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Customer Service Chatbot – Top 4 Customer Service Challenges and How to Resolve Them Using Chatbots

Customer service chatbots allow businesses to meet a variety of customer service challenges, and even convert them into opportunities for lead generation and growth.

Customers have grown to expect nothing short of the best from the businesses that they interact with – the best products, the most seamless user experience, and the highest standards of customer service. Achieving this trifecta is no mean feat even for an established business with years of experience under its belt. But it becomes a particularly daunting task for new companies looking to get their foot in the door. Luckily, customer service chatbot development has been taking care of at least one department – and arguably, the most important one. Let’s take a look at some of these challenges:

1. The fading popularity of mobile apps

Until very recently, every modern business with an online presence was mulling over the idea of building a mobile app to rope in more users or customers. But things took a different turn in 2016, when app download rates around the world began to decline. Since then, mobile sessions have been getting shorter, and more and more customers have been moving away from dedicated apps for each service that they use. Instead, quick and responsive mobile websites have emerged as a much more popular alternative.

It hasn’t taken millennial customers too long to realize that websites manned by a customer service chatbot are much easier to use than mobile apps that adopt a self-service model. Say a customer is thinking of purchasing a new phone and has a small but specific doubt about their shortlisted products. They could spend time downloading and navigating a bunch of different ecommerce apps to figure things out on their own. Or they could open their browser, go to their preferred online store website, and ask its chatbot a simple question like “Will [Phone] support international networks?”

And the customer service chatbot will respond right away.

Chatbot: “[Phone] is optimized for use in [Country] and supports all GSM networks. It does not support CDMA networks. Please check with your international carrier to confirm whether they’re on a GSM or CDMA network. To view CDMA-supported phones, click here.”

Businesses that create a customer support chatbot for their websites can thus look beyond the limitations of mobile apps and make a wealth of helpful information available to their customers.

2. Increasing competition

The average customer today has access to multiple sources of information about the same product. They also have access to multiple online services and platforms offering the same product. With customers becoming more and more informed, businesses around the world have had to shift their focus to areas other than product quality, variety and pricing. In today’s competitive commercial and professional environments, businesses have to offer the highest levels of customer service just to keep themselves afloat.

To be able to cater to the needs of their clientele, modern businesses have to provide a smooth, coherent, and personalized user experience on their websites. Building chatbots is by far the simplest and most effective route to that goal. By bringing in customer service chatbots, businesses can make themselves available to their customers 24/7, thus making a great first impression and laying the foundation for efficient and on-demand customer service.

3. Offering ‘unforgettable’ customer service

Businesses getting started in this competitive market can’t stop at good first impressions. They have to keep up with their more established peers by constantly raising their customer service standards. This obviously requires a fair bit of work going over records of support calls and emails, and ironing out issues that customers have been reporting. It also involves training their support staff on a regular basis, so they can keep delivering focused and tailored assistance. For a small business or startup, the costs of these activities can quickly get out of hand.

New businesses that create a customer service chatbot from the get-go save themselves these costs, and of course the time that it takes to keep improving their customer service standards. Chatbots are quick learners; all you need to do is update their script and their AI will take care of the rest. Besides, a chatbot isn’t going to forget or change what you’ve instructed it to do, allowing you to keep moving forward and improving the experience that you offer your customers.

4. Re-engaging customers to strengthen your brand

Leading companies around the world have started building and implementing customer loyalty and advocacy programs. The intent behind these programs is to re-engage with their customers and identify any issues that they may be facing. Figuring out these issues early on in their relationship allows companies to work on increasing customer satisfaction and strengthening their brand. When designed well, loyalty and advocacy programs can achieve their desired outcomes in a short span of time. But when coupled with customer service chatbot development, they can reach a whole new level of effectiveness.

Customer service chatbots can work hand-in-hand with loyalty and advocacy programs. They can guide and advise customers on how to make the most of these programs, using the same conversational format that is so successful at prompting people to take action.
For example, let’s say that Jen, a customer on an online jewelry store, has received an email about her reward points balance. She arrives at the store website to check out its new items. The store’s chatbot can now engage her attention with a message like:

“Hey there! As an existing customer of [Jewelry Store], you could be taking home our latest designs at up to 15% off. Choose an option to get started.” [Tell me more] [My reward points balance] [Redeem now] [Upgrade membership] [Ask a question]

Jen has everything she may want to find out about the loyalty program right there on her screen. The conversation also doesn’t hurt the impression she’s forming about the jewelry store, thus strengthening her brand experience as well.

Discover a variety of information and insights on customer service chatbot development in our latest blog posts. We’d also love to answer your questions about building chatbots for your business website; drop us a message and let’s talk.