What do chatbots mean for business?
A chatbot is a software built to respond to messages. It can be set to reply to common questions, respond based on specific keywords users type or utilize AI to adapt its answers to a particular situation.
Using chatbots helps businesses scale more smoothly without worrying about customer support overloads or missing new leads due to growing activity. They are mostly used for: boosting sales and increasing conversion, improving customer service and loyalty, generating and nurturing leads.
The most common channels for chatbots use are:
- SMS texts
- website chat windows
- social media platforms
In this article we’ll focus on social media chatbots.
What main problems do chatbots solve?
In marketing
Marketers use chatbots to:
- boost sales
- drive repeat sales
- improve ads performance
- increase engagement in socials and more
For example, a chatbot that sends a promocode to prospects after they leave their e-mail generates you leads and helps increase sales. A bot that responds to every new comment under your posts increases engagement rate. And a chatbot for ads guides new customers through a sales funnel after they click an ad.
In sales
Chatbots for sales are used for
- lead generation
- lead qualification
- booking meetings
- making sales inside the bot
For instance, a survey chatbot helps get customer contacts and filter them out into smaller segments. A bot link you can send to customers will let them book a meeting with you right in their socials. You can also design a chatbot to act as a store to let customers buy from you without leaving their favorite social media site.
In customer support
Customer support specialists use chatbots to:
- answer frequently asked questions
- keep track of new comments
- gather customer feedback
- improve customer happiness
For example, a chatbot that shows customers FAQ buttons lets them solve their problem faster and frees up time to handle more pressing tickets. A bot set to react to new comments in socials keeps track of any incoming requests and won’t keep any customers waiting. Finally, using a chatbot to run surveys and collect feedback increases customer loyalty and keeps you informed on issues that need improvement.
How to build a chatbot?
Building a chatbot consists of 4 main steps: setting a goal, creating a conversation logic, building the bot, monitoring statistics.
1. Define your goal
There are many things chatbots can do, but it’s always best to start with a single idea. Try to find an area of your business that needs help the most and put your effort there. Or take the opposite approach and try to improve an area you’re doing really well in to see how much you can scale it. Just remember to focus on one thing first.
2.Create a conversation logic
After you set a goal you need to create a general conversation logic of how the interaction between your bot and customers will go. This logic will differ depending on the goal you chose. For example if you chose to get more customers the logic will focus on collecting contacts during the conversation or if you chose to increase customer loyalty you’ll focus more on giving special offers or discounts.
Creating any conversation logic follows the same principle. First, think through the steps your customers will go through during the conversation. How will the beginning of the conversation look like? How does it go from there? What happens at the end of the conversation? Write down these steps on the piece of paper or use a Google Sheet.
3. Make a bot yourself or hire professionals
The first step in making a chatbot is choosing a bot building platform. There are several main criteria you need to consider: ease of use, supported platforms, features and pricing.
If creating a bot sounds difficult or you already tried building one and felt overwhelmed you can get professional bot builders to do it for you. Botsup has a dedicated team of bot builders that help customers to: define goals, create conversation logic, build a bot itself and get the most from chatbots for each individual case.
4. Monitor and course correct
After you activate your bot, focus on analyzing stats and making necessary adjustments based on that data. Look for anomalies in the numbers. Are there any parts of the conversation where the numbers notably drop? What buttons get clicked the most? How many people get to the end of the conversation?
Find such blind spots and figure out how to deal with them. Then, make adjustments and keep monitoring the incoming data.
Ready to try? Book a meeting with us, if you need help setting up a bot!