Why Chatbots Are a Must-Have for All Types of Startups

(Updated 3-5-2022)

The popularity of chatbots with startups is at an all-time high. Their application is versatile. Whatever business you set up, a chatbot offers a ton of potential to improve your business growth.

Chatbots, along with their live chat counterparts, are among the top trending technologies for business, especially in the startup space. They seem to be everywhere in business these days.

Online retailers, IT agencies, B2B businesses, banks, and brands across so many other industries rely on chatbot technology in their business operations.

The reason behind the rise of chatbots is simple. They offer a bunch of advantages to companies that strive to gain a solid market position. The use of chatbots in business is even more beneficial to startups that have to compete with giant companies and enterprises with more resources who are reluctant to let new players in the market.

And on top of that, people actually respond very well to chatbots. In fact, a recent study by Userlike showed that “68 of user like chatbots because they provide quick answers.” In a world where we expect things fast and furious, this is a huge benefit of using chatbots.

The value of chatbots for startups all lies in automation. They reduce the time employees usually spend on time-consuming and repetitive work, thus failing to reach critical performance and increased productivity. They also answer your customers’ questions quickly, as shown in the chat above.

A chatbot is a versatile tool that can perform a variety of functions, from customer interactions to reporting. These are some of the basic advantages of chatbot technology that are fit for any startup irrespective of their target audience and field of activity.

Let’s take a look at six of the top ways that chatbots help your business grow.

1. Excellent customer service

Chatbots have greatly changed the rules of customer service. They can serve thousands of customers at the same time, while lowering the workload for your employees and providing quality and fast assistance with most issues. Have you ever dropped your info into a chat window and then waited 15, 20, or more minutes for a live agent to actually show up?

A chatbot can help you avoid issues like this and avoid causing frustration for your website visitors by providing answers in a quick and more efficient way.

One chatbot is enough to let you respond to customer requests and deal with complaints, reducing the average response time and improving the level of customer satisfaction.

While chatbots cannot resolve every issue facing your customers, they are good at providing simple assistance, such as informing consumers of products and services or helping them fill out an order form. Likewise, they are unlikely to make an error or degrade customer experience as they are programmed and cannot deviate from the algorithms,  giving you full control over the process and the info they provide.

2. Good for transactions

Chatbots are excellent tools for guiding your customers through certain transaction types. Let’s take a look at an industry-specific example.

Chatbots in banking, for example, are steadily catching on. Both mobile banking and Internet banking systems use chatbot assistants to help users manage their accounts wisely.

In this case, the aim of chatbots is to provide account information and guide customers on how to make payments and other transactions correctly.

Another substantial upside to using chatbots in banks is enhanced security. Since chatbot technology can be used to validate payments, it allows banking organizations to reduce the risk of identity theft and online fraud. A number of global brands like Lydia and Slack employ chatbots specifically for this purpose.

3. Effective project management

Chatbots in project management have a wide application, but one way or another they are meant to improve teamwork and collaboration.

One area where these bots are specifically good for project management is in regard to events, tasks, and scheduling. They can schedule meetups and conferences automatically and send reminders to team members prior to their date.

Another function of chatbots is task management. They can allocate employees and keep track of project progress, alerting team members when a project deadline is coming closer.

For instance, Slackbot can be customized to send alerts and reminders that you need to complete a project successfully.

4. Lead generation

Plenty of eCommerce startups opt for chatbot technology with a view to generating more leads. How does a chatbot function in this scenario? It interacts with potential customers through text or voice messages in a live chat.

A chatbot can help take the site visitor beyond the content on your website pages and start a conversation. It can provide that visitor with a ton more info related to what they’re seeking, which can lead to driving them further toward making a purchase.

The chatbot’s role is to gather information on a prospect’s needs as well as maintain their interest in a company’s products or services. Once this happens, the chatbot can push the prospect further along the pipeline and toward someone who can close the deal.

If a prospect agrees to place an order, the chatbot transfers them to a company representative or manager that will help the customer complete their customer journey. Therefore, the integration of chatbots with eCommerce business models results in higher conversion and customer retention, which allows entrepreneurs to increase their sales revenue.

5. Personalization

One of the critical points hindering growth for almost all online businesses is the lack of personalization in their services.

When a customer visits a brick and mortar store, there is always a retail sales consultant who is responsible for understanding the needs of their visitors and helping them in determining what goods or services they are looking for. This isn’t quite the case online.

Chatbots are called to substitute for these professionals and guide customers throughout their interaction with the website, eCommerce platform, etc.

This technology can not only ensure that the client’s request is processed in a heartbeat but also provide the feeling of personalized customer service with advanced consultancy to each and every consumer.

6. Cost savings

The biggest players on the market are known for their ability to provide quality goods at a reasonable price.s Those businesses that cannot achieve cost-effectiveness are most likely to lose out to the competition or cover only a small percentage of customers in the industry.

Chatbots can be considered one of the technologies that can significantly cut employee-related expenses. As chatbots can actually replace the services provided by humans, the integration of this technology solution into your business can help you optimize your business and avoid the necessity to hire a big team of online consultants processing the request of your potential buyers.

Why are chatbots the future of the market?

Automation is a growing trend. While it was a novelty to see a chatbot in an online store five years ago, today it is an almost necessary item for many businesses trying to win their audience’s affection through good customer experience.

The power of chatbots lies in their extreme flexibility and integration with virtually any business model. They can be customized to fulfill any business need and play any business function. These six advantages will help you understand how to harness the chatbot’s potential and become a market leader.

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