For any business to survive and thrive in the market, offering high-end products and services is indeed a prerequisite. However, extending exceptional service to its customers is a key differentiator and contributor to any business's success. This operation was primarily managed by manpower until digital disruption emerged at the forefront. Ever since then, AI-driven chatbots have gained prominence.
Chatbots have now taken over the routine tasks and have relieved humans from these mundane responsibilities so that they can focus on the important aspects of managing operations and strategization. It is expected that this pace of AI adoption will surge in the times to come. Gartner in its recent reports states this very trend and highlights that technological advancements in AI and ML are pushing businesses at the global level to rethink their marketing and selling strategies. The dire need of the hour is to leverage new-age solutions. Chatbots backed by Artificial Intelligence being one of the prominent ones will be increasingly used for offering exceptional customer experiences in the times to come.
Pandemic paving the way for AI adoption
The pandemic outbreak had a major role to play in the rising popularity of chatbots. Research and Markets highlighted this trend in its recent report which states that due to the coronavirus, organizations have been increasingly adopting chatbots to cope with the transition in remote working and ensure seamless operations.
Adding to it, the new-age customers are well-informed and digitally literate. Hence, they demand tech-savvy customer experiences. Understanding this requirement and aiming to fulfill it effectively, businesses have been keen to adopt bots as an effective solution.
Rising popularity of WhatsApp chatbots
What is indeed noteworthy is that ever since WhatsApp Business came into existence, its integration with chatbots was devised as an innovative strategy. This approach has now emerged to be a game-changer for businesses. They have been able to connect effectively and engage with their customer base by leveraging the power of conversational AI.
WhatsApp presently boasts of an active user base of 2 billion across the globe. According to Market Watch’s reports, the global chatbot market is estimated to reach $5638.64 million by the end of 2023 and will grow at a CAGR of 34.64%. WhatsApp chatbots occupy a significant share in the global market. The report further states that the APAC region is an emerging market and India specifically will show exceptional growth in the future. The study also points out that businesses across industries are treading on the path of WhatsApp chatbots adoption to reach one step closer to their goals of offering bespoke customer experiences.
AI-enabled chatbots emerge to be new-age sales representative for brands
Be it effective communication, instant query resolution, or offering personalized experiences, AI-enabled chatbots of any type and format have left no stone unturned to take over the responsibilities of a salesperson. They have been helping businesses to offer high-end experiences to the customers.
Fostering personalised communication
Chatbots help gather valuable data about the customers such as their location, previous history, the device used, etc. This can further be harnessed to offer customers the experiences that they demand and require. The bots backed by Artificial Intelligence thus play the role of a sales executive in the digital space and help businesses in facilitating personalized communication with their customers.
Garnering leads and ensuring conversions
Adding to it, the interactive messages templates offered by WhatsApp chatbot providers help businesses ensure customer engagement. They also help generate leads by integrating digital ads with a clear ‘Call To Action’ to the WhatsApp landing page. This further paves the way for greater conversions and boosted sales.
Fulfilling responsibility of a sales executive
In scenarios, when customer servicing executives are burdened with the workload, stuck with urgent deadlines, or need time off to focus on important tasks, bots can bridge the gaps. They adorn the role of online sales representative and communicate with customers instantly as well as help in resolving their concerns effectively.
Offering assistance during the onboarding of recruited resources
Conversational AI can also be utilized to offer the right guidance in the quick onboarding of freshly recruited sales executives. Any new employee would need time to understand the organizational working as well as the protocols of communicating with customers and resolving their queries. In such scenarios, chatbots can be used to assist the new talents and mentor them for effective customer servicing.
Future of businesses
Even in this tech-driven world, many customers still prefer human communication over conversation with chatbots. Hence, for complex issues and critical situations, manpower is required as humans offer protected, focused, and personalized experiences to the customers. Adding to it, dealing with clients who are experiencing issues or are looking for specific assistance along with product reviewing and categorization is something that can be done efficiently solely by humans. Hence, relying on technology for such intricate and sensitive tasks wouldn’t be a feasible solution.
But the fact of the matter is that chatbots perform as efficiently as humans and are at par with them when it comes to customer servicing. Hence, there have been various debates about bots replacing humans and the advanced solution of automation robbing people off from their employment opportunities. However, this won’t be the case! In fact, AI-human collaboration will drive the future of businesses. Chatbots have indeed emerged to be the new-age sales representative for brands in the digital space but they would never be able to overpower humans. Hence, it would be appropriate to say that AI-empowered chatbots and human intelligence will co-exist in the times ahead and will play a pivotal role in ensuring that businesses have a promising future.
(The writer is Founder Whizard API and The Viral Pitch)
