Techblog
The rise of chatbots – do they work for SMEs?
Chatbots are regarded as a huge opportunity for businesses to engage customers, while saving costs. We spoke to KeyReply co-founder Spencer Yang to see how chatbots improve customer service.
The internet and rise of computer systems able to perform task that require human intelligence i.e. artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled many businesses to automate and increase customer engagement. One of the most recent and exciting advances in AI technology is chatbots.
Many major companies now employ chatbots as the first line of customer service response. Instead of using a person to address simple queries; they install a robot to do it.
Robot messengers
Chatbots are essentially computer programmed messenger apps developed to simulate conversation with people, mostly using artificial intelligence. Their popularity is growing, with many consumers spending more time on messenger apps than on social media.
The human touch may still play an important role in customer service, but research shows it’s not always needed. Ubisend has found more than 50% of people would prefer to talk to a business using a messaging application than pick up the phone.
Giving customers the option of contacting a company with a messenger app is exactly what Rogers Communications, Canada’s wireless communication giant, did. A report published in 2016 showed the company’s customer satisfaction scores improved by 65% following the introduction of a bot to handle simple customer queries.
Chatbots in Singapore
One company that helps firms to engage with their customers using chatbots is Singapore-based KeyReply.
Its co-founder Spencer Yang set up the business in 2014 with his peers Max Xu and Carylyne Chan.
Initially, the trio developed their software in Singapore. Two years later, they were accepted into a government programme for Singapore-based companies keen on expanding into the United States, and moved to tech mecca San Francisco.
The company designs AI chatbots for online service providers, including e-commerce, software and hospitality companies as well as government agencies.
Should small business adopt chatbots?
Chatbots are easy to set up, using languages such as Wit.ai, for example, which makes it easy for developers to build a Siri-like speech interface for their app or device.
Luckily, you don't need to understand coding to create a chatbot. Platforms like ChattyPeople allow you to set up the chatbot experience on social channels like Facebook Messenger. SMEs using the resulting bots can achieve a variety of goals such as providing instant responses and improving customer satisfaction.
“Bots are more useful to SMEs with consumer-facing businesses, as they tend to receive more customer support requests that are repetitive,” says Spencer Yang.
If you receive a lot of queries through your website or Facebook page, a chatbot is an effective way to answer a customer immediately. Go through your customer queries, if you see the same questions pop up a chatbot could quickly and effectively answer these questions. It won't work for all questions though.
Yang suggests that companies working with clients in niche or complex industries that tend to receive specific questions should still employ people to address customer queries.
“The contact with those clients also tends to be higher. A good account manager will go a longer way in increasing the lifetime of a client relationship.”
24/7 service and increased sales
Regardless of the type of business or industry, global sales and great customer service are becoming more and more important to business success. There’s greater expectation of timely replies while providing excellent service.
With chatbots, SMEs could provide an instant service that never sleeps while increasing sales, says Yang.
“Chatbots can be used to help SMEs provide 24/7 service while freeing up business owners to do non-repetitive and more meaningful work to grow their core business,” he says.
Reducing the time spent and number of people needed to perform repetitive and high volume tasks requiring customer support is the biggest potential of chatbots. Beating the competition is another appealing potential benefit, says Yang.
He believes a chatbot is a business investment that differentiates SMEs in the market, allowing them to gain a competitive advantage.
“Since business is becoming more competitive, having a chatbot that can serve customers whenever and wherever they are, at all times, to choose the right product or find the right service, can mean the difference between making the sale and losing it to a competitor online.”
Is your business ready for automation?
Despite those benefits, making the decision to automate a company’s customer service isn’t something to be taken lightly, especially for smaller companies.
Several businesses still struggle to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and consumer behaviour. Even big, well-established companies can hit trouble. Facebook’s messenger bots failure in 2016 re-enforced tech-phobic business’s attitude towards the accuracy and value of chatbots.
But Yang argues that many not-so-tech-savvy businesses engage in customer communication through channels such as email or SMS, where they have to handle many questions about their products or services. This is time-consuming and difficult to monitor and maintain consistency and quality. Chatbots could be a solution.
“In our own conversations with hundreds of SME customers, we found that 40%-80% of all questions that SME owners respond to are frequently-asked questions. These can be automated with a bot.”
He advises SME owners to spend the time and effort saved on answering repetitive questions on more critical components of the business, including building better products and distribution channels or improving partnerships.
“Having an automated way to take care of repetitive issues is simply the right choice for long-term business sustainability today,” says Yang.
A hybrid approach
While using chatbots seems to be an easy approach to streamline repetitive interaction with customers, it’s not the only one.
Yang suggests that SMEs adopt a hybrid approach, applying human interaction for more complicated customer requests and automation for simpler ones. Your chatbot should be the first level of interaction with a customer but you need to ensure it's not the only one. A skilled customer service representative can takeover when a complex answer is required.
“We usually think of chatbots as complementary to the humans running the business. The bot should handle the simpler questions and leave the complicated requests to its ‘manager’ – the human – to think about and respond to,” he says.
Automation is the future
How will chatbots continue to evolve? As they become smarter and more popular, Yang believes chatbots, and automation in general, will continue to grow in importance and usefulness for companies. Chatbot technology is currently in its infancy but it's progressing rapidly. For an SME receiving a large of volume of customer queries a chatbot can take the pressure off staff. An initial investment today could offer huge benefits in the future.
“We will definitely see more bots around. There are improvements in natural language processing research every day, and they are becoming more applicable and useful by the day,” he says.
“Products like Botdesk, which puts together your FAQs and starts answering questions about your business in five minutes, make it even easier to get started,” he says. “These technological improvements will push the boundaries of great customer support by leaps and bounds for more SMEs.”
Summary
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Chatbots offer a huge opportunity for businesses to engage with customers.
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They are easy to set up and can help businesses reply to customer queries quicker, while saving on costs and improving customer satisfaction.
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SMEs should adopt a hybrid approach, applying human interaction for more complicated customer requests and automation for simpler ones.
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Think of chatbots as complementary to the humans running the business.
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They will become smarter and more popular over time.