Leveraging Chatbots to Improve Customer Experience

One of the priorities for companies when it comes to customer experience is building relationships with customers. That’s why it’s so important to understand what chatbots are, how they work, and how they improve customer experience.

A chatbot is a messaging software that simulates human conversation through text or voice interactions. The more “advanced” the artificial intelligence powering the chatbot, the better its ability to understand and interact with the user.

Integrating a chatbot can provide a significant competitive advantage as it reduces response times, optimizes the work of customer support employees, and lowers costs. Let’s explore what chatbots are, how they work, and how to choose the best chatbots to integrate.

What Are Chatbots?

We’ve mentioned that a chatbot is messaging software that enables a conversation between customers and businesses. We’ve also discussed omnichannel customer experience and how important it is to ensure customers have a consistent presence across all communication channels.

The features of a chatbot fulfill these needs and are particularly useful for three main functions:

• Gathering customer information and relaying it to the service department.
• Providing user support.
• Managing certain types of real-time operations, such as online reservations or checking shipment status.

The Three Phases of How a Chatbot Operates

Speaking of chatbots and how they work, we can identify three main phases:

• The user directs a message to the chatbot through one of the company’s communication channels (such as the website or app).
• The chatbot receives the message and “interprets” its content, gathering all the necessary information to process the request. It then uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand the user’s message.
• The chatbot offers a response based on what it has “decoded” and sends it back to the user through the same channel. The conversation can continue until the issue is resolved or a customer support agent intervenes.

Transition Chatbots vs. Conversational Chatbots

Chatbots can fall into two major types:

• Transition Chatbots.
• Conversational Chatbots.

Transition chatbots are rule-based and command-driven. The inputs they receive are very basic, leveraging elementary instructions like if/then.

This type of tool can recognize certain phrases and provide a response based on its rule system. It specializes in generating automated responses for questions that don’t involve complex variables, thus offering limited improvement in interaction.

Conversational chatbots, on the other hand, are more advanced tools based on machine learning. As they are used, these programs ‘hone’ their comprehension capabilities based on interactions with users. In this case, we’re talking about ‘virtual assistants’ since conversational chatbots can apply predictive intelligence to understand conversations, context, and responses in line with customer expectations.

How Freshdesk’s Customer Experience Chatbot Works

If you’re looking for a system to enhance conversations with your customers and optimize the customer experience, Freshdesk can help you achieve that.

With Freshdesk, you can have:

• All conversations from multiple channels in one place.
• A system that automates responses, streamlining operator tasks.
• An approach to providing instant solutions to problems, improving the customer experience.
• Proactive customer support, anticipating user needs.

If you want to start managing conversations with your customers, improve customer experience, and reduce costs, begin by installing Freshdesk. To learn how, request your free initial consultation.