Rise of Chatbots

A chatbot is basically a computer program designed to simulate conversions with human users, especially over the internet. It is a piece of software that is being designed to automate a specific task. In other words, chatbot is a service, powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence that you interact with via a chat interface. Chatbots are generally used in applications such as e-commerce customer service, call centers, and internet gaming.

A chatbot can provide many functions and can be hosted in major chat platforms like Facebook messenger, text messaging and many others. A chatbot works in much the same way as a human occupy a help desk. When a customer has opened a chat dialogue to ask for help, the Chabot is a medium of responding. A chatbot would immediately respond in the same way as a human would. For example, if a customer typed the question ‘what time does your store will open tomorrow morning?’ with using the information available the chatbot will respond that ‘our store will open at 9 am and close at 5 pm.’ Siri in the iPhones is also a chatbot, a response is given in natural conversational replies. Messaging chatbots may help many businesses to improve customer service, sell more products and services and also earn more or higher profits.

Chatbots help you to give access to where your customers are: messaging apps. Over 2.5 billion people are using chat based apps, and also they are outpacing the growth of the four largest social networks. Nowadays, people are more likely to spend more time on messaging apps rather than social networking sites and that is a huge turning point.

Here are some of the critical ways through which chatbots are transforming the marketing strategy and how business can capitalize on the current conversational trend, they are explained below;

1. Engagement beyond clicks:-

• Engagement with a chatbot is an active conversation with the user.
• In traditional online advertising, we call a click of an ad or play a video engagement.
• The interaction with the users through chatbots leaves an entertaining experience, a better understanding of the brand and a positive emotional feeling too.
• Many times, we see many users enjoying so much that they share it with their friends via screen-shot conversations, updating profile pictures and linking in conversations too, which is an easy to do as these chatbots live on top of social networks.

2. Asking users specific questions:-

• In this highly personal and conversational setting, chatbots can also ask questions that could not be fielded by traditional ads.
• Some of the questions which are socially acceptable and even are welcome in chatbot interactions are as follows –
  • Where do you live?
  • What music do you like? or
  • Where’s your dream travel destination?
• In some cases, the chatbot asked the users a series of questions such as name, address or political affiliation that the user happily answered.
• Rather than driving potential users to the landing pages, companies are creating and driving users to chatbots for better engagement.

3. Opportunities for personalization:-

• Nowadays, brands are trying to seek ways to appeal to users personally, whether through programmatic display ads, retargeting or direct mail.
• Ads have become more targeted over the time.
• With the help of chatbots, brands can personalize a conversation to the individual.
• Also, businesses can also remember and refer to the personal information in future conversations to further customize user’s experiences.
• In practice, companies must strike a responsible balance between personalization and privacy.

4. Bringing your brand personality to life:-

• A branded chatbot becomes a living entity that can charge personality into conversations.
• Traditional ads are pushed upon an unwilling or uninterested viewer while chatbots pull users to engage with them.
• Even B2B companies participate too.
• Strategically implemented and well-designed chatbot can tell your brand story, re-engage audiences, facilitate commerce and grow your business too.
• Thus, chatbots can bring your brand personality to life.

Chatbots allow brands to connect with users on a deeper level, while also allowing users to feel in command of the conversation. If a chatbot is being strategically implemented, it can tell your brand’s story to a limitless audience via an intimate one to one conversation. This has the potential to be a true game changer. The success of chatbots operating within messaging systems is becoming more obvious, with many organizations acquiring or securing their rewards. Therefore, these helpful little robots make dry tasks surprisingly fun, like chatting with a possible nearby friend.