Opinion ~ Page 3 of 3 ~ My Mobile India

The 21st century is upon us and there was a pretence revolving around bots taking over the world. This assumption is far from reality, at least for now. In fact, Machine Learning has evolved so much that we humans can use them to aid our work and not against us. Chatbots are part of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning revolution and they are bound to be a catalyst for brand engagement. It is estimated that 85% of consumer interactions will be handled by chatbots by the end of 2021. 50% of the businesses are also planning to invest in smart chatbots rather than mobile applications. Ever wondered why? Chatbots are super quick! It’s 11 pm, Chandu, a salaried man, faces an issue with his premium payments. The due date is just 1 hour from expiry. After his various attempts to pay and with a fear of penalties, he tweets “@XYZLifeInsurance I’m facing issues while paying the premium on your website, help!” Brand replied within a minute with a templated response of their website being under maintenance but immediately reassured him of extending his deadline for the next 36 hours. Chandu is relieved after hearing this and goes to sleep. Chatbot saves the day! (Well, Night) Make them your advocates In our years of working with some of the biggest brand names in India, we found that a positive share of voice improved promisingly when the turnaround time is on the lower side. It is an innate behaviour that getting a quick response from someone, be it brand or a person will increase your attention towards them and subsequently, thereby make them feel special. Chatbots are available, always Chatbots, unlike humans do not need to sleep, socialize, etc. They are available to help at any hour of the day. According to a research, 64% of internet users feel that 24/7 hour service is the best feature of the chatbots. Everyone loves a quick response, especially during any emergencies like our friend Chandu faced. Similarly, an IBM research suggests that about 80% of the queries are FAQs for which no human intervention is required. Chatbots are fully capable of handling them with ease. Money saved is money earned Quite literally, chatbots have the capability to handle about 80% of your overall responses, hence saving the money put in to hire a chat representative. In fact, a chatbot life report shows that they save an average 30% on operational costs just by deploying a chatbot towards an ecommerce business. Automation is the future Chatbots have been around since 1966. The very first one being “ELIZA” built at MIT, it was used to answer very simple decision tree questions. Fast forward to the 21st century, we can see chatbots being used from websites to apps to social networks, everywhere! Automation is the future, and it is being integrated into many business processes. The world is changing at an exponential rate. Another drift report tells us that chatbot use was increased by 92% since 2019 and is set to increase even more. Future is now Chatbots have a huge potential, and it is set to be a $1.3 billion market by 2024, according to Intellectyx. Brands need to actively seek a chatbot integration with their business processes, one of the very important one being Social Customer Service where a chatbot can effectively lower your first level turnaround time by a drastic percentage. It leads to an increase in positive share of voice because 82% of consumers claim that quick responses during first contacts are important to them and can impact their perception towards the brand, rendering it necessary. After all, a happy customer is all we want, right? The author, Chaitra Kulkarni, is Customer Success Manager, Germin8, a social media intelligence company.

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