Published By - Kelsey Taylor

In the current customer-centric world, keeping the customers happy is one of the major concerns of businesses. Providing 24*7 customer support increases costs multifold.

To ensure a seamless two-way conversation and to provide a uniform experience to all customers, companies are exploring various options which include AI, more specifically chatbots.

Chatbots usage has witnessed a tremendous surge lately because the millennial generation prefers texting over voice communication.

Hence, they find interacting with chatbots convenient over talking to a human. Chatbots have also managed to bring the lagging in reply substantially down by providing quicker resolutions as well.

Yet, it is not a perfect system. Using natural language processing (NLP) while designing chatbots have made them more human-like.

However, like any other technology, there are some pros and cons to it. Let’s dive into the details.

Pros and Cons of Chatbots

Pros of chatbots are as follows

Faster Customer Service

It is no secret that chatbots provide faster replies as well as a quicker resolution to the customer.

This reduces the waiting delay, and the customer hence receives quicker service, thus improving his overall experience.

Higher Customer Satisfaction

With quick resolutions to queries, chatbots have recorded a higher satisfaction of service when interacting with customers.

It is not a 100% success rate, but the numbers are certainly promising for companies to explore further with chatbots.

Reduction in Costs of Human Resources

Handling individual customer queries on a large scale requires huge manpower, and that brings its costs along with.

With chatbots, a single bot instance can handle multiple instances of human interactions and hence reduces the need for manpower substantially.

Varied Applications and Industries

Chatbots have lots of applications in many industries if we dig deep into it and understand the scope.

Hence it is a good option for companies to have their own chatbot to handle the customers as well as use chatbots for many other varied applications.

Appealing to Millennials

Millennials prefer texting over talking on the phone. Companies using chatbots are able to leverage this better and connect with new-age customers more effectively.

Cons of chatbots are as follows

The extent of Resolving Queries

One of the major drawbacks of chatbots is the number of queries it can resolve. At a certain point in time, it will have to connect to an actual human to resolve the issues.

They also have limited replies and solutions which can leave a customer unsatisfied.

Cannot Handle Angry Customers Subtly

Some customers are unable to find the solution that they want and neither are able to connect to a human executive since they did not input the right command.

Some customers are unable to find the solution that they want and neither are able to connect to a human executive since they did not input the right command.

This can result in a bad experience for the customer, and the company could lose customers as well as revenue due to an incompetent chatbot.

Higher Complexity Results in Higher Costs

Chatbots come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and their cost also varies accordingly.

It is imperative to understand that a well-designed chatbot that can handle more tasks than others will also cost higher. So this pushes the investment of the company for the chatbot further.

Not Suitable for All Businesses and Applications

Chatbots are effective in many industries and for varied applications, but they cannot handle all of them.

Now, there are certain services like hospitals, fire brigades, and the police that require immediate responses. In such cases, investment in chatbots might not yield any sustainable advantage.

Do not Provide Accurate Solutions Always

Essentially, chatbots are machines. They will make mistakes and sometimes even provide wrong solutions to the customers. So companies have to be wary of it and work on improving their chatbots further to avoid such incidents.

How to Improve Your Chatbots?

Chatbots cannot always be perfected, but they can undoubtedly be improved. And all it takes are some simple tips which you can use when working on your chatbot to make it more effective.

Tell Your Chatbot When to Delegate and Not Push it Further

A chatbot can assist customers only to a certain extent, after which it is time for a human to take over, or else the company is at risk of losing a customer owing to a bad experience.

A chatbot needs to be worked upon to make it understand as to when to pull the plug on its replies and connect the customer to the human customer care representative.

Keep them Learning New Scenarios

The more the chatbot learns, the better it will handle future queries.

Ensure that your chatbot keeps learning with every incident that it manages. Eventually, it will improve well enough to handle more responses effectively.

Give Your Chatbot Feelings

Talking to a robot can be frustrating for the customers.

So give your chatbot a bit of emotion to understand what the customer might be facing and acknowledge that it understands the same and shall do its best to resolve their issues.

Make them Information Gatherers

Chatbots need the information to work with, and you as a company also need information from the customers to serve them better.

So what better formula than to make your chatbot gather information from the customers? Slight changes in the way the chatbot converses can ensure you get the right data from the customers.

Make them more conversational

Humans are social animals – an enticing conversation will make them feel good and ensure a pleasant experience overall.

So make sure your chatbot is a little chatty. Use NLP if required to make the chatbot do a little small talk with the customers, and you will score brownie points in terms of customer experience.

All in all, it is a given that chatbots are going to be the future of interactions between a customer and the company.

So why not embrace the good, work on the not too good and improve them further so that you can provide the best experience to the customer at all times.

You May Also Like to Read:

How Does Natural Language Processing (NLP) help Chatbots?