Hello Everyone, I was wondering what you all think about chatbots?
Hello Everyone,
I was wondering what you all think about chatbots?
How much do you know about them (please answer even if you have no idea what they are)
- Can you see a chatbot as the main product in SaaS business?
- What extra values besides information can a chatbot add?
Thank you very much
TL;DR: Chatbots can be useful but with some huge caveats. See below:
If you are using chatbots, please make sure you tell the customer when they start a chat. Nothing pisses me more than the fact that it pretends to be a real person but the moment I start chatting, it becomes a robot. Not cool. Just be honest and upfront that you are a chatbot. I promise I will be nice.
Make your intention clear that you can only help with questions that are straight forward. If you have not been able to answer a question within 2-3 tries, then please send me to someone who is a human being or take my message and pass it along to a real person.
That's it. if you can do that, I would be ok with chatbots. I don't care about AI and "smart" chatbots. You can never be human. Accept it and work accordingly.
Hi @codegeek1001
I saw your focus was also on customer service chatbots. While that is not the only use of chatbots I still disagree in some regards of your perspective.
Saying the bot will never be human like is well just false. Trust me when I say technology (especially AI) is advancing faster than most think. Chatbots will soon be able to account for 98% of every problem a customer might have. I am not smart enough to define "soon" any better though :)
Saying that. I do agree with you that at least for the moment, every chatbot should definitely state that they are bots and be honest and straight forward.
I thank you for your answer.
Some fair points. But I am not quite on the AI bandwagon yet so I still prefer the human touch point for support. More old school when it comes to support but you have made some good points.
Please, no more chat bots.
It creates the feeling that you are literally sitting there chatting with a person, when in reality it's not like that. It creates the expectation for the end user that you will give them in answer, right then and there.
We've used Intercom on https://cgcookie.com for years. We don't remove it because people expect it.
We use intercom on https://blendermarket.com for the same reason.
I do not use it on my side project https://sport-keeper.com and we do not use it on our newest project https://mavenseed.com
New projects, no live chat. We use email with FrontApp and that's that.
@nphaskins Thank you for your reply. I can see your answer is focused strictly on Chatbot customer communication. While this is at the moment the most used application for chatbots, I was expecting such responses.
Customer communication is however not the only application of a chatbot. The reason they are gaining popularity and growing in the market is that the belief is that at some point businesses won't need their own applications but simply chatbot inside Messenger, Whats app or a similar product. People are spending 90% of their phone time on messaging apps and being able to pay/order and virtually do whatever from a messaging app is the gold mine here.
Back to customer communication. While I do disagree with you that you didn't find added value in your chatbots (not a clear one at least). I do value your opinion and would like to ask you about it a bit more.
You said, "We don't remove it because people expect it." Could you elaborate on this a bit more? What do you mean people expect it. They expect a live chat to be there? Yes, I believe that helps give a customer a sort of satisfaction that they will be helped if they will need it.
And regarding a chatbot giving an impression of being a live human being. Yes, I do agree that at the moment chatbots should say they are not human. But trust me when I say Technology advances faster than most imagine. Not so far from now, no one will be able to tell the difference between a bot and a human.
Thanks again for your answer
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Chat bots can be good for certain verticals.
When you're in the service-industry, people want the illusion at least that they will get faster service, so this is one way to capture a lead that otherwise wouldn't call.
With products though, like https://thebeardedvets.com people will either make the decision based on what they briefly read and impulse buy, or bounce entirely.