If we’re talking the age of artificial intelligence and conversion rate optimisation (CRO), chatbots will no doubt make their way into the conversation.
According to Gartner, more than 85% of customer interactions will be settled without human agents as early as 2020. More than 70% of people already use fewer than 7 apps per day, in favour of sticking to messenger apps. This strongly hints at chatbots playing an even more pivotal role in personalising the way people communicate and solve issues online.
But how exactly do they help you with conversions? Don’t worry, we’ve covered all the basics below. Stick around and learn how and why chatbots can help you increase conversions.
But first… what is a chatbot?
Defining the Chatbot
A chatbot is a rule-based and sometimes artificially intelligent application, programmed to carry out simple tasks in place of a human. Obviously these are implemented in a chat interface. The service being completed could entail a number of things.
But let’s say you went to H&M online to purchase something. You don’t know as of yet what it is you are looking for. So you scour the site until you finally come across a product you want and make a purchase.
Now inject a chatbot into the mix, and you would instead engage with ‘Tom’. Tom collects your relevant information and uses that information to speed up that whole process, bringing you closer to your purchase in way less time.
Imagine what this means for your customers.
Shorter Sales Steps
We’ve all heard about cart abandonment, but what is the root of this issue? The truth is the shopping process can be long. A lot of times people don’t have the time to complete this process in one go. A day turns into a week, a week turns into a month, and before you know it the cart is left behind and people move on to other things.
Chatbots reduce the chances of this happening by collecting customer information and nudging them accordingly to bring their attention back to products they may have forgotten.
Here’s an interesting study which shows that 23% of customers will abandon their shopping carts. Why? Because they had to create a new user account, a process that can be time-consuming. Who gets excited to fill out forms and verify emails? If customers find out there is a way to cut that process down to size (and even make it interesting), they will jump at the opportunity. Chatbots can help you achieve this.
Service That Sells
The importance of a customer service department cannot be overstated. Remember, good business is all about your relationship with your customers. The service you provide will undoubtedly determine the quality of the business being conducted. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, it is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. With that mind, know that 75% of customers believe it takes too long to get in touch with a live agent. Chatbots are better at offering a 24/7 service and turning potential buyers into actual paying customers. Best of all, it doesn’t matter the hour they submit their queries. After all, chatbots don’t need a good night’s sleep.
In this age, customers want information quicker than ever, and they also expect the service to be stellar. It has been proved that customers are also likely to pay MORE for above-average customer service. It gets better. Forrester predicts that in 2020, one of the major factors of differentiating a brand will be neither the price nor the product – but the customer experience.
Your Own Super Sales Executive
One of the things that make chatbots a superb tool is their ability to interact with your customers. But let’s take it a step further. What about their ability to learn customers’ behaviours as well?
Here’s an example...
A customer buys a pair of shoes via a chatbot. That chabot can then tell them about another pair of shoes similar to the one they got before. Or suggest items that would complement the pair they previously purchased. Say, a wristwatch, for instance.
A similar thing is true for SaaS businesses in that you can remind users about an available upgrade. This is done via a chatbot in a way that is both conversational and actionable.
Conclusion
It is important for business owners to view AI as something that’s meant to augment our inefficiency. AI is not here to replace human agents.
For some, it may be easy to get caught up in the idea that AI is here to take all our jobs. View it more as a collaboration. There are simple but super useful ways in which AI makes menial tasks non-problematic by allowing us to focus on more complex work. Chatbots, in this instance, are assets when it comes to sales and conversions.
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