What Is Chatbot? How It Is Useful For Your Business?
Artificial intelligence, robots and bots have been around for years. But in recent times various discoveries, experiments and exploits of this technology have made it to real.
One of which is called “Chatbots” which is now being used not only by businesses but common peoples as well. There are now various practical applications handled by chatbots in small and big businesses.
Just as we think of robot-simulating and acting on the commands of its owner or programmer, a chatbot is an example of it that is programmed to simulate the human conversation.
The more chatbots is being used for the communication purpose, it is gradually becoming more particular in understanding human languages, pick the interest of its user, read patterns and respond to them more accurately.
All thanks to AI, Machine learning, Data Analysis and smart coding tricks of the developers which are making it possible for the business to be more reliable towards the chatbots than the humans.
Today, the chabots are in much demand and its users are continuously growing in number. Like we use IM chatbots for our daily conversations through apps like WhatsApp, Skype, Slack and Facebook Messenger so on.
There are also various companies and organizations that are using chatbots for delivering quick response, solving queries, providing quick customer support, organizing meetings and managing orders and so.. Some of them are: Endurance,Casper,UNICEF, MedWhat, Roof Ai, NBC, ALICE and more.
There is no doubt that the virtual and conversational agents are the future of the business and the Chatbots is the best example of it. Thus, the market of chatbots is growing exponentially and are in increasing in demand. As they provide more reliable and cost effective business solutions.
What Is Chatbots?
Chatbots are known as “virtual conversational agents” which means they simulate human conversation.
Various definitions of Chatbots:
Oxford Dictionaries, defines a chatbot as:“A computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.”
Wikipedia: “A chatbot (also known as a talkbots, chatterbot, Bot, IM bot, interactive agent, or Artificial Conversational Entity) is a computer program or an artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods.”
Investopedia: “A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation through voice commands or text chats or both. Chatbot, short for chatterbot, is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature that can be embedded and used through any major messaging applications.”
Techopedia: “A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) program that simulates interactive human conversation by using key pre-calculated user phrases and auditory or text-based signals. … A chatbot is also known as an artificial conversational entity (ACE), chat robot, talk bot, chatterbot or chatterbox.”
If you read any of the the definitions, you will reach to a point that can be explained in very simple language: a chatbot is program designed to interact with the virtual agents and the human to deliver assigned tasks.
How Chatbots Work?
The commands can be given to the agent by bother textual and voice which then uses a technology known as natural language processing or NLP, to understand the human language. NLP is the basic of any chatbot technology that is also used by the virtual Assistants like Siri, Google Now and Cortana for the voice recognition.
Chatbots then processes the textual or the voice commands given by the user which is done by a process named as “parsing”. The processed data is then goes for the complex algorithm before responding to the user.
The algorithm defines various situations to determine what the user actually means or wants. The chatbots are feeded with huge data resources through predefined protocols. Which means when the user gives any command the the chatbots, it searches within its data content directory for the available responses and present the end user with the most precise ones in a more natural way. This is how when you ask your Chatbot for today’s weather, it already knows your exact location and responses with the accurate on demand data.
Every chatbot does have limitations and thus to overcome these, chatbots rather than performing complex algorithms, it integrates other apps through which it is able to perform complicated tasks and responses.
Day-by-day chabots are becoming more “natural” in conversational skills and is also more responsive and sophisticated.
How Chatbots Is Useful For Your Business
Chatbots can be beneficial for both the established companies and small business startups. Thus, they are incorporating chatbots-”conversational and interactive agents” to perform various operations.
Chatbots can help businesses to give quick responses to their customers thus improving the customer service which is a key aspect for a long-run. Second is the managing sales operations including storing warehouse data and responding with alerts whenever there is a shortage of any product, track sales delivers and more.
So, let us look for all such fields were Chatbots can be helpful and useful for the businesses.
Improve Customer Service: Customers always tends to stick with the brands or the companies which are responsive and good at handling their queries which are either after sales support or pre-sales queries. Customers generally get automated responses from chats like our team will respond you, stay online while we connect your call or thanks for your interest, we will get back to you soon.
Such responses may drag down the interest of customers. A chatbot can give quick responses to the customers which will help build a good relation between the business and the customer. And the customer will like to stick to it.
Manage Business Operations: There are always daily check-up routines which are handled by the employees on a daily basis, so there can be mistake or any loophole which in turn can affect the overall process of the business. Thus, chatbot can streamline the operations by scheduling meetings, daily actions, send important alerts to the employees and many so.
Streamline The Sales Process: With the streamlined shopping concept, customers will get quick assistance while buying by just communicating with the chatbot. At the time of shopping customers have various queries like product related, shipping, delivers, location and so on.
So, here chatbots can be very useful as they will have quick response to the queries by understanding the preferences which will automatically convert into sales. All the data can be directly send to the sales department. That will also be useful for the sales employees by sharing their workload and get the precise information and purchasing details of the customers.
Personalized Communication: A chatbot can remember the queries and preferences of the visitor, thus they do not need to ask again for the same questions and can have further personalized conversation. This will help gain the attention of the customer and will become a more frequent buyer.
The bottom line:
Mnay big-organizations and business have alreay understood the benefits of the chatbots and are successfully incorporating them to have a cost-effective, reliable and sophistical business solutions.
However, many start-ups and small business still needs to understand the benefits of the chatbots that could be helpful to their business whether small or big to manage various tasks and operations. Incorporating a chatbot to an early stage of a business could even be more useful as it will help manage small tasks without engaging more workforce.
Chatbot technology is still being experimented and in near years, it will prove extreme useful for the businesses.
So, start your business with the innovative way of communication that needs less or no human intervention.