Chatbots, their positive impact and how to take advantage of the customer experience

Conversations between a client and a machine are becoming more and more common. The arrival of chatbots made it possible to solve one of the main challenges of companies, customer service, and that is that today many people avoid calling by phone and prefer to send a message through applications such as WhatsApp .

Developing positive experiences for the user is one of the main goals that companies, in any sector, must meet. Conversational commerce is positioned as one of the tools that encourage the generation of a positive customer journey that results in higher levels of loyalty, increases in sales, and engagement , to mention just a few consequences.

But chatbots are not a recent innovation. Its beginnings date back to 1966, long before the advent of the internet, and by 2018 there were more than 300,000 assets. However, its growth has come hand in hand with changing consumer habits.

The customer experience today

During the last years we have witnessed the evolution of message communication, from plain texts with limitations in terms of functionality, to increasingly interactive messages that lead us to a dynamic conversation.

According to data from a study carried out by Meta , owned by Facebook, it indicates that in Latin America 58% of people say they have sent and received messages from the brands they consume . The same study states that two out of three people in the world indicate that they have chatted with brands and businesses.

Chatbots take on great importance in a world where people spend more than four hours a day on their cell phones, much of it receiving and sending messages. This is the opportunity that companies should take advantage of to start incorporating more efficient communication strategies, such as the customer experience.

Currently, brands are not only talking, but also implementing marketing strategies, selling, tracking orders, surveying their customers, all through instant messaging channels. Without a doubt, companies that are available on these platforms and allow their customers to transact on them will win in a world in which the conversational experience becomes more important every day.

Send the right message at the right time

Not everything is limited to sending and receiving messages: the true success of the customer experience is based on handling the right message, at the right time and through the channel that the customer wants. Doing it by applying the appropriate formula allows for a better conversation with the end customer, in this way you can obtain increases in sales and consumer satisfaction, ensuring greater engagement .

Conversational commerce helps create positive shopping experiences and increase customer satisfaction no matter where they are. Currently, the country where this way of communicating with the client has been most developed is China.

Brands such as Netflix, Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Yves Saint Laurent have WeChat accounts, the main messaging service in China, through which you can locate physical stores, make payments through the same application, as well as purchase products with discounts. special for customers who use this system.

Main challenges when implementing the customer experience

The growth in digital sales is essential to simplify and automate communication with the client, making it increasingly personalized, relevant, secure, immediate and effective.

After implementing a solution such as a chatbot, it is important to run it internally with the corresponding team and audience, monitoring possible failures before making an official launch. Once the implementation is done, it is key to constantly take a look at the data and information to measure the quality of user experience or the effectiveness of the tool and to be able to improve it progressively.

In a world in which more and more consumers consider phone calls ineffective , creating a conversational commerce strategy focused on serving users in an omnichannel way is a real necessity that companies, from all sectors, must consider.

(About the author: Stiven Caratgena is editor of the GeekTime en Español site) .