How often did you communicate with the bot instead of the support service? I’m sure you’ve seen them more often lately. Robots are everywhere: in blogs, information portals, one-page websites, communities and instant messengers.
A business owner may wonder: why do most of the resources connect chatbots? What tasks do they solve? How can an automated assistant help me increase conversions and sales?
Let’s figure it out.
Prerequisites
Interesting statistics from Google: 65% of visitors prefer to write to the support service, rather than read the information on the site, call or meet with the manager in person. It turns out that more than half of potential customers will definitely write to the chat. People want information without wasting time researching and analyzing a product.
No company wants to inflate the workforce. Support, sales and technical staff require financial and organizational costs. Sometimes employees are physically unable to handle the influx of customers, and some of the visitors, without waiting for an answer, simply leave. It is difficult to find really interested users among the huge flow of people: spam, “recognizing” and other “flyers” greatly slow down the work process. As a result, conversion drops and sales evaporate.
However, the chatbot does not need a bonus, it does not eat, does not sleep, and performs several actions at the same time. Instead of a dozen employees, it is enough to connect one car assistant. At the same time, he will perform the same functions as a person: answer questions, make personal offers and place orders.
But what about live communication? Can’t customers feel the coldness of a soulless robot? Not at all. According to a 2017 study by Statista, 34% of visitors don’t mind chatting with a chatbot. Four years later, the situation has only gotten better. Already, 80% of large companies from the Netherlands, France and England are developing automated communication, setting an example for their competitors.
Even older people are ready to make contact with a bot. GoodFirms conducted a consumer analysis in which 70% of respondents over 40 spoke positively about the technology of automatic communication.
What is a chatbot and how does it work
A bot is an automated program that responds after keywords. For example, a customer writes “how much does the car cost” on the site of an authorized Ford dealer. In the same second, the bot replies: “A Ford Focus car in the basic configuration costs 700,000 rubles.” Imagine how many such clients there can be per bot! And everyone will receive an answer to their question.
Of course, these are not all the chat features. Almost any automatic actions can be configured:
- Registration of orders. Food delivery, buying movie tickets, signing up for a hairdresser, etc. The client performs all actions in a convenient messenger or social network.
- Live communication. Artificial intelligence learns to communicate with people by acting out live dialogue and making personalized suggestions.
- Working with employees. Recruitment, basic trainee support, special tips and other work points.
- Typical visitor problems. Let the questions like “where to order”, “how to search” and “when it arrives” are decided by the bot, and not by the real support service.
- A complete replacement for a one-page site. A professional chatbot is capable of collecting and filling out applications, answering questions and conducting analytics.
Do not forget: in complex structures that require a personal approach to the client and the formation of a unique request, the bot will be simply ineffective. Also, the tool does not perform well in mailings and cold base promotion.
Specific tasks of the chatbot
The robot takes on everything that can be automated. Now a customer-related business can be started by one person. VKontakte vividly showed what a bot is capable of: public administrators set up the search for travel vouchers, decryption of voice messages, and even games.
Automated chat rarely makes mistakes, it responds quickly, without typos and inaccuracies. He has no time off; even at night, the robot will lead the visitor to checkout. In addition to communication, the bot is able to:
- collect contact information from loyal customers;
- analyze the audience and send personalized leads;
- warm up subscribers by throwing up relevant promotions and discounts;
- work with outgoing clients;
- submit information in the form of tests, mini-games or contests.
Increase in sales
What kind of exhaust does a resource tailored for sales bring? Marketers believe that a conversion rate of 1-6% is an indicator of success. But in fact, the site loses the lion’s share of customers: an attractive and understandable design, competent text, interesting banners and catchy pop-ups do not save you from the sudden closing of the tab.
The main problem is the lack of awareness of customers about a product or service. At the same time, they do not want to read the information on the site, especially hidden behind the tabs and the terrible abbreviation FAQ.
The problem is partially solved by the “seven touches” method: the visitor must see the product at least seven times, after which he must place an order. However, in 2021, the competition is very high, so even 15 impressions may not convince a person of the quality of the product. And advertising a product on a large scale is very difficult and costly.
Chatbot is a new customer acquisition tool. Just one dialogue brings a person, if not for sale, then for a news subscription. And already through the messages, offers, reminders of promotions and just warming words with an easy urge to buy are sent.
According to statistics, messages from a chatbot are opened in 85% of cases, while e-mail rarely boasts even 30%. The Chatfuel study showed that users on instant messengers open emails on average 37% more often.
Automatic sales
Marketers are faced with the task of setting up an auto sales funnel, that is, the customer’s path from acquaintance with the product to placing an order. However, the route often leaves much to be desired: the visitor himself goes through the “advertising stages” and may stumble over his questions and fears. Managers will not always be around, and clients are all different – someone will never call and clarify information.
The chatbot eliminates these shortcomings by becoming an auto funnel. The client has a reliable guide that will constantly stir up interest and answer any questions that arise.
Example: A person has visited a musical equipment website. After a while, the bot offers a dialogue. The visitor agrees by connecting to the chat. The system immediately receives publicly available information about the client. The bot is now aware and can make a personalized offer. No templates and text of the same type – just what the client wants to hear. If the buyer is still thinking, the bot will offer a subscription and gently warm up interest with regular messages.
Summarizing
Chatbot is one of the fastest growing areas in marketing and business. The script takes on as many tasks as is beyond the power of the whole team. At the same time, you do not deceive the client: he will only be happy with round-the-clock service.