{"id":1885,"date":"2019-08-14T03:30:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T03:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kusuaks7\/?p=1490"},"modified":"2024-05-01T18:18:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T18:18:41","slug":"does-your-company-need-that-chatbot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/ai-ml\/does-your-company-need-that-chatbot\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Your Company Need That Chatbot?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThat\u2019s the million-dollar question in digital transformation today, as companies work to one-up each other on customer experience and 24\/7 availability. While it might feel\u00a0necessary to implement virtual agents for your business, however, it may not be right for your company. Does your company need a chatbot? Even more importantly, can it safely handle implementing one? Consider the following before you decide.\u00a0<\/strong>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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How busy are your customer service agents?<\/strong><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019d all like to use chatbots to save time and money. Avis has been able to automate\u00a0nearly 70%\u00a0of customer inquiries just by using virtual agents, for instance. Talk about time\u2014and I\u2019m sure headache\u2014savings! However, the way AI chatbots and virtual agents work is through learning. That means they need to process not just hundreds but thousands of inquiries to optimize their ability to effectively handle customer questions. Dish Network, for instance, uses its chatbot DiVA to answer about\u00a04 million calls per year<\/a>\u2014about 40% of its volume. If you aren\u2019t receiving that type of flow, it might not be worth the effort of \u201ctraining\u201d a bot to help your business. Your customer service people will likely be intervening on the bots\u2019 behalf just as much as if they\u2019d handled the calls themselves.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYou might not need it now, but if you\u2019re continuing to grow and scale your digital transformation it could be useful in the future. But as I always say, don\u2019t buy tech for tech\u2019s sake\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0make sure the experience is\u00a0better<\/em>\u00a0because of it.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Can you wire your bot into your customer systems?<\/strong><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChatbots work the best when they can scan a request for intent by looking back on a customer\u2019s history over time. That means they can\u2019t operate independently; they need to be wired into their order history, past inquiries, payment history, etc. If your systems aren\u2019t set up to work interdependently, it may not be worth implementing chatbots after all; the most your bot will be able to do is hand off the call to someone who has higher levels of access.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNow if you\u2019re still using a legacy customer service system then be mindful of the complexities of integration (but move fast as possible), but if your system is only a few years old, is integrated seamlessly in your CRM and works well for your employees, don\u2019t fix what isn\u2019t broken.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Do you have plans to secure privacy and data?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs we\u2019ve discussed before, it\u2019s\u00a0always a risk<\/a>\u00a0to network and share customer information. In using chatbots, you\u2019re relinquishing control of a wide range of customer data to AI. How will you keep it safe? What outer boundaries have you established to ensure it won\u2019t be shared beyond your chat or phone call? What pieces of the chat will you keep, and which will you ditch in the name of data security? Companies like\u00a0Bank of America<\/a>\u00a0have chosen to service customers on their own site or app, where they have complete control of the chatbot experience. Others, like\u00a0Butterball<\/a>, have decided to work with established platforms like Alexa, to field customer questions through Alexa\u2019s \u201cskill\u201d platform. Obviously, questions about one\u2019s personal finances need higher security than those about one\u2019s Thanksgiving turkey recipe. Only you know the security requirements that will best fit your customers and industry.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Do you have time to wait?<\/strong><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJust by the nature of AI taking time to learn what it needs to know, you need to understand that your chatbot won\u2019t work perfectly straight out of the gate. As noted above, it may need to field thousands of inquiries to understand a customer\u2019s intent or desire perfectly. Only you can answer the question: Is it really worth the effort? If you\u2019re a small company fielding a few inquiries a day, you\u2019re likely going to offer a more efficient customer service experience fielding inquiries the good old-fashioned way. If you\u2019re a larger corporation, you may find the awkward interim period of AI training to be worth it.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Do you have a specific project to pilot?<\/strong><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCompanies that have successfully used chatbots have found it useful to start with piloting a specific product or issue. For instance, if you\u2019re upgrading systems and know most customers will experience a brief outage\u2014and you have clear instructions for how to guide them to fixing it\u2014you may begin implementing chat bot during the release of that upgrade. That way you\u2019ll have greater \u201cmanpower\u201d in dealing with the deluge of calls and a relatively easy answer in place that your bots will already know. From there, you can begin to inform your bot about other elements of the company and build its bandwidth. Trying to launch a bot with full company knowledge from the get-go would be setting your company up for failure\u2014and your customers up for massive irritation.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Does your company need a chatbot<\/strong>?\u00a0Really?<\/strong><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDo you have money to invest in good AI? There is nothing that can annoy customers more than dealing with a bot who can do literally nothing besides direct them to a person who can. We\u2019ve all had experiences of dealing with chatbots that were efficient and smart\u2014and those that made us want to smash our computer screen. Does your company have money to invest in quality AI? If not, it might be worth skipping the chatbot option.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs chatbots continue to\u00a0develop more advanced sensitivity<\/a>\u00a0skills, they\u2019ll likely be able even more complex inquiries from your customers. Still, every chatbot needs to start somewhere. And only you can decide whether training a chatbot will truly enhance not just your bottom line, but the overall experience you offer to your customers.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis article has appeared in Forbes<\/a>.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does your company need a chatbot? Do you have money to invest in good AI? There is nothing that can annoy customers more than dealing with a bot who can do literally nothing besides direct them to a person who can. We’ve all had experiences of dealing with chatbots that were efficient and smart—and those that made us want to smash our computer screen. Does your company have money to invest in quality AI? If not, it might be worth skipping the chatbot option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":8741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[97],"ppma_author":[3224],"class_list":["post-1885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-ml","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"authors":[{"term_id":3224,"user_id":607,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-newman","display_name":"Daniel Newman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/medium_7789c161-9099-44fa-ab1a-1a09d25b81d7-150x150.jpg","user_url":"https:\/\/futurumresearch.com\/%20","last_name":"Newman","first_name":"Daniel","job_title":"","description":"Daniel Newman is Founder, partner and operator of 4 companies. He is Principal Analyst at Futurum Research, CEO at Broadsuite Media Group and President at Digital Agency V3B. He is also an author and contributor to some of the world\u2019s largest media outlets. A regular on Forbes, Entrepreneur and The Huffington Post, as well as the author of 5 Amazon Best Selling Books, he is also an Adjunct Professor of Management at North Central College."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1885"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36826,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885\/revisions\/36826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}