With the proficiency to handle multiple conversations simultaneously and operate 24/7, AI chatbots offer scalability and efficiency that human agents alone cannot match.
Implementing Personalized Chatbot Interactions
The foundation of personalized customer support lies in the availability of accurate and relevant customer data. This data serves as the basis for tailoring the chatbot interactions to each customer's unique needs. It is imperative to recognize the importance of data in personalization and invest in robust data collection and analysis mechanisms.
Companies must also build comprehensive customer profiles. These profiles should encompass a wide range of customer attributes and characteristics, allowing for a deep understanding of each customer's preferences and needs. The next step is to identify the most relevant data for each customer based on their profile. This can be done by considering a range of factors, including:
- The product or service being offered
- Demographic information such as age, gender, and location
- Past history with the company or other similar organizations
- Recent interactions with the company (including online and offline channels)
Once customer profiles and segmentation strategies are in place, organizations can use this valuable information to drive chatbot conversations.
Overcoming Challenges and Ensuring Success
From data privacy and security concerns to finding the right balance between human intervention and automation, and the need for continuous monitoring and optimization, organizations must navigate these obstacles to stay ahead. Let's explore these challenges and provide insights on how to overcome them to ensure long-term success.
- Complying with regulations and protecting customer data
Data privacy regulations have raised the bar for businesses when it comes to safeguarding customer data. Organizations must invest in robust data protection measures and ensure compliance with these regulations. Implementing encryption, access controls, and regular security audits can help protect customer data and mitigate the risk of breaches, thereby fostering trust and loyalty among customers.
- Building trust with transparent data handling practices
Transparency is the formula for building trust in the digital era. Businesses should communicate clearly with customers about how their data is collected, stored, and used. Implementing transparent data handling practices, such as providing clear privacy policies and obtaining explicit consent, can help establish a strong foundation of trust. By being open and honest about data practices, organizations can differentiate themselves in the marketplace and build lasting customer relationships.
- When to transition from chatbots to human agents
Automation, particularly through chatbots and virtual assistants, has revolutionized customer service. However, knowing when to transition from chatbots to human agents is crucial for maintaining a positive customer experience. While chatbots excel at handling routine inquiries, complex or emotionally sensitive issues may require a human touch. Applying the right balance between automation and human intervention ensures that customers receive the appropriate level of support and empathy.
- Seamless handoff and collaboration between chatbots and humans
To provide a seamless customer experience, organizations must facilitate smooth handoffs and collaboration between chatbots and human agents. Investing in intelligent systems that can transfer context and information between automated and human channels enables efficient and personalized customer interactions. This collaborative approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also empowers agents to deliver exceptional service by leveraging the insights gathered by chatbots.
Summing It Up
The benefits of personalization in customer support are numerous, including increased customer satisfaction, higher customer lifetime value, and improved brand loyalty. AI chatbots excel at delivering personalized support at scale by leveraging customer data, understanding intent and emotions, and offering proactive recommendations.
However, businesses must overcome certain challenges to ensure the success of their AI chatbot implementations. Compliance with data privacy regulations and protecting customer data are critical considerations. Building trust through transparent data handling practices is also essential. Ensuring a balance between automation and human touch, as well as enabling seamless collaboration between chatbots and human agents, is crucial for maintaining a positive customer experience.
Chatbots are poised to become a hallmark of the customer support system of the future, and brands would be wise to invest in their development. With improvements in natural language processing, speed, and efficiency, this technology is growing in popularity with businesses providing customer support. Combined with personalized data understanding, chatbots offer a significant step forward in providing exceptional customer service.
Marketing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities
The way businesses function today it seems marketing is the most important business operation that is likely to be mainly run on artificial intelligence, if not completely. As dystopian as this may seem, the essence of marketing is to understand customers, match the correct products and services to them, and, lastly, persuade them to buy said things.
With these factors of marketing in mind, it is no wonder businesses are on the path to putting AI into this role to enhance their marketing strategies. In the past, marketers were the ones to gather customer data and analyze it for trends, feedback, and so on. With this gathered information, they could use strategies to attain customers and reach company goals.
Artificial intelligence is found basically everywhere in today’s marketing climate, among many other sectors, such as job boards like Lensa. It isn’t a tool meant to replace marketers but rather facilitate mundane tasks such as data gathering, which we will expand upon later.
The Use and Role of AI in Marketing
In recent years, artificial intelligence has taken the front lines of marketing firms and departments. The market value of artificial intelligence technologies used for marketing hovered around $12 billion globally, demonstrating how necessary and widespread its use is.
It is being estimated that the role of AI in marketing will not only be even more widespread, with companies such as Lensa already utilizing it in strong aspects but will be worth over $35 billion within the coming years.
Last year, statistics showed that 80% of marketers were implementing AI in their strategies to some extent. The two main categories are for stand-alone AI or one that is used on a broader platform. There are different levels of implementation that companies use for artificial intelligence, which we will explain below.
Task automation
Past marketers were tasked with gathering data, interpreting and analyzing it to bring outcomes for probable trends, leaving feedback, and so on. These outcomes would influence future business decisions at a company but be volatile due to the guessing nature of this strategy and human error alike.
These repetitive tasks, such as sending out automated news emails or reminders, can be done by low-intelligence level AI. Think of these as simple chatbots, which is also what they are. In essence, they provide basic help for basic requests but can’t handle more complicated inputs such as customer feedback and so on.
This automation method doesn’t learn or grow, nor does it provide specialized services such as interpreting intent within texts. Its job is to simply remove an extra load of unnecessary work for marketers to focus on more important matters.
Machine learning
AI with machine learning could be the greatest addition marketers could have. It consists of intelligent, algorithm-based software that requires massive amounts of data to make accurate yet complex predictions or decisions.
These AI models can interpret text data to understand the intent behind a man-made body of text, organize and aid customers, even those with specific requests, recognize images and voices, and even predict how customers will respond based on past data.
Programs such as text classification AI fall under this category. The algorithmic nature of this program allows for heightened accuracy compared to human counterparts and is a preferred method of predictive marketing among many other methods.
The downside of machine learning is the extreme amount of data it needs to function accurately. Some smaller firms cannot allow themselves the convenience of having the capacity to provide so much data, thus creating gaps in the market. Let this be the only setback though because so far, machine learning AI has proven itself cost-effective and accurate globally to businesses.
Let’s expand on stand-alone applications versus integrated ones to better understand the challenges and opportunities AI in marketing can bring.
Stand-alone
These applications are programs that are separate from the main channel of execution. in other words, these AI programs can help customers determine their tastes and such but the purchase of the products the AI chose for them has to be done on the main channel of operations.
Integrated
As the name suggests, these AI programs are integrated into the main order of operations without even being noticed by customers. Integrated applications use extremely fast decision-making to bring outcomes such as showing a specific ad to a specific customer or product recommendations.
Customer relationship management systems (CRM systems) are the main wing of marketing that has incorporated machine learning into their operations, as mentioned earlier. The immediate feedback they get from these applications is a big positive. These AI have gotten smart enough to train people in assisting calls and so on.
Conclusion
So far, from business experiences, the positives of AI implementation in marketing have outweighed the negatives. Predictions show it will only get better from this point, making it a strong element for businesses to own.
5 Chat Design Tips To Delight Your Customers
Chatbots or chat assistants are increasingly becoming the preferred way of communicating with customers. There is a reason behind this preference. Chatting across devices can be quite easier than typing in text fields (especially if you have fat fingers like mine). Chatbots have led to some amazing customer experiences as well. The only problem is that not every enterprise wants to invest in building and maintaining chatbots. That's why they prefer using existing tools such as live chat software to communicate with their customers. But even if you are using live chat software, there are some things that can be done to make your customer experience more delightful. Here is a list of 5 tips to help you do it:
1. Offer Autocomplete Suggestions
Autocomplete suggestions are a great way to increase the conversion rate of your chatbot. Autocomplete suggestions work by offering possible answers to a question in order of relevance. It helps users find what they are looking for quickly and effectively.
Let's say your bot has a feature where users can book flights and hotels from the same chat window. If a user is looking for flight tickets but doesn't know the exact date of travel, then you can offer to autocomplete suggestions like: "What dates would you like to travel?" or "What days do you want to fly?" This way, your customer doesn't have to guess which date he or she wants and wastes less time finding what they're looking for.
2. Use Emojis!
Emojis are a great way to inject some personality into your chatbot, and they can help your chatbot connect more closely with customers.
If you want to use emojis in a professional setting, go for it! But if you're not sure, don't worry — the best thing you can do is just try it out and see what happens.
You may find that some customers love them and some hate them, so be sure to test with different audiences before deciding.
3. Understand Your Chatbot's Personality
The personality of your chatbot is important because it can determine how customers perceive it. This can affect whether they’ll interact with it or not.
You want your chatbot to have a personality that is consistent with the brand image you’re trying to create. For example, if you’re selling organic products, then having a chatbot that jokes around with customers may not be the best approach.
If you’re unsure of what kind of personality your chatbot should have, ask yourself these questions:
- Is my company professional or informal?
- What type of experience do I want my customers to have?
- What kind of personality would help my customers get the most out of my chatbot?
You also want to think about how your chatbot talks to customers. This includes things like tone and word choice. The way you communicate with people can affect how they feel about your company, so it’s important to take this into consideration.
4. Set Up Proactive Greetings
It's important to set up proactive greetings for your chatbot, which will help you streamline the customer experience.
If you're using a chatbot for sales, for example, make sure that the first greeting is about introducing yourself and how your chatbot can help them. If you're using it for customer support, then the first greeting should be about making sure they're happy with their product.
This is super important because it allows you to get an idea of what they expect from your chatbot before they even start talking! It makes the conversation immediately more personalized and therefore more satisfying for both parties involved.
5. Don't Forget About the Micro-Interactions
Micro-interactions are those small moments of delight that show a user they're on the right track. They include things like the loading animation, error messages, and the like. These are often overlooked when designing chatbots because they don't necessarily add value to the conversation. However, they can have a big impact on how people perceive your chatbot in general.
For example, if you have an error message that says "Sorry! We can't help you right now, please try again later." instead of just failing silently with no feedback, your users will be more likely to come back and use the bot again because it gives them confidence in the product.
Conclusion
Chat UI design can be tricky, as you don't want to overwhelm the user with too many options or information, but at the same time, you want to make all of the options available. But by following these guidelines, you will be able to craft a chatbot UI that is both responsive and delightful to use.
Deep Learning and Its Impacts on Marketing Analytics
Have you ever wondered how machines know things about us? We now have Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, that's able to translate human voice to a wide range of commands. For instance, iPhone owners can get answers to their questions, find a way to obscure locations, send a message, and facetime their friends using only Siri.
Additionally, automated driving allows us to go hands-free on expressways, which can be even tested in city traffic. If you are a Tesla owner, then you know the drill.
We've seen a significant improvement in biology and medicine. Scientists have created new molecules for DNA-based drugs and vaccines.
This term deep learning is used quite a lot, but do we actually know what it means and how it will shape the future of marketing analytics? Let's find out in today's article because we will be answering many questions.
What is deep learning?
Deep learning developed from machine learning is an improved performance of artificial intelligence models. The big step when it came to machine learning was the application of Neural Networks-Models. They were constructed to mimic the human brain and process a lot of data.
Surprisingly, these models provided highly accurate outputs in clustering, predictions, and classifications. So, naturally, deep learning comes as a next step in the evolution of Neural Networks.
If we want to make things even more simple, we could say that deep learning is a machine learning technique where massive neural networks learn from a large pool of data and deliver accurate output.
As we mentioned previously, deep learning is at the center of innovations like virtual assistants, hands-free driving, instant audio translation, image recognition, etc. But, how does deep learning affect marketing? Let's explain!
Improves visibility and builds awareness
Companies can apply deep learning to historical marketing data to target a specific audience and even identify potential fields that haven't been tapped yet. Deep learning can mix and match many data sources and learn from them. This way, it identifies patterns and segments that traditional techniques or machine learning can't accomplish.
It's a great way to spot new business opportunities or launch new products or services. For example, Coca Cola started using smart vending machines with integrated virtual assistants to help customers find their favorite drinks and blends.
Recently, we have seen ads that have been created through deep learning; music made using bots, image selection for dynamic placement, data used from social media, and many others.
You have probably noticed how deep learning is affecting the ad industry. While this approach is still limited, we have super personalized offers and ads that lead to a higher engagement. Deep learning goes even one step further by recommending birthday presents based on the interaction on social media.
Creates differentiation
Differentiation is a way consumers experience or depict a particular brand. For example, websites create a more customized experience based on customers' profiles to ensure their clients get relevant content and become more attached to the brand.
An excellent example is the Netflix streaming service, where there are no two customers with the same or similar viewing content.
While it's not a new concept, deep learning also boosted the capabilities of chatbots, allowing them to have a better response to various customer queries. This way, each client gets an elaborate response that helps them decide whether to buy a particular product. On some occasions, we can even say that chatbots are nearly the same as their human counterparts.
Increases conversion
We often see brands that lose customers to the competition. Even though companies use multiple things to stop the conversion and attract clients to their corner, deep learning is the most sophisticated one.
One of the best examples of learning in marketing and recommendation engines can be seen at OTT and e-commerce platforms. And they are only getting better as they draw data from individual customers and inject it into deep learning.
Convenience is one of the best ways to draw conversion, and voice research has become a big thing in India since people feel more comfortable speaking than typing. Additionally, tools like Amazon Echo and Google Home allow customers to research e-commerce websites, using only voice commands.
Retains customers
Customer loyalty is one of the assets you shouldn't neglect. However, it's quite challenging to meet customers' expectations and constantly exceed them in today's competitive market. But deep learning can help here.
Especially in the fashion space, deep learning can predict clients' preferences by using photos they've posted on social media. They can offer a discount on particular products or intentionally push products they will appeal to.
Based on customer purchase patterns, their past search behavior, and the cost of the products they used to buy, e-commerce retailers can apply deep learning to predict the outcome of the purchase and ship products in advance to the warehouse.
Amazon is one of the leading representatives of this model. Once you deliver products on time, you are encouraging customers' loyalty.
In this article, we wanted to explain a couple of ways how deep learning is affecting e-commerce and online marketing. We only mentioned a fraction of things we believed were important. However, deep learning covers a wide range of topics that require years if not decades of research.
The Future Scope of Chatbots - From the Eyes of a Marketer
The future scope of chatbots can be evaluated by its present demand and scope. Remember how back then we used to think that someday the bots will rule the world? They could perform most of the tasks a human does with double the speed and with double the efficiency?
Well, thankfully or not, that time has not come yet, but the future isn't that far away…. Bots are slowly taking over a lot of tasks which earlier a human used to do...it all began with using them as AI personal assistance giving birth to the Siris and the Alexa's of the world...then came the Facebook, integrating messenger bot on its platform..it made our lives easier so we loved it… Marketers quickly realised the benefits a chatbot could bring to their businesses. Time passed away... and now, the chatbots have become the more advanced human agents...Now we see them everywhere - websites, E-commerce, social media, even in our homes… Businesses use chatbots for a variety of applications - market research, lead generation, customer service, sales assistant, customer outreach, lead nurturing and the list goes on…
Let's have a deeper look into what chatbot technology is in simple terms, 3 major chatbot applications for your business and the future scope of chatbots.
What is chatbot technology?
Let's keep it simple. Chatbot technology is a computer program which is designed to give you information based on the command you choose. For example, let's say you're on an E-commerce site and you're looking to buy a medium-sized, long sleeve top. Now, either you can waste your time by looking through the hundreds of similar products available or you can just type in your query and ask the chatbot to find your desired product.
A good example of this is the brand Snap Travel. They have a Facebook Messenger bot that helps people find their ideal hotel deals.
3 Major Chatbots Applications for Businesses
According to a report published by Drift, usage of chatbots as a brand communication channel saw a tremendous increase of 92% since 2019. Not just that, the statistics show that the vast majority of consumers have neutral or positive experiences with chatbots. It's clear that the future scope of chatbots is huge.
- Driving More Sales
Chatbots have already proven to be a great brand communication channel but you may find them just as useful for driving sales to your business. Deploying a chatbot on your social media or website through which your customers can easily place their orders can help you get more sales. WhatsApp Business already has an option to automate your interaction with your customers. You can send broadcast messages, catalogues, pictures, videos depending upon the query of the customer.
For your website, you can place a Facebook Messenger bot or have one built through chatbot builders like Appy Pie, Giosg, MobileMonkey.
You can even integrate them within your CRM to automate your sales process. Use it to better segment your target audience based on the queries your chatbot gets. It's a great way to engage with your customers, gain insights from them and make it easier for them to make a purchase.
- Increasing your organisation's productivity with HR chatbots
Whether it's automating your onboarding process, answering frequently asked questions, collecting feedback or offering training for employees, a chatbot can significantly increase your organisation's productivity by saving you more time. There are several chatbots available in the market that can help you seamlessly automate your HR related activities. For example, the chatbot, Bot-Assistant Moon can help you provide training to your new employees, track their progress, answer their queries, identify their skills gap with quizzes. Another chatbot, Joonbot helps you pre qualify candidates at scale and build relationships with them.
- Monitor Your Customer Data
With Google's The Privacy Sandbox update and Apple banning 3rd-party cookies, it's safe to say that a cookie-less future is coming up soon. As marketers we cannot anymore rely on 3rd-party data to carry out our marketing campaigns. This is where a major application of chatbot comes in.
Since your customers are willingly interacting with your website chatbot, it might prove to be a more reliable channel to collect first party data insights from your customers, identify popular queries, user paths, and trends. Integrating your chatbot within your marketing strategy to increase your website retention rate would prove to be beneficial but to do this you need to first make sure your website is SEO friendly. Here’s Ginger Media Group’s blog that discusses 5 key elements of SEO you should take care of.
You can launch promo codes, lottery coupons or a special offer that the customers can only avail through having an interaction with your website's chatbot or filling out a short feedback form - the task and incentive could be anything.
The key here is to engage your customers with your website's chatbot, get them more comfortable and used to using it often. This way you would find it a little easier to get quality first-party insights from them and it would also help improve user experience for them.
What is the Future Scope Of Chatbots?
Needless to say, chatbots have seen a tremendous increase in the past few years. Online retail businesses found to have the greatest customer-acceptance of chatbots - Invespcro.
From SaaS businesses, SMBs to large corporations like Walmart, it seems everyone's getting their hands on integrating a chatbot in their system.
Currently, chatbots are already being used for personal assistance, for marketing applications like customer service, improving user experience, assisting in product sales, collecting feedback and much more. Given the ease and efficiency that a chatbot brings, the future scope of chatbot looks bright. As businesses develop their marketing strategies and customer acquisition processes, we could see a significant increase in the use of chatbots.
Also, with the future moving towards AI assistance and automation, chatbots are more likely to gain more popularity and acceptance by the masses.
How AI Can Improve Online Marketing Campaigns
At first, you may find it difficult to see the connection between artificial intelligence and marketing strategy. However, when you examine the topic closer, you realize that there is no market or industry on this planet that has not in some way been impacted by artificial intelligence. Digital marketing is just one of many industries that AI is currently revolutionizing.
What Can AI Do for Digital Marketers?
Using big data analytics in marketing is not new. It is a strategy that marketers have used for years to improve the way they interact with their audience. Big data coupled with machine learning is the backbone of AI. It is only logical to conclude that AI can help enterprises improve their marketing campaigns and reach wider audiences.
Big data has phenomenal amounts of structured and unstructured information. Traditional data processing software can't control or analyze all of this data.
Machine learning is part of building programs that can fetch and utilize data of its own accord. These machines are trained to learn and improve themselves continually.
Big data and machine learning work together. Automation makes it possible to extract, segment, and aggregate massive amounts of data, allowing insights about customers to become more accessible and apparent. The data is gathered and sorted and then handed over to the machine learning side of the equation.
With machine learning, organizations can identify patterns, trends, and insights. They can look at that data, extrapolate solutions, and predict outcomes. All of this is at the heart of what marketers need to tailor their marketing to meet the needs of their customers.
Search relevance is an example of how artificial intelligence and machine learning are improving quality for customers. A person may be searching for a product. They put a query into the search bar that explains a product or service the best way they can. The high-quality search uses AI to identify a searcher's intent and prioritize what it offers based on what the searcher wants to see. In this way, AI is making the searching experience better for the customer.
Using AI to Get the Marketing Advantage
Predictive analysis allows a marketer to look at page views, bounce rates, click-through rates, and time spent on the page to make informed decisions about the specific ways and areas their marketing strategy needs to be improved. It can also identify ways that the current strategy is working.
Predictive analysis can extract data and create informed predictions about how customers will engage with a website or an application in the future. This can be used to drive more people to a site, keep them on the site longer, and increase the chance they will convert and buy a product.
Machine learning algorithms improve audience targeting and segmentation. These algorithms can be used to identify important and reoccurring patterns. These include things like demographic information as it connects to specific content or individual users.
For example, a machine learning algorithm may identify that people between the ages of 18 and 25 are interested in social media posts. In contrast, those between the ages of 40 and 60 are drawn to blog posts. With this information, marketers can change their strategy to target certain demographics with different types of content or create unique outreach programs to meet the needs of different demographics.
The Power of Chatbots
One of the most powerful ways AI can help in marketing is by powering chatbots. AI-powered chatbots can assist customers at any hour. Successful marketing depends on customers having multiple channels to contact your organization. This includes during work hours and off-hours.
Clients from Australia who need to reach out to a company in the United States should not have to wait until the company opens to communicate with them or their chatbots. AI-powered chatbots allow companies to answer queries in real-time. As chatbots gather information from users, they can improve their interaction with customers and give customers what they need when they need it.
Conclusion
AI is helping marketers bridge the gap between the product and service they offer and their audience. It can take massive amounts of information and compile it into something insightful and useful. This improves customer experience, which improves revenue for a business.
Cómo combinar tus estrategias de email marketing y chatbots para generar engagement
El marketing por correo electrónico ha existido durante más de una década. Es considerada la forma de comunicación más personal y una sólida estrategia de marketing que te puede ayudar a ofrecer contenido personalizado, atraer clientes y construir relaciones duraderas.
Si bien el marketing por correo electrónico continúa dando resultados, es interesante observar el aumento de los chatbots en los últimos tiempos. Dado que los consumidores esperan respuestas a la velocidad de la luz y atención personalizada, las empresas están recurriendo al marketing conversacional.
Las investigaciones muestran que 55% de las personas usan chatbots porque esperan respuestas instantáneas.
Además del aspecto de servicio al cliente, los chatbots te ayudan a calificar clientes potenciales, brindar una experiencia de usuario mejorada y recopilar datos valiosos de los clientes. Además, los chatbots también reducen los costos operativos en 30%, demostrando ser una solución rentable también.
Sí, tanto el correo electrónico como los chatbots ofrecen inmensos beneficios. Pero la pregunta no es si se trata de "marketing por correo electrónico o estrategia de chatbot". Se trata de cómo puedes aprovechar las fortalezas de ambos canales para alcanzar tus objetivos comerciales.
Cinco formas de integrar el marketing por correo electrónico con una estrategia de chatbot
Echemos un vistazo a cinco formas en las que puedes combinar tus estrategias de correo electrónico y chatbot para impulsar la participación.
- Recopilar direcciones de correo electrónico
Para que tus esfuerzos de marketing por correo electrónico tengan éxito necesitas una lista de correo calificada formada por personas que estén dispuestas a recibir tus comunicaciones por correo electrónico.
Una de las maneras más efectivas de hacer crecer tu lista de correo es a través de un chatbot. Se las arreglan para atraer la atención e involucrar a los visitantes del sitio web. A diferencia de un formulario de cliente potencial o una ventana emergente, es más probable que los usuarios respondan a los chatbots debido a su naturaleza conversacional.
Sin embargo, el bot debe tener un enfoque discreto. No debe pedirles a los visitantes su dirección de correo electrónico tan pronto como accedan al sitio web.
Es importante establecer activadores según las acciones específicas de los visitantes del sitio web que indiquen interés. Por ejemplo, si alguien está navegando por el blog, es posible que desees preguntarles si está interesado en suscribirse a tu boletín informativo por correo electrónico.
Alternativamente, también puedes ofrecer incentivos valiosos en forma de libros electrónicos, guías, demostraciones, etc., a través de chatbots, a cambio de su dirección de correo electrónico.
Es importante solicitar una dirección de correo electrónico en un momento en el que estés convencido de que el usuario está realmente comprometido con tu marca. De lo contrario, es solo una oportunidad perdida.
- Crear listas de correo segmentadas
Las campañas masivas de correo electrónico ya no funcionan. La gente quiere recibir correos electrónicos relevantes que se adapten a sus necesidades individuales.
Aquí es donde entran en escena las listas segmentadas. Cuando segmentas tu lista de correo electrónico, puedes enviar los emails correctos a la persona adecuada en el mejor momento posible. De hecho, los especialistas en marketing han encontrado un aumento de 760% en los ingresos por correo electrónico de las campañas segmentadas.
A continuación, se muestran algunas formas habituales de segmentar una lista de distribución:
- Demografía;
- Localización;
- Personas;
- Etapa en el embudo de ventas;
- Compras previas;
- Comportamiento del sitio web.
La buena noticia es que puedes configurar tu chatbot para recopilar datos específicos, lo que te ayuda a segmentar y calificar prospectos en función de sus respuestas. Crea un diagrama de Gantt de conversación para trazar diferentes posibilidades y visualizar múltiples escenarios de chat.
Luego, puedes aprovechar la información que recopilas para crear campañas de correo electrónico personalizadas y específicas para impulsar el compromiso y las conversiones.
- Generar y hacer seguimiento con clientes potenciales de chat cálidos
Los chatbots siempre están en línea, lo que significa que, en cualquier momento dado, pueden entablar una conversación con los visitantes del sitio web, ofrecer soluciones personalizadas y convertirlos en clientes potenciales cálidos.
Un cliente potencial cálido se define como alguien que ha mostrado interés en tu producto o servicio al suscribirse a tu boletín informativo por correo electrónico, interactuar con tu sitio web o incluso seguir tu marca en las redes sociales.
Los clientes potenciales cálidos son extremadamente valiosos porque tienen mayores posibilidades de conversión.
Por lo tanto, una vez que el chatbot genera clientes potenciales de chat cálidos, puedes enviarles un correo electrónico que cree credibilidad mientras los alientas a reservar una llamada telefónica con tu equipo de ventas. Puedes incluir piezas de contenido como estudios de casos, testimonios de clientes y reseñas, entre otros.
- Mejorar el servicio al cliente
No hay nada más frustrante para un cliente que ser puesto en espera o recibir un correo electrónico automático "sin respuesta". Según un estudio, 66% de los consumidores esperan respuestas e interacciones en tiempo real, y los chatbots pueden ayudarte a lograrlo.
Al estar disponibles las 24 horas, los chatbots tienen la capacidad de ofrecer soluciones instantáneas y deleitar a los prospectos o clientes. Eso no es todo, los chatbots pueden realizar múltiples tareas y tener conversaciones individuales con varios clientes a la vez.
Un ejemplo de una historia de éxito es la empresa ferroviaria Amtrak. Después de haber implementado un chatbot en su sitio web, la compañía experimentó un aumento de 50% en la comunicación del usuario y un ahorro de $1 millón en servicio al cliente.
Es una buena idea promocionar tu experiencia de servicio al cliente de chatbot en correos electrónicos y dejar que las personas sepan que pueden obtener soporte instantáneo mediante el uso de la función de chat del sitio web. Puedes incluir un enlace a tu chatbot en correos electrónicos de bienvenida y correos electrónicos posteriores a la compra.
También debes aprovechar los chatbots para recopilar comentarios rápidos sin problemas y usar esos datos para mejorar aún más la experiencia del cliente.
Crea un mapa mental de las posibles maneras en que puedes implementar chatbots en tu negocio para hacer de esta idea una realidad.
- Ofrecer varias opciones de canales de comunicación
A todo el mundo no le gusta que lo bombardeen con correos electrónicos o mensajes de texto. Por ejemplo, la Generación X podría preferir los correos electrónicos, pero es más probable que los millennials interactúen con los chatbots.
Por lo tanto, asumir un canal de comunicación preferido es un grave error porque simplemente termina molestando al cliente.
Para evitar tal situación, debes presentar varias opciones y preguntarles a los visitantes del sitio web cuál es su modo de comunicación preferido. Esto allana el camino para una relación más beneficiosa y garantiza que tus mensajes o correos electrónicos no se queden sin leer o se conviertan en spam.
Combinar correo electrónico y chatbots
Hay casos en los que el correo electrónico gana y otros en los que los chatbots lo hacen.
Por lo tanto, no te apresures a elegir uno sobre el otro. Combina el correo electrónico y los chatbots aprovechando sus puntos fuertes. Esto te ayudará a ampliar tu estrategia de marketing online, llegar a los clientes donde están y ofrecer una experiencia de cliente perfecta.
Puedes organizar todas tus ideas e investigación en un informe ejecutivo para analizar las estrategias con chatbots con tu equipo de trabajo. Hay muchas herramientas disponibles allá afuera que te ayudarán a crear los mejores planes de marketing posibles para tu empresa.
How to Increase eCommerce Conversions with Messenger Chatbots
Since it emerged in 2011 as a simple Facebook messaging app, Facebook Messenger has evolved into something much bigger. These days, not only can the users share messages, play games, and watch videos through it, but they can also reach out to companies, receive and send payments, and much much more!
The numbers don’t lie: more than 1.3 billion users actively use Facebook Messenger every month. This includes about 64% of all Facebook users and 50% of teenagers in the US only. With that being said, using the power and reach of Facebook Messenger is a rather smart move for businesses that are looking to make more money and attract their target market. The app creates amazing growth and engagement opportunities, especially since about 56% of modern-day consumers say that their live chat experience so far has been far from great.
Today’s customers are more demanding because they can access and share information faster and this is a reality that forward-looking businesses and organizations are progressively becoming aware of. As more organizations and businesses embrace self-service approaches that enhance customer satisfaction through answering customer questions in real-time, the technology is also getting more sophisticated. Many customer engagement tools provide customer service agents with several features but we focus mainly on the chatbot element.
5 Steps to Follow to Build Your Own Chatbot
To make the most out of Facebook Messenger and its possibilities, you have to set up a chatbot for your own business. Keep in mind that you should always stick to simple and casual language with rather straightforward instructions; anything too complex and technical could only backfire.
1. Make the best out of Guided Responses
It can be challenging to program open-ended questions. That’s why your best way forward is to use prompts, which will give you automatic response options.
Source: sproutsocial.com
2. Go Easy on the Promotions
If your target audience finds your bot to be too pushy and annoying with constant new offers, promotions, and selling, they may just block it. Just like with everything else in life, moderation is key. So be balanced and you’ll have a successful Facebook Messenger chatbot.
3. Know Your Audience
To have a helpful bot, it needs to offer the right solutions for your audience’s problems. Make sure to always go the extra mile to learn more about your potential customers so that you can build a chatbot that can actually support them.
4. Give Real-Person Support
Source: chatbot.com
Chatbots are definitely an amazing asset in this day and age, but sometimes they might not be able to answer your customer’s questions. In this case, to keep your customer engaged, add a “Contact Support” option that will connect them to a real person who can quickly help them out.
5. Consistent Optimization
Even a great chatbot can always be better. By continuously testing the bot’s performances and customers’ responses to it, you can update and optimize your bot so it meets the market’s needs and wants.
Fortunately for the businesses out there, there’s no need to build your chatbot from scratch. These days, there’s a plethora of pre-made chatbot templates that you can easily use for your own Facebook Messenger chatbot. Just make sure you choose a template that best matches your business niche and target audience. Of course, you’re free to customize the template here and there to make it even more fitting for your business and customers.
Create a better customer service experience
Aside from the quality of your products/services, there’s only one other thing that can make or break your business and that’s customer service. Of course, your goal is to be as accommodating, helpful, and responsive as possible. The majority of people these days will turn to the company’s social media account hoping to solve a problem or ask more questions. By allowing them to contact you directly and fuss-free through the Facebook Messenger chatbot, you’ll automatically give them both the answer and satisfaction they’ve been looking for. As mentioned before, if the chatbot can’t help them, they can get in touch with a real agent for customer support a lot faster.
Help Your Customers Find what they’re looking for
Another amazing ability of Facebook’s Messenger chatbots is that it allows your existing and potential customers to easily find a product they need without having to go to your e-commerce website. This is super convenient for users who want to learn about the best offers while spending minimum time and effort on searching for them.
Source: chatfuel.com
Essentially, users can tell the chatbot what they’re looking for, their price range, etc., and the bot will get back to them as soon as they find the items that match their criteria. What’s more, it’ll remember their interests and recommend similar products later on. It’s a foolproof way to boost e-commerce conversions with messenger chatbots.
Make Order-Making Simple and Easy
If your e-commerce business deals with a set number of products, for example a food menu, you can improve customer experience and bring more interested leads your way simply by incorporating a chatbot that can take orders. The fact that they don’t have to go to the website, phone, or install an additional app to order something quickly is extremely convenient for your customers. Continuing with the example of a food provider, you can have a “Start Order” button on your Facebook page. It will automatically take the user to the bot that will show them a location finder, available stores in the area, and, finally, a menu that they can choose from.
Wrapping Up
The science of chatbots is still evolving and new possibilities are here every day. Aside from the popular chatbot uses that can increase ecommerce conversions, you can also give your clients the option to track their shipment, do customer surveys, offer free stuff and entertainment, and much more. To truly succeed as a contemporary e-commerce business and differentiate yourself from the competition you have to keep up with trends – and chatbots are the next big thing!
How AI Can Enhance eCommerce Industry
In the era of fast-paced technological advancements, businesses are always looking for ways to increase their ROI with fewer labor costs. Artificial Intelligence is one such technology that is here to last. Even though AI has embedded itself in different parts of our lives, the e-commerce industry is a sector in which its customer impact is profound.
AI collects and analyzes data in real-time, thus, providing useful insights for business owners and managers and better suggestions for customers. For instance, AI can detect buying patterns that are unusual and alert the teams concerned about a discrepancy. As for customers, they don’t need to wait in line for their call to be connected to some executive when AI can answer direct questions.
The pace at which AI eCommerce is moving forward, the revenue can reach $36.8 billion by the year 2025 at a global level. This is just a glimpse into the immense potential of AI for the eCommerce industry. Let’s take a look at some more ways in which AI can revolutionize eCommerce.
As per the twit by AI Business, 65% of the tech giants are investing in AI to compete with future.
How AI Can Enhance The Ecommerce Industry
1. Voice Assistants
Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa are the upcoming new best friend of the common masses. When your purchase at the best price is one voice command away, why spend countless hours searching on Google and comparing prices?
Voice assistants enable users to communicate with the web using simple voice commands. The Quoracreative stats indicate that by 2020, almost 50% of the internet searches are going to be voice-based. Just check out the numbers and you’ll know why voice optimization is so important for eCommerce stores.
2. Customer-Centric Searches
The main reason behind customers abandoning eCommerce experiences is irrelevant product results. Using Natural Language Processing for narrowing and contextualizing results is a great way to initiate customer-centric searches. If you don’t, customers will leave your page, scary!
AI labels the features of a video or an image, thus, organizing content and improving search results. For example, Pinterest has recently updated its Chrome extension.
Users can choose the picture of an item and Pinterest uses image recognition software to show similar items.
3. Re-targeting Potential Buyers
There comes a time when businesses don’t come short of customer data. But poor re-targeting can often negatively impact sales and lower the ROI. When businesses leverage customer data smartly, they improve leads and increase sales.
One way most stores are using Facial recognition is that they detect when a customer spends a considerable amount of time looking at a product. They store this data for later use and re-target the customers highly interested in the product.
4. Better Personalization
The ecommerce sector always goes hand in hand with personalization. It’s a way to provide customers with customized results based on user data. For instance, Amazon has been personalizing as long as the platform has been in existence.
With the advent of AI and Machine Learning, new levels of personalization have surfaced. For example, if customers are searching for smartphone cases, they might get a push notification for a relevant ad. The right notification at the right time can act as a gentle nudge towards conversion.
5. Chat Bots Providing a Personal Touch
Conversational eCommerce is one of the most major subsections taking the eCommerce world by storm. Conversation and engagement are some of the most important ways to help businesses soar.
AI Chat
With AI gaining more traction in the time to come, it’s not mandatory to have real humans to make things more engaging. Properly programmed chatbots can strike a conversation as interesting as humans. Plus, the speed with which people get answers to their queries is quite impressive.
Nice simple interface
Obviously this chatbot is EXTREMELY limited in its responses
6. Providing Super-Relevant Recommendations
Nothing is more annoying to customers other than pointless ads showing up on their interface. But what if they see only what is relevant to them? Have you ever browsed the internet about a phone and found shopping links displayed in the ads? If you are thinking about purchasing, such recommendations can lead to a decent conversion.
AI algorithms extract content data, information, third party data, history, and other info. On the basis of these, it can provide recommendations useful to customers. If a recommendation turns out to be a useful reference for a customer, it can lead to increased sales. Personalized product recommendations hike average order values by 3% and conversion rates by 915%.
7. Helpful In-Store Experience For Employees
Most employees cringe when they hear the word AI. Their mind immediately goes to the possibility of technology replacing them. On the contrary, it empowers store workers and gives them a positive in-store work experience.
Customer interaction is vast and tricky. AI provides employees an opportunity to engage in important and meaningful experiences with customers. The AI takes care of the rest. Lowe is a home improvement store that introduced LoweBot in 2014.
As a result, the shopping assistant greeted the customers and showed them around at the store. In some cases, it also assisted employees with managing inventory. As long as something didn’t become too complicated for the bot, there was no need for human intervention.
8. Integration With Household Items
Now, the time has come when eCommerce retailers have direct access to customers’ household. LG has managed to tack a webOS software and a virtual assistant For its InstaView refrigerator’s new version.
Imagine a refrigerator tending to people’s shopping orders. For instance, you’re about to be out of milk. Imagine never running to shop for eatables again when your refrigerator is there to give out timely reminders.
9. Better Cyber Security
Ecommerce stores encounter a major challenge, keeping their customers’ data safe. With so much personal and payment information stored, it’s vital for eCommerce stores to ensure strict safety measures.
The integration of AI into eCommerce is meant to enhance cybersecurity to a great extent. These technologies give out alerts and notifications in case of suspicious activity. This leads to early detection of abnormalities or malicious login attempts.
With Machine Learning and AI becoming an integral part of security solutions, eCommerce stores can keep data safe in their database.
10. Inventory Management
No eCommerce store likes to stack a pile of unsold inventory. AI analyzes the previous years’ sales trends, anticipate changes in demand, and predicts potential supply issues affecting inventory. Not to mention, impeccable warehouse management.
Humans can’t retrieve stocks all day long without a change in the shift. But with AI, managing a warehouse becomes easier followed by dispatching the ordered items immediately. Fulfillment and logistics are other areas that can use AI to get the required boost.
11. Versatile Technologies
AI is not all about automation and reducing human labor. While these two are some prominent benefits, the versatility of AI goes a long way in the eCommerce sector. For instance, digital assistants provide all day long support to customers Chatbots offer quick clarification of queries as long as they are not highly complex.
Natural language processing (or NLP) can easily interpret voice-based customer interactions. Machine Learning technology has self-learning capabilities that improve it with time. As for better addressing consumer needs, AI in general provides deeper insights.
12. Smart Sales
Cold calling, doorstep selling, and sorting through the yellow pages is a thing of the past. Wasn’t it insulting enough when people used to slam their doors shut at the distant sight of a salesperson? Not to mention, disconnecting the call as soon as the person on the other end gave a hint of sales.
AI is a superior technology that is a driving force in innovating marketing strategies. The sales sector is evolving and by extension, the eCommerce industry. Instead of you going to the customer, they will come to you. Dealing with clients is quick and hassle-free. All eCommerce companies need is the best AI developers. This way, nothing can stop them from taking a step forward and amping up the sales game.
Summing It Up
According to XplorMedia, one out of every five customers is willing to make a purchase with the help of a bot. To avail the full benefits of AI for eCommerce, it’s important to know how it can be helpful. If you’re thinking that AI is here to replace every animate thing on Earth, think again.
Being intimidated by the promising technology can hold us back. If we use it wisely, AI can give the eCommerce sector a massive boost. Think of AI as a partner to humans instead of a monster replacing jobs. Another way to understand this is time is money and AI is a big time-saver. Whether you are an online shopper or a retailer, AI makes the situation a win-win for both parties alike.
Author Bio.: Ravi Kumar is a digital marketing analyst & writer at WebHostingReviewsX. He started learning about digital world after completion of basic schooling and he loves taking pictures and reading books on entrepreneurship and mentalism. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
8 Chatbot Marketing Tactics That Will Drive Sales to your business
Like all things, support is expected to work instantly. Businesses employ AI and bots to make that happen. Using chatbots helps you with marketing efforts. You can learn more about the different types of chatbots on this site.
The use of such tools for marketing and support is pretty much the norm for any online businesses operating today.
There are like tons of tactics within the space of Chatbot marketing, a new term in the AI era. It gives a definitive edge over your competitors.
In terms of business, it drives more leads which in turn convert into sales. In this post, we will discuss the 8 Chatbot marketing tactics that will drive sales to your business.
Gain customer insights
Every customer data is worth in gold in modern-day business. Knowing a little more about your customers helps boost sales figures.
You can use chatbots to conduct impulsive polls and surveys from your customers. You get customer engagement without much actual effort. You can have a look at what people want in terms of products and services.
You can as well engagement customers with chatbots in your Facebook pages too. A classic example will be H&M using a quiz to get to know about customer preferences. With inputs from the customer's journey, they can prop up products.
Faster payment processing
Another huge advantage Chatbot brings to the table is faster payments. When people checkout from e-commerce stores, a website can collect payments within the Chatbot itself.
It's an easier way to check out, especially for mobile traffic. PayPal allows tons of different codes to make payments happen at the comfort of chatbots.
The parallel sales funnel of Chatbot marketing isn't complete without in-built payment processing options. Also, they provide fast answers to frequently asked billing and payment-related questions, besides providing consistent interactions with customers.
Drive-in returning customers
Chatbots can certainly be used to generate repeat customers. Businesses offer to provide follow-up on orders, much to the customer's liking.
The customer gets constant updates via social media channels on product tracking, delivery status, etc... Simply put, they help customers keep up to date on the orders.
Few weeks after the product is shipped and delivered, they ask customers to review the product or service.
Eventually, they recommend customers to buy their newly released products and services. When you have an e-commerce product or low-cost SaaS, this tactic works like a charm.
Provide 24x7 supports
Websites use chatbots to provide round the clock help and support. People tend to use chatbots as much phone or email.
The customer issues are resolved swiftly via chatbots rather contact forms. The days of raising tickets and following up on tracking numbers are over.
Chatbots pull solutions from frequently asked questions and collective knowledgebase. It can direct customers to live chat agents if issues are still not resolved. Rather than throwing helpful articles, bots can provide more engaging and interactive options.
Visitors can be notified on important changes and updates on the website, to improve customer experience.
Use Facebook plugins
Facebook, the largest social media platform is a pioneer in everything digital. Chatbot marketing is no exception to that.
They have developed a couple of plugins which helps business direct customers to chatbots. It helps initiate a conversation with Chatbot directly on the website or on fob messenger. Firstly, the 'Message us' plugin drives customers to messenger, who in turn notifies the bot.
without providing any information; the potential customer can connect with Chatbot right away. Secondly, the 'send to messenger' plugin mandates visitors to confirm their accounts before connecting with chatbots.
Here, the Chatbot gathers information about customers thereby having a tailor-made interaction with the user. It helps Chatbot to provide personalized products and services, upsell the customers and promote newer products straightaway.
Market your Chatbot
Nothing works better than transparency in marketing. Let the customer know the story behind Chatbot marketing campaigns.
Explain the purpose of the Chatbot and highlight its features. Importantly, market the Chatbot on Google and other search engines.
Build a successful landing page that explains how the Chatbot operates. Let the visitors understand how they can use Chatbot to their advantage. Add in a ‘get in touch’ button to enable visitors to directly interact with the Chatbot. This actionable tactic improves the visibility and effectiveness of chatbots.
Focus on Instant Messaging apps
Any marketing campaign isn’t going to be successful without any integration with popular communication tools.
Brand and businesses must extend Chatbot support till Instant Messengers platforms like Telegram, Skype and WeChat, etc... Social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter and Slack should be addressed too. Stores such as Bot List sells app-specific bots that help connect with your possible customer base quite intrusively. Seeking all the promotional tools from the extensive catalogue is crucial in the Chatbot marketing frontier.
Provide useful and relevant information
A bot is a tool programmed to do a custom task. Nevertheless, the challenge of building a Chatbot is conversational rather than a technical one.
The key is to understand the interactions the customers are already having with the brand. There is no one fit all solution available in this space.
Any brand or business should customize its Chatbot as much to address all possible interactions with the customer. The focus should be on interaction speed which immensely impacts conversions and sales.
Summing it up...
These are only some of the tactics you can use to drive sales to your business. Chatbots are a great way to engage and segment your visitors. With payments faster within the chat, a business can close in on the sale.
It provides VIP treatment to every visitor on the site. You can promote products in the form of personalized recommendations.
There are tons of different chatbots which prove effective in Chatbot marketing. It runs a parallel yet integrated, marketing and sales funnel within any e-commerce store. The bottom line is there is a larger scope for chatbots in years to come.
Author bio
I am Saritha Reddy and I have 3+ years of experience in technical content writing. A blogger by passion and interest. I work as a freelancer for many clients and companies, a lover of technology and gloomy concepts. Follow me on LinkedIn.