The chatbot market is evolving at a fast pace in different sectors:

E-COMMERCE

Companies that sell products online use chatbots to answer their client’s inquiries instantly.

E-commerce chatbots offer customers a choice of personalized products or services while optimizing the user experience following an adapted content strategy.

THE PRESS

Newspapers and magazines can provide daily and personalized news updates through bots. Take a tour of Le Devoir or CNN to experience it.

TOURISM

Companies like KAYAK or Skyscanner use chatbots to help users plan their trips.

The chatbot can have several uses: Whether it be informing about a given subject, ordering a meal or even looking for a product. They are front liners in customer support, and will act as a conversational agent. When the chatbot supports the user in carrying out tasks, such as choosing a product or finding an item, it will be referred to as a virtual assistant.

There also exists several types of chatbots:

• Traffic generator chatbots
• Lead generator chatbots
• Sales chatbots
• Customer service chatbots
• Knowledge Base chatbots
• Chatbots specifically designed for cities

The questions and answers generated by the chatbot evolve according to the interaction of the exchange, much like during a conversation with a human. However always keep in mind that a chatbot does not replace the human presence behind the screen. Chatbot creators like Innovention, are able to create bots capable of answering the majority of questions related to your company, regardless of the number of users or customers who speak to it, in French, English and Spanish. When the bot reaches a point where it is not able to provide an answer, it will transfer the user to a human. Keep in mind that this will be the case after the chatbot had tirelessly tried to answer a maximum of questions regardless of the question’s formulation.

If the conversation deviates from the predefined framework, the program will not understand the instructions requested. Those limitations should be taken into consideration when integrating a marketing strategy.

INTEGRATION OF CHATBOTS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

For some time now there has been a rising popularity in Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp. This is a clear indicator that businesses should be responsive on those platforms in order to service their customers and reach out in the most efficient manner.

The main competitive advantage of chatbots is to be able to service and help clients around the clock 24/24 and 7/7.

Source: The Messaging App Report, Business Insider

Chatbots offer users a personalized experience when integrated in social media messengers:

• It seamlessly integrates in the messaging platform: You would have the feeling that a person is responding behind the platform
• It reinforces the realness and proximity of the interaction: The automation of the conversations stimulates a unique dynamism between the user and the chatbot
• It offers relevant answers to the user: Personalization of the content is done through the actual interaction with every unique user. The implementation of chatbots will therefore be personalized for the same user but across different platforms by identifying their unique preferences. This offers businesses the opportunity to remain consistent across all touchpoints with their clients.
• Time saver: By automating simple conversational exchanges, companies will optimize the allocation of their resources for more complex situations that require more resources.
• Gain visibility: Chatbots have the competitive advantage of consistency which enables them to be great brand ambassadors. They are able to automatically introduce a brand, its values, its tone and its offer.
• Gain knowledge: The information gathered by chatbots allow you to analyse valuable consumer insights
• Gain relevance: you can further exploit personalized conversion, an important principle of e-commerce. It is increasingly recognized that companies must present information and offers that meet the individual requirements of their customers.

All theses features and capabilities have been implemented on Olivia, the conversational robot by Innovention

Related article: ‘Artificial Intelligence and Business Optimization’