Artificial Intelligence

Tips on how to write chatbots and where to use them

Chatbots are currently being used a lot on social networking platforms to help improve the customer service experience. You probably heard and seen a lot but did you really understand what chatbot is? If not, let’s follow the article below.

Customer service is the factor that makes the difference for brands. According to the Sprout Social Index report, 44% of users agree that good customer service to make a brand more trustworthy.

As social media becomes the mainstay of customer service, social team support customers need to be equipped with the equipment and knowledge to handle more workloads seamlessly. And chatbot is the leading tool in solving these problems.

Juniper Research estimates that chatbots have saved users and businesses 2.2 Billion customer hours in 2020 and predicted to hit 27 Billion hours by 2023. But this does not mean businesses should give up by default or replace design expert clients with an impersonated “army robot”.

Instead, create a more connected service customer and better customer experience by letting the chatbot and people work together.

In this article, let’s look at the suitable types of chatbots for businesses and when and where chatbots can aid your service strategy — also, tips on how to write chatbots and where to use them.

Chatbots are programs built to automatically answer to incoming messages and assist customers through text messaging, voice commands, or even both. On social media or website, this virtual assistant can be set up on platforms like Facebook chatbot messenger, so even when the social teams are offline, the customer service bots are still functioning.

There are two main types of chatbots:

  • Chatbot AI Machine Learning
  • Rules-based chatbots

Chatbot AI

Machine learning AI chatbots are programmed to “learn” as they are introduced to new words, questions, sources of information, and conversations. These chatbots, like humans, learn over time, and when they do, the accuracy of the service improves rapidly, and the volume of messages they engage with increases as well.

Amazon Alexa or IOS Siri are one of the most famous examples of AI type of bot.

These types of bots foster dialogue and use context clues, embedded skills, and conversation history to improve the user experience continuously.

Rules-based chatbots

Rule-based chatbots, which follow a set of certain rules, are pre-installed as a flowchart to drive the communication. 

If you’re intimidated by this machine learning technology or want more control over how chatbots work, rule-based bots are the chatbot for you. These chatbots are simple to set up, intuitive for customers to use and can tackle repetitive tasks like answering FAQs. Read more on useful examples of chatbot scripts.

Pros and cons of using chatbots

Regardless of what type of chatbots you implement in your social customer service strategy, they will significantly benefit your customer service team, social media manager, and brand reputation. However, there are also a few limitations when using these chatbots.

Cons

  • Chatbots can only deal with a limited number of situations

Rule-based chatbots cannot address questions or concerns outside of pre-installed rules. If a customer needs help outside the chatbot’s scope, your customer support team needs to quickly pick up on the response and continue where the bot stopped. The faster the processing speed, the more benefits.

  • Chatbots can make for repetitive and roundabout customer service experiences

Suppose customers regularly visit social media platforms for advice or questions but are served and answered by the same scenario every time. In that case, they may feel tired and frustrated because of repetitive experiences. Therefore, keep testing scripts and rules to refresh the user experience.

  • Bots can’t wholly replace humans

If a customer prompts your chatbot to redirect them to a customer service representative, but the line is silent, that’s not a good thing for your HR team. Even if you need time to respond to your customer, let them know you’ve seen the message, and you will get back to them shortly. Consistent communication is key.

Pro: Chatbot provides instant feedback

Speed ​​and efficiency are arguably the most significant advantages of chatbots.

According to the Sprout Social Index, 40% of consumers expect to receive a response within the first hour of contacting a brand on social media. Chatbots can reduce wait times to near zero and quickly chat live until the customer service team is ready.

From a measurement perspective, chatbots are customer service tools that reduce response time and speed up solutions.

  • Chatbots provide services outside of business hours

If you often miss messages or extended working hours make you tired, a chatbot can help you do the rest more easily.

“We don’t necessarily monitor social media 24/7. If people need to contact us overnight, chatbots help us provide customers with an immediate response,” said Carolyn Montales, Senior Specialist in Online Community Management at Southern California Edison.

Businesses want to have “human” interactions with their customers, which is excellent, but chatbots can help you fill that gap during times outside of work.

Chatbot helps the customer support team get rid of repetitive questions and a high volume of messages. Social media and customer service managers often have to support and handle large volumes of requests from multiple channels, which can lead to burnout.

Frequently asked questions and repeated notifications should be “left” to the chatbot to handle, and at that time, you should focus on solving more pressing and complex problems. The result of that teamwork is faster problem solving and less pressure on the human team. By choosing the most advanced automation platform you can integrate your chatbot with other automated marketing tools.

Three chatbot copywriting tips to better connect with customers

To get the most out of your chatbot and deliver a better CX (customer experience), you need to create the right script for your customers to have a positive experience when interacting with the chatbot.

  1. Provide an introduction to the chatbot

There is still some “stigmatism” around chatbots, so not everyone wants to interact with a chatbot. It’s best to remain transparent about your chatbot from the start. That way, customers can opt-out of the chatbot experience and wait for the service team if they want to.

Also, not everyone understands how your chatbot works. Explain this in a way that makes it easy for the customer to take the following steps or return to the service team if necessary.

  1. Create a personality for the chatbot

A lot of brands worry that chatbots sound too robotic. But you can completely give your chatbot a personality.

  1. Personality here is not just how your chatbot “speaks”

Sometimes brands can personalize their chatbot by giving it a name to make the conversation feel more friendly.

Keep chatbots simple

Chatbots are not created to replace people but to complement them. Even if you put personality into your chatbot, keep the content simple and easy to understand. The ultimate goal of chatbots is still to be useful and provide solutions. The language that is too flowery and metaphors too confusing will only complicate things for the customer. When writing content for chatbots, rely on instinct and imagine talking to a human.

To conclude

When used carefully and purposefully, chatbots can make customers’ lives, social media managers, and customer support teams easier. Don’t be afraid to engage in automation and reap the benefits of collaborating with social chatbots.

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