If you are a small business owner with a lot of traffic and you haven’t thought about adding a chatbot to your website yet, you need to start. It is one of the most effective ways to improve your conversion rate.
Chatbots are changing the way companies interact with their customers. If the chatbot is of a high quality, those changes are usually positive.
In this article I'll show you how chatbots can help in lead generation, learn how the they work and the best practices to follow. I'll also give you an idea of how chatbots influence marketing and improve customer experience.
So what is a chatbot?
A chatbot is software that can communicate with humans via a live chat interface. Either through the company’s website or through platforms like Slack, Skype, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Simple chatbots scan the keywords in a customer’s inquiry and provide pre-written answers. While more sophisticated chatbots (powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning) use natural language to create conversations and responses that are more complex.
Chatbots are an example of how powerful AI has become for personal and business use.
How do chatbots improve conversion rates and customer experience?
A typical website visitor comes to a website or landing page looking for something that solves a problem or meets a need. They either use the search bar to find what they are looking for, or they scroll through pages and pages looking for it. A chatbot eliminates these steps and provides an instant answer. Chatbots save time which means the conversion happens more quickly.
Chatbots can..
help nudge and nurture potential customers
be an efficient solution that helps save time and money
offer a wealth of personalisation opportunities
provide customer service and great user experience
How chatbots help in lead generation
1. Speed of service
Your chatbot works around the clock! It’s not always convenient to ask your question between 9-5 hours! Chatbots give customers the opportunity to get answers to their questions at a time that suits them.
From providing additional information on products and delivery to solving product-specific problems, chatbots can start one-on-one conversations immediately, enhancing their experience with your brand and helping the potential customer to make a purchase.
2. Improve your customers journey
They can pop up on any page throughout the customer journey. They can offer more information or to simply be available if the customer needs more help.
So, rather than needing a rep to handle problems, a chatbot can answer user questions quickly and efficiently. And when the problem is too complex for a chatbot, you can seamlessly transition to a real person.
3. Reduces customer stress
For some customers, speaking to a sales agent to explain their problem or ask questions might be stressful – having the option of a chatbot helps to reduce these anxieties.
Chatbots are also great for conversion rate optimisation because humans actually open up more when they know they're talking to a bot.
3. A personalised experience
Chatbots deliver personalised customer experiences that can make your brand stand out from the competition. By collecting valuable customer data on consumer behaviours, interests, and purchasing habits, Chatbots can leverage the information to start engaging, one-on-one conversations with customers.
4. Chatbots can be multilingual
Chatbots can handle thousands of customer queries at once in multiple languages. Being able to offer several languages means the customer can easily speak in their own native language.
5. Trigger Points
Have you ever been scrolling through a website, umming and ahhing about a possible purchase, wishing you had more information about the brand’s other offers?
Unless you’re signed up to a company’s newsletter or keep up-to-date with their social media, the chances are you won’t have a complete grasp on what’s available. Website chatbots can be utilised to convey information about products or services, triggered by where the visitor is, or their most recent actions.
One of the key strategies behind increasing conversion rates is to retain your visitors’ interest and keep them engaged at all times. A friendly message, offer, or bundle at a time where they would otherwise have fallen off, is a sure-fire way to increase completed checkouts.
6. Get real feedback from users
Chatbots can help you figure out why a website or landing page is not converting. When visitors leave a shopping cart, a chatbot popup window can appear with a survey or polling question asking why they are leaving.
For example, the chatbot will show several options, such as “not interested,” “price too high,” “looking at other options,” etc. This information is invaluable in your marketing efforts. You can test user opinions and assumptions by setting up a one-question survey in a chat window, and you can ask the user to rate their level of satisfaction with the site or the chat process. The chatbot can also save the sale by finding out the issue and recommending another product or service.
Summary of How chat bots help in lead generation
When a chatbot is effective, the conversion rate can jump significantly, even if you don’t have the most optimised website.
Because customers get what they need when they need it. When this happens, the conversion rate is automatically improved. In some cases, chatbots increase the quality of the lead or sale because more obstacles to the sale have been answered and eliminated.
With the right approach and implementation, a chatbot can improve the customer experience and boost revenue, all while saving your business time and money.
What do you think of chatbots? Do you think chatbots are good or bad? Do you find them helpful? Add your comments below.