7 ways AI Chatbots can boost your Online Brand

Jarvis, bake me a cake.

Getting work done without lifting a finger captures the human imagination. We have become accustomed to sci-fi movies depicting an exciting future where robots and AI serve our heart’s desire on a simple command. This pipe dream is on its way to become a reality faster than anyone can imagine. We have automated nearly every vertical from manufacturing, transportation, and, arguably the most exciting, **communication** in the form of virtual assistants or chatbots.

It’s no secret that early chatbots have not fared so well. These bots could merely respond to highly specific user input, leaving very little room for error. Most of them displayed options at each step of the way, forcing users to traverse a pre-defined path similar to phone IVRs. As a result, most customers would prefer to speak with a human service agent instead, which typically led to better goal completion.

Unfortunately, it is expensive for any brand to maintain an effective support team, which requires dedicated training programs and attributes to a high attrition rate.

Your online brand needs to keep track of multiple manufacturing processes, inventory, distribution, and even digital marketing. This leaves little time for perhaps the most important aspect – the customer. As the brand grows, so does the effort to maintain excellent customer service. This is where advanced AI (termed as Level 3 AI) can make a difference. It gives you the ability to scale personalized service effortlessly without increasing human resources.

Empower your Online Brand through Conversational Commerce

Let us explore how Conversational AI can help your brand.

01. First Contact Resolution (FCRs)

Customers today are eager to find the answers to their queries. If they can’t discover what they are looking for on your website FAQs or your app, they’ll call your support center. This first contact often falls into some common categories, such as making a complaint, handling a billing issue, checking shipping status, or making a return.

Once they start the contact process, customer dissatisfaction escalates as soon as they encounter long wait times or get routed to the wrong agent. That’s where you have a significant opportunity to improve your brand impression with a well-designed customer service chatbot. With a chatbot, a typical customer can get issues resolved right away, thus reducing time in the queue from hours to *minutes*.

Chatbots also act as the first line of support and only route complex conversations to agents. With their advanced capabilities, such bots can engage with customers longer to resolve their issue—reducing the need for a follow-up conversation and improving the FCR.

02. Personalised Sales Assistant

Buying online is tough. Unlike in an actual store, you can’t touch and feel your required product. Neither can you ask your questions that you would run by the sales assistant in the shop. These days customers have to work their way through product specs and reviews before purchasing the item.

Conversational AI enables your brand to give a personalised sales assistant to every customer. It shows them products based on their preference and previous purchase history. The assistant can answer general questions about the viewed product and even show social proof to nudge the customer to make the purchase.

Now online shopping has never been so easy. With the chatbot sales-assistant taking care of most of the hard work, the customer has a super quick, no-click buying experience. According to Forrester, now over 53% of online shoppers prefer buying through a chat assistant.

03. Reduction in operating costs

The most significant upside of having a functional chatbot is the ability to scale. Now your brand can service the exponentially growing number of queries with the same sized support team and limited resources.

Best of all, you can provide 24/7 support, which otherwise would be impossible to sustain. Your customers can reach you when they want without waiting, and they will love you for it.

Digital market moguls project that by the end of 2021, over 85% of all customer support communications will be conducted engaging no customer service representatives.

04. Increased CSAT

CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction, a commonly used Key Performance Indicator (KPI) used to track how satisfied customers are with your organization’s products and services.

A decisive factor that determines CSAT is if customers are being attended to promptly with no waiting time and can adequately convey their queries to the brands. With a piqued customer, the chatbot can raise an alert using sentiment analysis and direct the conversation to a human operator.

According to a recent [Zendesk study](https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-and-lifetime-customer-value/), as much as 42% of B2C customers displayed more interest in repurchasing after experiencing excellent customer service. The same study also goes to claim that 52% of them stopped buying because of a single disappointing customer support interaction.

05. Qualified Lead Generation

A constant problem online brands face is distinguishing between potential buyers and window shoppers. A chatbot assistant can assess the questions posed by the visitor to classify them as a potential lead. This enables you to manage your resources on the right audience and maximize conversions.

With fewer issues to handle, live agent efficiency improves. Now, live agents only deal with more complex issues, which speeds up the time in the queue for waiting customers.

06. Targeted Promotion / Marketing

Chat as a channel has immense marketing potential. Once a customer starts a conversation, you can contact them for life. With their consent, you can deliver personalized deals, discounts, and get feedback right through the chat without launching an expensive marketing campaign.

Since standard chat interfaces provide a familiar and safe environment, you can build a positive image of your brand in the customer’s minds and convert them from being a one time shopper into a repeat buyer.

Reorders make up a majority of e-commerce purchases. User buying patterns can be leveraged to suggest a product replacement at just the right time.

07. Extended Marketplace

Internet first brands have three primary sources to push products to consumers. Foremost is your brand website. You also have the option to use e-commerce aggregates like Amazon to list your product. Finally, you can retail in physical stores. Now, for the first time, brands have access to a fourth channel, a social marketplace.

You can empower your customers to buy your products directly through chat. It can cater every aspect of the customer journey without them ever leaving the chat platform. You can display catalog items, manage the shopping cart, checkout, and even perform order tracking and returns all from one place.

With over 2 hours of social media for the average shopper, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram become your best way to engage and sell to your end customer.

Conclusion

As we push the frontiers of the digital era, Level 3 Conversational AI is on course to make an impact and redefine your online brand. It enables you to reach your customers faster and at their convenience while maintaining a smaller support team. You will have happier customers with higher conversion rates and repeat buys.

Now we know that Conversation AI is tough. Designing flows such that they understand the user input and keeping them engaged is an art that requires years of practice. But don’t worry, these days even magic is possible. It can be as simple as saying “LimeChat, setup our chatbot.”