Should your small business use e-commerce chat bots?

Pros and cons of conversational business

Dialogue is at the heart of the buying process, whether you ask the grape hotel staff for her recommended red, or send a message to the store owner on Facebook to see if they sell gift cards.

I'm sure you've visited a website and popped up a chat box asking if you need help or a start conversation. The chance is that the "person" who talks to you is not a person.

Chatbots allow business owners to deliver responses and solutions through automated customer service live chat - even generating leads and sales 24/7. According to IBM, chat bots can answer up to 80% of daily customer service questions.

There are two types of chat bots:

1. Those who rely on the rules and can only accept/respond in a limited way.

2. Those who use artificial intelligence to accept/respond with complex algorithms.

We will increasingly see that one area of ​​this technology is healthcare. While nothing can replace professionals - especially in emergencies - it's quick and easy to ask robots about simple questions about a cold or what drugs interact with breastfeeding.

Here is an example: Florence is a popular online personal health assistant. "She" focuses on two main characteristics: health tracking and medication reminders. All the user has to do is chat with her on Facebook Messenger, Kik or Skype, she will jump in.

Now let's take a look at the three advantages of conversational business:

1. Fast response, multiple choicesfrom

. You can answer queries quickly and on the various platforms, including Facebook Messenger, SMS, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple Business Chat and WeChat.

2. Money, money, money. from

You don't have to delay answering questions or paying employees to respond to every interaction. If you want to sell through your robot, people can buy your product or service anytime, anywhere.

3. You automatically collect data. from

 E-commerce chat bots collect data so you can provide a more personalized experience each time you communicate with your brand. And, you get valuable insights about user needs, pain points and buying habits.

Caption: Domino's uses a variety of tools to allow pizza lovers to quickly order, pay and track their food.

Let's balance with three shortcomings:

They can't replace humansfrom

. Especially in the medical and legal fields, patients may use these techniques instead of seeking professional help. In addition, you should not use session commerce as the only form of customer service. Your customer should be able to contact the field personnel, at least during normal business hours.

2. Misunderstandings may occur. from

 The problem is natural language understanding, the ability to determine intent. Robots are not as familiar to us as our humans - at least not yet. Customers will be frustrated with e-commerce chat bots, which are not performing well and will bring their business to competitors.

They are not suitable for any situation. from

 Indeed, many companies can benefit from this ever-changing technology, but don't try to force it. If your service is too complex to map in an AI chat or requires thorough consultation, the chat bot may not be able to help determine an eligible job or sale.

Chatbots are far from perfect, although they will definitely move forward, but you don't want to alienate customers right now. By understanding the pros and cons, you can be sure to make the best chat choices for your business.

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