Running a business comes with its challenges among them being how to keep operational costs down. By keeping your costs low, you can get optimum profits while maintaining low costs for your client. Embracing technology has helped several businesses cut down on costs through the introduction of chatbots. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of businesses using chatbots.
You could be wondering if chatbots are worth the value being given to them. This post gives you the merits and demerits of using chatbots to help you make your decision on whether to use it or not.
Pros of Using Chatbots
Lower overhead costs
By using chatbots, there is no need to hire workers to monitor online conversations at all times. People cannot always be available and if you depended on them for this task, you would have to employ several for them to be as efficient as chatbots. The chatbot can interact and respond to your customers. They can respond to several consumers at once and can improve your conversion rates.
Always available
Humans cannot always be available to respond to customers. Chatbots do not need sleep and will not take leave for whichever reason. They are always available to cater to your consumers. You can monitor consumer traffic during the hour’s people are off work and respond to the customers accordingly.
They can learn and update
When you get AI-based chatbots, you do not have to keep updating the responses. They learn from consumer interactions and update it automatically. That way, it will give your consumers a better experience.
“There will be a better customer experience since the chatbot can learn how to be polite and professional with clients even after operating for several hours..”
Manage multiple clients at once
There are only so many customers a person can serve. However, with chatbots, there is no restriction on the number of clients it can serve simultaneously. Customers will no longer complain of lack of service since all of them will be served.
Demerits of Using Chatbots
No Emotions
Chatbots do not have any emotions. This makes them incapable of responding to customers the right way especially if there are emotions involved.
At times they can be extremely mechanical and fail to keep up with the conversation when the customer takes it in an unplanned direction. AI-powered chatbots are better since they can learn to respond to some questions with empathy.
Installations are complex and costly
Creating a chatbot can be a complex process. You need to invest a lot or resources to create it. They also have a high installation cost since they require the input of a programmer for them to be custom-made to suit your business narrative. Complex chatbots will require more resources due to the nature of the functions.
Also, remember that they need to be maintained and upgraded regularly for them to function efficiently. Getting these updates will mean you have to dig deeper into your pocket.
Cannot handle complex questions
If you have not programmed your chatbot to answer a certain question, it can get stuck. This can frustrate a consumer who will opt to take their business elsewhere. It also makes you have a reputation of offering poor customer service that no business would want to have. If you want it to answer complex queries, you have to put it in the program and you might not have the time to do that all the time.
They do not have a good memory
Chatbots are not designed to memorize entire conversations. This can frustrate consumers as they have to repeat their concerns over and over again. It can discourage them and push them towards other businesses.
“When building a chatbot, you need to ensure that it can understand and respond to client’s questions appropriately.”
Final thoughts
Having a chatbot for your business can be beneficial but also has its downside. However, you need to look at all these facts and see if having one will benefit your business. If you want to get a chatbot, you are better off with an AI-based one. This type can learn and keep improving with every interaction.
Also, Read AI chatbot for Better Customer Experience
