It’s hard to believe there was a time when consumers were wary of chatbots. The concept of ‘conversing’ with an automated agent was a little too futuristic for some, a little scary for others. “I’d rather stay on hold and speak to a real person,” was a common refrain from some customers as they struggled to get their heads around the latest innovation to sweep contact centres.
Haven’t times changed? It only takes a quick scroll of recent studies to see that chatbots are not just accepted by today’s consumers but changing customer experience for the better.
- 69% of consumers were satisfied with their last interaction with a chatbot[1]
- 64% of consumers say the best feature of chatbots is their 24/7 availability[2]
- Chatbots are tipped to save businesses up to 2.5 billion hours of work this year[3]
- 88% of people had at least one conversation with a chatbot in 2022[4]
- The global chatbot market is tipped to reach $994 million in 2024[5].
The chatbot boom is also being fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), with 84% of companies believing AI chatbots will become important for communication between customers and businesses[6]. For organisations yet to embrace chatbots in the contact centre space, implementation is no longer a matter of if but when. The benefits speak for themselves, which leaves one vital question for executives and managers – what type of chatbot use case should we deploy?
Source: Complete Guide to Chatbots | Leadoo
What are the benefits of chatbots?
Increasing efficiencies and reducing costs are often cited as reasons to adopt chatbot technology but the benefits extend much further.
- 24/7 support: today’s customers not only expect support as soon as they want it but on the channel of their choice. Deploying chatbots allows businesses to provide consumers with the seamless, always-on connection they desire.
- Scalability: it is no secret customer requests are growing but an added factor is the rise in demand is unfolding when businesses are under increasing pressure to rein in costs. Chatbots address this concern by ensuring teams can help more customers without needing to hire more staff.
- Personalisation: a key benefit of chatbots is their role as the first point of contact for customers. Their ability to capture details such as name, issue and contact details before passing the customer on to an agent creates a golden opportunity for businesses to personalise the conversation.
What are Oration’s three chatbot use cases?
Oration by Convai is a cost-effective and easy-to-install solution that combines the latest generation of speech recognition technology with its AI language interpreter to determine caller intent and fast-track calls to the best outcomes. Crucially, businesses have several use case options when investing in its chatbot features.
- Routing: a routing chatbot is designed to ensure customers reach the best destination for their enquiry as quickly as possible. Widely considered the most simple of use cases, it is highly effective as it reduces internal transfer rates by seamlessly routing contacts to the correct agents to help address their concerns. For example, if a consumer indicated they wanted to confirm their balance, the routing chatbot will automatically transfer them to an agent who could assist them.
- Referring (FAQ): the next use case on the chatbot hierarchy is the referring model, which has the capability to provide customers with access to the information they are seeking. This may come in the form of an FAQ or self-service function, with Oration’s natural language processing technology able to determine their intent. Using the banking example, the referring chatbot could say: “It looks like you’re seeking your balance. We have an online tool that can help you – would you like the link to the log-in page.”
- Automating: the most advanced use case is automating, which is also known as personalising. This function sees the chatbot able to address an enquiry on its own, pending identification of the customer via the back-end system. If they were seeking their bank balance, the chatbot is able to step them through the identification verification and deliver the amount without the need to route or refer the customer elsewhere.
Source: Top 37 Chatbot Applications & Use Cases in 2024 (aimultiple.com)
What is the best chatbot use case?
The first thing to know is that no AI chatbot is going to completely eliminate agent workloads. While some technology providers like to portray that possibility, the reality is adopting chatbots is all about easing workloads by blending technology with human agents.
While automating may seem like the most powerful of chatbot use cases, we strongly believe in working with clients to identify the option that is best for their needs. It is often more important for businesses to get quick wins than wait for the big jackpot, which is why we highlight that routing and referring can deliver benefits much faster at lower cost, even if those benefits are slightly reduced. The key is that we have conversations with clients about what they want to do with their chatbots and help them identify where the value lies.
Ultimately, our goal is to help unlock value quickly and we often find that is achieved by focusing on the two simpler use cases (routing and referring) and strategically targeting the use of automating in special circumstances. While the latter may seem like the answer to all your contact centre prayers, we know from experience that businesses that rush for the all-singing, all-dancing chatbot tend to end up regretting their decision. Rather than get oversold on the ability of a chatbot, there is a lot to be said for partnering with an expert who appreciates the need to mix simplicity with strategy.
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