Why do people chat with chatbots?
Chatbots, AI-powered conversationalists, are quickly working their way into people's everyday lives and many businesses' marketing and support models. The technology behind chatbots uses innovations like machine learning and natural language processing to enable chatbots to interact with people in an almost human-like way. Sophisticated chatbots like Amazon's Alexa allow people to use voice commands to control household appliances, while simpler bots on websites can answer common questions.
Businesses have been experimenting with chatbots, trying to find just the right way to deploy them. For their part, consumers are getting more used to chatbots and, in many cases, will chat with chatbots to make issue resolution simpler and faster. In the eyes of consumers, chatbots still have area for improvement. – with most consumers saying they need to get smarter before they'll use them on a regular basis. But they can still provide convenience and accuracy when used in the right situations.
After hours support.
Imagine realizing at 10 pm that you have a cable installation appointment the next day that you can't be home for. Tragic! The cable company's call center shut down a couple of hours ago and their website doesn't have appointment scheduling functionality. But customers can chat with chatbots on the site any time of day and to your great relief, you're able to reschedule your appointment using this method. Crisis averted!
Front end of live agent chats.
You may also chat with a chatbot unintentionally when you initiate a chat session for customer support. Some organizations use chatbots to greet you and collect some basic information before elevating your session to a live agent. If the bot has been designed well, it should enhance your experience, enabling your support agent to hit the ground running because she now has some of your pertinent information from the start.
The chatbot initiated the conversation.
Chatbots aren't shy about introducing themselves to people and starting conversations. Just in your everyday internet use, it's likely you've visited websites where a small screen pops up and invites you to chat. If you choose to respond, there's a good chance you will chat with a chatbot.
You have a simple question.
You may have already chatted with a chatbot on a particular website and found it competent at answering basic questions. It's a little odd to think we can get to know a specific chatbot's capabilities and even develop a little bit of a relationship with it, but that can happen with repeated use. So you may find yourself intentionally visiting Barbara the Bot because you know "she" can help you.
