Did you know that a chatbot allows businesses to save up to 40% of customer service costs? When these self-care solutions are efficiently designed and optimized over time, the gains for your customer service become real. For your Internet users, this customer relationship tool is also a relief that greatly improves autonomy.
But before achieving this, you must also avoid errors in the design, management, and optimization of your chatbot. So what are the six unforgivable mistakes that scare off your customers and prospects?
1. Deploy a chatbot without an upstream strategy
Does your brand want to set up a conversational chatbot? Congratulations! You are already planning to interact instantly with your customers; you are looking forward to relieving your customer service and automating the requests addressed to your after-sales service, thanks to artificial intelligence. But before thinking about the use of the tool and its benefits, it is essential to set up a real chatbot strategy.
First, think about the "why." What are the reasons that push you to choose a chatbot? Why do you need it? The appetite of your users for this kind of self-care solution? What would be the role and missions that this tool will have to accomplish?
By defining a clear strategy with precise customer relationship objectives, you will more easily identify the axes of your chatbot to develop. The first strategic work will determine the most recurring contact reasons your tool can automate to best structure your chatbot and its knowledge base.
A hypothesis concerning your bot's resolution scenario should be considered that will have to be validated over time by test and learn to improve your device continuously. All these scenarios must enrich your self-care solution's everyday experience and meet your customers' real needs: here is the primary preliminary step to plan before deploying an effective chatbot.
2. Your chatbot delivers "too much" information.
The main objective of your customer relationship chatbot is to solve the problems of your Internet users throughout your customer journeys on your website. But by wanting to guide the interlocutor in a (too) detailed way, some companies sabotage themselves. Rather than feeling accompanied, the risk is that the Internet user finds himself inundated with useless information. And the consequence can be fatal if the chatbot experience scares a customer or a prospect.
To avoid this catastrophic scenario, we advise you to draw inspiration from the codes of digital conversations, which you may have in your daily life. Consider breaking up long texts into smaller conversational blocks. Before providing additional information, allow the Internet user time to respond or interact using "quick reply" buttons that direct and streamline the conversation in favor of your Internet usage.
To avoid overwhelming the customer or prospect, consider giving them a choice throughout the discussion with your bot. For example, questions like "would you like to know more?" or a referral to other content (such as a dynamic FAQ ) are exciting options to direct your users towards self-care channels more conducive to disseminating dense information.
3. Your chatbot is disseminating information that is too vague.
It is essential to find the right balance in the flow of information to be delivered. For example, if your bot responses are deemed too vague by the Internet user, your tool will not fulfill its mission of providing information and guidance for your users. In the end, satisfaction will not be there. Abandonment of the customer journey then seems inevitable.
Remember that a chatbot must play the role of advisor and virtual assistant. The answers should be personalized if possible: the history with your brand, the tracking of a package, the opening hours of a nearby store, the delivery conditions in times of crisis, etc. Each information must be provided with precision and will maximize the user experience of your solution.
You can also integrate this self-care tool into your company's Information System (IS) or your CRM software. For example, by relying on a customer's purchase history entered in your CRM, you increase your chances of providing relevant information on purchase recommendations or the follow-up of an order.
4. Don't give your chatbot a personality
Within your customer service, all your employees have a different identity and personality. In stores, consumers also appreciate being accompanied by a customer advisor whose name they know. So why should the customer experience be any different online?
To make the exchange as pleasant as possible, we recommend that you give your chatbot a name. Brands often choose a real first name (and sometimes even a photo or an avatar) to "humanize" the relationship. This practice makes it easier to bond and can even boost brand preference.
After naming it, also think about defining the personality of your chatbot. The latter must be consistent with the brand image, positioning, and values. The style of speech will be the means of expression of this personality: attention to the type of language, to the lexical field, to the expressions, to the choice made between the familiar and the formal. All these elements will contribute to the creation of a true story for the chatbot.
However, be careful not to fall into certain behavioral biases. For example, a chatbot with absurd humor could scare your customers away. Do not forget: Internet users come above all to seek severe and valuable answers to their questions!
5. Put aside the process of continuous improvement of your chatbot.
A chatbot does not become an infallible self-care tool overnight. Once online, it is essential to enter into a process of continuous improvement. Phases of tests, iterations, analysis of intentions, and updates must be planned regularly to ensure the quality and relevance of the exchanges delivered.
To continuously improve the chatbot, make listening to customers your number one ally. Your role analyzes the conversations and their success rate, but you can also listen to Internet users by giving them the floor directly. During an exchange, don't hesitate to ask them if the chatbot's responses are helpful. You will then more easily identify the points of friction while giving importance to your customers' opinions.
If you still doubt this essential step, think about the positive benefits generated by the maintenance of your chatbot: better customer knowledge, improvement of the content delivered and your knowledge base, and ultimately of the online help experience. Your customers, predictive behavior analysis, increased conversion and retention rate for your customers. The continuous improvement of the chatbot is the driving force behind its operational efficiency!
6. Replace all human assistance with a chatbot
We cannot say it enough: chatbots are not intended to replace your support teams or human interactions with your customer advisers. An automated solution will never take precedence over human expertise! On the contrary, automation and human expertise combine perfectly for customer relations.
Selfcare helps relieve customer service by meeting Internet user's needs for immediacy and autonomy and can automatically process up to 70% of level 1 requests (low added value requests). Advisors can thus free up time to resolve more complex issues directly with clients.
Chatbots should be seen as "assistants" there to improve human performance and not replace it. When necessary, remember to redirect Internet users to your customer service (live chat, telephone, web-call back, email).
Do you want to improve the experience of your Internet users while relieving your customer service? The chatbot is the preferred self-care solution; if (and only if) it is intelligently designed and regularly optimized! By avoiding these six mistakes, your customers will say thank you.