You might be thinking of how to improve your customer service by employing a chatbot. However, for the bot to operate correctly and effectively, you must give it all-access privileges to perform basic tasks like responding automatically or sending out tickets. Customer service departments hire live agents over bots because only live representatives provide a personalized touch. This is a comparison of the two types of chatbots. Many different factors decide whether to use live chat or a chatbot. What methods do you use to communicate with your customers? If your clients can only contact you by phoning, emailing, or filling out a form on your website, you need to modernize and make some adjustments. Using live chat on your website to give customer care is a better option. According to research, live chat is the preferred mode of contact for 73 percent of customers. When compared to other ways, this came out on top. 61% of customers indicated they prefer email, 48% said they like social media, and 44% said they pick the phone. Furthermore, the live chat had a 92 percent approval rating.
Compared to other types of customer service, this had the most excellent satisfaction rating. This is a function that your organization needs on its website. But how can you put that into practice? Chatbots or live chat agents are your options. Computer-generated answers are known as chatbots. Customers may use AI software to get answers to their inquiries. Experts estimate that by 2020, 85 percent of customers will manage their brand relationships without interacting with a person. And in the next two years, 80 percent of organizations will utilize AI for customer support, either now or in the future.
Additionally, 45 percent of consumers choose chatbots for customer support inquiries. With AI technology increasing, you’ll need marketing abilities to stay afloat in the AI era. Grand View Research predicts that the worldwide market for chatbots will reach $1.25 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.3 percent. Next, you must select whether you respond to clients on your website using chatbots or a natural person. People often ask me which choice is preferable. The truth is that each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Chatbots and live chat agents get along swimmingly. I’ll explain when it’s better to utilize one over the other in this article.
Comparison between Chatbots and Live chats:
1. Time to respond
You don’t want to keep your clients waiting. When it comes to customer service, this is a significant issue. We’ve all been there: waiting on hold for what seems like an eternity to speak with someone. However, wait times are significantly reduced while using live chat. Seventy-nine percent of customers prefer live chat since it allows them to obtain rapid answers to their queries. Consider the following typical response times for live chat against social media and email:
In terms of speed, live chat blows these other techniques out of the water. However, it is far from ideal. Businesses are ignoring 21% of live chat support inquiries, believe it or not. While live chat has a quick response time, it still has room for improvement. Chatbots, on the other hand, respond immediately. A chatbot may create a response seconds after a consumer submits an inquiry. This immediately starts a discussion. Chatbots win when it comes to the quickest reaction times. However, live chat will still be faster than your other alternatives. Use a blend of the two solutions, in my opinion. When a consumer initiates a chat session, begin with a chatbot to respond immediately. Until a representative is available, this bot may collect basic information about the question. Chatbots may also ensure that the consumer is sent to the appropriate employee who can respond to their query. This article will go through how chatbots and live chat operators may function together in further detail.
2. Efficiency in terms of costs
It would be best if you made cost-effective company judgments. When compared to phone assistance, live chat will help save money. Research suggests that communicating with consumers through live chat is 17-33 percent less costly than calling them. Live chat employees may multitask and assist several consumers at the same time. This is not something that can be done over the phone. Using live chat to boost your operational efficiency is a good idea. First, you must figure out how much this new technology will cost. Here are some examples of typical costs to give you an idea of what to expect:
The cost will be determined by various criteria, including the number of agents you’ll be paying and the hours they’ll be accessible. It will also differ depending on whether you hire in-house workers to answer these questions or hire a broad customer care firm. I’d think it’s pricey if you’re paying more than $20 a month per user. While outsourcing help to a customer care firm would save money, the quality of the replies may suffer compared to those provided by one of your workers. How many people would you need to manage live chat communication? According to research, 51% of organizations only have one person devoted to living chat. And between two and five agents are employed by 39% of businesses. That’s hardly surprising, given that 70% of firms that use live chat have less than 5,000 monthly unique website visits.
Furthermore, we know that pricing is the most crucial element affecting organizations’ choices to employ live chat. These expenses will be reduced by using chatbots. You will, of course, have to pay for the AI software. However, compared to hiring workers and paying for live chat software, this will undoubtedly save you money in the long run. Chatbots are a better alternative if you’re seeking the cheapest solution. However, utilizing human representatives to answer through live chat is still less expensive than calling customer service.
3. Human contact
Artificial intelligence is unquestionably progressing. Chatbot responses may be quite similar to human reactions. Customers may not even realize they are conversing with a robot in some instances. Chatbots, on the other hand, cannot replace the human touch. When it comes to adopting chatbots, there is still some skepticism among customers:
As you can see, some individuals are hesitant to use this new technology. Customers might sometimes like to speak with a live person. Consumers are also concerned about bots making errors. In an emergency, almost 37% of customers anticipate utilizing a chatbot to obtain a speedy response. A chatbot, for example, might assist someone with determining if an item is in stock or tracking the delivery of their order. And 34% of individuals said they would utilize a chatbot to locate a customer support representative. This reinforces my last remark about the two solutions complementing each other nicely. The Chatbot may guide the consumer to the right agent based on what they’re searching for. A sales query, for example, maybe sent to one department, while a question concerning technical help may be directed to another. Begin with a chatbot, and then move the consumer to a live chat session with a natural person.
4. Availability
If you’re going to utilize people to interact with clients on your website, they’re generally not going to be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is particularly true if you want to manage these talks with your personnel. If you pay for human service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, your expenditures will skyrocket. This is something that large multinational organizations like Apple can afford but smaller enterprises cannot. That’s when chatbots come in handy. The number one potential advantage of utilizing chatbots is that they can provide customer assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Customers may reach out to chatbots at all hours of the day and night, as well as on weekends. Chatbots do not need food, sleep, or toilet breaks. Use chatbots to increase availability and offer 24-hour support without incurring high personnel expenditures. You may employ chatbots when your customer service personnel are unavailable, even if you use human representatives during business hours.
5. Answering questions
It is critical to have quick reaction times. It’s also a huge plus to obtain a response at any time of day or night. However, none of this matters if the customer’s query isn’t addressed. It’s for this reason that they’re reaching out in the first place. The client has an issue or a question that has to be resolved. Most individuals believe that the only method to resolve a customer issue is to speak with a live person. That isn’t always the case, however. A chatbot can resolve eight out of ten conversation sessions, according to research.
Chatbots aren’t perfect: just 20% of these conversations result in a resolution. It’s practically hard to satisfy every single consumer. That figure, on the other hand, should be as near to 100 percent as feasible. A chatbot may transmit a discussion to a customer support agent in some instances. Those agents will be able to do tasks that chatbots cannot, highlighting the need for the human touch. Humans can feel empathy and transmit a specific tone, but chatbots can’t. If a chatbot doesn’t grasp what the client is asking, it won’t respond appropriately. As an example, consider the following:
The Chatbot, as you can see, delivers helpful information. The first question is suitably answered. However, the second issue is not well addressed. Chatbots may encounter difficulty if the customer’s inquiry has errors in spelling and grammar. If a consumer needs assistance with something specific to their circumstance, such as bespoke pricing, a chatbot may not deliver the same level of service as a natural person. Is it possible for a chatbot to answer questions? Absolutely. However, there may be instances when you need to direct such queries to a person. Again, this demonstrates how successfully chatbots and live chat can be used together.
6. Conversions
In the end, you want your consumers to convert after contacting your customer service through whichever method they want. For example, people are more likely to purchase if they can engage in live chat:
Thirty-eight percent of customers will make ecommerce purchases directly due to their live chat interactions. Conversions may be boosted by using live chat. Live chat, on the other hand, isn’t proactive. Allow me to elaborate. When a site visitor decides to utilize live chat to address an issue, they must make an effort to contact you. They’ll be more inclined to convert as a consequence of the conversation. However, the visitor must take the first step. It’s certainly impossible to expect a human worker to contact every visitor to your website. That’s when a chatbot can help you be proactive. Take a look at this sample from Levi’s website:
When a consumer visits this website, an AI chatbot initiates a conversation, a proactive approach, customers will be more likely to use this option in the future if they have a question. The interaction may be moved to a human representative if the Chatbot cannot fix the issue.
Conclusion
Implementing live chat in your company might help you give better customer support. Now you only have to decide whether you’ll manage this conversation via human reps or chatbots. Chatbots will respond instantly, but live chat operators are still quicker than your present customer service techniques. Customers’ phone calls are less costly than live chat operators, but chatbots will be cheaper in the long term. On the other hand, Chatbots do not offer a human element to the dialogue. Chatbots are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although human agents are not. Surprisingly, bots can answer the bulk of client questions. Both live chat operators and chatbots improve the likelihood of consumers converting. In the end, the most excellent results come from combining live chat with chatbots. To optimize efficiency and get the most extraordinary outcomes, I propose utilizing both of these on your website.
Frequently Asked Question
Is live chat the same as a chatbot?
A: Live chat means that a person is talking to you live. On the other hand, Chatbot means that someone created a program that can answer questions for you when asked by speaking.
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