How to Avoid #ChatbotFails? Focus on Human-AI Cooperation for Better Customer Experiences.

I see the following conversations happening over and over again:

“I need a chatbot.” — What’s your business goal with your chatbot? What problem do you want to solve with a chatbot? “I don’t know what it will do, but I want one.” — Why do you really need a chatbot? “My boss said we need a chatbot…”

There’s a hype cycle happening to technologies in general. It starts with the hype: a new way of doing something has its day in the sun and early demonstrations are incredibly promising. But when they’re released into the wild, these things just never work as well as we hope they would. They always have their limitations, and those limitations become apparent relatively fast.

Today chatbots are in the 3rd phase of the hype lifecycle.

Bots are in the phase of disillusionment

The average Facebook Messenger-based chatbot operates at a 70% failure rate . This means only 3 out of 10 questions are answered properly by chatbots. Only 3 out of 10 customers will think you’ve solved their problems. Is that really what you want?

If you want to center your customer care around a chatbot … think twice before making this decision.

Chatbots are not a magic bullet. Machines have basic limitations when it comes to common sense. They are good at simple tasks, but when empathy is needed, they are totally lost. They won’t solve all of your growing chat problems; they might create additional problems and sometimes even negate customer experience. That’s the last thing a brand needs.

Your customers deserve your attention and to be treated well.

And they deserve a solution! Brands can’t wait for chatbot technology (NLP, AI) to become advanced enough to manage complex conversations following special rules and guidelines.

Customers want to chat now, and companies have to respond to their requests. Brands need something that makes their currently existing human-based chatting more productive today.

Follow these simple steps to start to automate your conversations

1. Understand what people are talking about (with your brand)

Usually, there is a great depth of knowledge within the organisation about current conversations with customers. Sales people meet every day with new and existing customers, phone agents manage dozens of conversations every day, and FB walls are full with comments and posts of fans (and trolls). Collect and start to analyse all of this information.

2. Identify patterns in conversations and develop standard answers

In our experience, the general 80/20 rule is also valid for chat conversations for brands. 20% of the topics cover 80% of the conversations. Customers tend to ask the same questions over and over again. These repetitive topics are ones that companies have to identify and develop standard (canned) answers for.

3. Gain confidence in repetitive topics

Human chat agents should recycle canned answers in everyday chat conversations. See how people respond to them and change them if needed. Define most common customer questions for each response. With time, chat agents will know which responses to use in different situations.

4. Semi automate your conversation

Having gone through the learning path, start to automate the most repetitive low-risk interactions. Bots can take over and free up your staff to manage meaningful interactions, like those involving human empathy. Chatbots can take over cases where the probability of having the right answer is high and the cost of being wrong is low.

Which quadrant do most of your conversations belong?

5. Track, analyse, improve

Constantly track and analyse conversations. See how people respond to canned answers, rewrite them, and test multiple answers for similar questions. Develop new responses for new emerging topics and automate them as well.

At Chatler.ai we believe that the road towards chat automation starts with human and AI cooperation. Chatler.ai replaces the unproductive and repetitive “find-copy-paste” work of chat agents by doing the heavy lifting instead of relying on humans. The smart algorithms can analyze chat histories and recommend replies for frequently asked questions. Humans make the final decision and add a personal touch to each message, making sure the customer feels appreciated. Chatler.ai machine learning technology helps brands deliver fast, accurate, and consistent customer care responses.

With Chatler.ai you can manage the increased number of customer care conversations with the same team. Letting humans manage conversations has become paramount. Let AI help you even if chatbots are stuck.

Find out more about how Chatler.ai can help you today to deliver great customer experience and increase customer loyalty and repurchase.

We hope you enjoyed this promoted piece as much as we did!