ChatBot technology represents an enormous potential for enhancing the Customer journey; it is increasingly widespread, and it is becoming a part of all of our digital lives. Its application is spreading into messaging platforms and it has been launched as a digital assistant by the largest technology companies.
Digital services are becoming more sophisticated and contextually aware. They are also turning the possibility to anticipate and respond to the needs of a person into reality.
Technology development has brought us to systems like Artificial Intelligence; this leads to new conversational interfaces, that take us one step closer to the perfect Customer Care service. The same consumers, exactly 95%, believe Customer Service is going to be the primary beneficiary of Chatbots (Mindbrowser, 2017).
Virtual Agent helps Human Agent
What are ChatBots? Maybe you dealt with a ChatBot many times, and you did not even recognise it!
ChatBots are a technology that allows lightening the amount of work in a Contact Center. ChatBots can be used as virtual agents, once they are programmed, they can handle Customers' requests and answer them, thanks to their internal Artificial Intelligence and knowledge. They can accomplish this in different ways; for example, they could use preset answers and pretend to be a human agent, or they could use FAQ system.
If the ChatBot can't find the right answer to Customers' requests, it escalates the conversation to a human agent, who will handle it like any other chat.
ChatBots, furthermore, can be activated when agents aren't available, for example during the night, so companies can offer their Customers a 24/7 service.
The real strength of ChatBots
ChatBots are a very common implementation in the Contact Center world. Thanks to their independence and capabilities, they can filter generic requests that come to the operator and manage some of them; the agent meanwhile can handle any issues that may occur with a Chatbot with more attention and precision.
Chatbots help to evolve the service system: they greatly increase the efficiency of the agents, who can deal with more complex situations and not have to worry about answering every request from the Customers.
Once ChatBots are taught they are almost totally independent and handle Customers' requests without the support of a human; indeed they become real Contact Center agents!
Where can you find ChatBots?
Emerging technologies such as Chatbots are rapidly becoming more sophisticated, developing the ability to engage with Consumers, to accomplish more complex tasks. Chatbots can accept payments, send shipping alerts, and answer any questions that come up, within the same interface that the Customer is already using.
ChatBot technology today is applied in all different fields, like insurance, banking or utilities.
Let's take the banking sector as an example: if a Customer has to pay a bill, he can do it by itself entering the website of his bank and opening the chat assistance; the bot will instruct the Customer, and he will manage to pay the bill without even leaving his home.
ChatBots today aren't quite recognised by Customers, but they are accustomed to this technology and sometimes even prefer ChatBots to human agents! ChatBots are always present and fast...and if they can't answer to a question, the Customers know that the human agent is always available to help them, even if it could take a bit more time.
This technology will develop a lot in the next few years, in fact, according to a research by Outgrow in 2018, 80% of companies should have some sort of chatbot automation by 2020. Nevertheless, they will never be able to entirely replace humans in Contact Centers because they will always miss the empathy and personal touch that only a real person can give to Customers.
In conclusion, Chatbots should be a part of the digital Customer service strategy. Chatbots have also been projected for a higher purpose: helping to better serve Customers today and positioning the company for the future.
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