Before we dive into whether or not chatbots can help your business, we need to understand chatbots. A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate humans, brands, or characters. They allow businesses to have individual communication with each consumer seamlessly. Chatbots are as knowledgable as they are made to be. If 20 customers ask about your prices, hours, and location they can all be given the same answer simultaneously with your chatbot performing all the leg work. A busy business owner can see the benefits of having a bot provide quick and uniform answers to their most frequently asked questions.
Answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) is just the tip of the iceberg for chatbot implementation. Chatbots can be created to perform a number of tasks from scheduling appointments, providing information on services, showing real estate listings, reserving a table, ordering food, event registration, ordering tickets, and e-commerce really the possibilities are endless.
We understand that chatbots can provide seamless support to consumers within their chosen interface (Facebook or websites). However, chatbots can also increase your marketing audience. One of the beauties of chatbots is the ability to collect lead information easily from users in a conversational format. When a user messages your Facebook page or engages with the bot on your website, they are giving their contact information including items such as first name, last name, and their profile id. This is done automatically. A chatbot can continue to engage with the user to answer questions such as their email or phone number which are prefilled based on each individual user. The user can send that information with the click on one button.
Chatbots can converse with users to learn any information you believe the customer is comfortable with answering. The information gathered can then be used to segment them into different audiences. These audiences can be used to send personalized messages to users with similar interests. If your bot learns that this audience likes to watch movies then you can send them all a message about a free breadstick with pizza purchase for their movie night in. The more personalized the audience and the relevance of the information the more likely your chatbot leads will become regular subscribers. Yes, exactly like your email subscribers but with more information collected and on a less restrictive platform like the Facebook messenger.
Still unsure about the benefits of chatbots for your business? See bots in action on our webpage and engage with our bot to learn more.