The Chatbot, democratized for two years in marketing services seems to invite itself to the table of marketing and sales budgets for 2021. This robot, also called conversational agent or bot , is a program capable of interacting with an Internet user (we are talking about marketing conversational), either by following pre-established scenarios (simple chatbots) or by using artificial intelligence and machine learning (intelligent chatbots).
While chatbots can sometimes appear to be a whim of the
marketing or sales department, it is actually a new way of dealing with
well-known operational issues since it concerns the customer experience , the
management and allocation of resources but also the customer relations and
after-sales service. So your client .
But before you jump into creating the chatbot for your
business, there are five rules to consider.
Rule n ° 1: choose tools that correspond to your project, and not the other
way around!
First of all, note that there are two ways to set up a bot.
1. You can
develop your bot yourself through applications with open APIs. There are
platforms designed to make it easier to create custom chatbots with chatbot
creation interfaces.
2. The
second method consists of using “simple” platforms offering the construction of
your conversational tool via Drag - & - Drop.
This method is recommended in particular when the solution
cannot be achieved with a bot creation platform for technical reasons.
For example, when the bot is not supported by the CMS, or
the company policy does not allow having a third-party platform in the
architecture, or if we cannot store data elsewhere than on their servers
(Amazon, Google, or Facebook for example)
These construction platforms allow you to quickly set up
your conversational bot on your site or / and on Facebook , but can also prove
to be limited or complex during the final programming .
In this case, it is highly recommend that you use one of the
bot creation platforms. Among the most popular platforms are Facebook , Kik ,
ChatFunnel , Botnation and of course Hubspot .
Depending on your objectives and the areas to be addressed
(marketing, sales, customer relations / after-sales service), you will have to
plan an investment accordingly to derive a positive ROI while offering an
irreproachable customer experience .
Rule # 2: Set clear goals!
We can categorize chatbots into 3 different groups :
1. Customer
service chatbots
2. Marketing
, lead generation chatbots
3. More
complex chatbots that look like apps
We classify the more complex and unique developments in the
third category which are sometimes worth developing with native coding.
However, they represent the smallest category in terms of volume. That's why we
won't talk about it further in this blog post.
The two most popular categories are therefore lead
generation and customer service solutions . If you already have the idea of
creating a chatbot, it is very likely that it is for one of these reasons.
Note, however, that we offer these three solutions for our
customers. They are often complementary but do not meet the same needs. Make an
appointment with one of our consultants
Once the chatbot is in place, you will be able to measure
the success of your project according to your predefined objective thanks to
the implementation of dashboards and automated reporting tools . For example,
if you create a marketing chatbot, your biggest KPI will be the conversion rate
of visits to leads , while in a customer service robot, this will for example
be the rate of tickets set up that can be supported by the robot.
Rule n ° 3: create pleasant content in your Chatbot!
Optimizing and improving the customer experience is one of
the main objectives for 2021 in marketing and sales departments.
Why ? Because it is this which makes it possible to create
ambassadors and promoters for your brand / company / products or services. The
“majors” have understood this well and are using it as a driving force for
commercial innovation . If your site / application is used several thousand
times a day, you will need to provide a pleasant user experience, in line with
your tone, your brand, your products and services. Texts that are too long or
that are not in line with your personas will have the opposite effect than the
initial one: reassure them, start a conversation, contact after-sales service,
ask for schedules or product availability, etc.
Be positive in your posts . The point is to try and create
emotions even though, we agree it's still a bot ... programmed by a human. This
will show that you have empathy and that you are ready to help your prospect or
customer.
There are a lot of rules of thumb that you can use when
designing a conversation, but common sense and continuous testing will help you
hone your conversational process as well.
Tip : Do not make messages that exceed 6-8 lines in a block
of text! Separate them into different blocks of text. When you separate them,
it is extremely important to send them in such a way as to allow the user to
read all the text and thus avoid friction. This means that we only let the next
block of text be sent when the user can finish reading the current block.
Tip 2 : Think mobile! There is a good chances that your
chatbot will be used on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet), also take this
into consideration in your tests, as what looks good on a big screen can be
frustrating on a smaller device.
Tip 3 : How to calculate the ideal time between each block
of text?
Use this rule which says 1 line = 1 second. So if we send a
text block with 4 lines, we will set a keystroke after that to 4 seconds, and
we will send the next text lock only after that keystroke is displayed.
Rule n ° 4: Guide the discussion of your chatbot
The Customer Service Chatbot has two main objectives :
1. Qualify
customer service requests to reduce the flow to agents (by referring the
prospect to a knowledge base for example),
2. Sort the
particular cases and transfer them to the available agents (and thus avoid
responding to an angry fanatic who endured 45 minutes of Beethoven in degraded
quality)
So prefer a chatbot with a locking of the text part .
Internet users do not have to enter their request, but just choose between a
selection of options. This is the triage stage.
These options allow you to inform and give the right
information or section on your website. For example, take the case where the
majority of your requests are focused on opening hours, prices, recruitment, or
your phone number, build these 4 response options.
Likewise, it will automatically organize redirects to your support
forms to make their complaints, give an opinion or even contact an agent by
creating a “support” ticket.
It is best to guide users at every point in the conversation
by offering these types of options (quick responses, buttons).
Rule n ° 5: Take the necessary time (spoiler, it's not “in 5 minutes!”)
Do not think that 5 minutes are enough to create a Messenger
chatbot (or website). There are turnkey solutions that make it easier to set
up, but the work of reflection and configuration upstream is inevitable.
Some steps to follow:
1. Organize
workshops with customer service agents , go through your satisfaction surveys
and CES, namely the Customer Effort Score (if you have any).
2. Note the
questions and requests that come up each time (timetables, addresses, telephone
number, means of payment, after-sales services, complaints, etc.)
3. Organize
the major parts and determine the sub-parts and sub-sub parts .... (roughly,
define your different “if = then” scenarios).
4. Create
your end chat loop . When the conversation is over, offer an option, such as
back to a specific step or back to the beginning, or a link to the blog or
resource page where your last case study is located.
5. Prepare
your discussion content as well as your information pages (your T & Cs,
cookie policies, faq, knowledge base or knowledge base in original version)
6. Prepare
your form submission pages , accessible only through Chat or Service Support.
7. Set up
the chatbot's design , the agents who can converse on it and display schedules
once the qualification steps are completed
8. Set up
the message of absence outside working hours: when the prospect has answered
all your qualifying questions, inform him of your availability, collect his
contact details: no request should be left unanswered (automatic or manual).