From customer service to mental health services, chatbots are increasingly becoming ubiquitous. Consumers are slowly shifting to a chat-based platform for research, purchase, queries and support. The shift from app-based services to chat-based ones has also caused growing speculations about triggering of large scale lay-offs in the customer service industry.

In this article, I will explore the reasons behind the growing popularity of chatbots and why your company should invest in one. I will also explore the risks of doing so on the workers.

1. Reach people anytime, anywhere

Chatbots have proven to be foot soldiers for mental health. Access to mental health is scarce and expensive even in the more developed parts of the world, areas that see large scale poverty, war, natural disasters have even fewer facilities. With bots like the woebot, that help users challenge their “distorted thinking” and practice CBT. Since woebot is a software, it can be made available to millions of people at the same time. Regardless of geographical location, anyone with a smartphone has access to preliminary therapy. Unlike a physical therapist, woebot can be available round the clock, helping users deal with late-night anxiety or holiday depression attacks.

Similarly, customer service bots can respond to user queries outside of office hours. Be it a late-night shopping binge or emergency deliveries, a chatbot can be made available 24/7 as the first line of communication for your customers.

Since they are just pieces of code, bots don’t need personal time for sleep, sickness or rest, and can literally handle millions of queries at the same time. It is undeniable that their reliable, continuous and scalable service can help any business retain customers. It’s also a bonus that bots don’t need to be hired and paid!

2. Simplified service across demographics

One could argue that mobile and web applications are also available all the time regardless of one’s location. My counter would be that chatbots are the most convenient and easy to use customer interaction platform. Our civilization is based on conversation- human beings have been conversing for thousands of years. With the rise of digital voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google assistant, people have become more comfortable talking to their devices. Unlike a mobile app or a webpage, which has a learning curve, a chatbots are plug and play even for consumers.

If you know how to type, you can use a chatbot. Many chatbots work with apps that users around the world are already familiar with, like facebook messenger. Just like typing to a friend, users find it intuitive to text a bot. This means kids, old people or those unfamiliar with many aspects of the web can still use chatbots with relative ease. Chatbots can be taught to predict context within a specified area of conversation with relative precision. This means that while the conversation is still with a robot, it can be human-like and friendly.

Moreover, chatbots can help with a variety of services. Banks can use it to simplify online transactions, retail stores can help customers understand and compare products and educational institutions can use it to keep students (or their parents) updated about school activities.

3. Your workers experience a more enriched work life

Let’s be honest, most of the conversations your customer service executives have are based on a script. Employees working in tech support, customer queries, and similar jobs are required to strictly follow scripts. Additionally, most queries are generic and have standard responses. This is not to say that customer service executives don’t handle complicated or “escalated” queries, but even those usually pass through a scripted conversation before being elevated. Following a script is something a bot should be doing, not a human. Human beings are intelligent and prone to boredom when presented with the same tedious task day in day out. They should be solving problems, not repeating solutions like a machine.

Chatbots have the ability to give scripted, accurate responses and carry conversations at the first level. They can deal with the bulk of incoming traffic while your human resources solve complex issues.

When ATMs were becoming commonplace, many tellers feared their jobs will be taken over by them. This didn’t happen. In fact, during the period when banks adopted ATMs, more tellers got employment. Since bank freed up many resources per branch, they expanded or scaled, to provide services in areas they were previously absent from. Therapy bots like Woebot don’t take away jobs from psychiatrists/therapists, they assist in therapy and make it available to a larger section of people. Chatbots have the potential to do the same. They have the ability to scale operations such that they reach more people, faster, all the time.

Chatbots are a must have for your sales team. Tell us about your experiences with ChatBots for Sales in the comments below or or join the YellowAnt community. Sign up for YellowAnt here.