Delivering an Effortless Chatbot Customer Experience

In their report, The State of Customer Service 2017, Incite Group found that delivering an effortless customer experience was the prime topic designated by executives. 98.74 percent ranked it from important” to “very important” to “essential”.

They conducted the survey to provide insight into the state of customer service today and where you should focus your efforts in the year to come.

Their findings came from customer service leaders in B2C and B2B. Their regions of responsibility spanned the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, EMEA, South and Central America, and Australasia.

How important are the following issues?

One of the most important issues in the report was chatbots. Out of 8 different issues of importance it was ranked number 1. So that means that chatbots will play a significant role in your contact center service strategy sooner than later.

For many, chatbots are going to create a customer experience filled with greater effort and significant customer frustration.

Some of your customers hate to use IVRs. And some of them are going to refuse to use your chatbots.

But why is that the case?

Reasons for Irritating IVRs and Bad Bots

There are times when IVR technology is to blame. There are times when humans are to blame for IVRs being irritating.

The same applies to bots. There are times when bot technology is to be blamed. There are times when humans are to be blamed.

People with limited exposure to the chatbot technology landscape say that chatbot technology isn’t there yet. This is untrue. What I most often see is that people do not have the experience to select the best chatbot technology and implement it most appropriately.

Much like an IVR that has 9 options to choose from is irritating and creates a customer experience with a high effort, so can a chatbot.

To prevent pushing a chatbot solution beyond its reasonable use and creating more customer effort, you must understand what are the different use case levels and matching it to the right technology.

Selecting chatbot technology

Selecting the right chatbot technology starts with what you need, and then proceeds down the path of what your customers want. You must take into consideration your chatbot use cases of today and tomorrow, because customer needs are advancing rapidly.

Keep in mind, your competition is deploying chatbots too. And in the realm of customer service, your competition is other service providers, regardless of who your direct competitors are.

Be mindful to think about the universal customer demands of less effort when developing your use cases and selecting your chatbot technology. When you do this, you’ll quickly realize that you need to handle higher level use cases sooner than later.

Levels of chatbot use cases

There are 3 levels of chatbot use cases that are supported by different chatbot technologies for you to consider. Each level of use cases has increasing levels of complexity.

  • Level 1 Chatbot use cases: First level use cases include single-round question and answer. This is most often considered to be your simple FAQ type chatbot. The marketplace is overflowing with chatbot technology that can handle only this level of use case.
  • Level 2 Chatbot use cases: Second level use cases are considered multi-round conversation. For example, if a user needs to change an address, a customer says I want to change my address and then the bot will ask various questions pertaining to the new address and zip code, and then finish the task. Second level use cases tend to be simple linear conversations. OR you can build a tree, based on a structure that will guide the customer down the conversation path, like a menu driven bot.
  • Level 3 Chatbot use cases: Third level use cases are human-like conversations. They contain more flexible nonlinear conversation. This type of use case is where you can support and influence customers through a purchase, support, or marketing process. These use cases drive revenue, a distinctive customer experience, and can take significant costs out of your business.

 

Level 3 chatbot uses cases are more like your customers’ journey. It’s often nonlinear. Some customers may jump straight from awareness of a product to purchase. Other customers may spend a lot of time spinning through iterations of doing research about your product. Yet, some will never buy your product without obtaining a coupon or special.

Your customers go through your sales, marketing, and support process in a different pace, in a different way. That’s why it’s important for your chatbot to have non-linear conversation ability.

In order to support Level 3 uses cases, you need 3rd Generation (learn more about different chatbot technologies) chatbot technology. Otherwise, your customers will think you have a bad bot along with your irritating IVR.

Level 3 use cases need you to have the best natural language understanding and a more advanced dialog manager that supports mix initiative and multiple tasks in the same conversation.

Lower Customer Effort

The number of customers that want you to support Level 3 chatbot use cases is growing rapidly. They want a fast and effortless experience. A chatbot never causes a customer to wait on hold, get a busy signal, or wait because an agent is handling simultaneous chat sessions.

Delivering an effortless chatbot customer experience starts with you understanding how to identify use cases and matching it with the right generation of chatbot technology. It’s one of the many areas of importance we included in the Chatbot Success Kit. Failing to address this critical first step is a sure way to create your very own “bad bot” reputation.


Please share:

  • Delivering an Effortless Chatbot Customer Experience Click to Tweet
  • “Out of 8 different issues of importance, chatbots were ranked #1.” Click to Tweet 
  • “Chatbots will play a significant role in your contact center service strategy sooner than later.” Click to Tweet 
  • “For many, chatbots are going to create a customer experience filled with greater effort and significant customer frustration.” Click to Tweet 
  • “Some of your customers hate to use IVRs. And some of them are going to refuse to use your chatbots.” Click to Tweet 
  • “People do not have the experience to select the best chatbot technology.” Click to Tweet 
  • “You must take into consideration your chatbot use cases of today and tomorrow, because customer needs are advancing rapidly.” Click to Tweet 
  • “There are 3 levels of chatbot use cases that are supported by different chatbot technologies” Click to Tweet 
  • “Level 3 chatbot uses cases are more like your customers’ journey.” Click to Tweet 
  • “To support Level 3 uses cases, you need 3rd Generation chatbot technology.” Click to Tweet
  • “Delivering an effortless chatbot customer experience starts with you.” Click to Tweet