Chatbots in customer engagement have spearheaded a revolution by offering businesses the option to automate personalized interactions with customers. With the ability to handle most queries, chatbots are improving sales, customer satisfaction, and reducing operational costs. In fact, 90% of businesses have reported faster complaint resolution times by using chatbots1.
What is customer engagement?
Customer engagement revolves around the conversations and interactions businesses have with their customers from the moment they make contact. Through meaningful and timely interactions, businesses can better understand their customers, provide instant solutions, and create a consistent and personalized experience across all touchpoints. These ongoing conversations help build trust, strengthen relationships, and encourage loyalty.
How are AI chatbots changing customer engagement?
Instant responses
One of the major advantages of AI chatbots is their ability to respond to queries around the clock immediately. Human agents can handle only a limited number of chats or queries at a time, while chatbots can handle numerous inquiries at once and retain consistency in the quality of responses. The 24/7 availability of chatbots fosters customer satisfaction because they no longer have to wait for business hours to get answers.
Increased efficiency and cost savings
Chatbots help reduce the workload on human agents by automating repetitive tasks like answering FAQs, scheduling appointments, and processing orders. This allows human agents to focus on more complex tasks that their attention would be better spent on. According to Springs2, 80% of businesses observed about a 67% increase in sales, with 26% of all transactions coming from chatbots.
Multilingual support
Chatbots with multilingual support play a big role in customer engagement when the customers are from different parts of the globe. By interacting in the customer’s preferred language, conversations feel more personal, accessible, and trustworthy. From answering product questions to guiding someone through a purchase, multilingual chatbots help businesses connect better with their customers. In fact, 36% of people say chatbot suggestions "always" influence their buying decisions1, thereby showing just how effective the right message in the right language can be.
Data collection and insights
Every time a chatbot interacts with a customer, it picks up useful information such as frequently asked questions, their interests, or where they drop off. In the long term, this information provides businesses with a clear picture of customer behavior. These insights can be used to improve products, refine the sales approach, and better customer service.
Related read: Chatbot statistics you should know
AI chatbots in customer engagement across different industries
AI chatbots are being used in various industries such as IT, retail, manufacturing, and real estate for better sales and customer engagement, and they’re branching out into even more industries, becoming a key component in any business. The versatility of AI chatbots makes them a valuable tool for enhancing the overall sales and customer experience across a wide range of industries. Let's take a look at a few of them.
Information technology
AI chatbots have become a cornerstone in the IT industry, offering efficiency and speed in operation and customer engagement. These chatbots are increasingly used to automate customer support and lead scoring, better engage with customers to gauge their requirements, and provide real-time responses to technical queries. With their ability to process vast amounts of data and learn from interactions, AI chatbots can handle routine tasks, allowing IT teams to focus on more complex issues and save on operation costs.
Retail
AI chatbots are taking over the retail industry by driving sales, improving customer experience, and streamlining operations. In this industry, chatbots can engage with customers across various channels, such as websites, mobile apps, and social media. AI chatbots can deliver personalized experiences by analyzing customer data and interactions, allowing them to suggest products that match the individual's preferences.
An example for AI chatbots in retail is automating the customer service process, retailers have deployed chatbots to handle routine customer inquiries such as checking stock availability, processing returns, or providing store hours.
Manufacturing
In the manufacturing industry, managing communication with wholesalers and distributors can get hectic—especially when it comes to checking order status, inventory, or requesting quotes. In the automotive industry, by adding a chatbot to the website. Now, instead of making calls or waiting for email replies, dealers simply ask the chatbot things like, “What’s the status of my custom order?” or “Do we have this model in the Pune warehouse?” and get answers instantly.
Fleet buyers also use it to compare technical specs, request quotes, and get updates on delivery timelines without chasing a sales rep. The chatbot even helps with service scheduling and warranty queries, making everything quicker, more efficient, and less stressful.
Real estate
Through chatbots, real estate businesses can narrow down a prospect's interests and even display property listings directly within the chatbot's UI. If the potential buyer is interested, they can easily schedule an appointment to visit the property through the chatbot. Chatbots can also help customers calculate mortgage payments for properties they're considering. They can also provide up-to-date market trends, interest rate information, and other relevant announcements, offering a seamless and informative experience for prospective buyers.
Why Zoho SalesIQ's chatbots are perfect for enhancing customer engagement in your business
AI chatbots on their own are just a tool or a feature; to leverage them for customer engagement effectively, you’ll need a platform or solution. Zoho SalesIQ is a standout platform in this area. Let's have a look at how Zoho SalesIQ helps businesses better connect with their prospects and customers through its chatbots designed for optimum customer engagement.
Ready-to-deploy FAQ bot
Automate interactions with customers and prospects with SalesIQ's ready to deploy, AI-driven Answer Bot that provides immediate responses to customers based on information available in the resources section (e.g., FAQs, articles, and more) of SalesIQ. Or, to enable more natural, human-like interactions, you can use the OpenAI integration.
Additionally, the Answer Bot can be combined with your custom bots built in the Zobot bot-building platform in SalesIQ, allowing for hybrid bots to be created and deployed too.
Proactive engagement
Use triggers in SalesIQ to engage with visitors on your website. You can set these triggers based on various criteria, including their behavior on the website or app, the search engine used, the time they spend, the pages visit, their region behavioral patterns and more.
Multilingual bots
Catering to a global audience, our chatbots are multilingual and can speak in over 30 languages including English, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew, Chinese, Hindi and more. This helps businesses engage with customers beyond language barriers.
Lead qualification and scoring
Not only can our chatbots gather lead information such as their name and email address, they can also identify and score leads automatically, helping sales teams prioritize high-potential prospects. Once the chatbot captures the information, push it to your CRM to manage your sales pipeline.
Cost-savings with maximized efficiency
Quick to set up and implement, SalesIQ has lower initial setup costs and maintenance costs compared with other customer engagement players in the market.
IM channel integrations
Prospects and customers can reach out through their preferred channels, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Instagram, LINE, WeChat, and businesses can use our bots to converse with them and manage them all in one place.
Wrapping up, AI chatbots are revolutionizing customer engagement by enabling businesses to provide efficient, personalized interactions that boost satisfaction, drive sales, and cut costs. From IT to retail, chatbots offer instant responses, tailored experiences, and seamless integration across channels.
References:
1) https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/11/14/239924/humans-bots-tension-and-opportunity/
2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1538267/chatbot-influence-on-purchase-decisions/
3) https://springsapps.com/knowledge/the-chatbot-market-in-2024-forecasts-and-latest-statistics
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