Modern customers have really high demands. Not a surprise here — constant digitalization and automation of business processes accustoms them to get what they want almost instantly. Having customer service available 24/7, being in constant touch with companies, calling them without a need to wait for a free line, running errands using only a smartphone — the list goes on. Today we give you 3 solutions that will help you to truly optimize your operations.
How can we meet the needs of the market and the customers themselves? There are two options — text or voice. The first one is more convenient for people who don’t like to talk to others or can’t do it for some reason. The latter can definitely be faster and bring more personalized, detailed experience.
Text automation usually happens via some form of online chat. And voice solutions are mostly available via phone calls. Let’s discuss a couple of different options and see what we can expect out of them.
Livechats
Livechat is a form of help desk where all communication between the user and the customer service rep happens through an online chat. The conversation resembles the one that we conduct with our friends on messaging applications.
To provide this type of communication to our clients, we need a widget installed on our website. It will allow access to the chat window that will connect the user with the agent on the other side. Oftentimes, brands use Facebook’s Messenger widget to allow customers to contact their fanpage directly from the website. Also, it doesn’t require any additional systems and programs to operate the livechat.
As for the administrative side, there is also an application that allows customer care employees to answer requests from the clients and converse with them to fix their issues. For Messenger, that would be the fanpage panel where every person with authorization can answer sent messages. Off-the-shelf systems provide their own solutions.
Chatbots
The whole process is similar to livechat described above but instead of a person, we have a bot answering questions. It is a piece of software that we program beforehand with knowledge about our company, most common issues and other useful data.
Chatbots used to sound unnatural and they wouldn’t share any information unless we would provide a question that was written exactly the same way it was programmed by the owner. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence, machine learning and other algorithms, chatbots are behaving quite human-like and with time their database evolves to provide even better answers.
Facebook Messenger also provides chatbot features that every brand can turn on in their chat. This way, even if the owner or admin is not available, the bot will provide useful information about some topics.
Voicebots
An original solution that is still quite fresh on the market. At iteo, we even offer our own voicebot called Hellobot. It is a tool that allows us to optimize and automate almost any process within the company. Basically, it’s a voice technology that is programmed beforehand to answer or make phone calls and talk with clients about particular issues.
A voicebot can be used in debt collection, sales and marketing, booking appointments, receiving complaints and many more cases. It provides clients with useful information, but it can also confirm visits or change their dates, register technical malfunctions, take orders — it has countless capabilities. From artificial intelligence customer care tools, this one has the most personal touch — because it can not only talk but also take concrete actions. Artificial intelligence is once more a technology that helps the bot to improve and provide a more individual approach to the client.
This is a more expensive option that is not available as a DIY. To get a voicebot for your business, you should reach out to a company that can program one just for you — like iteo. We provide Hellobot that can be implemented almost seamlessly into the system you currently use for customer support.
Comparison
Artificial Intelligence
AI is an area of computer sciences that is dedicated to creating algorithms that will operate similarly to human brains. So the goal here is to make them understand our behaviors and mimic them in context. Also, particular divisions of artificial intelligence focus on human-like abilities — for example, machine learning was created to constantly improve itself and make predictions based on previously provided data.
This is the technology that gives the chatbots and voicebots this human-like feeling where they can interpret speech, answer questions written in various ways, understand non-specific inquiries and constantly learn how to better themselves based on past performance. Advanced products based on AI can also analyze data they collect from the customers and draw conclusions that can be essential for business decisions.
Will artificial intelligence substitute people in some professions? Possibly. But for sure it will be developed to perform even more complicated tasks and to resemble humans as much as possible. This way, using AI in daily business processes won’t seem lifeless for people and the capabilities will significantly outgrow the ones of human employees. No worries, there is a lot of work that still needs creative approach robots can’t achieve. We will work side by side for spectacular results.
The Future
Algorithms and voice technologies undergo constant dynamic development. This way, companies will be able to offer more sophisticated yet cheaper solutions. And that will probably happen quite soon. Voicebots and complex chatbots won’t be available for big corporations only. More commercial use is a matter of time.
Optimizing and automating business operations has an important justification — our team members can take care of tasks that require their attention instead of the repetitive actions that would exhaust them. Robots are way more effective in this department. This way we can invest in the creative growth of our employees and get better outcomes when they leave these difficult but still important duties to machines.
Summary
Which solution will be truly suitable for your business? That depends on your budget and current customer support needs. But even startups and small companies can afford to build livechat infrastructure or use a chatbot to improve their results when it comes to communication with clients.
If you are interested in these innovative tools — don’t hesitate to contact us. We will help you to pick the best one for achieving your goals and addressing your pains. Then we will prepare the whole system and implement it according to your requirements. Let’s work together and create software that will complement your brand in the best way!
