You’ve heard about them, you’ve seen them in action. You must be wondering, ”How do chatbots work and what’s the big deal about them?”. Here are the answers.
How do Chatbots Work to Enhance Your Customers’ Experience
Given that nearly 80% of people are shopping online, it’s important to get ahead of the competition for customer dollars. One great interaction with a company whose products they enjoy is all it takes to build a lifetime commitment to a brand.
If you’re wondering how do chatbots work, you haven’t unlocked the selling power that they hold.
Here are five ways that chatbots improve customers’ experience on your site.
1. Bring Your Site To Life
Look around to just about every site on the web and you’ll find that chatbots have popped up everywhere. Chatbots offer you the opportunity to bring your site to life in completely new ways.
When you see a chatbot, you see a site that’s active and ready for you to engage with at any moment.
Customize your chatbot to suit the kinds of customers you have. If you have customers who are a bit older, less savvy with your products, or wrestling with your services, greet them at the door, so to speak.
If you work in a high-tech industry, save your chatbot for the contact and FAQ pages so that you don’t dumb yourself down to your clever clientele.
Chatbots are great for adding small bits of sound and a dash of flashiness to your site. People are easily distracted away from your site, but you can also find ways to distract them back to your site. With a little bit of code, you can make your tab text flash, so that if someone browses away, you can bounce them back to your tab.
When your site has a popup chatbot, a small ding, and a flashing tab, you’re telling customers to pay attention and that you’re available for communication.
2. Answer Questions Right Away
When customers have questions, they also have the least amount of patience. When customers turn to your website for answers to their questions, they’re probably already near the end of their rope.
Rather than leaving them to search for your contact page, pull out their phone, and dial your number, hand them a call from you, in a sense.
Your chatbot popup window is you reaching out to say, “how can we help you?” A chatbot ensures that you get the chance to respond to questions and concerns as soon as they arise. Your customers don’t want to wait and you can’t afford to make them wait.
While having an FAQ page is important, you need to leave the window open for anyone who wants to connect. With a quick entry in one of your chatbots, a notification gets sent to your staff on site to let them know someone wants to connect.
When this notification rolls in, your staff can jump on a chat, making it appear like they’ve been sitting around waiting for someone to connect.
3. Stay Open 24/7
While you’re closed, you offer the opportunity for other companies to get your business. Studies have shown that small business owners often work twice as many hours as their employees. While this is admirable, it’s also unhealthy.
In the digital economy, it’s tough to compete if you can’t be open 24 hours a day. Chatbots give you the chance to act as if you’re open that many hours every day. If you want to stay open that often, a chatbot can be your ace in the hole.
Connect your chatbot to a company that acts as a virtual assistant or a virtual answering service. Empower them with some of the skills and abilities that real assistants need.
If you give your virtual assistants the power to handle scheduling or manage phone calls, you give your customers everything they need.
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So many business owners worry about those phone calls that come in at 5:01, right as they leave for the day. If your competitors can afford to stay open until 5:30, you could end up losing lots of customers.
With a chatbot, you get to seize those calls instead of losing them to your competition.
4. Save Money On Staffing
If you employ a chatbot or a virtual assistant connected to one, you’ll pay much less than training and employing a full-time staff on-site after hours. You’ll also be able to cut back on your spending for a receptionist or assistant.
Staffing costs are pricey when it comes to recruiting, ensuring, and training them. By connecting a chatbot to your site, you’ll get staff trained to handle a few basic tasks without having to increase payroll.
When you rely on a chatbot, you won’t have to pay anyone to man a terminal unless you really want them to. You can always have your chatbot answer some stock questions and ping a real assistant as soon as their questions diverge.
5. Bridge the Gap to Direct Contact
When someone is on your site, they’re still considered a soft lead. They’re not a hot lead until you’re on the phone with them, selling them. However, with a chatbot, you can bridge the gap between browsing and direct contact.
Let your chatbot reach out and connect your customers to you. If someone enters a question that your chatbot can’t automatically respond to, have them highlight a link that reaches out and calls their phone.
Get them to enter their own phone number and you not only get the chance to lengthen your customer contact list but also the chance to sell to them ASAP.
How Do Chatbots Work To Increase Traffic
If you’re wondering how do chatbots work to increase visitors to your site, it’s through positive results. When customers have good things to say about your company, they’ll tell their friends.
With chatbots, they’ll spend more time on your site, increasing your SEO ranking as a result.
For more info on how chatbots work, contact us today.