Some tools have the potential to boost your business and marketing efforts when you combine them. With omnichannel communication, your staff can have seamless conversations with prospects and customers via different means: phone, chat message, support email, social media comments, and possibly additional methods.
With the right omnichannel software, you can see notes and communication details regarding each client interaction. This way, if they start a conversation via phone and follow up with an email message, you’ll have all of the info you need at your fingertips.
In the past 10 years, chatbots have entered the field of omnichannel marketing. Chatbots are automated response systems on the internet. You may have seen them pop up on websites you’ve visited. Their job is to ask you how they can help and provide you with the correct answers to frequently asked questions. If you need a human to resolve an issue, their role is to connect you. Most companies use them as screeners.
Chatbots are integral to most omnichannel communication because they can single-handedly guide customers to where they need to go. A chatbot can also ask the customer or prospect about preferred communication methods and the urgency of a request.
Omnichannel software can take the information collected by a chatbot and inform customer service or marketing teams about when and how to begin the next interaction. With the help of chatbots, an omnichannel e-commerce operation essentially has an automated analyst on the team. More sophisticated omnichannel messaging software can use chatbot data to best determine when to contact the customer and through what means.
Why Use Chatbots in Omnichannel Communication?
Using chatbots in omnichannel communication saves time and money for a business of any size. Chatbots streamline the sales and marketing process at first contact, ensuring the prospect or client gets to where they need to go.
Some chatbots can help manage expectations. If the person on the other end needs a human, bots can provide information about waiting, such as, “There are three customers ahead of you,” or “Estimated wait time: 15 minutes.” Chatbots can also offer to have your business call the customer back so that the person doesn’t have to wait. They can collect contact information and directly add it to your omnichannel software of choice, such as Mitto.
Chatbots enable your team to handle multiple conversations at once. Not only can the automated chatbots help customers and manage automation while humans are doing other things, but they can also gather the information needed to personalize conversations if and when clients reach a human representative.
Here’s an example of the customer data that a chatbot might supply to a customer service rep:
- Name: Suzie
- Email: Suzie@Example.com
- Phone: (555) 555-5555
- Type of contact: Prospect
- Issue: “I’m not sure what size to pick from your online store. I’m a size 12. Is that a large here? Please help.”
Remember that your omnichannel software will also have captured this information. It enables the human on the other side of the conversation to get right down to solving the actual problem because the chatbot already did all the info gathering and data entry.
How Chatbots Can Enhance Omnichannel Communication
Chatbots can aid in omnichannel communication efforts by collecting customer data, setting expectations and standards for the clients, and gathering better, more consistent data to provide you with insights about your consumers via your omnichannel software, such as Mitto.
Chatbots aren’t just for websites, either — they can integrate with other channels, such as SMS or social media, which are often crucial parts of a company’s omnichannel communication strategy. A chatbot can help when a customer replies to an automated message at 2 a.m. and there are no humans available, for example, by gathering the necessary information and promising a follow-up within 24 hours.
How To Implement Chatbots Into Your Omnichannel Communication Strategy
Your omnichannel messaging efforts, tied together by your omnichannel software, must be set up for integration. Social media networks and most other channels have APIs. These codes enable you to complete the integration process more efficiently. From there, you’ll need to integrate your chatbot with your omnichannel e-commerce solution or software, such as Mitto.
You can instruct the chatbot to gather the same customer information across channels, provide the same consistent responses and expectations, and improve the customer experience by getting back to them right away.
There are several steps involved in fully integrating a chatbot into your omnichannel communication strategy.
First, you’ll need to choose a chatbot. Even if you’ve hired a software developer to build a chatbot from the ground up, they generally use base software models. If not, you can use chatbot software out of the box and instruct it to gather basic info.
Perhaps you’d prefer to design a chatbot. When you opt to design your own chatbot, you can make it match your entire brand experience, which can be present throughout your omnichannel messaging. If you have a surf shop, your chatbot may use the appropriate lingo. If you’re running an upscale business selling bespoke suits, you may want your chatbot to address customers by a specific salutation, such as Mr., Ms., or Dr. At this point, you should also consider naming your chatbot. The most popular artificial intelligence help platforms have names, like Cortana and Siri. What is your AI customer service rep’s name?
Next, you must test the chatbot. Once you’ve implemented it, it’s time for your team to give it a test drive. Assign multiple roles while asking team members to behave like customers and prospects trying to get answers or solve problems. The chatbot should be polite and friendly. It should also provide accurate information.
Once you’ve discovered and fixed any problems with interactions or data, it’s time to train the chatbot. Some chatbot AI has the ability to learn through repeated interactions. It will improve over time. Therefore, your team should train it using common customer scenarios.
Account for the fact that a minority of clients will get upset at the presence of a chatbot and demand to speak to a person immediately. Decide how you want your chatbot to handle these conversations, and make sure your omnichannel messaging software can mark down the customer preference for human interaction.
The Future of Chatbots in Omnichannel Communication
As commercially available chatbots become more intelligent, it’s possible that they’ll eventually be able to handle the majority of customer service tasks for most types of enterprises, saving money for business owners and triggering significant changes in multiple industries. The most important indication of this trend is AI’s ability to learn based upon input, which Google’s algorithm has been doing well for over a decade.
While the chatbot is learning, and when you first activate it, be sure to carefully monitor what it says to customers and how it treats them. You can do this after you connect a chatbot to your omnichannel software solution, such as Mitto.
Changes in automation are a bit scary for people. They may have fears about their jobs becoming automated or just not getting the same customer service that a human could provide. As technology develops, a big part of the chatbot’s role is to assure the client that they’re in good hands — even if those hands are artificial.
In the future, you’ll be able to program your chatbot to respond as a brand persona or licensable celebrity. Does your brand want a chatbot persona that acts a bit like Dolly Parton? That’s doable. What if you’re in pharmaceuticals, and you want to make sure customers only receive information that you can legally provide? Maybe you need a lawyer persona. Adapting to all of this, for businesses and society at large, is proving to be intimidating as tech moves forward at warp speed.
Chatbots in Omnichannel Communication: Here To Stay
Chatbots are here to stay in omnichannel messaging. Make sure you have omnichannel software that’s able to adapt to changes as chatbots become more advanced. These tools will save your business time and money as long as you program and train them correctly.