How To: Use Chatbots To Engage With Your Customers

Most large businesses believe that chat bots they use should be centered around desktop use, which is a pretty massive mistake, given how most of us spend our day glued to our mobile devices.

Google informed us that usage of a mobile device had surpassed traditional computers in internet searches in 2016!

I mean, we all are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or if we need to do a quick search, we pull out the old faithful mobile device. With that being said, we should definitely configure chatbots around mobile platforms, instead of desktops.

Not only do businesses make the mistake of focusing on desktop configurations, but they also tend to focus on one avenue of communication, as well. If you’re going to engage your customers with chatbots, don’t chain yourself to one single platform or communication avenue. There’s a lot of looking at where potential customers are and then sticking to that one channel, but trends and people are seasonal. There’s not much to gain by putting your stock in one single avenue of communication, so leave your business some maneuverability and flexibility and remain adaptable.

Often times, businesses will personalise the content on whichever platform or communication channel they are using in order to influence their ideal target group. If you will, take a moment to ruminate on the various platforms and communication avenues that businesses use to make a customer’s experience with a certain organisation feel unique.

For the most part, chatbots can, and should, be utilised in making a customer’s experience unique, though they are quite often under-utilised. Using said chatbots to compile data consisting of a customer’s purchase history, the status of their account, and any other pertinent information that pertains to your business allows your bot to create customised recommendations to assist said customer’s and improve income via cross-selling, and the like.

Since the introduction of chatbots, also known as virtual assistants, there has arose a plethora of different virtual assistants in the market. Before you choose which assistants to use, you should take time to research and consider which one is a match for your business, and which bots actually have proven their efficacy over time with bigger corporations.

Let’s face it, most of the more promising chatbots should be able to learn via previous engagements across various platforms and communication channels. You should always have your virtual assistant go over previous engagements between live agents and customers, including both telephone and internet chatter, to impart the bot with knowledge of basic and common problems, which by extension allows the bots to learn how to resolve said problems before letting them go about their business.

On an end note, the last thing you want to do is wait for customers to reach out to you. Be proactive in engagements and get your feet moving! Stay ahead of the game and encourage them to reach out. A good virtual assistant can be extremely helpful in this situation.