5 Reasons Why Businesses Will Need Chatbots in 2019 — Photo by Handmade Writing

In 2018 we saw the increased popularity and use of a number of modern trends taking over the digital world and pushing businesses internationally to adapt and show flexibility to innovate. Nowadays, failing to respond to the changes in technology and the digitization of industries is likely to lead to failure, loss of customers, and interest from the market.

Terms such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and connected clouds are largely spoken of and discussed among professionals and ordinary people, following the evolution of technology. Another major concept taking dominance in the business world is the use of chatbots.

What are Chatbots?

In simple terms, chatbots are AI-based programs, which through the use of a chat interface can provide real-time interaction with users or customers of a company. The purpose of a chatbot is to provide proactive assistance to users and replace the necessity of human communication to provide responses to question from customers.

Using machine learning, chatbots have the ability to provide relevant and accurate information immediately, omitting the need for a real human to research a question or make a customer wait in case of uncertainty.

Chatbots have gained a massive importance in business in recent years and companies from a range of industries are turning an eye towards this alternative way of communication.

Let's look at five reasons why businesses will need chatbots in 2019!

  • Reducing operational costs

With competition growing every year across most industries, among the top objectives of companies will be the reduction of expenses. Implementing chatbots as part of your business strategy can bring savings of up to 30% as shown by reports from Chatbots Magazine.

The reductions are mainly provided by eliminating the investment in employees or agents, tasked with the role of responding to queries 24/7, 365 days of the year. In addition, in order to provide relevant and useful information to inquiries, human employees will need to be trained for a certain amount to time and will require upgrades to their knowledge base when necessary.

With a chatbot, once the information has been entered into the data pool that is used, it is available at all times and can be easily changed.

  • Better User Engagement

In order to create loyal customers, a brand must communicate in a way that provides top user engagement on all levels. Customers are often put off by long and irrelevant conversations with agents, who sometimes fail to comprehend the given inquiry.

The use of chatbots reduces the risk of this scenario as the "robots" will always interpret the given information by the customer, one step at a time. Chatbots' responses will, therefore, be entirely related to the information that the user has provided and will avoid emotional responses typical for a human.

  • Trendy Business

Regardless of the area of your business, customer interaction is essential. Research reveals that in the last couple of years, messaging applications and the social network had an equivalent role in reaching users.

Customer behavior has shown that chat is a preferred form of communicating with a company as it is free, quick, and easier than making a phone call or visiting a store or office physically. Research also shows that most smartphone users are not likely to download new apps very often and prefer using known platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. This opens an opportunity for businesses to integrate a chatbot into their Facebook page, for example, and establish a true bond with their customers.

Chatbots are turning into a must have and soon, companies who have failed to see this will be perceived as outdated.

  • Understanding customers better

Although the major role of chatbots is to communicate with users, this is not where their capabilities end.

Chatbots can effectively be used to collects valuable data and insights on high or low performing pages of your website, for example. They can also be used to collect information from customers. For example, your chatbot can start a conversation with a user from your landing page and ask them to fill out a quick survey to find out what they think about your brand, products, or services.

Marketing products become easier and more efficient with chatbots as they can also gather and analyze buying patterns and behaviors, providing useful product suggestions to customers.

  • Opens up international opportunities

The best thing about chatbots is that they use information, which has previously been provided by a programming specialist and requires no additional investment for learning, not only business information but other languages, for example.

You can easily "train" your chatbot in becoming a polyglot and being able to have a conversation in different languages, making it extremely valuable for a business that operates in different countries. It will also eliminate uncomfortable situations of a human agent failing to acknowledge cultural differences associated with different parts of the world as the chatbot will always respond in a rational and information-based way.

Implementing AI backed chatbots in your business in 2019 will almost be a must, especially if you are striving to maintain a modern and technologically advanced business model.

Written by Donna Moores from Handmade Writing