Chatbots are becoming a very popular way for brands and companies to generate new leads.
Automating conversations between customer and brand, chatbots make it possible to hold thousands of conversations at once, providing all of those customers with valuable insights.
Sephora is one brand that has had great success with chatbot technology; it partnered with messaging app, Kik, to offer customers makeup and skincare tips, tutorials and product reviews. A second chatbot was created to help customers set up in-store appointments, and Sephora also partnered with Facebook Messenger to use AI for visual search – resulting in ‘Sephora Colour Match’.
Sephora’s chatbots saw customers who used the technology spend $50 more than those who didn’t, and bookings increased by 11% through the bot.
These increases in revenue and engagement are thanks to the chatbots ability to store data on each customer – remembering their product preferences, suggesting related products and compiling information and preparing for the most frequently asked questions.
Chatbots do not simply answer questions, they can use the data they collect to personalise the customer experience, and to move leads through the purchasing journey.
Facebook Messenger has over 1 billion users, and now offers a ‘Click to Message’ feature in the Facebook app – allowing businesses to connect to new leads. By using Chatfuel, Chattypeople or Botsify – along with many other chatbot builders – it is possible to quickly and easily program a chatbot for your company.
The bot can ask the leads qualifying questions throughout chat in order to identify those that are qualified leads – and can offer discount codes, a free trial, an ebook or an easy-to-book appointment in order to move them further along the sales funnel.
Including a chatbot on the landing page is a smart move for most companies, as it is safe to assume that once someone has clicked onto your site, they would like further information. The chatbot can glean what kind of information each visitor requires, and can offer it to them in a quick and efficient way.
“The very nature of chatbots is to gain more information over time, so keep that in mind when developing one of your very own.
The insights about your customers can help you with segmented marketing campaigns, recommend products and services, and upsell, to name a few benefits.”
Marcela de Vivo of ClickZ
It seems as if chatbots are most certainly the future, and brands who do not partake may be left behind.
A recent Facebook survey has found that customers are 50% more likely to buy from a brand after chatting with them – and it was neither here nor there whether they spoke to a human or a bot.
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