As much as we love technology, it has also turned us into a generation of impatient individuals. We need everything instantly and conveniently. And why not? There are already brands in the market ready to serve their customers in a blink.
We are witnessing newer brands taking over older ones by offering the same service more conveniently and simply. For instance, we have all seen how Uber has taken over the taxi industry and Spotify, the music industry.
Talking about comfort and convenience is where conversational AI comes into the picture.
Conversational AI refers to technologies that work like a virtual agent or a chatbot. It is powered by Artificial Intelligence that allows it to talk to consumers online and tend to their queries. Its effectiveness as a customer service and engagement tool is undisputed. Some well-known examples include Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Amazon Alexa.
Coming to customer service, consumers generally expect two things from you: a quick, hassle-free way to get in touch with the brand and a swift resolution to their concerns. Conversational AI makes both of these feasible.
As per recent statistics, the conversational AI market is expected to be worth $18.4 billion by 2026. Hence, one can comfortably say that if there is one thing that businesses currently need to add to their growth toolbox, it is indeed a suitable conversational AI strategy.
Here are 9 benefits of conversational AI:
In this day and age of comfort where customers want everything at a click of a button, requiring an intelligent tool that ensures faster service is imperative. Conversational AI automates query responses and can solve simple customer issues instantly, thereby reducing manual effort and enhancing service speed.
According to a report published by HubSpot research, 82% of consumers rate an immediate response as very important when they have a question. In other words, faster service equals faster growth for your business.
With a fortunately large customer base but limited staff and time on hand, it sometimes becomes humanly impossible for businesses to cater to all customers, and their queries, at all times. You will always have customers waiting in line to reach out to a representative.
A conversational AI helps bridge this gap by automating responses to straightforward questions and issues. This way, you save employee hours and eliminate customer wait time which is a major turn-off for most consumers.
No business wants to be unavailable when their customer needs them as it might mean losing business or a dissatisfied customer. And your customer can need you at any time of the day.
We all know most people have standard working hours of 9 am to 6 pm, whether it is your staff or customers. People generally ask their questions before or after these hours as this is when they get time.
Now, for businesses to be available for their customers at odd hours, you need to hire more staff or utilize conversational AI. With its 24*7 accessibility, you can effortlessly solve this issue.
In fact, as per a study, 64% of people prefer to message rather than call a business.
It is a known fact that customer care carries a high operating cost. To tend to customers at all hours, you need to hire more staff which can be expensive. Moreover, manual conversations generally carry a greater risk of low accuracy rate and errors than automated responses.
On the other hand, conversational AI, once put in place, ensures a high-impact advantage for your business. Considering its ability to handle more requests than humans and provide faster and more accurate information, conversational AI outmatches its cost in the long run. It is clearly a cost-efficient solution to customer service.
A platform equipped with conversational AI can help your customers make better buying decisions. With the help of Machine Learning, conversational AI can effectively recommend products based on the product buying history or interest shown by the customer during inquiries. In short, conversational AI enables a smooth customer experience for your customer and brings in more sales to your business without you having to do anything.
Thanks to its ability to work nonstop, conversational AI is actually doing business for you 24x7. You are just not selling during business hours but outside of it too.
A prospective buyer can reach you at any time of the day, especially if it is an international customer. A study by Harvard Business Review found that if businesses do not respond to a lead within the first 5 minutes since the initial contact, the odds of qualifying the leads go down by 400%. Now, who wants that?
As much as having multi-lingual staff is an asset in the customer care team, finding such a team has always been challenging. Apart from other features, conversational AI also eradicates language hurdles for you.
Most AI platforms come with inbuilt language translation software that allows them to identify, translate, and generate almost any language skillfully.
You may argue that conversational AI cannot respond like humans as it lacks feelings and a personal touch. However, it is not merely a robotic, automated response tool for your customers. Instead, it can understand human psychology by analyzing sentiments during conversations and thus responds accordingly.
With the help of NLP (Natural Language Processing), it can successfully categorize a statement as positive, negative, or neutral and detect repetition and sarcasm. This feature makes the whole interaction experience fulfilling.
To survive the cut-throat competition, it is indeed crucial for businesses to stay connected to their consumers/market. And you can only serve your customer better if you know them.
Conversation AI lets you maintain a complete history of what customers want and identify their pain points. It will eventually allow businesses to develop a dynamic business strategy and succeed in the long run.
We live in an era of comfort and convenience for which consumers can probably pay a premium without a second thought. Further stressing the importance of conversational AI, a study published in Finance Digest suggests that by 2025, AI will power 95% of all consumer exchanges, including online conversations and live telephones.
So, what's stopping you from formulating a conversational AI strategy for your business? Remember the famous saying, "If you are not updated, you are soon outdated."