In the world of marketing and sales, chatbot usage is at an all time high. With its myriad features, chatbots are simplifying machine and human interaction. In a research conducted by SalesForce, it was discovered that 58% of users say chatbots have changed their expectations of customer service. And why not? From booking a movie ticket to placing an order for a pizza, they can do it all! They also save time and are available 24*7 for the service of the customers.
Afterall “Customer is the King”, right?
Nowadays every firm from big to small is integrating chatbots, having a personalised bot for your business is primarily to give the best experience to the customers. Your customers should feel heard, happy and satisfied. And if your chatbot is incapable of doing that, let alone retaining them, then we are defeating the whole purpose of having a bot.
A business grows and runs successfully not only because of its employees but also because of its loyal customers. They are equals in this partnership between businesses and customers. As they play such an important role, we definitely cannot afford to lose them for some silly mistake that was avoidable in the first place.
So how can we avoid making mistakes when it comes to chatbot automation that might end up with our business losing its precious customers? For that, we first need to identify those mistakes. Here we have listed 5 most common chatbot mistakes, that you should definitely avoid:
Excessive Dependence On Bots
With the advancement of AI and machine learning most of the work is done by the bots and experts are only called in when the task is beyond the capabilities of an AI powered machine and needs expert guidance.
Chatbots must not be left unsupervised, if done, they might give rise to some complications and at the end experts have to be involved to solve the issue. For example, every business has to deal with distressed customers. In such a case, if chatbots are left unattended to handle the matter alone, the situation might get heated up in no time. That is something we don’t want, right?Ensure you’re including specialists at both the ends- planning and execution. And train the chatbots for any unforeseen circumstance in the future.
Losing the human touch
The issue adressed in the first point can sometimes lead to the point we are discussing now, ‘losing the human touch’. When there is too much automation involved in a process there is a danger that it can lose the individual touch. A research by Nextiva tracked down that 33% of customers who quit working with an organization did so on the grounds that encounters were not personalized.
To personalise a chatbot experience and make it more interactive and predictive:
- Customize chatbot answers dependent on past interactions with a customer .
- Tailor the reply around each customer, for example, develop your bot in such a way that it could address the user by his name.
- Present the expert with full knowledge and historical backdrop of past questions and complaints of the customer so they don’t have to repeat their grievances to human agents.
Automation should really be utilized to expand personalization rather than diminishing it.
Making customers work hard
Chatbots are meant to make the process simple and less complicated for customers. You absolutely never want a customer to feel agitated and all their complaints go into a void. But sometimes while integrating a chatbot, organisations don’t realise the trouble customers have to bear to finally be able to reach a human agent.
Ensure that your chatbot consistently pushes the conversation ahead. Answers should be relevant and significant. Even after a conversation appears to be finished, your chatbot should highlight an FAQ area on the off chance that the customer has more inquiries.
Insufficient testing
You need to ensure your bot is really prepared for the showdown. Your chatbot should be sufficiently tested in a wide range of conditions, both easy and difficult, to ensure that it works the manner in which it should. For instance a bot should not take more than a few seconds to respond and if it does in the testing phase, the problem can easily be fixed before it finally gets launched.
Sometimes businesses don’t realise the real purpose of a chatbot and launch them without preliminary checks just because everybody around them is doing so. Take your time, test it, make changes and then test again to see if it works as you want it to.
No name/personality for your chatbot
Like all people have names and a personality, so should your chatbot. A conversational chatbot represents you and your brand on the online platform. Customers must never feel as if they are talking to a heartless machine. Naming a chatbot can make it more personalised as users will feel more connected while interacting with the bot.
The name should be interesting, simple to say and spell, and customers must not feel confused remembering them. After a time people start addressing your bots’ name first and then your company’s name. For example, take Alexa, we call it ‘Alexa by amazon’. Naming your bot is very vital.
So here we are, we hope this might have helped you to understand the basic yet most common mistake that affects your customer retention
To break this down, only happy and satisfied customers can become your loyal customers in the long run. And for that to happen you should pay extra attention especially in the initial stages. Check the responses and feedback and make amendments when and wherever necessary. These little checks in the beginning will surely give fruitful results in the long run.