Chatbots - A source of economy and a ROI booster

We speak a lot about chatbots, but what are their real impact on economic life?  According to a study by Oracle, companies would begin to see the real benefits of using chatbots.

Companies are starting to see the benefits of chatbots

Is it surprising?  When you think about it, not really!  The chatbot is primarily an automation tool that can accomplish a large number of tasks alone if it is connected to the internal tools of the company.  The cost savings from reducing the time spent on inquiries are therefore huge!

In customer support or sales tools, the chatbot has the ability to integrate perfectly into the life of the company and to give time to resources usually mobilized on these tasks, to focus on more qualitative and complex missions.

In addition to being an asset of performance and productivity, it’s a means of customer acquisition.  By creating, for example, an acquisition chatbot where customers can finalize the purchase directly on the instant messenger thanks to a secure payment method.  There is therefore less friction and steps between connecting and buying.  The chatbot makes it possible to attract a new clientele and to retain it.  Indeed, losing customers is expensive!  Well used, the chatbot greatly improves the customer experience.

In the case of banking sectors, for example, a Millenial will prefer an institution that favors this type of exchange rather than having to go to a telephone platform or an agency.

It is therefore not surprising that according to several consulting companies, consumers and businesses will save more than 2.5 billion hours by 2023, saving tens of billions of euros a year !

Existing actors, but unequal offers

From all these angles, choosing the chatbot is very tempting...provided that it is not used as a simple gadget !  It saves time, it’s fun, it anchors the company in its digital transformation... However, to be effective, the chatbot must be primarily integrated into the company.  With its success, the solutions are indeed many on the market, but some only allow to I prove a very specific element while not solving the problem of automation, return on investment is very quickly limited!

Responding to the need identified by the company also involves some business expertise.  To gain efficiency, the chatbot must be imperatively co-built by people with business knowledge and developers. When companies make the choice to use frameworks for the construction of chatbots, it is almost impossible for a non-developer to participate in the development of the bot and its changes in the future... The investment quickly sinks!

Finally, it’s important to create a “smart” chatbot that can understand the requests and perform real tasks. Some offer simple tools without any NLP (Natural Language Processing) features that cannot understand human language.  The chatbot then offers only closed scenarios.

More seriously, most solutions offer no connectivity to internal and external business tools.  In a few words:  the chatbot will not be fed with external information and will have no impact!

Chatbots, a real return on investment

It is undeniable:  the chatbot is a source of savings for the company!  It is a source of improvement of the customer relationship and loyalty.  It responds to a strategic challenge and ensures the sustainability of the company.  This is why the choice of the solution is important. To obtain a real return on investment, it is necessary to opt for a solution facilitating collaboration between the various businesses and to design a “smart” sculpin, integrating it into the IT architecture of the company and deploying on all communication channels.

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