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How Can Restaurants Benefit From Chatbots

Chatbots have become a rage! It is being leveraged by global and local businesses irrespective of their industry or sectors. The verdict is in – Chatbots are universally helpful.

Chatbots are helpful because they help reduce manual intervention and still provide instant solutions to the user. Time is an important factor that helps the user decide if they want to go with a particular brand. Especially when it comes to time sensitive businesses like owning a restaurant.

Incorporating chatbot for your restaurant is a great way to move your business to the next level. It provides a seamless service to your customers. It begins right from making reservations. Customers can easily make reservations using their smartphones instead of having to call the restaurants. This service can be extended to when the customer is waiting in line for a table, a chatbot can also help notify the customer when their table has been set up. This creates an enjoyable dining experience for the customer right from the start.

Let’s say, the customer is seated at the table and wants some suggestions on what to order or they want to know the chef’s signature dishes. Instead of waiting for the waiter to drop by the table and give his 2 cents, the customer can easily get this data through a chatbot.Similarly, if a customer wants to order steak but he’s not sure as to what wine would perfectly go with it, all he has to do is ask the bot for recommendations.

Customer loyalty is the key to any successful restaurant business. By providing exceptional service with the help of manual labour and AI, your business surely has the recipe for success 😉

Chatbots Vs Live Chat – Who Will Win The Battle?

We’re all familiar with the word artificial intelligence which has given birth to “Chatbots”. Chatbots are softwares that can have textual conversations with humans. Companies have been betting big on bots ever since its launch. Tech giants spent approximately $30 billion on AI in 2016.

But simultaneously, people have been all praise for live chats. So the question is, which is the better one? Both of these systems have their pros and cons. Let’s go into detail for that.

Chatbots

The biggest advantage of the chatbot is that it is instant and is available 24×7. People want responses immediately and they don’t want to wait for answers. It is also quite economical for business owners as they need not pump up too much money into creating chatbots. Due to developments in technology, there are easy softwares available to create chatbots. It also eliminates the need for having a human representative, thus, reducing cost. The human interference can be utilised for more important activities than for addressing menial queries.

But there is a downside to chatbots too. There is a limit to the kind of queries they can answer. The more complex the query, the more difficult for the bot to give an accurate answer. It’s not impossible but it does involve a lot of money and work on the bot. Whereas, live chat can help eliminate this problem.

Live Chat

Live Chat has been gaining popularity amongst businesses too. It eliminates the problem of waiting time and provides users with instant replies. Unlike chatbots, live chats are handled by actual human beings, so they have the ability to answer complex questions that a bot might not be able to answer. But the question comes to the availability of the service. Can the live chat service be made available 24×7? And if it is made available, then more employees have to hired for this job, which only increase the cost to the company.

As mentioned above, the battle between these 2 cannot declare a clear winner. It depends upon the goals, objectives and problem areas. And these criteria may differ from company to company. It’s about studying both these features and knowing your needs to find the perfect solution. The solution might even be a combination of chatbot and live chat.

Have you incorporated a live chat feature or a chatbot for your business? Let us know your story in the comments below.

How ChatBots Allow You To Increase Your Sales

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are undoubtedly the most controversial technologies of recent years. Both have proven great potential and have changed the way we think about all industries, including the sales department. Chatbots, more precisely, are a real competitive advantage for all companies. In particular, they help support customer service and make it more qualitative.

Chatbots can today boast of being indispensable in the marketing strategy of a company. They are a real ally, especially in instant messengers, because they can target and engage consumers.

Numerous studies have shown that chatbots have an obvious impact on sales. They are not negligible in the company strategy.

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence system that is used by companies to communicate with their customers through instant messaging applications. Through natural language learning, chatbots are able to identify consumer queries and offer relevant answers.

The answers are less and less robotic
The use of “machin learning” allows chatbots to create new answers simply thanks to past data. These advances are aimed at increasing the quality of customer service. Today, good customer service is the key to conquer the consumer. Chatbots allow customers to interact with the business 24/7.

Why should I think about it?

Before implementing a chatbot in your business, the marketer must first consider the different technologies, because each of them has its own goal.

The goal of marketing is to reach its target and communicate on how a product can dramatically improve the lives of consumers. For the businessman, the goal is to increase sales and grow the company’s revenue. The chatbot can do both things at the same time.
The growing popularity of instant messaging applications has dramatically increased the range of possibilities.
People love instant messaging and they spend a lot of time there. Facebook Messenger has about 1.2 billion active users per month. Thus, the application represents an indispensable tool.

The opportunity for chatbots for your business
By improving the customer experience with chatbots, the customer is encouraged to inquire when he asks a question. The problem is that the customer does not necessarily intend to buy.

High engagement rate
This is where the chatbot comes in. After the conversation with the potential buyer, he can relaunch the customer on the product that interested him with promotional offers for example. This message is found directly in the customer’s inbox and is therefore likely to be open.
A chatbot messenger does not need to target upstream clients, this is a real benefit.

Analyzing and collecting data
By collecting and analyzing data, when a consumer comments on something, for example, the company collects valuable information. Chatbots have the ability to collect and analyze this crucial business information that may not be seen by staff.
Clients are better able to speak and express themselves when they know the person they are interacting with. It’s the same for chatbots.

Test the products. 
Artificial intelligence simplifies the work of marketers. A company can test two product offerings at the same time. For example, 500 people can test a wording, a product presentation or a positioning. A sample of 500 other people can test a second version. This option allows a better understanding of the product and therefore better position it.

Guide sales. 
Chatbots have become a real sales management tool. When a bot collects all the necessary data (including consumer behavior), it can offer the right product. The interactions between the bot and the consumer begin with the creation of the desire, then the selection, the order and finally the payment. It is a short and flawless circuit without human errors.

To conclude, integrating artificial intelligence into a business is relevant. The only brake is the budget. This decision must be made according to the criterion of size: large companies should not hesitate to introduce. As for the companies of intermediate size they must think twice. Integrating a lower quality chatbot can be disastrous for the customer relationship.

The Verdict Is In – Millennials Love Chatbots

Chatbots are no strangers to the world of artificial intelligence. Since its introduction, companies are always finding ways to innovate the functions and capabilities of Chatbots. Which brings us to the question? Who actually use Chatbots?

The answer is pretty obvious. It is the tech savvy youth i.e millennials. They are active participants on anything and everything on the internet. And it is no surprise that they’ve embraced chatbots with open arms.

A survey conducted by Retale states that nearly 60% of US millennials have interacted with a chatbot before. And the remaining 40% said they’d be happy to engage with a bot soon. The survey found that millennials were highly responsive to retail bots and it helped them increase their e-commerce purchases. 67% of the people surveyed said they are more likely to purchase products/services from a brand/company using a chatbot. Whereas, only a meagre 14% were not interested to make purchases via bots.

We’ve also noticed that plenty of e-commerce companies are trying to create a smart shopper bot that will be able to help users throughout the purchase process. Bots are used to send alerts of sales/discounts, reminders for sales/discounts. Certain bots can even help you find products by studying your requirements. With these innovations, online shopping has become a piece of cake for millennials and they’re not ready to stop anytime soon!

Chatbots For Mental Health

Chatbots have proven to be efficient when it comes to addressing any business related job roles. But their capabilities are so much. Incorporating bots in business activities is just the beginning. They have great potential to be the future of therapy and create awareness about mental health.

Numerous therapy chatbots have already been launched. But there’s still a long way to go to achieve the fullest potential.

Here are a couple of reasons why Chatbots are a great way to address mental health problems –

Availability

Although, there are numerous psychologists and doctors who are available to help people with their mental needs, they’re not available 24×7. Most of the time, you can meet them only after you schedule an appointment. There is a huge mismatch when it comes to availability. Bots are readily available. They might be able to help the person out during their vulnerable times or alert the necessary authorities if its a serious situation.

Anonymity

People are often not comfortable with discussing their personal problems or issues with another person, even if its a qualified medical and health professional. And the truth is, it takes the professionals a certain amount of time to break down the patient’s walls and to gain their trust. But with chatbots, users feel secure about the anonymity. They do not think that they’re being judged about their problems. They do not feel any apprehensions while talking to a bot.

Cost Efficient

Visiting a mental health professional can be a very expensive process. And not everyone can afford to spend such money. Bots can be helpful because they are extremely economical. The cost to develop and optimize a bot is still minimal compared to the amount needed to visit a doctor regularly. And this is one of the reasons why people prefer talking to a chatbot.

Although, bots show great potential in the field of therapy and mental health, they are not the end game. However, they can act as first-line-tools and guide people into getting the proper help they need.

Do you have any other thoughts about chatbots in therapy? Let us know what you think!

How Can Non-profits Benefit From a Chatbot

Chatbots are the current trending feature that companies and businesses are going gaga over! Ever since Facebook allowed companies to program Chatbots in their messenger, there has been a steady rise in AI technology on Facebook. Everybody wanted to join and be a part of the NEXT BIG THING. Chatbots would be able to answer questions immediately, and allow the people to concentrate on bigger things.

Bots have slowly creeped their way into different industries and businesses. And believe it or not, NGOs and Non-profits can actually benefit from bots.

Here’s how chatbots can be a great asset for your non-profit –

Answer basic queries on time everytime!

It is no surprise that a NGO page on FB will be getting loads of questions from the users like, “How can I volunteer”, “How can I donate money for this cause”, “When is your next event happening”. If only there was a system that could ask answer these monotonous questions so you didn’t have to. Chatbots can help do this for you. And these queries could be answered instantly regardless of what time they come in.

Gathering a community

A non-profit’s success is all about the donors, volunteers working towards a common cause. It is about bringing them together and forming a strong community. Chatbots can help make this happen. They can send out regular alerts to users based on previous communications. The alerts can be about new events, updates or anything that might help the non-profit to make their community stronger.

Fundraising

This is one of the core activities for any NGO. They need to actively raise funds to keep move their cause forward. Instead of directly asking users to donate some money, the bot can help share stories, experiences and related data that can motivate the user to actually do something for the cause. It reduces the manual effort but still gets the job done.

Moreover, bots can help gather data based on their interactions. It can provide useful insights regarding the audience and help funnel the non-profit’s to the right audience.

Do you have any other reasons as to how bots can help a non-profit? Let us know in the comments below!

3 Easy Tips to Improve your Chatbot UX

Building a chatbot has become considerably easy with the introduction of different softwares, app and chatbot development tools. But with the introduction of such softwares, businesses pay attention to just the development of the bot and forget to constantly improve it. That’s why most of the bots fail.

Building a bot is just the first step. The UX and UI of the bot is of utmost importance. The bot must be easy to talk to and interact with. If this is missing, then your bot is no longer useful to the user.

Ensure all buttons are functional

Any normal conversation with a bot involves the user clicking on different buttons to provide answers. So the buttons must be thoroughly tested to ensure that it is responsive at all points of the conversation. Sometimes, the user would come back to the conversation and try to employ the old buttons instead of starting a conversation from the scratch. If the buttons aren’t responsive, you are losing out on valuable customers.

Increase wait time to allow users to read the messages

This is a flaw that most of the chatbots suffer from. Most bots continually spam the user with multiple texts at a time. This does not give the user any time to read every message as the new messages will move the text that the user is already reading. This leads to poor user experience. Therefore, it is advised to have some wait time in the middle before the bot sends out another message.

Try to re-engage after end of conversation

The bots must be equipped to re-engage the user with some valuable information after the end of conversation to ensure future engagement. But there is a fine line between trying to engage with the user and spamming the user. ONLY message the user if you have something that the user would find useful. Otherwise, you might actually end up hindering the performance of your bot.

Building a successful chatbot is a constant journey. There is something new to learn everyday. Trying to incorporate new trends and learnings is the way to instill growth in your chatbot.

Don’t Let Your Chatbot Commit These 4 Mistakes

It has been a while since the rise of Chatbots and there is no doubt that these bots have proven to be incredibly helpful to both the brand and the user. It minimizes effort and maximises the benefit. It also serves as a great marketing tool for the brands.

But with the the rise of a new feature also comes a rise in the errors and mistakes made. The story doesn’t end after the development of a chatbot. Businesses make plenty of mistakes when it comes to revising the functionalities and conversational abilities of a bot.

Here are some common mistakes that your bot must definitely stay away from –

Lack of focus

Bots are developed as a solution to a problem. It is important to identify the principal problem and ensure that the bots are working towards that. Make sure that your bot is not trying to do a hundred tasks at once. It may lose focus and in the end, you will be unable to solve your primary problem.

Spamming an abandoned conversation

This is one of the biggest mistakes committed by the bots. Users constantly complain of getting spam messages from the bot even after the conversation has ended. It is worse if the bot continues to spam the user even after it was unable to effectively help with the user’s query. Alternatively, the bot can send a message or two after the conversation if it contains some valuable information that the user will appreciate.

Inability to answer the question

This is another good reason as to why your bots are not that successful. It simply does not add any value for the user. The main reason why bots where set up in the first place was because they could respond to the users’ queries instantly. If its unable to find an answer for the question, it must let the user know about it instead of repeatedly dodging the question or providing irrelevant answers. It only makes the user more annoyed. It could provide the user with an email ID or a helpline number incase the question is out of scope from the bot’s abilities.

Asking repeated questions

The bot must be developed in such a way that it is able to store information of previous engagements with the user. It becomes a mundane task for the user if they have to provide their contact information or account details every time they communicate with a bot. Therefore, it is important to integrate your chatbot with user information data to simplify the process for the user.

Why do Millennials love Chatbots?

It is 2018 and technology is at its peak! Well, technology and social media. And who is the biggest user of both of these? You guessed it right, it’s the millennials!

It is believed that, by 2020, almost 85% of consumer interactions with businesses will be with bots or through self-servicing. Research states that 60% of millennials have interacted with a chatbot and 70% of users have had a positive experience with a bot. And the users who haven’t tried are also excited to interact with a bot.

Companies have realised that chatbots are a goldmine with millennials and brands like Sephora, Dominos and Starbucks have already created their very own chatbot that are highly popular amongst millennials.

So, what is it about chatbots that makes them so irresistible to the millennials? Well, you’re about to find out.

Feeds into their need for instant gratification

If there’s one thing that all millennials hate, it is waiting. They want instantaneous replies and feedback. And this is one of the major reasons that they love chatbots. Their queries are attended to in a jiffy! Plus, with the improvement in chatbot technologies, bots are improving their conversational abilities to become more humanized and friendly. Millennials may not receive the same instant responses while interacting with a human. This is why, they are more prone to communicate with bots instead of other customer servicing channels.

Keeping up with the latest technology

Millennials love staying ahead of the curve. Be it fashion, technology or music. They all want to be a part of the next big thing. They loved drones and hover boards and they’ve also started to love chatbots. It is the newest addition to social media channels. They’re all happy to experiment with the latest technological revelation.

Convenience is everything

Millennials take their smartphone everywhere, they’re always connected to the different social media platforms. Brands need not take any effort to educate these millennials about these platforms. All they have to do is be present on the platforms that their TG frequent the most. The convenience of the chatbots is what makes millennials use them again and again.

How to effectively market your Messenger Bot

Chatbots have been around for a while now and there have been hits and misses since its inception. We’ve cracked the mysteries on what makes a bot successful and the tips to create a perfect bot. And since brands have realized the true potential of bots, they all have incorporated it in some aspect of their business.

Unfortunately, the crowding of bots on the internet have made it difficult for every single chatbot to stand out. This brings us to marketing. How can a business effectively promote their messenger bot and not let it get lost in the crowd?

Well, we’ve got just the right tips to ensure all your existing and potential customers are aware of this feature.

Increase the visibility of your bot

The first step to promote your bot is identification. All your development efforts are baseless if users cannot easily discover your bot. There are different steps to go about this.

  • Create messenger QR codes and place them at your store, events, office or even upload them online on your social media handles and website. This will allow the user to quickly scan the code and get in touch with your business
  • Add a “Message Us” button on your Facebook page
  • Place a “Message” button on your website too. The facebook message plug-in can be embedded onto the website and it can help direct the user to your messenger bot if they have any queries. It also helps push all your efforts to one uniform location
  • Give your bot an identity and a username so people can easily type in the name of your chatbot and locate it

It’s all about the content

Now that we’ve covered visibility and brought the user to your chatbot, it is important that the bot engages and assists the user effectively as possible. To achieve this, it is important to understand the reasons behind creating a chatbot and what makes your chatbot unique.

It is imperative to convey information about your bot, its latest updates and features to ensure top of the mind recall and also to maintain the interest of your audience. This will also provide room for user reviews and feedback to help fine tune your bot’s performance. Your bot can be made more fun and interesting by incorporating GIFs, audio and video files.But do note that your updates about the bot do not become spammy for the users.

With the right balance of the above mentioned tips, you are surely on the right path to Chatbot success!