Chatbots: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Over the years, chatbots have become increasingly popular. They allow you to provide more efficient customer interactions and website visitors have come to expect them.

In this article, you’ll learn more about why people use chatbots and how they compare to human-managed live chat. 

What are chatbots?

Chatbots are essentially computer programs that mimic human conversation. They can talk to website visitors like a real person would. As such, these bots come in handy if you don’t have a live support team available to respond to customer queries 24/7.

Chatbots can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be. The simplest customer service bot will respond to keywords with automatic responses. For example, a customer may type “location” and the chatbot would respond with your store’s address. Or maybe they will share your contact details or business hours when a customer types “contact” or “hours.” These are all examples of how live chat can help with self-service, reducing the chat volume your service teams deal with. 

More advanced chatbots can be a part of conversational commerce. They can use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to learn over time. These more advanced bots can provide a higher level of customer service and respond to more complex queries.

Chatbots vs. human-managed chat

When it comes to using chatbots as a customer service solution, you have to remember to prioritize the customer experience. When used correctly, chatbots can improve customer communication. When used incorrectly, they can hurt communication and negatively impact the customer experience.

Your website strategy should include human-managed chat and chatbots only where appropriate. You need to ensure that customers can also talk to a real person. Humans do not have the limitations that chatbots have. They can understand emotion in messages and have a better understanding of human interactions in general. They can also understand hidden meanings, so the risk of misunderstandings is dramatically reduced.

Human-managed live chat support:

• Is ideal for more complex requirements
• Improves the ability to understand what the customer is saying
• Lets agents handle about three or four (or more) chats at once
• Can provide a more personalized experience, boosting customer engagement

As long as you use bots and live agents in the appropriate situations, you’re golden.