Chatbots and their role in Conversational Commerce

Are you looking to enhance the experience of your customers when they come looking for something on your site?

Do you want to make sure that they get what they came for?

Do you want to make sure that they are entirely gratified once they leave and are willing to come back?

Any business in the world wants this for sure! Thanks to Chatbots now your customers can have a ‘conversation’ with your business, and it is NOT a ‘live chat’ with a human sales rep.

Wondering what Chatbots are?

Generally speaking a bot is any software that performs an automated task, however in the context of the article, they are AI-based programs that can simulate conversation over chat with a customer and help them identify a product they need, place an order for the same and make the payment as well.

Once you have started to use them, your business can engage with customers like never before.

They are the application of intelligence in technology, where app learns and modifies results based on consumer behavior, and gives them a highly personal experience.

For an e-commerce company, a Chatbot can automate the buyer’s interactions on a website (searching for a product, finalizing the right one, placing an order, offering recommendations, providing support) in the form of a conversation on the chat console and this has given rise to an advanced form of commerce called ‘conversational commerce.’

So What Is Conversational Commerce?

First coined by Chris Messina from Uber, the term (conversational commerce) refers to driving commercial activities using message- or voice-based communication.

The underlying idea is to let customers shop and chat from just anywhere. And can they deny savoring such advanced buying experience? Not really!

But Why There Is A Need Of ‘Conversational Commerce’?

A simple answer is that you want your business to move up the ladder in customer satisfaction and you want to make sure that any customer coming through any channel gets the same interactive buying experience.

With conversational commerce, your customers can chat with your brand and get concierge-like experience.

And What Role Chatbots Play In Conversational Commerce?

Chatbots make it happen! From understanding requirements to providing alternatives, processing payments and collecting feedback, they are deployed to automate, personalize and talk candidly to your customers during their interactive buying journey. Following is an example of customer interaction while buying a ‘bag’ from an online store.

The chatbot goes through a process of Understanding the customer’s requirements, then moves on to Providing Solutions which in this case in the backpack and lastly Processes Transactions making it far easier for the buyer to purchase a product of their choice.

Thus an entire transaction gets completed within due course of the conversation and customer feels satisfied with their purchase and the assistance they received.

Other Chatbots in Action

CNN Bot

Most of us have an urge to keep ourselves updated. And we want to get the latest news at our fingertips.

And that’s what CNN News Bot is there for. It allows you to fetch the most recent as well as the breaking news.Getting news was never this easy.

SoundCloud

The bot helps you listen to your favorite music from your favorite artists. All you have to do is provide the name of the artist.

With the SoundCloud bot, you can search and embed an artist’s playlist within the chat conversation.

So What Benefits Can You Reap From Chatbots?

• More business at lower costs: The use of Chatbots has proven to increase the revenue because of efficient customer assistance without any human support.

• Hyper-Personalization: When customers get a feeling that they are being understood, they are more inclined to remain loyal to your brand.

• Better Brand Image: When your customers see that your business is making use of the latest technology to render the best service, then they are going to trust you even more. And this leads to better branding.

So Are You Ready For One?

Bots are a great way to improve customer engagement and make buying full of fun and dynamic. Many bots will make your business more interactive and that too without leaving CometChat.

Here are some ready-to-use bots:

You can also create custom bots for CometChat as per your use case. You will be able to build your workflow and map your expected inputs and responses. Additionally, you will be able to connect the bot directly with CometChat.

Bottom Line

• 27% of consumers worldwide are very interested in artificial intelligence based tools.

• 35% of consumers want to see more companies using Chatbots.

• 95% of consumers believe ‘customer service’ is going to be the major beneficiary of Chatbots.

• 47% of consumers would buy items from a Chatbot.

• By 2020, over 80% of businesses are expected to have some Chatbot automation implemented.

• 96% of businesses believe Chatbots are here to stay.

With these kinds of numbers can business owners really afford to miss out on chatbots?