Chatbots in customer service
Chatbots have been one of the hot topics since 2016! While some said that bots are "the new apps", others called them "overrated". But one thing is certain: chatbots will continue to gain more and more attention in the future and can no longer be ignored.
In particular, the use of chatbots in customer service is enjoying strong and growing interest, driven by the promise of intelligent digital assistants that are always available to handle customer queries cost-effectively, quickly and consistently. That's why, in this post, we share everything you need to know about chatbots in customer service and answer the most common questions customer service managers ask about chatbots:
What are chatbots?
What are they good at?
When are they used?
How important are chatbots in customer service?
What are chatbots?
"A chatterbot, chatbot or bot for short is a text-based dialog system that allows chatting with a technical system. It has one area each for text input and output, which can be used to communicate in natural language with the system behind it." source: Wikipedia
In other words, a chatbot is a computer program with which a customer can converse, whether through messaging applications, chat windows, or via voice message.
Although chatbots have only been a hot topic since 2016, they have been around for fifty years. Perhaps the earliest example was a 1966 program called ELIZA, which simulated a therapist by using a script to respond to a typed question with a simple pattern match. Over the years, other chatbots have incorporated more sophisticated techniques to better understand questions and provide more relevant and useful answers.
From a customer service perspective, chatbots are a combination of three parts:
1 – Artificial Intelligence
Intelligence enables the chatbot to understand and solve customer questions and learn from each interaction. Problem solving with chatbots is mostly done through predefined rules in a decision tree rather than machine learning and similar techniques, although these are again being used more.
2 – Integration
This includes integrations with other systems and platforms, including integrations with workforce management systems to access employees. These integrations allow the chatbot to access information from multiple sources, complete transactions, and route more complex customer requests to employees.
3 – User Interface
The User Interface (UI) is the interface between the chatbot and the user via a messaging application or chat window. Increasingly, the UI uses spoken voice, such as digital assistants Siri, Amazon's Alexa, or Microsoft's Cortana. This uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand what the customer is asking. AI techniques are used to enable a natural-sounding conversation and to consider and leverage previous questions and context.
What can chatbots do?
Advantages of chatbots
Chatbots reduce efforts by up to 80% through automation.
In first level support, cost reductions of up to 30% can be achieved.
Chatbots are available 24 hours 7 days, do not drop out due to illness and do not need vacation.
They are constantly learning, making them more and more effective.
Chatbots are fast.
They can remember specific data, such as customer number or preference.
Chatbots rarely need to be updated and, unlike apps, they don't need to be constantly adapted to new operating systems.
When are chatbots used in customer service?
Chatbots are not suitable for all customer service scenarios, but they work well in certain use cases.
Focused use cases
When customer inquiries pertain to a specific area and answers are known and predictable, chatbots are the most effective solution. Such as in troubleshooting or customer education cases. High resolution rates can be achieved with a well-configured chatbot. At Georgia Tech University, for example, a professor created a chatbot to act as an instructional assistant for students' online queries in a computer course. After a three-month testing period, the assistant was able to answer questions with 97% accuracy.
High volume of queries
Chatbots are particularly well-suited to frequent use cases, so it pays to automate the response and use employees only for the more complex questions. In cases where customers are already stressed, such as when filing a complaint, trained staff are better able to express the empathy needed to help address the situation. For example, customers often use social media to complain and want a human response rather than a standard automated response.
How important are chatbots in customer service?
Chatbots are becoming an increasingly important part of digital customer service to serve customers better and faster.
1 – Minimize effort
Although a chatbot cannot handle all customer inquiries, it can be used for the most frequently asked questions, absorbing much of the effort for customer service representatives. Examples show that chatbots can resolve up to 85% of interactions on their own. In combination with a live intervention by a customer service representative, even up to 90%.
2 – Maximize user experience
Chatbots make it easy and fast for customers to get answers using the same messaging services they already use every day. For the younger generation, interaction with the chatbot takes place via app, while the older generation prefers SMS or messaging.
3 – Experience digitization
Chatbots offer businesses a tangible way to understand how the rules of digital customer service are changing as we enter the age of AI computing. Digital services are becoming more sophisticated and adaptive, able to identify and respond to individual needs.
