Top challenges and benefits of AI chatbots [Infographic]

Are you the type of person who prefers to talk to a human or a chatbot?

Depending on the type of scenario I am in, I prefer different methods, but I mostly lean toward chatbot as I am usually multitasking or doing it outside of normal work hours for certain companies.

Apparently, I’m not alone. 

Chatbots are automated intelligence systems used by businesses for customer communication and in 2019, 61% of consumers preferred to communicate with them. 

They can learn customer requests and provide relevant answers, as well as, work completely autonomously without any manual intervention.

That’s likely why by the end of this year, almost 25% of customer service operations are expected to use chatbots. 

(I also wouldn’t be surprised if that rose even higher due to the current coronavirus pandemic.)

Just like anything, however, there are both benefits and challenges to using a chatbot.

Shane Barker created an infographic diving into these and what you need to know.

Top benefits of a chatbot

If implemented correctly, chatbots can help take your customer service to the next level in a number of ways.

Engage more users quickly (and even identify leads) 

Chatbots can be available 24/7 and can manage multiple customers at once, while there's only so much one person can do without burning out. 

Let’s be honest, no one likes being put on hold for a long period of time and sometimes listening to the same obnoxious hold music over and over again. 

When a potential customer is on your site or app, a chatbot can engage with them while you’re doing other things. 

They can even help push them towards the next step of the sales funnel if anything is preventing them from moving forward with either a small or big purchase.

Data collection

Chatbots can help gather information about your customers and analyze that data. 

This can lead into A/B testing as well as may even help you put more information on your site or app if there is a common question being asked.

Lower costs

Lastly, who doesn’t love to save money?

Yes, it may be a huge investment at the beginning to implement a chatbot, but in the long run, they can help you save money. 

As your business grows, you need to obviously hire more employees which in turn increases your overhead expenses. 

With the implementation of a chatbot, however, you can help answer questions from your customers quickly and efficiently without additional heads. 

There will be those cases where it may be too complex for the chatbot and a live agent will have to jump in and help, but the scalability of a chatbot is quite high.

With benefits, some challenges do tend to follow.

Top challenges of a chatbot

Security

This is probably the number one item on people’s minds when it comes to chatbot challenges. 

Customers are sensitive and protective when it comes to their personal data and want to know it won’t be sold or misused. 

With that in mind, it is important that chatbots only collect information and data that is relevant to your service and that they make sure that it is fully secured when the information is being transmitted over the internet. 

And of course the “ah duh” moments — just like anything, make sure your chatbot isn’t hackable.

Making it human and likable

Even though they aren’t humans, you should make sure your chatbot has some heart. You don’t want your visitors to miss the human interaction so incorporate an element of humor and friendliness to it. 

Vernacular chatbots

As we all know, not everyone speaks the same language. Creating a chatbot that can speak and understand a lot of languages that your customers may speak, can be challenging as the chatbot needs to be able to decipher the language, understand exactly what the customer wants, and respond naturally.

In the end, chatbots can be a very effective part of your company when it comes to interacting with your customers at the customer service level. 

When coming up with your strategy for your chatbot, make sure you think about the challenges above and how you plan to attack them so that your chatbot and business can be successful.

What other challenges or benefits have you come across when implementing your chatbot? Bring this conversation to IMPACT Elite.

Learn more about the challenges and benefits of AI Chatbots in the full infographic from Shane Barker below.