December 2, 2021

5 reasons to use a chatbot in Telecommunications

Illustration showing the challenges of using chatbots in telecommunications

Table of content

New technologies, such as artificial intelligence, chatbots, and machine learning, are transforming the way companies and organizations operate. Various industries are taking advantage of the benefits they can provide, and the telecommunications industry is no exception.

There is a looming reality: the way people communicate with these companies is changing.

Some of the biggest telecom players are using AI-powered bots to improve customer experiences with better speed and quality of service. Not only this, artificial intelligence is also helping companies proactively detect, predict and fix network anomalies and reduce operational costs.

Global telecom AI is forecast to reach $1 billion by 2023, growing at a 32% CAGR during 2018-2023.

Let's talk about how conversational AI chatbots can revolutionize the telecom industry and why you should take advantage of them.

How AI-powered chatbots are changing the telecommunications industry

Most established telecommunications companies have huge user bases, which means they receive a steady stream of customer requests throughout the day. While some users are looking for help setting up their equipment, others are complaining that something is not working right, and so on.

The situation is more complex for these companies because people expect instant solutions. This can be a big problem for agents, as sometimes there are different obstacles to responding instantly:

  • They may have a poor internet connection
  • They may have an excess of open cases
  • May take longer than expected with a particular case that is more complex than expected.

That's why most telecom companies offer 24/7 customer service that costs a lot of money. Leveraging AI-powered chatbot platforms seems like a great solution for this.

In the telecommunications sector, chatbots can perform several functions without constant human intervention. They can:

  • Handle customer requests that are repetitive, such as inquiries about recharge plans, pricing, coverage areas, basic configuration procedures, etc.
  • Reduce waiting times.
  • Redirect customer requests to the appropriate departments.
  • Assist 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • Remind customers to renew before their current plans expire.
  • Collect customer feedback.
  • Conversational AI chatbots offer a host of benefits, such as increased user interaction, improved customer satisfaction, and cost savings.

IMAGEN

With advances in technology and increasing service standards, telecom companies need to include chatbots to improve performance. With their help, they can make their customers happy with immediate and human responses to their service.

Why do Telecommunications companies need conversational AI chatbots?

Telecommunications companies use chatbots to provide good customer experiences and resolve issues without them having to talk to a human agent. They also ensure that customers don't have to endure long waits and endless options.

The telecommunications company, Movistar, reduced its customer service costs by more than 30% using our AI-powered chatbot. They wanted to give their bot a personality that would make anyone feel comfortable when looking for help.

Find out more about Movistar's success story.

Its virtual assistant is an expert in Movistar products and services. It comes with a human-like empathy that helped the company build trust and drive user engagement.

The conversational AI chatbot not only interacts with its customers but also with its systems and web services. It provides them with specific information about lines and their statuses through integrations with their platform, which are crucial to delivering a truly personalized experience.

Recommended article: The importance of integrations when implementing a chatbot

With the addition of its AI-powered chatbot to its customer service team, the telecommunications company:

  • Reduced customer service costs by more than 30%.
  • Increased self-service key performance indicators.
  • Delivered a fully omnichannel experience to its customers.
  • Gained new customers through digital channels.
  • Achieved rapid ROI growth.
  • Increased customer retention rate to over 80%.

IMAGEN

Chatbots like Movistar's are transforming the telecommunications industry. In addition to offering common benefits such as 24/7 support and cost reduction, chatbots can also help in:

  1. Facilitate fluid and transparent communication.

Many customer requests may need to be transferred to other departments. Customers sometimes find it annoying to wait for their call to be transferred between departments and have to explain their problem to different people. In addition, they expect that the first person they speak to will be able to solve their problem.

Chatbots can play an important role in these situations. As the primary point of contact, a chatbot can help customers communicate with an expert who can solve their problems.

The bot can collect basic information about your customers and their problems, including details such as the following:

  • If the person is a new customer or is already using the services.
  • Whether they have an individual or corporate account.
  • The account number.
  • Whether the problem is related to general information, finance, technical failures, etc.
  • More details about the problem, e.g. slow connection, overload, etc.

In this way, chatbots can solve simpler problems on their own. For more complex problems, they can connect the customer to a human operator and bring the operator up to speed on the customer's problem.

Using chatbots with conversational AI will ensure that your customers do not need to repeat your information and can experience seamless communication.

  1. Overcoming language barriers

Customers tend to use natural and informal language when communicating with companies and service teams.

Conversational AI chatbots understand spelling errors as well as regionalisms. This makes them an ideal resource for your customer service team.

AgentBot's natural language understanding engine helps interpret natural language and understand what users mean. The bot also learns from every interaction it has with customers through machine learning.

It can help you create a chatbot that integrates human empathy and understanding of everyday dialogues to improve communications with your customers.

3. Provide an omnichannel service

Gone are the days when customers only asked for help over the phone. Today, they also use social networks, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, and web chats to interact with brands.

In this scenario, allowing your customers to communicate through their preferred channel is essential to provide efficient and personalized support.

Conversational AI chatbots are a great ally to achieve this. In just a few clicks, you can get your virtual assistant up and running on multiple channels while providing the same experience on each without additional effort from your team.

The AgentBot, for example, automatically adapts responses across all messaging channels for instant and seamless service. Thus, all conversations are stored on the same platform, no matter where they come from. This will allow your agents to access the history of conversations with each user to learn about their past issues and needs.

4. Increase conversions

Chatbots can collect data about how a customer interacts with them. Based on chat conversation logs with different users, you can provide them with personalized offers.

Customers are more likely to upgrade their current plan when they receive personalized offers. The chatbot can redirect them to a specific page on your website to take advantage of an offer.

These offers can make customers feel valued and can help you develop customer loyalty. At the same time, you will also be able to sell more and increase the average order value to generate more revenue.

The availability of 24/7 support also impresses customers and helps you get referral customers, which is a good sign for the company. You can increase conversions with bots that guarantee good speed and quality customer service.

5. Expedite the payment of invoices

Customers of telecommunications companies often encounter billing errors in their contracts, leading to disreputable customer service.

You can optimize the billing and payment collection process by implementing a conversational AI chatbot. It can help you connect with your customers through automated messages on their preferred channels and proactively alert them when they have a service due or a debt.

Aivo's end-to-end solutions use text messaging, chatbots and voice bots that can help you save on operational costs, reduce checkout times and improve your customers' experiences.

Conclusion

If you want to increase customer retention and acquire more customers, the best way is to keep them happy. To do this, you need to provide good customer experiences with quick resolutions and smooth communication.

As we mentioned, leveraging conversational AI chatbots can help you gain an edge over other telecommunications companies. We recommend you turn these emerging technologies into a resource to accelerate your company's growth.

If you want to know more about this topic, schedule a demo now and start taking advantage of our solutions in your company.

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.