By Aakash Kumar, Business Lead – Retail & E-commerce, India, Infobip
We live in an era where AI-powered chatbots follow our every little command, including cracking jokes, playing our favorite tunes, turning on and off our living room lights, and setting reminders. But the potential of AI-powered chatbots is way beyond just taking instructions. Today, AI-powered chatbots can hold complete conversations over two-way messaging channels. They enable humans to engage like they are talking to a real person.
Businesses have also realised the phenomenal power of AI-powered chatbots and virtual
assistants and are leveraging the same to revolutionise retail customer experiences.
Retailers are progressively embracing smart virtual assistants to optimise customer service, facilitate upselling and cross-selling, and automate marketing and sales processes, resulting in improved return on investment (ROI). It has become a significant part of conversational commerce.
With AI-powered chatbots integrated into messaging channels such as WhatsApp, Messenger, etc., businesses harness their potential by utilising them for instant and 24/7 communication across sales, marketing, or customer services. It leads to optimising human resource utilisation, ultimately resulting in heightened customer satisfaction, the delivery of enriched experiences, and the forging of stronger connections.
Revolution in Customer Experience
Brands are customising the shopping experience for customers by sending personalised
recommendations based on their past choices. In the same way, a loyal customer base is
the first to receive the latest updates on promotional campaigns and product launches.
Since these are sent on chat, customers seek more information on the same, strengthening
the relationship between both parties.
Today, consumers use different communication channels – be it social media or messaging
apps and channels like WhatsApp, Email, SMS, live chat, and more. And to maintain a
presence on all channels, an omnichannel approach is a must. For instance, a customer
might discover your product on Instagram, inquire further through a direct message,
proceed to your website for a purchase, and then remain in touch via WhatsApp for ongoing
support. This is where chatbots come into play. Businesses are addressing customer queries
quickly and efficiently with these chatbots and involving customer service executives as and
when required. The reminders, marketing messages and 24/7 customer support with the
deployment of AI-powered chatbots are playing a massive role in amplifying business sales.
Time for Hyper-Automation
As the festive season is here in full swing, it is the right time for businesses to utilise the
power of hyper-automation with AI-powered chatbots. The latest advancements in AI
technology, like ChatGPT, offer brands an additional valuable resource to meet the evolving
customer experience (CX) expectations. These developments can assist businesses in
enhancing their chatbot capabilities, enabling greater automation and speed in customer
interactions. Leveraging the same, companies offering Communications-platform-as-a-
Service (CPaaS) has built advanced chatbots.
Let’s take a closer look at how integrating technology like ChatGPT into chatbots would
enable businesses to maximise their sales with superior customer experience during the
festival season rush:
● Faster training: Businesses can leverage the power of the AI-powered tool to train chatbots on phrases and intents, which is otherwise a time-consuming and labor-intensive process in creating the chatbot. With such high-quality chatbots covering a range of use cases, businesses would be able to revert to a higher number of customer queries.
● Incorporating brand voice: ChatGPT’s integration would enable a brand to integrate its voice, tone, and typography into responses. It can also expedite the process of updating these elements for new markets.
● Identifying patterns: AI excels in recognising patterns humans may miss, and it can also determine the underlying causes while suggesting how to leverage them for the advantage of the business. For instance, there is an e-commerce brand, where customers report delays in delivery. By analyzing caller locations and the reported problems, AI could reveal a correlation, indicating the cause of delay within a specific area and advice to improve customer experience.
● Testing: The testing phase is pivotal for the success of a chatbot. Since ChatGPT can
potentially test a massive amount of conversation flows, it can ensure during the
the testing phase that these are not ending abruptly and help answer customers as per
the time and occasion during festivals.
Conclusion
The integration of advanced technology into existing chatbots is beyond setting up these
chatbots with advanced features and waiting for results. If businesses want to stay ahead of
the competition, they need to follow a meticulous step-by-step approach comprising
thoughtful planning, effective execution, and continuous improvement. However, the
principle of all business decisions is keeping the customer interest at the center of your
strategy.
Moreover, it’s crucial not to overlook future readiness. It’s evident that chatbots are not a
future anymore, they are part of modern life. They present an exciting opportunity to
break away from the norm, innovate, and genuinely engage with your customer base. Thus,
it’s time to gear up, accelerate, and ride the wave of this transformation.