First introduced in the 1960s, chatbots have morphed into highly intelligent computer programs capable of producing human-like responses.
Accordingly, today's local business owners increasingly leverage chatbots to streamline their operations.
With the above in mind, in this post, we'll cover three chatbot tips to help further the success of your local business.
Let's get started.
1. Establish Goals for Your Chatbot
To successfully implement a chatbot into your local business, you must first identify appropriate goals for it to accomplish.
Considering this, common goals to consider include:
- Answering FAQs
- Lead generation
- Automating repetitive HR tasks
- Engaging with your audience
- Assisting your customer service team
For example, answering frequently asked questions requires significant time.
Yet, employing a chatbot to accomplish this task can free up your time to focus on other aspects of your company.
2. Assign a Name and Voice for Your Chatbot
Although chatbots can't replace human-to-human interaction, naming your chatbot and assigning it a unique voice allows it to assume a personality.
By all means, chatbots with personalities are fun, engaging, and likelier to lead to satisfied customers.
Considering the above, you can still maintain control over all responses your chatbot provides.
3. Solicit Customer Feedback
Asking users to leave feedback and rate their experience after concluding their chat sessions is among the best ways to fine-tune your chatbot.
In other words, asking them what they liked and disliked about using the chatbot can help them improve future sessions.
Likewise, regularly assessing your chatbot's performance will enable you to make any necessary changes.
Chatbot Mistakes to Avoid
Now that we've covered some tips to help maximize the use of your chatbot let's examine a few common chatbot mistakes that local businesses should avoid.
Excessively Long Messages
Users typically dislike having to read through lengthy walls of text.
Instead, they prefer quick, concise communication when interacting with chatbots.
Consequently, individual messages should take up no more than a third of the chat window.
Also, you should shorten long answers by breaking questions down when possible.
Failing to Direct Customers to a Human Operator
Chatbots should transfer or redirect to human operators when presented with an urgent question or complex inquiry they cannot assist with immediately.
With this in mind, if representatives are not immediately available, let customers know when they can expect to chat with or receive a reply from your customer service team.
Correspondingly, for chat requests outside of regular business operating hours, give users the option to leave their details and get back to them as soon as possible.
Failure to Test and Optimize Your Chatbot
You can reference previous user interactions and chat data to improve your chatbot.
For example, chatbots sometimes provide users with incorrect information, especially after initially setting them up.
Hence, you must regularly troubleshoot, test, and improve them.
In Conclusion
As shown above, chatbots deliver a fantastic way for local businesses to enhance customer service and streamline their operations.
Again, to help ensure success, local business owners should determine the primary purpose of their chatbot, clearly define their customers' needs, and design a user-friendly interface that is simple and intuitive to use.
Above all, a successful chatbot can deliver an excellent user experience that helps your local business outpace the competition.
Hope this helps,
Erik
We implement creative, results-based digital and hybrid marketing strategies for local business clients.
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