What is a chatbot? And how do chatbots work?
Here we’ll explain exactly what chatbots are, how they work and, importantly, how to make them work really well for your organization.
What is a Chatbot?
A chatbot is a service that customers interact with via a chat interface powered by certain rules and artificial intelligence.
They can be used for customer enquiries, FAQs, product queries, delivery tracking, table reservations, criteria checking hotel bookings, ticket sales and any number of other services.
People spend so much time online these days, and chatbots help organizations ‘hang out’ online like this, where the customers are!
Coming Up Roses: A Valentine’s-Related Example of a Shopping Chatbot
You’ve already used plenty of chatbots. Guaranteed!
Say you’re looking for a bouquet of flowers for Valentine’s Day.
In the offline world, you’d walk into a florist’s shop, be asked what you’re looking for, and explain. The assistant would then point you in the right direction and offer a suitable choice.
Online, a chatbot that ‘sits’ on the florist’s website would much more quickly determine what you’re looking for, within which price range, as well as any other specifics, and you’d get to an appropriate choice of flowers that you can order there and then, wherever you happen to be. Easy!
But chatbots can be used for an almost infinite range of products and services!
What Do I Need to Know About Chatbot Technology?
The great news is that you don’t really need to know anything about chatbot technology!
Good bot providers like us will be able to take a brief from you and build a bespoke plug-and-play chatbot that will then sit on your website and work its magic.
But if you’re really itching for some tech detail, here are a few pointers:
- Chatbots are automated programmes offering immediate responses to enquiries
- They feature an application layer, a database and APIs to call external services
- Bots are ‘trained’ with required data before they ever ‘meet’ a customer!
- Training chatbots can involve using data logs from human-on-human customer enquiries to establish FAQs
- Well-designed chatbots can analyse differently phrased customer questions and understand that they basically mean the same thing
- Using smart feedback loops where necessary can ensure exactly the right answers are given to the right questions! (‘Did you mean A, B or C?’)
How Do Chatbots Work for My Business?
We might, of course, reasonably re-frame the ‘how do chatbots work’ question from a business point of view, in which case the answers are:
- Chatbots automate online customer-facing services
- They play the role of customer service assistants and PAs
- They’re programmed to answer frequently-asked questions and divert other more complex questions to human ‘colleagues’
- They seamlessly answer customers’ queries, make appointments and turn enquirers into new customers or clients
- They save you money by doing the work of human staff
- They help brand awareness by providing great customer service and showing that you’re in tune with latest technologies
- They please customers by being very responsive in a very short space of time
So what are you waiting for?
Contact us to find out more or arrange a free demo!
