Your eCommerce customer service can make you stand out from the competition. But in addition to coping with it, you stand out in your market segment.
Users wait for proactivity. They don’t want to search for support or send an email. It can take too long.
Thinking about these aspects, it may be time to invest in an online chat for your store and offer better customer service in the digital environment.
What is a ChatBot?
To understand what a chatbot is, let’s start by explaining the origin and meaning of its word. “Chat”, translated from English, means conversation and “bot” means robot.
It is common to hear about “bots” in the virtual environment. Bots work as applications with autonomy to perform some action on the Internet.
And here we are already approaching its primary function: to communicate.
The chatbot is an application developed to simulate a conversation with a human user in a virtual environment. This way offers support for you and your team, facilitating communication with customers and providing quality customer service.
Chatbots try to discover the need and desires of the user through a natural language so that there is more assertive communication.
These tools can be integrated into different platforms, such as live chat on a website, social networks, call centre systems and other applications for mobile devices.
Types of chatbots available in the market
There are different types of chatbots, and it is important to understand how they work. Let’s now present the characteristics of the leading models.
Rules-based chatbot
It’s the simplest type of chatbot on the market. Users can interact with them through predefined options. Therefore, if a customer searches for an option that is not available, the chatbot will not recognize it.
This model is very efficient for rating leads. Keep in mind that with the questions asked by the chatbot, you can take data from consumers. In addition, it facilitates consumer access to more objective tasks.
Chatbot based on machine learning
Machine learning allows the tool to learn with the data obtained by itself.
It can recognize standards in the data, save them and extract them. In this way, learning happens.
Chatbots are intellectually independent and trained to understand specific keywords and phrases that will generate specific responses for this bot.
Over time, this chatbot gains more knowledge to offer more assertive answers to the public.
Chatbot based on artificial intelligence
This type of chatbot unites a set of rules and machine learning.
Artificial intelligence simulates human intelligence. In that tracking of technology, we seek to create machines as intelligent as humans.
Ai-based chatbots understand free language. However, they can deliver the best solution for the user. They can even remember the context of a conversation and a user’s preferences.
They use NLP – Natural Language Processing – or natural language process to communicate with the user. It is a process of analysis of human speech in which the software looks for the most appropriate language to answer the user.
Like chatbots based on machine learning, you also learn as you interact with users. In this way, they offer constant improvement in their performance.
What is the difference between a chatbot and a live chat?
The difference between the two is pretty straightforward. While the chatbot is automated, the Live Chat is manual and is a person interacting with the user.
Live Chat offers individualized support and is usually the preference of users. In the end, exclusive customer service conveys the concern of companies for the needs of their customers.
But does it mean you have to opt for one of the two types of online Chat? No. You can use both at once, with different goals.
The benefits of online Chat for your eCommerce
1. You increase your store’s conversion rate
The conversion rate is one of the primary metrics you should monitor in your online store. The number of visitors on your page and the number of purchases completed in a certain period are taken into account.
If your store receives visits but does not convert, you can invest in customer service with an online chat. Remember that customer doubts during their purchase process are responsible for cart abandonment and lost sales.
As online chat is a tool present in your eCommerce, you can solve the doubts live. Whenever necessary, your customers will be able to count on your team. In this way, it presents excellent conversion potential.
2. You retain more visitors
The best online chat platforms offer one of the best resources available to increase the likelihood of visitor retention. They are proactive invitations: personalized messages automatically sent to the customer as they browse your pages.
This resource combines chatbots with live chats. Those responsible for customer service monitor visitors, identify where they are in your store and send them a message via Chat with the best solution for the moment.
Considering the possibility of personalizing the messages, they can change from a greeting, such as “hello, how can I help you?” to product recommendations, notices about promotions or discount coupons for your visitors.
Even proactive invitations significantly impact sales when they are used on the product pages in your eCommerce.
3. You do more extensive and complex negotiations
Investing in online Chat for B2B companies is also very important. SaaS businesses or any other type of company, such as industries, usually conduct extensive and complex negotiations.
Online Chat allows you to explain all the details of your products and services to your customers. In addition, you can send files to make budgets, proposals, and manuals, among other important documents for negotiation.
Complex negotiations need more attention from the buyer and also from the seller. Therefore, using a customer service channel that enables live communication can help you in sales.
4. Offer mobile consumer support
The use of mobile devices to surf the Internet increases significantly every year. It means that many of your visitors access your eCommerce through smartphones or tablets.
Being ready to offer the best customer service by mobile is a great competitive potential for any online store. Considering the popularity of messaging apps, we can imagine why online chat is the preferred channel on mobile devices.
5. Capture leads in a segmented way
Unlike other sales channels, online Chat allows you to interact with your customers live. Enjoy this opportunity to get to know them better and consider each lead’s preferences and interests when adding to your base.
Working with a segmented customer base significantly increases the performance and results of your marketing campaigns. You will always consider the relevant content for the customer profile that you have in your eCommerce.
6. You offer multilingual customer support
Even if you sell only in your country, it’s essential to prepare to serve customers who speak languages other than your own. You don’t have to worry about hiring polyglot operators with a professional online chat.
For example, Chat has an automatic translator for up to 90 languages. In this way, your team and your client can speak in the language of their choice and enjoy fluent communication without interruptions or interpretation problems.
7. Available to offer 24/7 care
Will you have a person to serve your customers every day? No, but a programmed chatbot and space for your visitors to fill out a form and report their doubts.
When you are an online operator, you will be able to evaluate the messages sent and contact the leads through informed means of communication, such as email or phone.
8. Your customers are dissatisfied with the service
Response time is one of the factors that most impact customer satisfaction with customer service. The online consumer knows that they can find alternatives to your products or services in just a few clicks. Therefore, you must be able to solve your doubts in the shortest possible time.
According to studies, the speed of response is one of the main benefits and reasons for the popularity of online Chat.
9. Integrate solutions
Another factor in investing in online Chat is integrating it into other professional platforms. For example, you can integrate with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and email marketing tools and other communication channels, such as social networks.
In this way, you can enjoy multiple automation designed to optimize your services and increase your team’s efficiency. You will be able to qualify the leads captured in the customer service sessions in the Chat and automatically add them to lists for sending email marketing, for example.
10. You still do not offer an integrated Callback
Finally, we will talk about a tool that significantly impacts consumer satisfaction with customer service over the phone. Callback eliminates the main problems indicated by dissatisfied customers when calling your company: waiting time and lack of confirmation if an operator is available.
With a Callback button in your eCommerce, customers can request a call as quickly as possible.