Why Customers Prefer Chatbots: 7 Reasons Chatbots Will Replace Your Website

People are busy and are literally buying products and services 24/7, they are also using products 24/7, so they expect answers to queries 24/7. Very few companies can offer this level of customer service over the phone, let alone on social media. The public now expects and has become used to engaging in a conversation with a business via messenger apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Website Chat portals. Most would rather have a direct answer to their question rather than speak to a salesperson who could try to upsell to them. There is even a growing proportion of the public happy to conduct the whole buying process via messaging apps. Let’s look at the stats.

The Benefits of Chatbots

First, most businesses say they can reduce customer wait time by anywhere between 60-90 percent. Ask the public if they want to wait for a call or waiting on hold on the phone for 3-4 hours, and most would reply that waiting on the phone is much more stressful than speaking with someone over messenger or via a portal. Secondly, people prefer to engage with brands over other mediums; they want to hear what the brands have to say and can provide the quickest response. Thirdly, people can opt to communicate their queries via text rather than face to face. If you are trying to sell products, customers would rather communicate by text than speak face to face, so messaging over the phone can be a win-win situation.

Chatbots are More Efficient

This is one reason why we have introduced Chatbots in our eCommerce site – it is easy for a salesperson to do a Q&A session with their customers on our site. Why go through the trouble of looking for the nearest coffee shop or going to a self-service kiosk? Or worse still, why wait for your coffee to arrive after you’ve finished your order online? Chatbots are made to answer questions and convert a visitor into a customer. As well as making your staff available to your customers, Chatbots save time and make doing your job much more efficient. Customer satisfaction is increased This reason is possibly the most important one for a business to look at when introducing chatbots to their customers.

Chatbots are More Convenient

Messaging apps mean the user can respond to chatty customers at their own time and is unlikely to feel harassed. No need to dial a phone number and go through the whole transaction, just a few simple taps on a mobile phone will suffice. From purely a convenience point of view, would you rather talk to a human being or a chatbot? Chatbots are multi-modal Although Facebook Messenger is by far the most popular chat tool in the world, there is also an incredible array of messaging apps that integrate with your website and offer rich Chatbots functionality, such as Instagram, Telegram, Kik, Zello, and many more. All of these apps have their own niches and, depending on the audience, and the functionality will integrate your website in new ways.

Chatbots are Cheaper

A survey revealed that customers are willing to pay up to $.27 per message, which is far less than the fee of $.79 per use of email. Automated customer support can be just as convenient and convenient Elderly people who tend to suffer from memory issues could find it difficult to deal with in-depth technical queries. Chatbots, on the other hand, are capable of helping these elderly people out. Most of the customer support agents who we see now are not particularly focused on solving the customer’s problems, but rather selling other related products. Chatbots, on the other hand, can reduce the cost of customer service and make it just as convenient as the public wants it.

Chatbots are More Personal

I used to think we were getting to the age of chatbots but now they have finally arrived. These chatbots use artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and voice recognition to imitate human conversation. This has been long overdue and will massively change the way we interact with businesses. They will change the way we buy, how we use the product and service, and what we talk about with the company. The ease of being able to ask a simple question and get a quick and accurate response will revolutionize customer service across the industry. Chatbots are secure In the past, it was difficult to have a secure conversation with a customer service agent and you had to type in your details and then a customer support agent would contact you back.

Chatbots are Better for Customer Service

Do you think it is difficult to answer technical or other queries of your customers via social media channels like Facebook Messenger or Google hangouts? Well you don’t have to. Many companies have successfully designed chatbots on these platforms which answer customers’ queries using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other AI technologies. In fact, many chatbots can actually perform in a manner and speak like human beings. The customer service gap Customer service can be improved a great deal if the feedbacks and call center volume could be doubled or more. Even so, customers still complain of the poor quality of customer service that they receive. They can hardly find the contact person of their call centers, or worse, the contact person has left the organization.

Chatbots Automatically Scale to Demand

Over half of the UK population uses Facebook Messenger every month, 1 billion users now use Facebook Messenger every month, but only around 15% of consumers use Facebook every day, that is why this is such a huge opportunity for all the mobile messaging players. The simplicity of Facebook Messenger has paved the way for a direct channel for brands to deliver relevant, value-added customer service. There is the opportunity to scale automatically to meet demand, so businesses can provide an automated response to whatever customer has shared. This is already being done by many brands, including House of Fraser. It is believed that by 2020, 80% of all purchases will be made through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, that’s up from 15% today.

Chatbots can Automate the Whole Sales Process

We have seen a lot of businesses already jumping onto the chatbot bandwagon by providing an interactive chat interface where customers can ask a whole range of questions and get a comprehensive response to their questions within seconds. One might even say it is easier than filling out a form. It is important for companies to remember that this functionality will only be used for sales purposes. People will only engage with the bot if they want to buy the product. Even if a company wants to use this chat interface for free to offer customer support or technical assistance, it is better to stay away from this because it’s essentially advertising for the company and putting customers off.

Millennials would rather Buy Goods and Services via Chatbots

According to a PWC survey of millennials, 52% of them said they prefer purchasing goods and services via messaging apps like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp than contacting a company via traditional phone or email. 22% of millennials said they wouldn’t use any of these forms of communication to buy a product or service at all if it wasn’t for the availability of bots. Bots are better than email The survey also found that 61% of millennials say that they would rather message a company or bot than email, with just 33% saying they would prefer to email a company. In fact, over half (51%) of millennials would even prefer to chat with a bot than speak with a customer service representative.

Consumer Spending via Chatbots is Increasing

The main method of interaction with online companies is through chatting through messenger apps. According to Adobe, 82% of consumers say that social media platforms are their preferred method of buying or buying advice. The figures are astounding: Facebook and WhatsApp alone have over 1.3 billion active monthly users. A reported 690 million messages are sent on Facebook every day, making it one of the most used instant messenger apps on the planet. WhatsApp, on the other hand, sees 400 million messages sent per day, one billion of which are group messages. No wonder the number of chatbots has increased by 60% over the past year.