Bots aren’t a new concept in the digital landscape. For some time now, chatbots and virtual agents have been changing the way that companies interact with their customers. Driven by an age of empowered customers that expect more immediate and relevant responses to their queries, bots can transform the way that companies engage their clients.
The chatbot market alone is expected to reach a value of around $9.4 billion by 2024, and that prediction arrived before the pandemic of 2020 transformed the way that companies could deliver customer service.
While most organisations agree that the modern bot will never be able to replace the human being when it comes to delivering empathy and sentiment in a customer conversation, they can have other positive effects on customer experience.
How Bots Transform Business CX
Customers are expecting rapid delivery of sensational service in the current marketplace. Your clients know what kind of tools you have available to support them, and they refuse to accept anything less than the best. Human agents can only deliver so many personalised messages and services to customers at once, but bots have infinite potential.
Bots are ready to deliver common answers to regular questions all the time, which means that human counterparts are free to deal with the more challenging aspects of customer experience. Here are just some of the ways that bots are changing the CX space:
- 24/7 self-service: Bots don’t need to sleep or take breaks. They can respond to your customers whenever they need them, even if it’s just to deliver the opening hours of your company, when an agent will be available. Bots can also offer information that customers need to solve their issues on their own, with minimal input from agents
- Acquiring context: Today’s customers don’t want to be just another number on a list for businesses, they want to know that you understand their needs and expectations. Bots can collect context about a customer’s query before passing them on to the agent that’s most equipped to handle their call. They’re also able to collect other information from CRM systems and previous conversations with the clients to give extra context to agents
- Supporting teams: When your employees are more empowered, your customers benefit. Chatbots can provide access to information and guidance to employees immediately, so they can deal with customer concerns faster. They can even offer suggestions on how to deal with an issue based on previous paths to resolution
Creating Meaningful Customer Experiences
As the technology available in the bot landscape continues to evolve, the power that bots have for transforming customer experience will accelerate. We’re quickly reaching a point where bots can analyse the sentiment of a customer just by examining the words and language they use. Bots can even assist with routing conversations to the right agent, so you have a more efficient strategy for dealing with customer queries and concerns.
All the while, your bots help to highlight your business as an innovator, showing customers that you’re committed to excellent service through the use of transformative technology.
