Unlike operators, chatbots don't eat lunches, get sick or go on vacation. But they should be used not only for the sake of convenience. According to Chatbots Magazine, bots save up to 30% of service costs.
Human versus machines
Organizing a 24-hour contact center that works on weekdays, weekends, and holidays is rather expensive. Throw in clients lost due to long response times, abandoned dialogues and dissatisfaction with the quality of service - and the final sum of actual costs and lost profits will turn out to be fairly high.
The good news is that a huge number of clients do not need an actual person to communicate with. Their question - as well as many company problems - can be solved by a chatbot. Here are five ways of implementing chatbots for cost reduction.
1. Remove routine queries from operators
Free contact center operators from handling typical requests, and you will solve three problems at once:
- operators will focus on complex issues that the program cannot handle;
- they will pay more attention to clients, thus improving the quality of service and increasing client loyalty;
- finally, chatbots will reduce the number of employees required for contact center operations.
Together, this will result in significant cost savings. According to the Data Driven Investor blog, it is quite real to transfer from 40% to 80% of client support to chatbots.
2. Answer instantly
Losing clients is expensive. You waste the money invested in promoting and give the potential profit to your competitors. Forbes says that business loses $75 billion annually due to poor service quality. And one of the factors causing clients to break off relations with a company is unreasonably long response time.
Therefore, communication with the company should be not only simple and convenient, but also prompt. Set up a chatbot for instant answers: even when the client is dealing with a non-standard question, the bot will be able:
- to tell the client how long it takes to receive a reply;
- collect information in advance, i.e., the contract or order number, the request reason, name, contact details and other information that will help the staff to quickly sort out the problem;
- transfer the chat to the relevant department.
3. Set up automated messenger funnels
You can argue that client support is only part of the business. The program can't sell, so you won't be able to save money in the sales department. However, sometimes chatbots can sell on their own, without any effort and without an operator.
An example of such a tool is automated messenger funnels. These are chains of messages with useful content that eventually lead to a purchase offer. The client signs up to receive relevant information, becomes more loyal to the company - and it is much easier to make sales to a loyal client. In addition, the operator can join the dialogue anytime, for example, if the client replies with a question or objection.
4. Find out what clients think about the service quality
The client's problem hasn't been solved? Fix it. The operator was not qualified enough? Provide a training session. One of staff members always gets good results? Award him or her.
Controlling the service quality is easier when, after a dialog, a chatbot asks users if they are satisfied. Depending on the feedback, the bot will pass the dialogue to the quality control department, give advice on the remaining issues or wish a client a good day.
How does the quality evaluation affect the finances? The more satisfied your clients are, the more profit you get. In addition, the high level of loyalty drives the word of mouth - and you spend less money to get new leads.
5. Use artificial intelligence
An ordinary chatbot acts within the framework of an algorithm. If you want to change the process, you have to rewrite the program manually. The chatbot, based on artificial intelligence, is able to adapt to the new circumstances on its own.
In addition to the fact that artificial intelligence is generally better at coping with a wide range of tasks, it has yet another advantage. Chatbots based on AI are constantly being trained: each processed request is included in the database, and over time, the responses become more accurate. As a result, the response time decreases while the usage of such programs expands.
Summary
The chatbot acts as a kind of threshold, which:
- takes care of up to 80% of routine requests and allows operators to focus on complex tasks;
- helps to save on the staff required to maintain round-the-clock operations;
- reduces costs and increases profits by speeding up responses;
- helps sales and service quality to do the jobs better.
And for a chatbot to work seamlessly in any messenger, set it up in a chat center, such as the Chat2Desk chatbot design tool.
