Chatbot support

What are chatbots and how do they work?

In the simplest terms, a chatbot is an automated service that lets customers interact with it via a text channel. The bot then generates responses based on what customers tell or ask it. Chatbots mimic human conversation, which is where the “chat” part of their name comes from.

Customer service chatbots are perhaps the most common kind. They can allow companies to provide AI customer service, which is available round-the-clock and can resolve simple queries easily.

Typically, chatbots work by searching for keywords in customers’ messages. They then generate pre-approved responses based on those keywords. For example, if you ask a customer support chatbot “why won’t my device power up”, the bot will likely recognise “power up” and provide you with helpful tips or links to guides for resolving those kinds of problems.

The smartest and most modern chatbots utilise conversational AI, which allows them to carry out more complex interactions without human input.

Advanced chatbot features (and much more) with Dialpad

Anyone searching for a robust chatbot in customer service should consider Dialpad. These features are the reason why:

Examples of chatbots in customer support

Let’s look at some practical examples of industries that are using chatbots for customer service. This list is not exhaustive; the possibilities when it comes to delivering a personalised customer experience via AI are hugely diverse, after all.

Healthcare

Medical professionals and healthcare providers are arguably amongst the most time-poor of any professionals. The time-saving advantages of chatbots, therefore, are of obvious benefit in this industry.

There are a wide range of potential applications of chatbots in healthcare that span from simple uses to far more complex alternatives.

At one end of the scale, a chatbot can act as an informational resource. Someone may enter a question like “what are the symptoms of diabetes?” and the chatbot can provide an answer. Other chatbots may integrate with calendar tools and make it easier for patients to book appointments.

So-called “prescriptive chatbots”, meanwhile, sit at the more complex end of the spectrum. These tools interact with patients and aim to assist with treatment. Woebot, developed by Stanford University, is a prime example. It uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide those with mental health problems “someone” to talk to.

Real estate

Estate agents and others in the property industry are often busy jumping from appointment to appointment, and spend little time in the office. That is, assuming they have an office, as some property companies do now operate entirely virtually.

Chatbots, therefore, can help these professionals and businesses to provide the kind of service prospective buyers and sellers expect. A chatbot on a real estate website can perform a range of useful tasks including:

• Collecting contact information from prospective clients so an agent can reach out to them.

• Providing users with helpful information about rental or purchase processes, individual properties, and more.

• Guiding would-be buyers to book appointments with agents or property viewings.

• Collecting rental applications which agents can then collate and assess.

Banking and financial services

Security is paramount to companies in the financial services industry, which is why using a chatbot to process queries and run security checks is a great idea. Chatbots can’t steal personal information, and they can be protected from breaches and other malicious attacks.

Alongside security, another advantage of chatbots in financial services lies in how they can improve customer experience.

By providing rapid response to enquiries and playing a part in the automation of some processes, chatbots make banking and other transactions simpler. What’s more, they make them available outside of—what can be quite restrictive—traditional opening hours.

How can your business use chatbots as a customer support solution?

Of course, simply stating that you want to implement a customer support chatbot platform for your website doesn’t mean that you know precisely what you want that bot to do.

The following uses for chatbots will ensure you’re able to adopt a stronger approach to customer support. They’ll also help you provide the best possible experience to your valued customers:

Answer customer questions 24/7

One huge advantage of a customer support chatbot service is that it’s a support tool that never needs to be unavailable. You can use chatbots to provide non-stop support to your customers.

This is particularly useful to small companies that don’t have enough resources to hire customer support teams around the world or around the clock.

Instead of trying to keep a contact centre staffed at all hours, these businesses can simply use a chatbot to ensure they’re always available to customers (at least for simple queries), even outside of business hours.

Take the pressure off your human agents

Customer support chatbot software isn’t designed to replace, but rather to support, human agents.

This is because it helps filter the queries that your agents have to deal with. They won’t be asked to explain the same basic procedure many times per day anymore once you’ve got a chatbot to do it for them, for example.

The end result is a team of human agents with more time to spend on cases only they can handle. They’ll also be less stressed as they do so, because they won’t have a mountain of tickets waiting for them each time they resolve one.

Bolster your lead generation

A customer support AI chatbot service for websites can also prove to be a useful tool for lead generation.

That’s because these bots help you gather intel on your customers and build a better picture of what matters to them. As well as helping to improve the customer experience, those insights can also help your marketing and sales teams.

By better understanding your present customers, their pain points, and what matters to them, it’s easier then to both identify and nurture leads into becoming future customers.

Want to provide better chatbot support for your customers?

Chatbot support is a great addition to your customer service arsenal. However, wouldn’t it be better if it were an integrated part of your overall support offering, and not a tack-on?

This is exactly what you get when you choose Dialpad Ai Contact Centre. Powered by Dialpad Ai, our solution can bring all your internal and external communication channels—chatbots included—under one umbrella.

Everything’s easy to set-up, access, and use day-to-day. Including the chatbot support that you can build with just a few clicks and absolutely no coding.