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Chatbots are software technologies, which are able to automate certain tasks as well as help to conduct effective interactions between humans and computers. Today all around the world, bots are taking over the customer service functions in companies. Their 24/7 availability enhances and optimizes the process for further results. Be it customer redressal, or ease in surfing a website. Chatbots have had a major implication on the traffic of a given website and its bounce rate. We have come to a point where luxury is the way of life, and the invention of chatbots facilitates the same. And this has prompted top technology giants such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft to enter the arena with their bot platforms.

Popularity of chatbots

In fact, the popularity of chatbots has increased to such a level that they are being tipped as the latest killer app. These sophisticated programs can continue a conversation with people on various text messaging platforms like Slack, Telegraph, Facebook Messenger among others. Recently, messaging has surged ahead of social media platforms in terms of usage. So it appears that companies will take advantage of this opportunity and deeply their automated chatbots into such environments. A large number of fresh chat to platforms have made their appearances. The most well-known among them being Facebook whose Facebook Messenger Application Programming Interface is doing remarkably well.

Though there has been a heavy promotion for chatbots in recent years, in practice, the use of chatbots can be frustrating to some extent.

Generation one of these bots has been developed by building a set of rules. So, when a user asks any question that is not within the scope of the defined rule set, the chatbot will respond by saying that it does not understand the question. But the new generation of Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots have started making their presence felt. They come with the ability to learn while being used. It is evident that an AI-powered chatbot will not be launched until the time it has undergone extensive training.

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Application of chatbots

There has been a great deal of excitement in several organizations with the prospect of the application of the bots. Well developed and extensively trained chatbots can play the role of sales assistants and help desks for providing valuable support to the customers. They can also assist in the creation of completely new businesses. All these can be predicted on the increasing popularity of the various messaging platforms. This can further represent the comeback of a one-on-one personal communication provided one of these participants is a bit.

It is one approach to building the bots, however, many organizations may wish to purchase only one and then train it so that it can operate well within their domain. As the chatbots will get developed in the future, they are expected to be even more intelligent. Moreover, you will be able to see closer integration between the analytical applications and AI. Such advancements will enable a sales chatbot to offer product recommendations. Moreover, a bot for the helpdesk will be able to diagnose problems.

There are some chatbot platforms, which can provide support for voice-based applications. This is expected to become a regular feature through simple text appears to be a preferred mode of communication.

As the manufacturing sector has been making extensive use of physical robots for improving their physical robots, the demand for chatbots as virtual bots are also gaining prominence in the domain where computers and humans interact.

Two-fold Benefit (Customer and Company) 

Chatbots have changed the face of customer query redressal, especially in Qatar; since it is a growing IT landscape. Gone are the days when customers had to wait in long phone ques listening to the monotonous recorded message. Today, all a customer has to do is hop on to the company's website or application and quickly type in a query to have it redressed in mere seconds.

Example;

Popular food-delivery application, Zomato-Qatar, uses the same mechanism to redress delivery-related customer queries and achieves maximum customer satisfaction.

From the company's point of view, it allows them to figure out frequently asked questions and have scripted answers ready with the bot to reduce customer query lying in their database.

For example, a SaaS company could have a few FAQs ready with their answer scripts that the bot can directly answer to the customer. In case the query persists, they can later lodge a further redressal mechanism via the same channel.

In addition to process optimization, ChatBots also allows increased customer interaction and knowledge. Earlier, we had to call a big list of customers to gather data and create a system accordingly. But these changing times have brought forth a more relaxed way of collecting customer information for the database. Customers, on logging-in, are prompted to provide their information. Chatbots can make use of such information for query-redressal without pestering the customer to go over it.

Wrapping Up

There is a lot more speculation about the implementation and working of ChatBots. Like it's said, every coin has two sides; the working of chatbots also has its pros and cons. But, as progressive Qatari business leaders, we must look at the bright side of things to promote growth and collaboration. ZealousWeb Qatar strongly believes in the proposition that ChatBots have brought forth. We understand that customers are the king of the business world and anything that accounts for customer satisfaction will also benefit the business.

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