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Chatbots. We are wasting away the most effective weapon in our arsenal.
We are all building chatbots. But are we building them the right way? Or simply going through the motions?
Last night I asked someone one simple question:
What do you know about chatbots?
Their response was, “It’s just a computer program designed to help individuals (customers) without the burden of having a customer service team”.
That response was both right, and wrong.
The only reason why it was wrong because the implication behind it was that of a ‘customer support’ function. Helpdesk of sorts. While the truth is — Chatbots are, or at least they can be, much more than that.
Consider the typical chatbots today. They can be broadly classified into few categories:
THE SUPPORT BOTS
Bots that will raise support tickets for you, allow you to leave your concern, feedback etc. so that their team can get in touch with you later. Fairly run of the mill, fairly standard, absolutely YAWN!
THE MARKETING BOTS
Think the bots of Techcrunch, Hubspot and the likes of it. Their primary job is to disseminate content, increase readership, subscriber base etc. Does a lot of things other than One — increase engagement with the bot.
THE SALES BOTS
Booking a hotel room, making a restaurant reservation — there are countless bots for that. Expedia, Kayak, Skyscanner — they all have bots. You tell them about your travel plans and they will search for the best options for you. Some of them work really well into delivering these results. With some others, you need to really work to find out the knob that puts things on the right track.
THE BRANDING BOTS
Think Celebrity bots. Haven’t seen a lot of them around, but certainly has its own set of capabilities.
What’s wrong with any of it? Not much really. They all work fine, to be honest. Some more than others. Some really really suck. But they are getting the job done.
