Brand Perception

1 Chatbots have been on the rise since a couple of years and have already faced a wide adoption. They are bringing a new way for businesses to communicate with the world and most importantly with their customers by the help of the exploding popularity of messaging applications, the accelerated development of all kinds of sensors and wearables, and the rise of emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI). A chatbot is a program, powered by rules and AI, which simulates a real interaction with users via a chat interface. In other words, it is a service that can have a conversation with users just like a real person. Chatbots utilise Machine Learning to gather conversational cadences that allow them to copy human conversations and react to written or spoken requests to deliver a service. They comprehend language, not just commands, since they use AI. Therefore, the more conversation chatbots have with users, the more intelligent they become. There are several benefits of chatbots and ways in which they can contribute to businesses.

2 A report from Business Insider shows that messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, and Viber had reached more users than social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn in the first quarter of 2015. Often, customers prefer to interact with brands via chat as it is easier and faster to use. By enabling businesses to be present on messaging platforms, chatbots not only allow businesses to keep up with the trends, but also provide businesses with the opportunity to reach more customers.

3 Chatbots also help businesses to improve customer service by enabling businesses to provide extensive customer assistance. A majority of online shoppers need support and assistance during shopping. Customers may require help in selecting products which fit their needs or budgets at any time of the day. Other shoppers may face difficulties finding what they are looking for due to navigation issues when they are on a company’s website. Others may have registration, payment, checkout and delivery questions. In all these situations, chatbots can provide real-time assistance like a sales person in a physical store. Moreover, chatbots can offer interactive communication where they also ask questions to understand the real problem. A long with text and voice, they can present customers rich content with product pages, images, blog entries, and tutorial videos based on the customer’s responses to help them through their journey.

4 Chatbots make it possible for businesses to provide always-available customer support, as well as improve the customer support process. Customer service is vital to the success of a business. For both international and local businesses, the ability to provide good customer service 24/7 has a positive impact on a business’ customer satisfaction. Chatbots can be programmed to give automated answers to repetitive questions immediately and forward the request to a real person when a more complicated action is needed. This enables human customer service representatives to save time and attend to more important cases instead of spend time on time consuming simple tasks.

5 Many companies do not initiate communication with their customers. They only respond to customers when contacted. In competitive businesses, especially with a remarkable percentage of millennials as customers, none of the brands have the luxury to act passive anymore. Since most organisations do not have sufficient manpower to initiate a communication with all of their customers periodically, chatbots facilitate proactive customer interaction . This allows organisations to start a conversation with each customer, regarding any issue, any time of the day. This will make customers feel that the brand is one step ahead, similar to a friend who is available 24/7, and improve the customers’ brand perception in the long run.

6 It is important for businesses to keep customers engaged with the brand, as customers who connect with businesses over social media spend more money with those businesses (Barry, Markey, Almquist & Brahm, 2011). Chatbots facilitate increased customer engagement and contribute by making the engagement more interactive, with the additional element of humor. A conventional customer service interface usually provides more information than it receives from the users. Chatbots, in contrast, give only a slice of information at a time and can lead the interaction based on the input the user provides at each specific time. Therefore, chatbots do not bore customers with irrelevant and unnecessary information, keeping customers on the business’ platform longer and keeping the content flowing by maintaining the conversation.

7 Chatbots are great tools to communicate with customers, and the  information gathered by chatbots enable businesses to monitor consumer data and gain insights on their customers. With the feedback that chatbots collect through simple questions, businesses can make improvements on their services or products and even optimise their website by adjusting low converting pages. For example, if a business’ landing page generates a  good amount of organic traffic but does not convert well, the chatbot can reach out to customers visiting this page with a survey to collect more information on why they are leaving the page without purchasing. By monitoring user data, companies can track the commands and responses given by their users to the chatbot and direct the bot to suggest a different

or a more convenient product or service to the users in addition to notifying sales and marketing departments for personalised services.

8 Chatbots provide businesses with an easier approach to global markets. Regardless of whether a company is an international brand with customers all over the world, or a local brand who is ready for global business,  chatbots can solve customer care problems in multiple languages and 24/7, 365 days a year. This allows a business to scale up its operations to new markets without having to worry about multiplying incoming requests to

be handled.

9 The implementation of a full functioning chatbot provides businesses with cost savings as it is much cheaper and faster than creating a cross  platform application or hiring employees for each task. Businesses have a variety of options from ready-made software developed by Facebook,  Microsoft and other large IT companies. Since chatbots are automated  solutions, they allow organisations to handle many customers at once, and

simultaneously. By “employing” chatbots that complement human agents, businesses will not only save on employee costs but also avoid the  problems caused by human errors. Because customers can easily access  chatbots within seconds and start interaction immediately, user acquisition is also associated with lower cost.

10 Chatbots provide great speed, are cost-effective, and are easy to  implement, maintain and use, making them a great back-up for employees  for relatively basic and repetitive tasks. The biggest challenge businesses need to pay attention to, is the conversation capability or  “personality” of their chatbot in order to increase or even just retain their  brand perception and customers.

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