Ivemedia LTD
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First hype on chatbots has passed, and now we can more balanced assess the market changes. In this article Ivemedia LTD will answer why chatbots are a revolution, inevitability and fashionable, but useless toy.
Lets discuss why chatbots are inevitable. Yes, this is the bored picture where messengers made jerk and left social networks to swallow the dust. For those who see it for the first time - in early 2015 4 largest messengers bypassed 4 largest social networks by MAU.
Statistics for mobile applications is even more remarkable. According to studies, an IPhone average user has installed at least one new application for the last three months (50% of them did not install new applications at all). US AppStore is already called a graveyard of applications.
At the same time, the audience of messengers has grown in 2016 by 31.6%. According to forecasts, by the end of 2017 at least 1 messenger will be installed on 4 out of 5 smartphones.
The reasons for this phenomenon are simple:
- Using a messenger, the user is in his comfort zone. Here there are several times less ads than in social networks and the messenger environment is more habitually than that of a regular mobile application.
- All popular instant messengers are unified and do not depend on the brand or model of your device.
- More and more cheap smartphones are sold in the world. The performance of these devices does not allow to install a large number of heavy applications.
How businesses can use instant messengers
Key words that every business leader must know when it comes to instant messengers, are chatbots and the public channel. The main difference here is that only the creator can write in the public channel and users can not give feedback to the brand. Channels are used as an advertising platform and this is a cut analogue of communities in social networks.
Through a chatbot the brand can not only tell about the news or promotions, but even accept an order or solve a user problem.
Here is a partial list of what a chatbot can do:
- Techsupport of users,
- Ordering of goods from the choice of the position up to invoice for payment,
- Informing of consumers about promotions and special offers,
- Content marketing.
For example, a user writes "summer dress" in chatbot. The chatbot in response sends him appropriate trade cards. Choosing the needed, the buyer receives an invoice. Soon it will be possible to pay for the purchase in the messenger, Chinese WeChat has already provided a similar service for a long time. After payment chatbot sends you a code that allows you to track the parcel status. All these actions are possible without involvement of human resources!
Chatbots can reduce technical support staff by 5 times
According to research of Similar Web, up to 80% of users complaints are typical and solved standardly. Chatbots can take solution of repetitive problems and thereby free up 80% of call-center resources. Human intervention will be necessary only in the remaining 20% of "unique" cases. Moreover, if your chatbot will include the possibility of machine learning, a "unique" problem, solved one day, ceases to be unique and will be solved automatically.
The amount of saved money for business depends on each individual case. But we must understand that chatbot not only replaces humans. Chatbot does the same job better than living workers. It is never in a bad mood, can not be rude to customers, never leaves the workplace and is ready to work 24/7/365.
Of course, a really smart bot for technical support can not be cheap. And at the market there is a certain lack of confidence in the new product. We invite colleagues to discuss the issue and the most frequent objections in the comments.
Chatbots for increasing in sales. Marketing in the era of introverts
In addition to technical support services, a smart bot can sell your products. For example, if a user searches for a perforator, the chatbot offers not only a choice of perforators, but also related products such as drills or dowels. The bot reads and remembers the customer's choice - a professional tool or the most inexpensive model, and the next time will offer a choice of positions, the most appropriate for a specific consumer. This approach will increase the conversion of purchases and create the impression for the buyer that the store meets his needs exactly. Those who like cheaper products, will find available positions, those who prefer a certain brand, will see the manufacturer in the first place, those who are willing to pay more, will see the most expensive items.
If the items are consumable, such as the toothpaste or the engine oil, the bot will remind about them at the right time. When the purchased by the user goods, according to calculations, will come to an end, the bot will offer to order a new portion or look through analogs in a couple of clicks. Also, the bot will remember the manner of consumption of individual users and offer to make a repeat purchase at the right time.
Such sales are often more effective than work of the living seller. And the main reason for this is the fact that people are tired of imposing and often seek to reduce personal contact to a minimum. We write an SMS or email to discuss an issue that is easily solved in 30 seconds call. We avoid to call to the store and prefer to find the right product on the site, even if it takes longer. People are not timid with chatbots, they are perceived as inanimate assistants. It is more convenient to find all the necessary information from the bot, which does not get tired to answer questions. And the tips given by the bot, are not considered as advertising and are perceived as more credible.
Of course, this can quickly change. If businesses abuse to use bots and just spam clients, users will set up their bullshit filter and bots will attract not more the attention than the news how to bypass a block of Joi-casino.
In summary we'll try to be objective. Drawbacks of the idea to use chatbots or why chatbots are a useless fashionable toy:
- The user has no patterns of interaction with bots. You either wait and spy on outcomes of the major players, or invest significant resources in UX. NLP is long and expensive, and given the text base of interface over the other options you have to think twice.
- There are no established models of spreading. So if you created an app, you should go to GooglePlay and AppStore. You have a new website - go to social networks, advertise on thematic resources and use SEO in the end. But chatbots are ringing silence and bewildered eyes of the marketers.
- A variety of platforms. For investors it is unclear where to aim the bot - FB, Twitter or still Viber?
The following points can be included into advantages:
- The huge and constantly growing potential audience.
- Great opportunities for optimizing operational business expenses.
- Active development of AI. Nowadays artificial intelligence is invested with huge amounts of money, and open API has become the norm.
- Independence of the brand and model of phone or operating system
In addition to the business response to chatbots, let's discuss in comments distribution models of bots.
Lets discuss why chatbots are inevitable. Yes, this is the bored picture where messengers made jerk and left social networks to swallow the dust. For those who see it for the first time - in early 2015 4 largest messengers bypassed 4 largest social networks by MAU.
Statistics for mobile applications is even more remarkable. According to studies, an IPhone average user has installed at least one new application for the last three months (50% of them did not install new applications at all). US AppStore is already called a graveyard of applications.
At the same time, the audience of messengers has grown in 2016 by 31.6%. According to forecasts, by the end of 2017 at least 1 messenger will be installed on 4 out of 5 smartphones.
The reasons for this phenomenon are simple:
- Using a messenger, the user is in his comfort zone. Here there are several times less ads than in social networks and the messenger environment is more habitually than that of a regular mobile application.
- All popular instant messengers are unified and do not depend on the brand or model of your device.
- More and more cheap smartphones are sold in the world. The performance of these devices does not allow to install a large number of heavy applications.
How businesses can use instant messengers
Key words that every business leader must know when it comes to instant messengers, are chatbots and the public channel. The main difference here is that only the creator can write in the public channel and users can not give feedback to the brand. Channels are used as an advertising platform and this is a cut analogue of communities in social networks.
Through a chatbot the brand can not only tell about the news or promotions, but even accept an order or solve a user problem.
Here is a partial list of what a chatbot can do:
- Techsupport of users,
- Ordering of goods from the choice of the position up to invoice for payment,
- Informing of consumers about promotions and special offers,
- Content marketing.
For example, a user writes "summer dress" in chatbot. The chatbot in response sends him appropriate trade cards. Choosing the needed, the buyer receives an invoice. Soon it will be possible to pay for the purchase in the messenger, Chinese WeChat has already provided a similar service for a long time. After payment chatbot sends you a code that allows you to track the parcel status. All these actions are possible without involvement of human resources!
Chatbots can reduce technical support staff by 5 times
According to research of Similar Web, up to 80% of users complaints are typical and solved standardly. Chatbots can take solution of repetitive problems and thereby free up 80% of call-center resources. Human intervention will be necessary only in the remaining 20% of "unique" cases. Moreover, if your chatbot will include the possibility of machine learning, a "unique" problem, solved one day, ceases to be unique and will be solved automatically.
The amount of saved money for business depends on each individual case. But we must understand that chatbot not only replaces humans. Chatbot does the same job better than living workers. It is never in a bad mood, can not be rude to customers, never leaves the workplace and is ready to work 24/7/365.
Of course, a really smart bot for technical support can not be cheap. And at the market there is a certain lack of confidence in the new product. We invite colleagues to discuss the issue and the most frequent objections in the comments.
Chatbots for increasing in sales. Marketing in the era of introverts
In addition to technical support services, a smart bot can sell your products. For example, if a user searches for a perforator, the chatbot offers not only a choice of perforators, but also related products such as drills or dowels. The bot reads and remembers the customer's choice - a professional tool or the most inexpensive model, and the next time will offer a choice of positions, the most appropriate for a specific consumer. This approach will increase the conversion of purchases and create the impression for the buyer that the store meets his needs exactly. Those who like cheaper products, will find available positions, those who prefer a certain brand, will see the manufacturer in the first place, those who are willing to pay more, will see the most expensive items.
If the items are consumable, such as the toothpaste or the engine oil, the bot will remind about them at the right time. When the purchased by the user goods, according to calculations, will come to an end, the bot will offer to order a new portion or look through analogs in a couple of clicks. Also, the bot will remember the manner of consumption of individual users and offer to make a repeat purchase at the right time.
Such sales are often more effective than work of the living seller. And the main reason for this is the fact that people are tired of imposing and often seek to reduce personal contact to a minimum. We write an SMS or email to discuss an issue that is easily solved in 30 seconds call. We avoid to call to the store and prefer to find the right product on the site, even if it takes longer. People are not timid with chatbots, they are perceived as inanimate assistants. It is more convenient to find all the necessary information from the bot, which does not get tired to answer questions. And the tips given by the bot, are not considered as advertising and are perceived as more credible.
Of course, this can quickly change. If businesses abuse to use bots and just spam clients, users will set up their bullshit filter and bots will attract not more the attention than the news how to bypass a block of Joi-casino.
In summary we'll try to be objective. Drawbacks of the idea to use chatbots or why chatbots are a useless fashionable toy:
- The user has no patterns of interaction with bots. You either wait and spy on outcomes of the major players, or invest significant resources in UX. NLP is long and expensive, and given the text base of interface over the other options you have to think twice.
- There are no established models of spreading. So if you created an app, you should go to GooglePlay and AppStore. You have a new website - go to social networks, advertise on thematic resources and use SEO in the end. But chatbots are ringing silence and bewildered eyes of the marketers.
- A variety of platforms. For investors it is unclear where to aim the bot - FB, Twitter or still Viber?
The following points can be included into advantages:
- The huge and constantly growing potential audience.
- Great opportunities for optimizing operational business expenses.
- Active development of AI. Nowadays artificial intelligence is invested with huge amounts of money, and open API has become the norm.
- Independence of the brand and model of phone or operating system
In addition to the business response to chatbots, let's discuss in comments distribution models of bots.
