November 24, 2022

Advantages and disadvantages of Chatbots: everything you need to know

Illustration showing the advantages and disadvantages of Chatbots

Table of content

Everybody knows that conversational chatbots services have revolutionized customer service. According to a study of Gartner, in the next two years, 38% of organizations will plan to implement a chatbot. This means a 40% increase in technology adoption.

But running a chatbot isn't just about implementing AI: you need to make sure your customers have positive experiences. That's where the chatbots with Conversational Artificial Intelligence play a fundamental role.

Importance of customer experience

A recent study shows that more than 30% of customers are willing to abandon a brand after a bad customer service experience.

Bad experiences, in general, are produced by:

  • Lack of empathy on the part of the person responding to the customer
  • Automatic responses without resolution
  • Non-customized solutions, without considering the needs of each particular user
  • Lack of response or excessive waiting times

So what do you need to know when implementing a conversational chatbot and delivering a great customer experience? Here’s a small guide with some advantages and issues to which you must pay special attention.

Advantages: Why are chatbots a powerful partner for your company?

1. They help you get to know your customers

Conversational chatbots can help you get to know your customers even better. They allow you to find out what their most common questions and needs are, as well as the products or services that interest them. They help you make strategic decisions to improve the experience and offer a more personalized service with each interaction.

2. They are a sales machine

Your chatbot can be the perfect partner to promote new products and send proactive notifications to anticipate the needs of your customers. They can also offer immediate assistance to your potential customers and help speed up the buying decision process.

Related article: Engage: How to send proactive discounts on WhatsApp

3. Customer service around the clock

One of the biggest advantages is that chatbots are available 24 hours a day to help customers. In addition, they respond quickly to all the questions they receive. This guarantees two very important things for almost all companies:

  • Satisfied customers with immediate responses and resolutions
  • Human agents focused on more important tasks and without work overload due to excessive consultations during non-working hours

4. They help to optimize costs

Continuing with the previous point, imagine that your agents spend more time answering only the queries that require a human being, wouldn't that be fabulous? Implementing a Chatbot with conversational AI is a great way to automate customer service and improve the service provided by agents, which also leads to cost optimization in the medium term.

5. They offer a personalized experience

All people are very different and their way of communicating too. Therefore, the important thing is to offer an adequate and empathetic response to each query. For example, our Conversational AI allows you to understand informal language and regionalisms, enrich conversations with plugins like images, carousels, and documents, and recognize the intent behind each interaction.

Some points you should pay attention to

1. A chatbot is not a human agent

Yes, this may seem obvious. But you have to remember it. A conversational Chatbot is not the same as a human agent, so it does not always understand a query. Its selection of answers may be limited, depending on the information it has uploaded. There may be times when your interactions seem "robotic."

How do we fix this? Today's AI-based solutions, such as those offered by Aivo, allow you to create a personality for your chatbot and make conversations adapt to the context. You can even teach the chatbot to show empathy based on specific messages or include evasive responses and learn from each interaction.

Bonus tip: Pay special attention to your human agents. When a chatbot can't resolve a query, it's important to have an empathetic and willing human agent to continue the conversation. Availability and willingness to help will make the difference between mediocre customer service and exceptional one. Users expect to meet empathic and approachable humans.

Related article: 8 Critical Customer Service Skills for Live Chat Agents

2. There is an implementation time

This is not a disadvantage, but it is worth remembering that, like all improvements implemented in a company, it takes time until everything is 100% operational and shows real results. Deploying, configuring, and learning of the chatbot can take a while.

How to solve it: The positive aspect is that our solution is no-code, which means that it is not necessary to have a technical team or be a techy to implement and update it. And as we always say, remember that impatience is the enemy of results.

3. They need maintenance from time to time

Chatbots need constant revisions, maintenance, and optimization in terms of their knowledge base and the way they should communicate with customers. The chatbot needs to be fed new and meaningful data (i.e. content) that can answer customer questions and queries.

How is this fixed? This process does not have to be a headache if you know the tool and use it to your advantage. For example, our solution has a Training section, where you can teach the chatbot new content to improve customer satisfaction using any queries that have not been answered.

Related article: The Complete Guide to Marketing Chatbots

So, should I implement a chatbot?

In general, conversational chatbots are simpler than other types of chatbots. That being said, today you can choose friendly and intuitive platforms that do not require a large investment or too much time.

The most complex part is done once you teach the chatbot to interact with your customers and have the tone you want; then you will only have to keep it updated. This is not much compared to everything that the chatbot can do for your company:

  • Improve your customer satisfaction
  • Increase sales
  • Get valuable data
  • Optimize costs

Automating your customer service with conversational AI will always be a beneficial step for your company and your customers.

Do you want to know more about our customer service solutions? Book a demo of the product now and discover all the opportunities that a chatbot with conversational AI can give you.

Are you looking for new ways to improve your CX?

Our customer service solutions powered by conversational AI can help you deliver an efficient, 24/7 experience  to your customers. Get in touch with one of our specialists to further discuss how they can help your business.