Technology advances at a rapid pace and this makes many people wonder what a chatbot is and how this tool works. After all, everyone has come across autoresponder services on websites, but they don’t know exactly how it works or even what the advantages of using them are.
Therefore, it is no surprise that these conversational robots revolutionize the way companies interact with their audiences and are gaining more and more followers, right?
However, many people still resist this innovation. With this in mind, we have prepared a complete article to explain:
- what is a chatbot;
- how the chatbot works;
- how to use a chatbot in customer service;
Don’t waste time and keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the topic!
What is the purpose of a chatbot?
Chatbots are software that communicate and interact with human users through automated messages. They allow companies to respond to their consumers at any time, without requiring the presence of a team of attendants.
The exchange of messages between the chatbot and the real person is done through a chat-style platform, which allows instant messages to be sent and received.
Some conversational robots are hosted on ready-made platforms, such as:
- Whatsapp;
- Telegram;
- Facebook Messenger;
- Skype.
Others are hosted on the company’s own website or application. In fact, this last type is becoming increasingly common and is capable of providing more complex answers to customer questions.
What is a Messenger chatbot?
Chatbot Messenger is, basically, a type of chatbot that works exclusively within Facebook Messenger, which is the messaging service of this social network.
It is normally used by companies and is programmed to respond, in real-time, to user requests. Interactions, in most cases, are simpler pre-programmed automatic responses.
How does a chatbot work in practice?
In practice, chatbots work using two methodologies:
- rules-based for pre-programmed responses;
- another based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
See what that means below!
Rules-based chatbot for responses
This type of chatbot uses ready-made responses, which are registered and activated when the robot receives a specific command from the user. Generally, a keyword serves as a trigger to trigger certain responses.
That is, for each keyword the user types, a ready response corresponding to that keyword is triggered and sent to them.
Suppose a person asks the chatbot of a clothing store, in its e-commerce: “What is the price of men’s t-shirts?”.
The robot then identifies the keywords “price” and “men’s t-shirts”, searches for answers in its database, and sends the one that was previously programmed to the user.
If the tool is unable to identify any keyword registered in the system, it may respond something like “Sorry, I didn’t understand”.
Chatbot with Artificial Intelligence
The chatbot with artificial intelligence, on the other hand, has a slightly more complex operating logic. The conversational robot software stores all the sentences the user has sent, as well as the service history.
This data is stored and processed by the system and responses are given according to the subject identified in the interaction record.
The more the user interacts with the AI chatbot, the more it learns and provides increasingly accurate answers to the questions sent, thus simulating human language.
Therefore, Artificial Intelligence chatbots can identify the intention of the conversation and not just isolated keywords.
What are the best chatbots?
There is no exact recipe for defining the best chatbots. This happens because it is necessary to analyze the options carefully to ultimately choose the one that fits your company’s needs and your budget.
What’s more, there are countless options these days. The most popular are:
- Botsify;
- Chatfuel;
- MobileMonkey;
- Bluelab;
- ManyChat;
- Otto.
So, take the time to carefully analyze each option and see what your company looks like!
How to use a chatbot in customer service?
Now that you know what a chatbot is and how it works, you may be wondering how it is possible to use these robots in customer service.
Well, the applicability of this technological resource is varied. But, in general, companies tend to use chatbots to answer simple consumer questions.
With this software, it is possible to greatly optimize service, considering that the company does not need to rely on human attendants to respond to requests that are repeated very frequently among customers, such as questions about prices.
This way, the service team can focus on functions of greater value to the company and resolve more complex demands.
The customer also wins when service is provided by a chatbot, as their questions and support requests are resolved in a more agile and less bureaucratic way. This positively impacts your satisfaction.
And in marketing?
Companies also use chatbot marketing. The intention here is to expand the reach of campaigns and get closer to the target audience through this tool.
In marketing, chatbots are used for various purposes. For example:
- send relevant content to leads;
- issue alerts for promotions and exclusive offers;
- reminding the user to complete a purchase (cart abandonment).
The chatbot can be a great ally in guiding leads through the entire sales funnel and building a relationship.
