How to Use Chatbots for Business
Chatbots for business are the next progression in digital marketing. Chatbots are beginning to be recognised as an important part of any marketing strategy, irrespective of the size or industry of an organization.
Chatbots can serve several purposes, from providing basic information to booking hotels. If you’re wondering how you could incorporate your own chatbot in to your marketing and businesses, take a look at the below ideas.
Catch up on what you may have missed;
- – Getting Started with Chatbots
- – The Benefits of Facebook Messenger
- – 7 Examples of Businesses Using Chatbots
1. Managing Their Account
Chatbots for business are the next natural step after mobile apps. Consumers no longer want to download apps, instead, it’s much easier to have quick contact with all brands through one platform, Facebook Messenger.
It makes much more sense for consumers to change their given information via Messenger, where their identity can already be verified through their Facebook profile, than asking customers to sign in every time they use your mobile app.
To make your customer’s lives a whole lot easier, your Chatbot could allow customers to;
- – Make changes to their account
- – Update billion information
- – Update their email address and personal details
- – Manage and check on orders
Your chatbot won’t be able to do everything a human helper could do, so you can always let customers know they have the option to converse with human representatives.
Basic tasks, like the above, will free up time for your human representatives to focus on more complex tasks that a bot couldn’t fulfil. You’ll be saving valuable resources, as well as helping your customers handle their account without any hassle.
2. Building a Strong Relationship
With your own business bot, you have the freedom to be as creative as you’d like with its personality.
Catch attention by designing your bot to not only assist but to entertain your target market. Use your bot to increase brand awareness, loyalty and likeability. For example;
- – Tell jokes
- – Offer useful tips and suggestions
- – Share your fact of the day
- – Send industry news that may be of interest
- – Suggest looking at guides, useful blog posts, articles
The more friendly and approachable your bot, the more likely it is consumers will come back and encourage their peers (your target market) to participate.
3. Offer Special Discounts and Deals
This will be particularly important during the introductory phase of your chatbot. You need consumers to know you have a bot in place to help their needs.
Use discounts and special offers to encourage engagement and get a ‘feeler’ of your chat bot out there.
For example, design a Facebook banner advertising 15% of a meal if consumers use your chatbot to book a reservation at your restaurant.
You don’t necessarily need to offer a discount to products or services, perhaps just advertise the benefits of your bot or simply that you have one ready for consumers to try.
Once your bot is up and running, it’s probable there will be things about it you want to change to give customers a better experience. Don’t be disheartened if at first your bot isn’t as successful as you hoped, altering your welcome message and tone of voice could be all you need to turn your bot in to a huge success.
4. FAQ and Information Source
As a business, there are probably some questions you’re just sick of answering. After your initial welcome message to consumers, you could ask them if they’d like to see a list of your FAQs, frequently asked questions.
Typically, these will be;
- – Opening hours
- – Lists of products and services
- – Location
- – Contact number and email
- – Prices, special deals
- – Brand information
- – Story telling
- – Newsletter subscriptions
Again, using chatbots for business will save time. It will improve your consumers experience since they can quickly find the information they’re seeking.
Some customers will just want to get the relevant information and exit your chat. And that’s OK, if a consumer has one intention, for example finding your opening hours, there’s no point beating around the bush before you give them the information they want.
If customers can quickly find the material they’re looking for, you’ll start to become recognised as a brand that’s helpful, resourceful and bother free!
Get Started!
We’ve designed our own simple bot to give you some insight to how they work … give it a try!
About the author:
Marie Harwood is a Digital Marketing Assistant at Different Gravy Digital, Hale, Cheshire.
Different Gravy Digital are a full service Digital Marketing Agency operating in the Hospitality & Leisure, Financial Services, Legal & Property sectors. Products and services range from; 3D & 360° Tours, Website Design & Build, Social Media, Video Production, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Creation, Email Marketing, Online Feedback / Review Systems and Paid Advertising (Google, Bing and Social Media).
Contact Details:
marie@differentgravydigital.co.uk
0161 706 0004
120a Ashley Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2UN