A Beginner’s Guide to Chatbots

Technology is constantly changing and has affected how companies deliver customer service. In addition to in-person, phone, email, and direct message customer service, we have now added chatbots to the list. Chatbots were first introduced in 2016 by Facebook on its developer platform and this conversational tool has evolved since, from a cool addition to an expectation for customer service. Here are the top three things you need to know about using a chatbot:

A Welcoming Website

Chances are, if you’ve visited any website (including ours!), you’ve been greeted by a chatbot the moment you visited. Chatbots provide 24/7 customer support and patiently answer any frequently asked questions that they may have. While this is all great, chatbots do have limits, which include what kind of personalized details they can provide. On the other hand, this is an opportunity to easily identify the FAQs that need more attention.

The design of the chatbot is the most important first impression that your website will have. Does your chatbot make multiple pop-ups and keep on asking questions? Then chances are, potential customers may leave with a negative impression. To find out what you like in a chatbot, be sure to visit other websites for hands-on examples.

Conversation Starters

Choosing your chatbot’s greeting and representative is imperative, as they are one of your first impressions to potential customers. You want to make your chatbot likable and put a face to the brand. At Imagine Media, we chose our office floof, Gunnar, as the face of our chatbot so potential clients can have a personable experience. There are three types of chatbots available to meet your specific need:

Rules-Based Chatbots are designed under a decision tree, where their responses are pre-written. These are great for answering FAQs that a user may come across.

AI Chatbots use their artificial intelligence to build and create their own questions and answers with customers, after a lesson from their bot developer.

Live Chat Chatbots have the most human interaction, with real people behind the chatbots to answer any questions in real-time.

The Benefit of Bots

Just like the rest of technology, chatbots were created in mind to make our lives easier. They help us answer our customers’ frequently asked questions and increase our website conversion rate. They funnel our messages down from FAQs to potential leads, letting us decide what questions require more time and energy to focus on. You can create and customize your own chatbot through either coding or using a building platform.

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