How to Know When to Use Chatbots vs Live Chat

How to Know When to Use Chatbots vs Live Chat

Further, 45% of customers say they prefer chatbots for customer service inquiries. Chatbots and live chat representatives work well together. Response time You don’t want to make your customers wait. In some instances, a chatbot can transfer the conversation to a customer service representative. However, at times you’ll need to transfer those inquiries to a human. Conversions Ultimately, you want your customers to convert after reaching out to your customer support via whatever option they choose. Now you just need to determine whether you’re going to use human representatives or chatbots to handle this communication. Chatbots will provide an instant response, but live chat agents are still faster than your current methods of customer support. Chatbots are available 24/7, which won’t be the case for actual agents. Are you planning to use chatbots, live chat agents, or a combination of both to improve customer communication on your website?

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How are you currently communicating with your customers?

If calling, emailing, or submitting a form on your website are the only means for your customers to reach you, you need to get with the times and make some changes.

Offering live chat on your website is a better way to provide customer service.

According to studies, 73% of consumers say live chat is their most preferred method of communication.

This ranked highest compared to other methods. In fact, 61% of consumers said they preferred email, 48% preferred social media and only 44% preferred phone.

Furthermore, live chat had a 92% satisfaction rating.

This was also the highest satisfaction rating compared to other forms of customer support.

It’s clear your company needs to have this feature on your website. But how do you implement it? You’ve got two choices: chatbots or live chat representatives.

Chatbots are computer-generated responses. They allow customers to receive answers to their questions via AI software.

Experts predict that by 2020, 85% of consumers will be able to manage their relationships with brands without human interaction.

And 80% of businesses are either currently using AI or planning to use AI for customer service in the next two years. Further, 45% of customers say they prefer chatbots for customer service inquiries.

With this technology on the rise, you need to have marketing skills to survive in the age of AI.

Grand View Research expects the global market size for chatbots to hit $1.25 billion by the year 2025, with a 24.3% compounded annual growth rate.

You need to decide whether you will use chatbots or an actual human to type responses to customers on your website.

People ask me which option is better all the time. The reality is each one has its pros and cons.

Chatbots and live chat representatives work well together. I’ll explain when it’s best to use one over the other in this guide.

I’ll go through some factors and scenarios to help you decide the best fit for your website.

Response time

You don’t want to make your customers wait. That’s a big problem when it comes to customer service.

We’ve all been there—sitting on hold on the phone for what feels like a lifetime waiting to talk to someone.

Live chat drastically reduces wait times. In fact, 79% of consumers say they prefer live chat because they get their questions answered immediately.

Just look at these average response times of live chat compared to social media and email:

response time
Live chat blows these other methods out of the water in terms of speed.

But it’s still not perfect.

Believe it or not, 21% of live chat support requests are ignored by businesses.

While live chat has a fast response time, it can still be improved.

On the other hand, chatbots have an instant response. Upon a customer posting an inquiry, a chatbot can generate an answer within seconds. This gets the conversation going right away.

If you’re looking for the fastest response times, chatbots win. But live chat will still be faster than the other options you’re using.

My recommendation is to use a combination of the two options.

When a customer begins a chat session, start with a chatbot to give them an instant reply. This bot can gather preliminary information about the inquiry until a representative becomes available.

Chatbots can also make sure the customer gets transferred to the right representative who is qualified to answer their question.

I’ll talk more about how chatbots and live chat representatives can work together further in this guide.

Cost efficiency

Your business decisions need to be cost-effective. Live chat will help reduce costs compared to phone support.

In fact, studies show that it’s 17-33% less expensive to communicate with a customer via live chat than phone calls.

Live chat agents have the ability to multitask and help several customers at the same time. This can’t be done over the phone.

Implementing live chat will improve your operational efficiency.

You’ve got to determine how much this new technology will cost you. Here’s a look at some average prices to give you an idea of what to expect:

cost

The pricing will depend on many factors, such as the number of agents you’re paying and the times they’re available.

It will also vary depending on whether you’re paying staff in-house to handle these inquiries or outsourcing this service to a general customer service agency.

If you’re paying more than $20 per month per user, I’d say that’s expensive.

Outsourcing support to a customer service agency will be cheaper, but you may lose some quality of the responses compared to those given by one of your own employees.

How many employees will you need to handle your…

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