So, you’ve decided your business needs to invest in chatbot technology. That’s fantastic!
We’ve compiled a few tips and strategies to ensure that everything runs smoothly once your bot starts communicating with your customers.
1. Think about what you want to achieve
What does success look like for your bot? This may relate to an existing KPI or you might want to set up a before and after assessment. You should consider things like; engagement levels, goal completion rates or the number of times your chatbot has to transfer to a human for help. There isn’t a set rule here, but by ensuring you set out clear objectives from the start, you can easily measure success further down the line.
2. Ensure that your bot and customer are able to understand each other
Language, slang and accents are relevant here – as is speed of talking for people less comfortable with bots. This is where NLP and machine learning comes in; this technology has the ability to not only detect slang and accents but also learn from them to understand intent, regardless of the specific words or phrases used.
3. Don’t forget about user integrity
For example, security questions are important when providing personal information to a customer. It’s crucial to your bots success to gain customer trust right from the beginning so think about that. Tokens are a good example; Facebook Messenger chatbots use them quite a lot. You talk to your banking chatbot and log-in to it using your standard banking username and password. You are given the opportunity to link your Facebook ID to your bank account. Now your Facebook chatbot can seamlessly access your banking information.
4. Always define when your customer will be connected to a member of your team
You need to be able to identify angry customers or those with complex queries – and ensure that information collected by the bot is available to the person who takes the call. This means that angry customers are automatically connected to an agent, so their issue can be dealt with swiftly.
5. Continue to add responses and Natural Language capabilities, even if your bot is already live
That way, you’ll improve the experience for users progressively as your bot becomes able to deal with additional intent types.
6. Don’t forget to give your bot your brand’s tone of voice
But remember, there may be times when you’ll need to clarify that it’s a chatbot rather than a human.
7. Use common phrases to start conversations
Avoid open-ended questions and ensure that follow- up questions are specific – and that your bot can provide valuable responses such as bank statements, where relevant.
It’s safe to say chatbots are fast becoming omnipresent. It doesn’t matter whether your business is just starting up or already at the enterprise level, you’ll gain a competitive advantage by investing in chatbot technology now. With such tips and strategies to hand and right creative approach, you’ll not only deliver seamless customer experience but see ROI fast.
Download our most recent whitepaper to learn how to future-proof your business with chatbot technology to help you discover how to provide a personalised customer experience with ease.
