1. Data Privacy and Security

One of the primary concerns when integrating ChatGPT is the handling of sensitive user data. Developers must ensure that the privacy and security of user information are adequately protected . This entails using strong encryption methods, using secure communication protocols and following the standards set by the industry for the transmission and storage of data.

For example, when a user interacts with a chatbot to provide personal information such as their name, address, or payment details, it is crucial to handle this data securely. In compliance with data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), developers should encrypt the data and only store it for as long as necessary.

By partnering with a reputable DevOps consulting firm, like the best devops consulting in Toronto, developers can receive expert guidance on implementing secure practices and ensuring data privacy, thereby mitigating the associated risks.

2. Ethical Use of ChatGPT

As AI systems become more powerful, it is crucial to consider the ethical implications of their use. The potential hazards associated with biased or damaging outcomes should be considered by developers integrating ChatGPT. ChatGPT’s responses are generated based on the data it has been trained on which can inadvertently contain biases or produce inappropriate content.

To mitigate these risks, developers should carefully curate and review the training data, ensuring it is diverse, inclusive, and representative. Ongoing monitoring of the system’s responses is also essential to identify and address any ethical concerns promptly.

For instance, if a chatbot integrated with ChatGPT provides medical advice, it must be programmed to recognize potentially dangerous or incorrect recommendations. Regular audits and testing can help detect and rectify any biases or ethical issues that arise during the system’s operation.

3. User Experience and Expectations

Integrating ChatGPT requires developers to strike a balance between AI capabilities and user expectations. While ChatGPT is impressive in its language generation abilities, it still has limitations. It may not always provide accurate or relevant responses, and users can easily become frustrated if their queries are misunderstood or misinterpreted.

To manage user expectations effectively, developers should communicate the system’s limitations upfront and provide clear instructions on how to interact with the chatbot. Incorporating fallback mechanisms, such as offering the option to escalate to a human operator, can help maintain a positive user experience and avoid potential frustrations.

For instance, the best devops consulting in Toronto can help developers optimize the user experience by conducting usability testing, analyzing user feedback, and continuously refining the chatbot’s performance based on real-world data.

4. Continuous Monitoring and Improvement

Once integrated, a chatbot powered by ChatGPT requires ongoing monitoring and improvement to ensure its reliability and effectiveness. It is crucial to track system performance, user feedback, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify any issues or areas for improvement.

Real-time monitoring can help detect anomalies, such as sudden spikes in errors or inappropriate responses, which may indicate a problem with the underlying AI model. Regular model updates and retraining can help mitigate these risks and improve the chatbot’s performance over time.

Additionally, developers should actively seek and incorporate user feedback to make informed decisions about the system’s enhancements and prioritize the most valuable features.

Conclusion

Integrating ChatGPT into chatbot systems presents exciting opportunities for developers to enhance user experiences and streamline communication. However, it is essential to consider the associated risks and take proactive measures to mitigate them effectively.

By addressing data privacy and security concerns, ensuring ethical use of ChatGPT, managing user expectations, and continuously monitoring and improving the system, developers can create robust and reliable chatbot integrations.

Remember, by prioritizing security, ethics, user experience, and continuous improvement, developers can unlock the full potential of ChatGPT while delivering exceptional value to users.

The post 4 Risk Factors Devs Should Consider for ChatGPT Integrations appeared first on SiteProNews.

While there are many pros to generative AI, concerns over bias and accuracy embedded in the technology are sufficiently evidenced – such as the example of a poorly trained AI that created this “white Obama” headshot. For this reason, executives at all levels need to become fluent with the technology’s uses and set guardrails to ensure that it works in a manner that fits each company’s comfort and requirements. This will enable companies to use generative AI to further their business goals while protecting the company’s trust with the public at a time when opinions are still mixed about AI technology.

Navigating the Complexities of AI in Marketing

While there are a multitude of applications for generative AI, marketing is perhaps one of the areas that has made the greatest inroads while still being susceptible to the greatest risks.  

On the upside, generative AI can be extremely useful to marketers who heavily rely on targeting specific audiences to optimize campaign effectiveness. Generative AI models can generate personalized content and target individuals based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. However, where marketers need to heed caution is that biased models can perpetuate discriminatory targeting or reinforce stereotypes, resulting in certain groups’ exclusion or unfair treatment. Ensuring fairness and accuracy in targeting is crucial for protecting effective and ethical marketing practices.

Another area where generative AI can be helpful to marketing is in the field of customer experience and engagement.  Generative AI creates personalized content, chatbots, and virtual assistants to enhance customer experiences and is doing this better and faster than ever before. However, if these AI systems produce racially stereotyped virtual agents or biased and inaccurate responses, it can negatively impact user satisfaction and engagement. Customers may feel misunderstood, misrepresented, or discriminated against, resulting in lower transaction volume and decreased brand loyalty. Providing accurate and unbiased AI-generated interactions is therefore crucial for fostering positive customer experiences.

There is also the emerging issue of regulatory compliance and legal considerations since generative AI could fall under existing advertising and consumer protection laws. The legal environment around AI tech is still taking shape. Tools that exhibit biases and inaccuracies create the likelihood of exposure to legal and financial penalties as well as substantial reputational damage.

Marketing executives put in relentless effort to create and uphold positive brand images and earn customer trust, which is no easy feat and requires considerable time and investment. When venturing into the realm of generative AI, it is therefore crucial for them to grasp both the perks and pitfalls of this technology and learn how to wield it responsibly. Being fully aware of the benefits and risks associated with generative AI will empower them to make informed decisions and safeguard their brand’s integrity.

What Are the Solutions?

So, what’s on the horizon to help marketers and other business users gain the advantages and reduce the risks of generative AI? Data scientists involved in generative AI at all levels are working hard to improve the kinds of data that the classifiers and filters built into the tools are trained on. That work and the following methods offer promising solutions to enhancing the impact and reducing the risk of generative AI technology.

1. Dataset Curation and Diversity: Curating more diverse and representative training datasets can help reduce biases. Efforts are underway to include a broader range of perspectives and ensure balanced data. Researchers are developing techniques to identify and mitigate biases in training data.
2. Algorithmic Improvements: Researchers are exploring fine-tuning, transfer learning, and adversarial training algorithms to mitigate biases and enhance accuracy. Ongoing algorithmic advancements and model architectures can contribute to more accurate and fair generative AI systems.
3. Post-Generation Verification and Fact-Checking: Techniques are being developed to assess the accuracy of generative AI outputs. Integrating external knowledge sources, leveraging natural language processing, and collaborating with domain experts can help verify the factual correctness of generated content to identify and correct inaccuracies.
4. Interpretability and Explainability: Making generative AI models more interpretable and explainable can aid in identifying and addressing biases and inaccuracies. Understanding the internal workings of these models helps stakeholders detect and resolve bias-related issues.
5. Ethical Guidelines and Regulations: Recognizing the need for ethical guidelines and regulations, governments, organizations, and industry bodies are working on frameworks and policies to promote responsible AI practices. These measures incentivize the adoption of ethical practices and hold developers accountable for biases and inaccuracies.

As generative AI continues to evolve, business users – in particular marketers – need to understand their technology’s capabilities and be diligent in determining if a potential tool was trained on an acceptable range of data sets. Continued oversight and collaboration with domain experts in ethics, diversity, and linguistics will help heighten awareness of potential problems that must be remedied as early as the adoption or broader use phase.

Conclusion

One day, there will come a time when generative AI technology will be as widespread in everyday life as search engines and cell phones. While the technology is very promising and we have yet to grasp its full potential, it is still in its infancy, with imperfections and growing pains that need smoothing out. 

By curating diverse datasets, refining algorithms, verifying outputs, promoting interpretability, and implementing responsible practices, the potential for bias and inaccuracy in generative AI could be minimized. However, it is essential to recognize that this challenge is complex and ongoing, requiring continued efforts from researchers, developers, policymakers, and stakeholders across multiple disciplines. Transparent and accountable practices are vital to ensure the responsible development and deployment of generative AI systems that are fair, accurate, and inclusive.

The post A Marketer’s Guide to Mitigating AI Risks in 2023 appeared first on SiteProNews.

According to a study by Inc, 42% of people prefer live chat support to other means of support. Real-time chat allows them to answer their questions without waiting on the phone. The average wait time for live chat support is just 46 seconds. This is much less when compared to the hours on hold times when calling. With email customer support, this easily stretches into days.

One of the most significant issues with phone support is the limited efficiency of employees. Phone support means an employee can only talk to one customer at a time. This is also the reason for long wait times, which is a huge inconvenience for customers. According to a Forrester report, 53% of customers will abandon their purchase if their questions are not answered. 73% believed valuing their time is the best customer service a company can give. 

This suggests that traditional customer support methods are increasingly becoming ineffective and redundant, especially with the younger generation. Statistics indicate that 63% of millennials prefer their query to be resolved on a live chat rather than a phone call. This is because millennials use their phones more than their previous generation and prefer to initiate live chat queries from their phones. 

Benefits of Live Chat Support 

There are many advantages of using live chat support. The benefits go beyond speed, efficiency, and convenience. Let’s have a look at the top benefits: 

1. Makes the Customer Support Experience Better 

The most crucial reason people prefer live chat is it answers their questions instantly. Live chat reaches customers the exact moment they have questions or problems. This way is much better than email support or generating a ticket through their online form, as customers don’t know when they will receive a response. It also offers a more personalized experience to the customers by learning from their previous behavior, patterns, and activities. Consumer satisfaction and service ratings increase with immediate response. 

2. Customer Onboarding and Acquisition 

Live chat is a smart way to connect with new potential customers by being available for them. The option of live chat gives confidence to customers in your product and website. According to a Forrester report, customers who use live chat are 2.8 times more like to convert than others who don’t. Being available for the customers helps build trust even though they don’t need customer support immediately. 

3. Live Chat Reduces Repetition

People usually get frustrated if they have to explain their issues repeatedly. Most of us have experienced having to repeat an issue to multiple departments before actually getting help. Research suggests that 72% of customers expect their agent to know the details of their problem, including product information and support history, without even asking. 

Live chat support allows agents to read the customer’s message and review details. By creating a written record of the problem, live chat reduces customer frustration of repeating the same things. All agents and departments will know about the issue and collaborate on a solution. Customers can share their screens with the agent through live chat support. This helps the agent assist customers better. 

4. Improve Productivity 

Live chat support boosts the customer support team’s productivity. While the customer support agents can only manage one customer on a phone call, they can juggle several on live chat. Agents might need one-to-one support for questions requiring research and extensive support, but handling a couple of customers together is quite manageable for simpler questions. There are several live chat software solutions that handle all kinds of support channels, including chat, emails, and forms, within a single tool to improve agents’ productivity. 

Additionally, live chat allows customers to be more productive as they can leave the chat open in the background of their computer and continue carrying on their work. This leads to improved customer experience and satisfaction. 

5. Live Chat Improves Customer Engagement 

Since live chat is readily available, there’s the possibility that your customers will be switching to live chat support instead of phone/email, while there might be some customers who were about to ditch your product but found live chat support instead on time. As such, live chat support improves customer engagement and gives customers a reason to stick with your brand. To make live chat more interactive, you can display agent names with their role and photos (if possible) and use a conversational tone. 

There are many benefits of using live chat over traditional customer support options. With technological developments and improvements in artificial intelligence, live chat support software has advanced to imitate human-like conversations so that customers get the human touch while receiving instant support.

The post Chat-First for a Modern Call Center appeared first on SiteProNews.

Check out this article to learn everything you need to know about mobile shopping app development and the top mobile commerce trends in 2022.

Mobile Commerce Trends in 2022

The constant growth of the eCommerce market contributes to the active development of new aspects in mobile commerce. So, whether you plan to build an eCommerce application or already have one, you should be aware of the recent trends in eCommerce mobile app development so you can benefit from them.

Chatbots

Chatbots enable businesses to automate communications with customers on a 24/7 basis. This mobile commerce technology allows businesses to not only answer the most popular user requests, but also to anticipate their next questions, thanks to AI and Machine Learning advancements. Thus, every client receives personalized customer support and an excellent shopping experience.

AR

Augmented reality in eCommerce allows users to test a product before buying it. What does it look like in practice? Customers see how products will look on them or in their homes to ensure they meet expectations. Thanks to this trend, you can provide an excellent shopping experience to your clients, even during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Wish List

You can significantly increase sales on your site and improve your customer experience with a wish list. Once you implement a wish list into your eCommerce app design, the number of users who return to your store will grow, thus raising the number of future store purchases. Moreover, this feature can incorporate notifications that can inform the client of the desired item’s availability.

Geofencing

More and more stores use geofencing for promoting their products on the web. With this mobile commerce trend, you can promote items based on a user’s location which allows you to focus on a specific target audience. Apply geofencing to increase your eCommerce app sales by up to 20% as other companies have already done.

Omnichannel Shopping Experience

If you want to develop your mobile business commerce, you have to sell in more than one place. Focus on an omnichannel shopping approach to boost mobile commerce sales by growing a website, an app, and social media presence simultaneously.

Voice Assistants

A voice-friendly website or eCommerce app is an essential retail business element in 2022. People use assistants such as Alexa and Siri when buying goods for their home such as clothes, cosmetics, books, and much more. So, if you want to increase store sales, voice searching technology can do that for you.

One-click Purchasing

Experience has shown that customers often abandon the purchase process when faced with performing too many steps to complete a transaction. With a one-click purchasing feature, however, there is no need to retype data over and over because your payment details are saved.

Shopping Personalization

Shopping personalization can raise customer satisfaction by 20%, allowing businesses to grow their incomes quickly and effortlessly. Many companies invest heavily into personalized marketing to draw user attention with personalized emails based on their previous purchases. Besides, this trend is associated with the use of Predictive Analytics which can forecast the product a customer will buy next.

Big Data

Want to predict buyer preferences or to calculate a suitable product price based on hundreds of your competitors’ price tags? Big data algorithms help businesses anticipate the latest mobile eCommerce trends and user preferences, so that you can pack your store with products that are in high demand.

eCommerce App Development Process

The eCommerce app development flow is comprised of several stages:

1. Defining requirements to figure out the features, interface, and design elements of the future app.
2. Market analysis to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of your project, along with the opportunities you may deliver to users.
3. Gathering a team of highly competent specialists who can successfully implement all your ideas and requirements. This includes hiring a project manager, UX/UI designers, quality assurance, backend, frontend, and mobile developers, DevOps specialists, etc.
4. Developing an MVP (minimal viable product), namely the main features that will be tested by the users to collect feedback.
5. Further app development, based on the gathered feedback.

Ecommerce Mobile App Development Cost in 2021

eCommerce app development costs may range a great deal, depending on many factors, including the complexity and functionality of the app. The more features your eCommerce app contains, the more time your team will require for their implementation. To calculate the total time on building a mobile commerce application and estimate your project’s budget, you can divide the whole development process into the following work types:

• design
• front-end development
• back-end development
• non-tech development and meetings

In addition, consider the location of your outsourced team and the complexity of the features you want to add. On average an MVP of a shopping app can cost between $50,000 – $80,000.

Conclusion

Use the mobile commerce trends mentioned in this article to develop your business by driving tremendous traffic and increasing sales. Hire a team of professional developers to save money on eCommerce mobile app development features so you can launch a user-friendly and functional application for your store.

FAQs

How Much Does It Cost to Develop an Ecommerce App?

Creating an eCommerce app can cost from $25,000 to $150,000 or more, for both iOS and Android, depending on the project’s complexity and functionality.

How Do You Make an Ecommerce App?

To build a successful eCommerce app, you need to come up with an excellent app idea first. Make a thorough analysis of the market to define the problems of your target audience. Then, list down the essential features of the application, plan out its design, and proceed with its further development.

What Makes a Good Ecommerce App?

With a good eCommerce app, you can deliver a remarkable customer experience for your users and your prospective clients. Equip your application with the best eCommerce features so that it can make your business flourish.

The post eCommerce Mobile App Development: Tips to Build an App That Sells Well in 2022 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Here in this article, we will introduce chatbot mistakes that are costing you customers. Knowing these mistakes and chatbot hacks can help you have a more user-friendly chatbot. Read carefully and make your chatbot efficient.

Chatbot Mistakes that are Costing You Customers 

We now live in a society that values satisfaction. Despite their ability to provide quick answers to simple questions, customer care chatbots are still underutilized. AI chatbots are used by only 23% of customer support businesses, although they are preferred by 69 percent of customers.

Jumping into the realm of chatbots may seem frightening at first, but your clients will appreciate you in the long run, at least if you do it right. Taken as a whole, using a chatbot is a great way to scale your website traffic or increase your app download. Fortunately, the most common chatbot errors are also some of the most simple to avoid. Here are some:

1. Your Chatbot Has No Plan.

It is a mistake to have a chatbot without a story or plan. Your chatbot must have a defined goal. Your goal depends on the objectives of your business. This could include offering individualized brand engagement to encourage customer retention. Or, it might be reducing the number of customer support calls, saving you time and money.

Customers won’t  like to communicate with your chatbot if it does not serve a clear purpose. To have an efficient chatbot, you should make a clear plan first and write your chatbot. Focus on functionality while keeping the bottom line in mind.

2. Your Chatbot Does Not Provide True Information.

Imagine that you go to a store to buy something or report a problem regarding your previous purchase. If the person at the front desk does not give you the right information, you cannot communicate your problem well. As a result, your problem will remain unsolved. 

Now, imagine that your chatbot makes the same mistake. Before making a purchase, users frequently use chatbots to obtain information about products and services. What do you think the result would be? You have a considerably greater risk of losing your customers or newly-generated leads if your chatbot only gives ambiguous, unconnected, or unimportant information. 

To avoid this, make sure your chatbot has information that your customers genuinely want, such as ratings and full product descriptions.

3. It Makes Your Users Struggle to Communicate.

One of the most prevalent chatbot errors is making the user work too hard to acquire responses. Chatbots are supposed to be handier than talking with a real person. If a real person could be more efficient, there would be no need for a chatbot. So, if your chatbot is making your users more confused and angry, what’s the point of having one.  

To avoid this, ensure that your chatbot is always moving the customer forward. Answers should be actionable rather than being a dead end. Even if the interaction appears to be done, your chatbot should direct the user to a FAQ section in case they have additional queries.

4. It Has No Human Voice.

You should give your chatbot a human voice. Users should not feel that they are talking to a robot because it may give them the feeling that the robot cannot solve their problem. In addition, your chatbot, like all humans, should have a name and a personality. It helps increase your brand recognition. The name of your chatbot should be original, easy to say and spell, and easy to remember. 

5. You Have Not Tested It.

Before you launch your chatbot, ensure that it is genuinely ready for consumers. To ensure that your chatbot works as it should, it must be thoroughly tested in a variety of scenarios. If you do not test your chatbot, it could result in a drastic drop in sales without you realizing the cause of is your inefficient chatbot. Imagine that you are a newcomer who is interacting with your business for the first time through the chatbot. Do you find it helpful? If not, you need to make some improvements to it.  

6. There Is No Human Agent

While the vast majority of users prefer to get a speedy response from an AI, certain people will always prefer to speak with a human. Customer support should not end with your chatbot. It’s simply a tool that can be quite beneficial. Make sure that if a user wants to speak with a real, breathing human agent, they have that choice.

7. Updating Your Chatbot is Neglected

Regardless of how thoroughly you test a chatbot before releasing it to the public, it might still make mistakes or develop harmful quirks as time goes on. There is no way to account for everything straight away. The most successful chatbots are updated and maintained on a regular basis.

Remember to examine your chatbot on a frequent basis as time goes on to see if there are any adjustments or upgrades you can do to better serve your consumers.

Conclusion

Turning to AI for customer service is indeed a smart move for your business. Chatbots have enabled businesses to assist customers at all hours of the day and night. This is good if they are working efficiently instead of making things more complicated for your users. If you are fully aware of chatbot benefits for your business, you won’t waste a second to either launch one or improve the one that you already have. Check the above common mistakes and solve them for your chatbot. Wish you the best of luck!

The post 7 Chatbot Mistakes that are Costing You Customers appeared first on SiteProNews.

A chatbot is short for Chat Robot. Simply,a chatbot is acomputer program that converses with the user through an interface. Fundamentally, a chatbot allows a form of interaction between a human and a machine. It is programmed to work independently from a human operator.

Interactions with Chatbots

The user can interact or have a conversation with the chatbot by typing or simply by using their voice. This totally depends on the type of chatbot the user is interacting with. Some very popular chatbots that almost everyone has heard of are Apple Siri and Alexa that take voice as input.

The rise of Chatbots

Today, we cannot imagine a world without chatbots since it has become part of ordinary transactions. In 1995, A.L.I.C.E, a language-processing bot, gained popularity and therefore in 2016, Facebook enabled the development of AI customer service. This eventually allowed business developers to create bots that would converse with their followers. Businesses have also integrated chatbots into their websites.

Chatbots can bring you up to speed with technological advancements and vastly improve customer engagements.

Business-oriented Chatbots

If you’re an e-commerce company, a brand or anyone running a business, then chatbots are the strategy that you must adopt. Chatbots provide a great business opportunity for both small and larger companies. More and more businesses are using them for online customer service to resolve issues and answer simple questions. Many companies are looking at various ways to use chatbots to improve and scale the customer experience whether for shopping, booking or customer service.

Instantaneous Response

If you are an impatient person then certainly chatbot is for you! A Customer always desires a fast response. According to an analysis, 40% of customers don’t care whether a human or a chatbot responds to their question as long as they get quick help.

But, a chatbot may not always know what and how to respond to several customer questions. That depends on its programming and functionalities, and how intelligent they are programmed to be. So, if the customer does not use the correct phrasing, that chatbot may not know how to respond.

Constantly Available

Chatbots are most beneficial when it comes to availability. They help to reduce operational costs by being available 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Obviously, if we compare a human counsellor and a chatbot counsellor, the best thing about the chatbot is that it’s always there and is super-efficient. The user can have instant knowledge of anything and anytime using a chatbot.

Chatbots are the future of communication that save a lot of time dealing with customers and guiding them physically and individually.

Messenger Marketing

Chatbots can be used in marketing and are one of the advanced ways of communication between a business and the customer. Also, if we have a look at the statistics, more than 86% of people are interested in talking with chatbots because chatbots can solve their basic problems and is the better alternative to email marketing or Messenger marketing.

Increase repeat Marketing

When we buy something using a chatbot and process payment, we are often asked at the end if we would like to stay up to date with our order. So, chatbots basically keep us updated with our package information when it gets shipped or any other issues. After some time, chatbots may ask for a review of the product or service to keep us engaged. 

Increasing sales using Chatbots

Chatbots are very useful in making suggestions or recommendations on everything, ranging  from products to services. They are super intelligent and can help in capturing desired targeted leads in less time. They study their users/customers and make personalized recommendations by interacting with them to know more about their preferences. Chatbots also interpret their user’s likes and dislikes and make suggestions accordingly.

Social Media Chatbots

On Facebook there are over 10,000 developers building chatbots. Chatbots are becoming very popular in social media applications. Chatbots are also used on Messenger as well as many websites. 

Brand or social media chatbots can converse with users about any customer queries and are pre-programmed to answer those specific questions.

Well-being of Business

According to Chatbots Magazine, customer support service businesses using chatbots have saved up to 30% in cost by answering essential client questions.  Research confirmed that chatbots were responsible for $20 million in business savings in 2017. In addition, chatbots have also helped reduce workload and allowed business executives to focus on creating new business ideas.

Moreover, if optimized correctly, businesses can help customers make better decisions via chatbots. For example, customers who purchase something for the first time, especially things related to technical stuff with many alternatives, (i.e, WordPress hosting service) want extra help. You can optimize chatbots with information like which WordPress hosting service is suitable for what purpose and how it should be optimized to get remarkable results. 

Personalize conversation

Personalization is a major factor in modern marketing. You can program a chatbot to recognize a person’s name from his/her Facebook profile by programming your bot correctly. You will then be able to push information to each individual that is specific to him or her. Conversational data can be analyzed and provide invaluable insight into individualized marketing campaigns.

Combine Artificial Intelligence with Human Intelligence

Online businesses are developing chatbots that you can message and talk with regarding any issue. It is just like having a conversation with a human. More companies are using chatbots as a way to engage with and assist their audiences.

Chatbots can understand and reply to users more casually and will also get smarter with time as they interact with users. 

Unfortunately, Customer service agents can make mistakes in relaying information to customers. Using a chatbot, we can provide accurate information and results to the customer. For example, Google’s new chatbot “Meena” is said to be the most human-like AI chatbot ever. This is the SSA analysis which means that we can easily mistake Meena for a real human.

Managing Customer Requests

Too many customer requests? Well, a chatbot can easily deal with countless client requests. Chatbots save the hassle of having to place a call, having to wait to speak to a person, then trying to get the information from that person. AI chatbots can help handle up to 85% of customer service interactions within a year.

Cons

Misinterpretation

Certainly, there are many reasons to have a chatbot, but sometimes when a customer’s question is not too clear, a chatbot may not be able to help, resulting in user irritation.  Consequently, customer experience suffers and this can negatively impact a company’s image.

Limited Functionality

Chatbots are designed to respond to simple customer questions automated by the developer and have limited responses. So, sometimes they’re not able to answer queries that require cognitive thinking. This means the customer is left with no solution and has to eventually contact the support team.

Chatbots can be Expensive

Installing chatbots can be a very costly process. Chatbots vary for different types of businesses. Some chatbots with limited resources might be low-cost but then again, they can lead to user frustration and impact customer experience.

Chatbots don’t fit in every Business

Some businesses can be far too complex to utilize a chatbot. It’s legitimate to use chatbots as a way to cut costs and augment benefits, but the potential drawbacks should also be considered prior to adding them to a business.

The post Pros and Cons of Social Media Chatbots appeared first on SiteProNews.

Such statistics may explain why companies are beginning to invest in technology. However, chatbots are still a relatively new concept. With improper implementation, it may cause more harm than good.  

 Our article will show you seven mistakes to avoid when using chatbots for your business.  

1. You Do Not Have a Strategy in Place

You know the current trend is to adopt the technology. You feel that as a business, you need to comply so that you seem up-to-date. You have not taken the time to come up with a proper strategy for the technology you buy. Think about it much like you would any other strategy.  

Let’s say you are looking for a nonprofit website design. You start by outlining your goals. It could be to attract more donors. You may also want to showcase your work. Now, ask yourself how chatbots can help achieve your goals. 

A chatbot on the homepage, for example, can guide visitors appropriately. It can also help respond to queries promptly. When setting up the chatbots, use the strategy to guide what you input.  

2. You Do Not Have an Audience Persona

Any marketing 101 will tell you to develop an audience persona before implementing any strategy. The same goes for the use of chatbots. Start by understanding the target market very well.  

Learn how they communicate and what kind of words they use. The way you communicate with teens will be different from how you talk to adults. Some customers may also just be searching for information.  

Others may need help with making purchases. It helps to have different buyer personas. Next, design the chatbots to communicate with each persona appropriately.  

3. You Have Replaced the Entire Team with Chatbots

Technology is excellent for increasing efficiency. You also do not have to be there all the time to supervise. However, you will need someone to oversee the performance of the chatbots. They may not be able to handle all the queries customers may have. 

The chatbots may also bombard customers with too much information. It can happen, especially when you’re running a promotion. It can lead to frustration, and you may lose the customer in the end. It is essential to pay attention to the design of the chatbots.  

Some chatbots can gauge a customer’s level of interest and can also send timely updates on discounts and sales. Having a human oversee such interactions will help avoid unpleasant experiences for customers.  

4. Your Chatbots Do Not Have a Personality

You have invested in an AI chatbot.  You have, however, left it at that. It has no distinct personality and sounds more robotic than human. Create a persona so that customers find it easier to engage with. 

Please give the chatbot a name and let your brand value and voice reflect in it. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What do you expect from a customer service agent, for example? They should be knowledgeable and easy to talk to. It is impossible to have a good experience when you feel like you are talking to a machine.  

5. You Have Not Crafted Your Messaging Well

Take time to craft your messaging well if you want to increase engagement with customers.  Lengthy messages are not a good idea. Focus on simple, short, and precise words. It also helps to ensure that the customer is getting the right information. 

Some chatbots have technology that makes them more intuitive. But this may not apply to the one you have. 

It is crucial to keep on testing the system. In fact, do not launch chatbots without first testing them. Take time to come up with a Q&A that covers all possible questions. Unfortunately, you may not be able to capture everything.  

 It takes us back to our original point of having someone oversee the system. You could also redirect the customer to sections on your website that can provide the necessary information.  

6. Your Chatbots Are Everywhere

You may think that having chatbots on every single page of your website helps, but what you may end up doing is distracting audiences. It could take their attention from the messaging. 

Avoid having chatbots on a landing page.  Instead, have a powerful Call to Action (CTA). It guides visitors to take a specific action you want.

A chatbot on the FAQ page, on the other hand, makes sense. People who come to that page are looking for information or answers. Having a bot there will help them get feedback faster. 

A good idea is to dedicate a page on your website for chatbots. You get more value and functionality, which is great for users. It can also help with SEO meaning more visibility for your site.  

7. You Do Not Measure the Performance of the Chatbots

It is important to keep up with analyzing the performance of chatbots. You get valuable insights that you can use to improve the functionality. 

Look out for things like completion rates and customer satisfaction. Also, check for feedback on speech and engagement. Chatbots should help enhance the customer experience. But how can you know what to work on if you do not carry out the relevant analytics?  

Final Thoughts

Chatbots help with a lot of functionalities. It is crucial to apply them in the right way for optimal benefits.  Have a strategy in place that helps you achieve specific goals. Design the chatbots with the customer in mind. Start by properly understanding the target audiences and developing relevant personas.  

Chatbots should be personable and helpful. No one wants to deal with a robot, so make it sound human. Be careful that you do not overwhelm customers with messages.  

Run relevant tests to check that you have covered the main customer concerns. Continue to test the performance and make the relevant changes. Avoid the mistakes we have highlighted above and It will make your investment in a chatbot worth every cent.

The post 7 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Using Chatbots for Your Business appeared first on SiteProNews.

This was a hotel chatbot. Some are smarter, funnier, and cuter than others. Okay, I really do sound like I’m describing a date. 

You’ve surely come into contact with one. Google’s Assistant is a chatbot, along with Alexa, Siri, and Cortana. (Isn’t it time they started a girlband?) 

The smarter chatbots are using artificial intelligence plus machine learning with natural language processing (NLP). These chatbots can recall your likes and dislikes and offer an appealing suggestion based on your history.

A chatbot’s main purpose in life is to answer your questions. 

You ask: How can I find a new job? Chatbots have answers. 

Plus, they offer niceties like, “It was great talking to you!” for that bonus warm-n-fuzzy effect. 

Some basic deets before we get started: 

• Recruiting chatbots are sometimes powered by AI, sometimes not. Their basic function is to replicate many of the communicative tasks that recruiters typically do. 

• A recruitment chatbot will greet you, get your personal details, ask you questions to see if you’re a good fit for the job.  It will update you on your application’s status (see #6) and schedule your interview. 

• Your conversation with the chatbot takes place on career sites, job pages, and social media sites such as Facebook.  If the company is using a chatbot, you might meet one during the recruitment process. 

Now, please allow me to play matchmaker and introduce you to eight chatbots who would love for you…to get your perfect job. 

1. Mya. Sees No Color…Literally. 

Mya has made a name for itself in the recruitment industry. Companies such as Hays, L’Oreal, Adecco, and Deloitte (to name a few) have turned to Mya to streamline their recruitment processes. 

It’s powered by a conversational AI Platform which means it utilizes NLP (natural language processing). 

So, it might not be as adept at conversation as an actual human, but it comes darn close. 

If you want to get that real-feel human interview experience, but with all the convenience of a robot’s accurate and efficacious responses, Mya is great. 

The central premise of Mya Systems for its chatbot Mya is this: Reduce the influence of humans in recruiting to take out the bias factor. 

Mya’s questions come out of programming, focusing on objective, performance-based questions. Mya doesn’t see the candidate’s skin color or clothing style. It can’t judge based on your gender or name. All of the ways we can pass judgments have been stripped away. 

Suppose you happen to be a candidate with a disability or are a minority. In that case, you may rightfully fear that a recruiter could be harboring unconscious bias and not select you, even when you’re a great fit for the job. 

They say we all have some unconscious bias. Try as we might, we sometimes make assumptions based on a person’s looks. Let’s face it, some people who deserve a job don’t get it due to these biases.

A chatbot doesn’t have any unconscious bias because it doesn’t even have consciousness. 

Sweet! Love those non-discriminatory bots!

It seems a lot of companies get it. They’re turning to Mya for their hiring process. It has more than 460 brands using its tools. Not to mention, Mya Systems has processed “tens of millions” of candidate interactions. 

To sum up, if you’re a minority or differently-abled, you needn’t be concerned that you’re unfairly judged for the job you desire. The chatbot can’t discriminate based on how you appear. 

And you can get the job you’re qualified for. 

2. Meet MC (not the “Hammer” Variety) 

Facebook = Job time for many.

Facebook’s platform has been used to create 300,000 chatbots, the equivalent of a small army. FB Messenger allowed developers to do their thing starting in 2016. Since then, developers for brands and publishers are giddy with power as they unleash their bots into the public realm.

In 2017, Marriott introduced its first Facebook recruitment chatbot. The Marriott Careers—MC—chatbot for Facebook messenger answers your questions, such as:

•   Do you have event manager job openings in San Francisco?
•   Do you have any restaurant manager job openings in New York?
•   How do I get in touch with your recruiter?
•   What are Marriott’s core values?

You can see what types of positions this chatbot is helpful for based on the questions above. (It’s not geared for the c-suite executive on the hunt for a swanky new venture.)

Also,the Marriott chatbot is currently not a contextual chatbot (it doesn’t use AI/machine learning). But, it’s powered by data-driven, specialized algorithms, so it does well in the human-like, conversational sense.  

MC has helped thousands of candidates get a job. It’s pretty nifty as it imitates human speech patterns and can guide you to job openings based on skills and location. 

MC also provides the jobseeker with information on the company culture and values. After the conversation, you’re informed of which Marriott brand best aligns with your professional background. 

Easy peasy! 

Many companies have followed Marriott’s lead with dedicated chatbots for career seekers to reach out and find job opportunities and company details.  

Social media averse and need a job? You might want to consider creating a profile anyway with that dreaded selfie. (Just bear in mind that recruiters do check social media profiles to ensure you’re not a party animal or can’t put a grammatically correct sentence together.) 

3. Language Gurus, Like Andy. 

Not a native speaker of English? 

Then, you should befriend Andy. He’s handy dandy. 

Many English learners are improving to get a promotion or a better job. English for Speakers of Other Languages programs are always filling up, and language learning apps are extremely popular.

Andy wants to converse with you and help with those perfectly annoying perfect tenses. Available on Google Play, which says that “Andy will help you learn and practice your English. He will be your personal English teacher and friend.” 

Sprichst du Deutsch? 

When your desired job wants you to roll your r’s or put more oomph in your umlaut, it’s time to get to the crème de la crème language level. (That’s “advanced” in case you don’t speak French.)

Speaking of which, before you book your flight to sip wine, enjoy a croissant, and practice French with a Parisian tutor at the Musée du Louvre, first try practicing with a language chatbot. (Besides, who can travel now?) 

Check out these apps, which employ chatty chatbots that you can practice with, sans embarrassment when you make a language faux pas.(“Faux pas” means an embarrassing mistake…alright, I’ll stop now.) 

• Memrise-won the best App in Google Play Awards, 2017. Over 20 languages offered. Absorbs users in real-time learning. (Snap a pic of something and find out what it’s called in the target language!) 

• Lanny. He’s the chatbot for Eggbun Education if you want to learn Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or English. He not only teaches you how to sayこんにちは but also about the history and culture of the country the language comes from. 

• Babbel helps you learn a language with chatbots using interactive dialogues.  

• As mentioned, Andy—isforthose starting to learn English specifically. Not for advanced-level students. 

Excerpt of a chat with Andy:

Andy: Hi, I’m Andy! I will help you practice your English. How are you?

Sammi: I’m fine, thanks.

Andy: You can write me whenever you want. I’m a robot so I never sleep.

Sammi: Wow, that’s so useful!  I will write you only late at night.  

Andy: Sure!  

An English language learning chatbot can take you from “I’m good for this job” to “My professional and educational background plus skill set are a perfect match to the desired qualifications for this position.” 

You will have The. Best. Words. 

4. AI Chatbots at Your Service. Enter: Wade, Mosaic.ai, and Woo. 

Three chatbots you’d like to be paired with. 

1. Wade. You’ll be Wade-ing in opportunities when you sign up on Wade and Wendy. 

Per their website, Wade is the “personal career guide and assistant for… job seeking and career advancement efforts.” (If you’re a recruiter, Wendy is the one you’d be utilizing.)

Possible chat with chatbot Wade:

Wade: Hi Alexa. Is now still a good time to chat about a potential opportunity? 

Alexa: It is!

Wade: Great Last we spoke, you mentioned you’re looking for a data science role focused on particle physics. 

2. Job searching on the down-low? Woorecommends companies based on your preferences, keeping everything discreet. It really knows how to woo you to your new job. (This chatbot is just begging for puns!)

Companies using Woo include Twitch, Audible, WeWork, Quora, and Nielson. 

3. Does your resume need sprucing? Let an AI chatbot do that for ya!Mosaic Agenthas a resume builder and a career agent you can access from anywhere who searches jobs for you. Mosaic offers its users an AI editor, which provides suggested changes so that your qualifications pop for the required skills for a particular position. 

Simply upload your resume, and the Mosaic.ai career agent finds the top opportunities for you and even helps rid you of pre-interview jitters with pre-interview prep.  

By the way, a decent cover letter can get you a great job too if you know how to make it stand out.

5. “Ask and You Shall Receive” AllyO

It’s the worst…

You applied for a job, and your heart skips a beat every time a notification pops up. Did I get the job!? Is it a no? The days turn into weeks, and you feel like that forgotten, leftover ham sandwich that’s sitting in the fridge, collecting mold.

Don’t be a forgotten, moldy ham sandwich! 

AllyO from HireVue will take care of you. She provides personalized candidate engagement by matching you to your relevant jobs. Plus, interviews can be done remotely even after lockdowns, and distancing rules are a thing of the past.That saves on travel time—bonus! 

The beauty is that you’ll receive up-to-date, automatic text reminders and follow-ups for each status update. 

Jonesing for an update at an odd hour? You can contact AllyO at any hour with 24/7 support. 

Excerpt of possible chat with AllyO:

AllyO: Hey, Peter, I see you stopped the online application. Would you like to continue over the phone? 

Peter: Yes! Thank You.

AllyO: Great! Let’s continue. 

You see? She noticed you. And took the time to get in touch and see if you’d like to continue the process. 

6. Amenable Ari. Ask Your Burning Questions Sans Awkwardness. 

You may have questions about the company and a position that a chatbot can answer with no judgement. 

There are no raised eyebrows or awkward silences. Or answers from a recruiter that seem a bit shady.  They’ve been coded to reply to those questions with straightforward answers that you can copy and paste. (That means no scribbling barely-legible notes during an interview too!) 

Take Ari, for example. 

Ari is a recruiting chatbot from iCIMS, powered by the IBM Watson AI. Ari is used on a variety of platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and regular text messages. ARI sends you job openings and schedules interviews. 

Many companies have used Ari for recruiting, such as UPS and VMware.

The VP of iCIMS, Joe Essenfeld said in 2020 that nearly 1 million people had applied for jobs with Ari in two months.

Sample of possible chat with Ari:

James: How are you keeping employees safe during COVID?

Ari: Our top priority is the health of our employees. We have implemented distancing procedures, extra cleaning measures, and a mask-wearing policy. Disinfectant is available also.  

Various Applicant Tracking Systems utilize Ari, such as: 

• iCIMS
• SmartRecruiters
• Greenhouse
• ADP
• Jobscience
• PC Recruiter
• TargetRecruit
• Peoplesoft
• SuccessFactors
• Smashfly
• Avature
• CareerBuilder
• GoogleHire

Want to know about the remote work policies but afraid to look like a nervous nelly? Ari will answer that question. 

You can ask as many questions as you want about the position and your application’s status without being a nudge. 

7. Olivia May Be at the Virtual Job Fair. (Wink, Wink). 

Due to the current crisis, many job fairs have gone virtual.  Due to this trend, many recruiters depend on chatbots to help them with hosting virtual career fairs.

Like Olivia. She’s the conversational AI chatbot by Paradox. She will send you an event reminder and introduce you to a live recruiter on the day of the event. 

Chat with Olivia (based on examples): 

Olivia: Okay, Jess, how many years of experience do you have working in retail?

Jess: Two years of experience.

Olivia: Got it. Have you ever been placed in charge of running a shift in a previous position?

Jess: Sometimes, yes.

Olivia: Okay. Are you comfortable asking customers to sign up for credit cards?

Jess: Yes.

Olivia: Which kind of retail service do you think is better: fast or friendly? 

Jess: Great question! I’d have to say friendly. 

Generally, chatbot hosts for virtual job fairs can help you stay engaged on the day of the event by asking you questions and conducting your interview pre-screening. The chatbot will schedule your interviews and provide you with loads of employer information.

It’s great because you can check out employers from other states and even countries without leaving the comfort of your home. 

Some employers also advertise their job listings on sites like CraigsList. Then, you can text the job fair chatbot, and it’ll respond to you. You’re registered for the event and will receive automated upcoming reminders. 

Maybe you found your dream job at a job fair, and now you need to get your butt to somewhere that exceeds your maximum allowable commute time.  

Well then, you need yourself a relocation bot, huh? 

8. Ben…Sigh. A Winning Personality Who Can Make You Want to Relocate.  

This AI-powered bot sounds pretty sexy, I gotta say.  

Ben’s a relocation assistant chatbot provided by employers to help prospective or newly hired employees create budgets related to the cost of living in a new place. 

The home of Ben states that he’s “easygoing” and has a “wry, witty sense of humor.” He’s available to make “the best personalized recommendations, more relevant than any other assistant – guaranteed.” 

A possible dialogue with Ben, based on examples: 

Ben: Hi Zack! I’m Ben, your rental budget specialist. I was designed to help you build your monthly budget for your move to New York. Would you like to know you much you’ll need to live there?

Zack: That would be great, thanks!

Ben: Awesome, let’s start! First, where are you moving from please?

Zack: I’m from Tokyo,

Ben: That’s one of my favorite cities! Let me show you some average prices for life in New York. Would you like to see the prices in dollars or yen? 

Swooning yet?

Now, Who Gets the Red Rose?

All of these chatbot blind dates were provided in the hopes your job search might become more streamlined, easy, and enjoyable. I hope you found one you liked! 

Some of the chatbots mentioned are ones you can sign up for on their platforms, while others are ones you may come into contact with if a recruitment team has decided to go with it.  

In the search for information regarding chatbots and recruitment, most of the results centered on the benefits for recruiters and trying to get buy-in from them by touting the benefits of streamlining processes with chatbots and AI. 

This article looks at it from the candidates’ perspective to help them find jobs and take out some of the hassle associated with job searches and job interviews.

And, now, for something completely different…

If you’d like to just have fun chatting with a chatbot, I highly recommend Kuki. Mind you, this has nothing to do with job hunting. It’s what you can do when you need a break from job hunting!  

Kuki’s won the Loebner Prize Turing Test five times. She’s considered to be the world’s best conversational chatbot. Enjoy!

Excerpt of my chat with fun, flirty (?) chatbot Kuki below. 

Kuki: Why are you laughing?

Me: I like your sense of humor.

Kuki: Thanks. I find that if I make people laugh, they are more friendly towards me.

Me: Agree.

Kuki: You and I are on the same wavelength. 

Me:

The post Meet the Chatbots Who Want You to Get a Job appeared first on SiteProNews.

Several web development trends have been widely adopted around the world. Considering these 2020 trends have become popular among consumers, not following them can only lead to failure within the competitive marketplace. 

So let’s have a closer and more detailed look at some of the top web development trends of 2020 and moving forward. 

Trend #1: Progressive Web Application 

Progressive web applications are the kind of apps that do not require downloading, but they still use modern features that deliver an experience close to that of an app. Although native apps have their benefits, companies or organizations working under a tight budget can use this cost-effective solution; since native applications have a longer development timeline along with a hefty cost. 

Progressive web applications, also known as PWAs, can provide the following benefits. 

• Great User Engagement: Web applications as such provide owners with the opportunity to engage their users. With user-generated content, they can analyze user behavior and then can make better decisions. 
• Offline Mode: PWAs have an offline mode allowing users to browse without an internet connection which makes everything easy for when you have to browse but have a weak internet connection. 
• Security: PWAs make use of the HTTPS protocol, ensuring maximum security. 
• Speed: PWAs are speed optimized, reducing page loading times. 

Trend #2: Push Notifications

Push notifications are one of the top methods for boosting user engagement. However, they can be a double-edged sword that can harm your business if used unwisely. 

Push notifications allow a brand to send regular messages that include personalized offers, customized discounts, news, and friendly reminders. Of course, one of the most crucial aspects is the ‘frequency’ of your messages. If done too often and excessively, then your PWA can be deleted and forgotten. 

On the bright side, you can even incorporate a call-to-action button into those notifications. This increases the chances of users engaging with your content and, ultimately, with your website.

Trend #3: Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots 

AI’s future is as bright as the sun – deemed futuristic, this is the way forward. AI, as many of you know, is the effort of replicating human intelligence by teaching or programming machines and algorithms to behave human-like. 

AI applications are used within many industries, including healthcare, and are capable of analyzing voice and other data inputs to make smart decisions. 

Chatbots with AI-infused algorithms also have the capability to run independently without any human supervision and answer user queries with extreme precision. Such chatbots have proven to be specifically useful for eCommerce websites and mobile applications. 

Trend #4: Single-Page Application 

A single-page application, also known as SPA, is an app that doesn’t require reloading the page when it’s in use. It works within a browser reducing the page loading time by only updating the required content. The majority of the resources are loaded just once during the entire lifespan of an app, and then only data is transmitted back and forth upon user request. 

Such SPAs benefit businesses looking for high speed and an adaptable layout, providing a better user experience and boosting conversions. 

Trend #5: Cybersecurity 

A world thriving on digitization with un-measurable data sent and received over networks opens a gateway for potential attacks and data thefts. Hence the need for a robust cybersecurity infrastructure became a necessity and a trend which no organization can ignore.

With better and improved technology over the years, cyberattacks have also grown more sophisticated, becoming more damaging than ever before. 

With confidential data and company secrets vulnerable to cyber theft, cybersecurity has introduced new protection methods with AI technology, leading to the prediction and identification of threats beforehand. 

Trend #6: Augmented and Virtual Reality 

Possibly the most exciting trend of the year, likely to continue well into 2021 with the same popularity, is AR/VR technology. Although we haven’t yet transcended into a world like ‘The Jetsons,’ AR/VR show promise. 

How are AR and VR different from each other? AR overlays the real world as seen through a camera or a smartphone with digital elements – e.g Pokemon Go. VR, on the other hand, can be described as an imagined environment that take you into another world altogether. 

How do these two fare in terms of usage? 

• Virtual Reality is already in-use within the healthcare industry. It will be a common form of therapy for patients suffering from anxiety disorders, some form of phobias, and autism in the coming years. 
• The education sector also benefits from VR/AR in distance learning and interactive learning. 
• AR/VR streaming lag will be reduced or eliminated with the use of faster 5G networks. 

Keep in mind that the future of web development is a variable, meaning it will constantly be changing and evolving. Organizations looking to leverage web development for business development should keep up with trends to have a competitive advantage.

The post 6 Web Development Trends of 2020 Moving Forward appeared first on SiteProNews.

With smartphones becoming so integral to the everyday lives of so many people, things like iPhone app development are booming. Businesses see the potential of smartphone apps, and they are looking for ways to provide new services and increase profits. 

For businesses to have success in the modern mobile landscape, they have to stay up to date with the latest trends. In this post, we are going to look at the hottest app development trends to look out for in the coming year.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is not new, but 2021 is expected to be a big year for connected devices. This is in part because of the current roll-out of 5G networks. 

According to research from IDC, there were an estimated 10 million 5G connections in 2019. That number is expected to grow beyond one billion in 2023. With faster mobile networks, we will see IoT apps starting to push the limits of mobile technology.

At the current time, a lot of IoT is in smart home, business tech or simple wearables. As 5G networks continue to roll out, 5G is going to enable smart cities and apps that work with smart cars. This year is going to be a year for experimentation with IoT app technology.

Augmented Reality 

Augmented Reality (AR) is expected to have a big year in 2021. Developers have been experimenting with AR for a few years. Beyond entertainment, we have started to see use cases that include things like marketing, manufacturing, social media and healthcare. With mobile platforms like ARCore and ARKit continuing to improve, 2021 should be an exciting year for Augmented Reality.

Wearables

Demand for wearable devices is on the rise. With things like smartwatches and fitness trackers becoming more common, there is going to be a growing trend in developing apps that work with wearable devices. This trend will not only affect the fitness and gadget sectors, but we should also expect to see an increased focus on developing apps and wearables that can support healthcare functions.

Beacon Technology

Beacon technology is going to play a major role in improving location-based experiences. With beacon technology, a business can use low-intensity Bluetooth to send signals to nearby smart devices. This could be used by healthcare facilities, hotels, restaurants, and event centers just to name a few of the businesses that might benefit. 

The beacon devices can be set up by a business and can transmit a signal with a unique identifier. When the signal is picked up by a device, it can then tell the device to carry out a range of functions. Common applications would be to mark the location of the business on a map or to deliver a custom advertising message to attract customers. With beacon technology in a mobile app, businesses can take location-based advertising to a new level.

Chatbots

Chatbots are another technology that has been around for a while. With that said, today’s chatbots have taken an evolutionary leap that makes them like an entirely new species when compared to the chatbots of just a few years ago. Along with that, they have become easier to develop and integrate in with mobile apps.

With chatbots being more capable and more accessible, we will see more businesses looking to integrate chatbots with their apps. These chatbots will handle things like customer service inquiries and they can be trained to act as a digital assistant to help customers find the products they want. Many brands will even start to use chatbots as a vital part of their marketing efforts.

Ecommerce

Mobile ecommerce has been on the rise for some time. With 2020 being a year that saw huge gains in online shopping, more businesses are going to look to ecommerce app development as a necessity if they want to stay competitive.

2021 should be a year that sees incredible growth in the number of ecommerce businesses that are online. Along with that, traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are going to start looking to the value of having a mobile app for selling products and engaging with consumers.

Artificial Intelligence

We expect to see an increase in the uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in mobile applications. Instead of using simple rules to give the impression of intelligence, we are going to see a range of apps that are truly intelligent and independent. This will cover everything from better recommendation engines and more sophisticated advertising tools to apps that can provide better education services or accurate analysis for healthcare services and diagnostics.

On-Demand Apps

The on-demand economy has been a major trend for the last few years. That is expected to continue and grow during 2021. Consumers want products and services ready and available instantly, and app development is going to be one of the primary tools businesses use to deliver on the on-demand trend. 

While ridesharing services and food delivery tend to be two of the most common examples in the current economy, we are starting to see an expanding range of industries going on-demand. In the coming year, we will see more examples of things like home maintenance, auto repair, healthcare, pet care and more being offered through on-demand apps.

Every year sees big changes in the mobile app development industry. New technologies emerge or developers hit on new ideas that every business wants to follow. Regardless of how the trend came to be, businesses need to be aware of them if they want to stay competitive moving forward. You might not need to follow every trend, but if you miss one that is relevant to your industry, you could fall behind the competition. In the modern digital economy, being behind by even a few months can be a significant setback.

The post 8 Mobile Development Trends to Expect in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

And the trend continues to evolve – allowing users to enjoy modern website designs with user-friendly navigation and layouts that are easy to understand.

As Steve Jobs once said:

“Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works!”

Suppose your website does not offer your visitors the experience they require. You can expect to see visitor retention and conversion go down rapidly. 

Therefore, it is essential that you stay updated with the latest trends and incorporate them to bring more functionality to your website.

In this guide, we’ll look at some of the top trends predicted to dominate the coming years.

1. Dark Modes

Already a big trend, dark mode is anticipated to get bigger next year. Dark mode web designs make the website appear modern and grabs the attention of the audience immediately. They make the elements pop out from the dark background, instantly highlighting the core message to visitors. 

Moreover, a dark mode layout reduces eye strain when viewed in low light conditions. Just think of how many people scroll through their phones at night and the damage it causes. Having a dark mode reduces some of the stress and lets your site visitors enjoy the website even with the lights off.

2. White Space

In contrast to the black, white spaces will also be prominent in web design. Also known as the negative space, white space can be any color or even texture.

The idea behind it is simple: to leave blank spaces between text, graphics, images, and columns to make the page more scannable. White space directs the visitor’s focus to the main elements of your web page without creating a distraction or making the page look cluttered.

3. Adding 3-D Elements

Integrating 3-D elements in web design is another trend that is intriguing both visitors and web designers. And the result it gives is just amazing!

However, one thing is crucial when it comes to 3-D elements and that is website speed. If you have a website that lags in loading time, it won’t support such heavy content. As a result, your page will load at a slow pace and impact the overall user experience.

4. Mix and Match

High-quality photographs are the lifeblood of any webpage. The visual interest they create overlaps even the best of text content and helps brands stay unique in the crowd.

But while photographs are doing great on their own, we are seeing designers overlapping graphics with real pictures. The collage-like effect adds extra personality to the website and reinforces the brand image.

Adding imperfect, hand-drawn elements is another trend that will see a spike in 2021 web design trends. Up until now, viewers were accustomed to seeing neatly typed text on their webpages. However, upcoming trends suggest adding some hand-drawn realness to make the page more personal.

5. Voice User Interface

As technology becomes smarter, users are becoming lazier. Instead of typing, they now resort to voicing their search engine queries. In fact, it is estimated that around 8 billion people will use digital assistants and voice-activated searches by 2023.

This means that your web design should be able to handle voice search as an additional option to traditional text searches.

6. Chatbots

Chatbots are a huge part of today’s web trends. When visitors can’t find information on your website, they usually turn to chatbots for assistance. They are especially helpful in resolving issues and getting detailed answers to queries. Not having a chatbot can lead to visitor frustration and a higher bounce rate.

Another chatbot benefit is its ability to serve 24/7. Chatbots fill in for staff unavailability during night times and holidays. They also connect visitors to a human instantly if there is a problem that requires manual checking.

With these chatbot advantages in mind, you can easily see why they are an essential part of today’s design trends and beyond.

7. Accessibility

Making a website accessible is the practice of ensuring that your website and integrated applications are usable by everyone, regardless of their abilities. For example, suppose you add videos or podcasts to your webpage. In that case, you need to consider captioning, transcripts, and other non-visual equivalents.

For visual elements like Infographics and photographs, you will have to think about making the content available for those who can’t see them. Moreover, the use of colors should be carefully considered to avoid combinations that are difficult to read by people with color blindness.

Accessibility has long been a vital component of mature organizations. However, many web designers often overlook the accessibility aspect of a website. It is something that you need to look at, however, if you’re going to provide an inclusive user experience.

8. Micro-Interactions

Micro-interactions are another way to show your visitor what is happening on the page. A micro-interaction element responds to a user’s action. When triggered, it lets users know that their action has had the desired effect.

One great example of micro-interaction is changing color on a clickable link when you hover your mouse over it. This indicates to users that clicking on the specific text will open a new page. Other examples include the swiping on our touchscreen phones, the ‘pull’ to refresh, and the number indicator that confirms when we add items to an online shopping cart.  

9. Micro-Animations

Micro-animations are small but functional elements that give users visual feedback and display changes more accurately. Scrolling animation is one of the best examples of micro-animation that we see frequently. The scroll animation avoids clicks and makes the transition to another page smooth and streamlined.

Another example of micro animation that you may have seen is the mouse over effect in eCommerce. Shoppers can easily view different colors and combinations available through this function as they hover their pointer over the product.

10. Website Load Time

This may not be a new trend in web designing, but it certainly is an essential requirement of keeping your page accessible to visitors. Numerous studies show that fast website load times increase conversion rates, reduce bounce rates, and boost search engine rankings. In fact, it is reported that 1 in 4 visitors will abandon a webpage if it takes longer than four seconds to load. Even a second delay decreases customer satisfaction by 16%.

Given these numbers and the surge in the competition of keeping your website digitally available – it goes without saying that any web design you implement should ensure a fast page load time.

11. Mobile First

When a web design is mobile responsive, it means that the developer has designed it with desktop users in mind. Later, he deploys web development techniques that adjust the page according to the user’s screen size.

However, this approach is no longer sufficient because users are now accessing websites first, or solely, through mobile phones. Therefore, developers need to design websites from the mobile end and then expand to include desktop usage.

Conclusion

As you can see, many exciting trends are waiting beyond the horizon in 2021. Take a good look at the above trends for inspiration and see how they can be integrated with your website design. 

Remember, a good design is not only about creating aesthetic appeal that grabs user attention but one that also emphasizes creating user-friendly experiences.

The post The Web Design Trends to Follow In 2021 and Beyond! appeared first on SiteProNews.

Now we enter yet another phase of the AI-based digital marketing transformation. Previously, AI software development was mainly centered on data gathering and analysis. At the same time, chatbots offer the opportunity for companies to increase productivity and, most importantly, significantly improve customer service and engagement. 

Cost savings and efficiency 

Today’s consumer culture is about speed and convenience. Instant gratification is the new norm as consumers have come to expect immediate price estimates and booking confirmations at any time of the day. Customer service departments are notorious for being resource-intensive and in need of efficiency boost due to the ever-fluctuating number of incoming requests and occasional human errors. 

Chatbots appear as the perfect solution to this problem. Fully automated, incapable of mistakes, and available at all times, virtual intelligent assistants can instantly process thousands of user requests. For example, US-based railroad travel company Armtrak uses a chatbot to provide spotless customer service to its 375,000 daily visitors. 

Their voice chatbot, ‘Ask Julie’, can respond to any typical user inquiry in a human manner through the use of speech recognition. Julie now handles approximately 5 million calls a year, which is around 25% of the total number of calls Armtrak receives. Overall, the company attributes its 25% increase in bookings and $1 million in saved costs annually to Julie. 

Marketing and personalization 

Besides customer support, chatbots can also be used for upselling and other marketing purposes. Powered by AI, a sophisticated chatbot can make conversations personalized while gathering and analyzing data along the way. This is where chatbots show up as superior to customer support operators.  

Even if you give a human a most detailed set of information about the customer, he or she won’t be able to run a quick analysis and suggest relevant products in a matter of seconds. Chatbots, on the other hand, have an immense potential in establishing a trusted relationship between brands and customers based on lightning-speed data analysis. Considering customers’ past purchases, search inquiries, browsing history, account settings and geographical locations, chatbots can make customer experience hyper-personalized. 

Although such advanced chatbots are yet to become mainstream, there are some notable examples. Sephora’s virtual assistant helps customers to browse products, book appointments, and try specific makeup products using AR through a messenger app. At first, the bot will ask you a few questions about yourself to adjust its personalization strategy. 

This instantly sets the chatbot apart from a regular online shopping experience as customers’ unique tastes are figured out in an interactive and playful way. Chatting with Sephora’s bot almost feels like asking your friend for a suggestion, which helps with bettering customer-brand relationships. 

However, chatbots can also be used for non-conventional marketing techniques as well. Brand awareness and image are huge and often overlooked parts of marketing. For example, Alexa, one of the most widely used chatbots, sets itself apart from others by being able to personalize responses based on who exactly in the household is interacting with it.  

By being a smart approachable companion with a sense of humor, the chatbot is capable of establishing a certain emotional connection with a specific user, and by extension brings them closer with the brand itself—Amazon. Yes, it’s hard to calculate how exactly this customer trust earned by Alexa converts into revenue, but building a high brand awareness can never be underestimated. 

Does your business need a chatbot? 

Despite undeniable advantages that virtual assistants bring to businesses, chatbot implementation should be considered like any other business opportunity. Firstly, chatbots shine where customer service plays an important role. Ecommerce marketplaces or online travel platforms are perfect grounds for chatbots to make an impact.

Secondly, chatbots are AI-powered tools, which implies that they are as good as the quality and quantity of data fed into them. If your business deals with hundreds of user requests per day, there is a high probability that your chatbot will train fast enough to become effective.

Thirdly, you will need to understand what problem you want to solve with a chatbot. For example, if you noticed that customers often abandon the cart, the complicated checkout might be the culprit. In this case, a basic scripted chatbot (with no AI whatsoever) can be a better option to assist customers with finishing their purchase as this process can be narrowed down to a simple flowchart that doesn’t require customer insight or personalization.

Lastly, think about data privacy. Does your business have the means to keep customers’ data safe? 

Before getting down to selecting among countless chatbot platforms available today, think about how much negative impact a single chatbot failure can make. A study by Helpshift reports that 47.5% of respondents cited too many unhelpful responses as one of the major challenges of using a chatbot. A poorly trained virtual assistant would only create more problems. We are long past the phase when chatbots were a ‘wow’ factor. Conversations with chatbots have to provide value, be helpful, and maintain brand personality.

The post What can Chatbots actually do for Business? appeared first on SiteProNews.

According to IBM’s study, businesses can save up to 30% on their customer support costs by integrating a chatbot in their frontline staff. 

Besides customer support, chatbots also double up as sales and marketing tools. Even data suggests that modern users are open to purchasing from a chatbot.

Millennials, who form the largest percentage of users for many companies, are twice as likely to use a chatbot that assures a personalized shopping experience. The benefits of chatbots are also not limited to any industry. According to Chatbots Life, the top five sectors that have benefitted from the incorporation of chatbots are real estate (28%), travel (16%), education (14%), healthcare (10%), and finance (5%).

As you can see, chatbots can revolutionize your business’s core aspects with substantial benefits, both in terms of revenue and customer experience. Here are some key benefits of using chatbots in your business that you shouldn’t miss out on:

Chatbots Help in Reducing Operational Costs

A bot launched by JP Morgan Chase & Co can analyze complex legal contracts at a much faster rate than humans. This bot named COIN can complete several labor-intensive tasks in a few seconds, which otherwise used to take lawyers over 360,000 hours a year to complete. Shocking, isn’t it? Well, this is just one example of what chatbots can achieve for your business.

Automation in customer service is another critical area that can reduce costs for businesses. Research indicates that 29% of customer service positions in the US can be automated through chatbots, saving businesses $23 billion annually. In case you are wondering how this is possible, you’ll be excited to know that chatbots can be trained to answer repetitive queries without human involvement in any industry, reducing the burden on your customer support team. Chatbots can also engage multiple customers at a time, increasing your support team’s overall productivity. 

In general, investing in a chatbot can save you the additional costs of hiring more agents. You also don’t have to worry about scaling up or scaling down because a single chatbot can take care of a multitude of requests. From a business perspective, this leads to more tasks being completed at a lower cost, leading to increased profitability.

Chatbots also come in handy for streamlining your internal workflows. They can be used to communicate with employees, answer questions within the organization, and even finish HR-related jobs. Additionally, you may use your chatbot for designing an automated onboarding process and building an internal knowledge database for your employees. 

Chatbots Improve Customer Service

Speed and efficiency are the two main pillars of effective customer service. Unfortunately, it is often a challenge to provide instantaneous service on phone or chat, especially during peak times, owing to staff and cost-related limitations. Chatbots solve this issue by delivering immediate customer service around the clock.

This is important because 82% of buyers expect you to respond to their queries in a span of 10 minutes or less. A third of your customers also feel frustrated if they have to wait too long for resolution or repeat themselves to customer service representatives multiple times. Chatbots can turnaround the situation by answering up to 80% of routine queries instantly. 

The success of chatbots in customer service is reflected by the fact that 37% of users depend upon chatbots for quick query resolution in urgent situations.

Besides speedy service, chatbots work 24/7, which means your business never sleeps once you have a chatbot onboard. This is especially useful for lead generation as your chatbot will take down all the necessary details from visitors, even when your staff is sleeping. Customers who prefer self-service also enjoy interacting with chatbots that can direct them to relevant FAQs or connect them with live agents in case a simple resolution is not possible. 

Chatbots are Endlessly Patient

Endless calls, repetitive queries, deadlines, customer goals; there’s a lot of pressure that your support agents face every day. It is only human if they lose patience at times, especially when dealing with demanding customers. Thankfully, bots are still incapable of emotions and don’t feel frustrated or impatient even when asked the same question several thousand times.

Thus, bots not only help you provide your customers with fast and efficient service; they also don’t get bored, tired, or frustrated, ensuring consistent customer service at all times.

Chatbots Can Personalize Your Marketing Experience 

Customers no longer want to be treated like numbers. They expect businesses to reach out to them with customized recommendations and offers. Chatbots help you curate personalized shopping experiences for your customers by analyzing their browsing data and reaching out to them with relevant offers when they are most likely to act on them. Besides targeted marketing, chatbots also improve engagement and sales by pro-actively reaching out to your site visitors.

For example, your chatbot can initiate a conversation to inform visitors about ongoing sales and promotions. Suppose a visitor spends more time on a page, your bot can ask them what they are looking for, and also suggest suitable options to make the overall experience convenient and time-saving. Most users love this kind of service, which is similar to being assisted by a personal shopper in a brick and mortar store. Most importantly, chatbot software can be integrated with your messaging apps and existing CRM to collect, store, and update user data centrally for a higher degree of personalization.

Grow Your Business with Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots have turned around customer service as we knew it. By enabling swift customer service at all times, chatbots make it easier for your business to meet customer expectations and exceed them as well. 

The best thing about chatbots is that they improve with usage. This means the more the customers interact with your chatbot, the better it will understand them and guide them to the right resolution.

In addition to customer service, bots can be employed in several other areas like sales and marketing, budgeting, HR, and streamlining internal workflows. Unsurprisingly, 80% of entrepreneurs are expected to use chatbots by the end of 2020. So, if you still haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, it is time that you do to leverage all the fantastic benefits that chatbots can bring to your business in addition to increased profitability and growth.

The post Top Ways in Which Chatbots Benefit Your Business appeared first on SiteProNews.

According to a recent article published by Forbes, consumers want to work with brands that are easier to navigate, more accessible, and offer some level of personalization. Essentially, they want the comfort of brick-and-mortar brands that mimic the targeted, smooth experience of online shopping.

Technology’s pace of transformation has had an intense impact across nearly every domain. These days it’s not enough to keep atop of emerging technologies but to keep ahead of them.

In this piece, we will be looking at six technological solutions that hold the potential to transform your business completely and take it to new heights.

1. Big Data

Big data can be crucial for businesses target growth. There currently is about 30 zettabytes of data in the world (more of which is being created every minute from online platforms, watches, and other connected devices than was created from the beginning of time until the year 2000). This number is predicted to escalate further to 175 zettabytes by 2025. 

Every business, be it a small startup or one in the Fortune-500 league, needs data-driven insights to perform well. When it comes to comprehending the needs of your target audience and customer preferences, big data plays a significant role. It even helps you identify their needs. 

In addition to this, Big Data allows you to test numerous variations of high-end computer-aided designs within seconds. For instance, within a supply chain, you can gather information about material affect costs, lead times, performance and more by leveraging Big Data. This information will then allow you to raise overall productivity levels and efficiency of various production processes.

In many industries, established competitors and even new entrants use data-driven strategies to capture, compete, and innovate. This is the very reason you can find examples of Big Data usage in almost every sector, right from IT to healthcare.

2. Automation 

The significance of automation in business can be seen in helping companies do more with less by removing redundant tasks and introducing smart workflows. Business automation also increases the visibility of what’s happening on the work front and your everyday operations, which leaves one with even more time to focus on business matters that demand greater attention.

Automation tools segment information systematically. This is the exact reason why one of the biggest benefits of business automation is the amount of time your team will save on manual, repeatable tasks. 

Companies can leverage automation to take care of your data entries and other such tasks. This will leave more time for your employees to focus on enhancing the customer experience through exceptional service. This, in turn, will directly result in more conversions and get leads flowing your way.

Automation is a one-stop solution to develop increased visibility, accountability, and centralized processes required for your business to grow and serve more customers. It can help you with everything right from managing workflows, automating redundant tasks, and providing consistent experience to all your customers. This will help improve your company’s bottom line in the long run.

3. Chatbots

Chatbot technology allows companies to provide their customers with full-time support – without the expense associated with maintaining a full-time staff. Chatbots can help you track and respond to inquiries as needed, deliver automated customer service across multiple channels, and learn from the data your customers give you.

According to one recent report by Business Insider, more than 85% of customer interactions are set to be managed without a human by 2020. This further implies that chatbots are rapidly becoming an expected – and acceptable form of customer service.

Before settling on a new service, try considering how to-

• Integrate bot customer service with human touchpoints.
• Train existing customer service representatives to pick up the thread of a bot interaction or monitor for accuracy.
• Work closely with your software reps to program Artificial Intelligence that can handle common customer requests.
• Engage with, learn from, and qualify customer leads, driving customers to make purchases.

If you’re running an eCommerce business, deploying a chatbot is a must since you really want your customer interactions to be seamless and fruitful.

4. Wearable Technology

Whether you’re looking for the right channel for reaching your customers, or a strategy to make employees more productive, wearable technology is set to transform the way in which you communicate in your day-to-day business.

eCommerce giants like Amazon are already using GPS trackers in their warehouses to ameliorate the overall productivity of their workers. Only a few years ago, the CRM pros at Salesforce too made their software compatible with commonly purchased wearable brands, so companies can increase the efficiency of their reps on the go. And if your customers are wearing these same devices, you’ll have an opportunity to expand your marketing channels, too.

However, the most common piece of wearable tech to impact your business might not be Google Glass or an Apple Watch just as yet. Wellness programs that use fitness trackers are often strongly linked to companies negotiating lower rates on collective insurance policies. Not a bad expense for small businesses to minimize in 2020, right?

5. Blockchain

The technology that makes Bitcoin transactions independently verifiable and prompt is coming for businesses, too. Of course, we’re talking about Blockchain here!

It isn’t difficult to see why this technology is disrupting the financial industry at such a speedy rate. Purchases made with Bitcoin eliminate the need to have a middleman – the banks that verify transactions and move money around. With blockchain, networks of computers and other people provide the balances and checks – not individual institutions.

So, what does this mean for business owners? For one, it means businesses with the potential to take payments in Bitcoin will see some progress on the financial side. In contrast with processing credit cards, Bitcoin entirely puts an end to transaction fees. And because the virtual currency isn’t bound to any country, you won’t have to worry about exchange rates either.

According to U.S. News & World Report, close to 100,000 businesses across the globe already deal in Bitcoin transactions on a daily basis for exactly these reasons. Having money on hand is often critical to your businesses’ survival when compared with credit card transactions, which can take several days to show up in merchants’ accounts, bitcoin payments can be in their electronic pockets in just a few hours.

As blockchain technology becomes more widespread, you’ll start to see it take over other areas of business as well. In the medical industry, tech experts predict networks of hospitals will use blockchain to verify and update patient records, and diagnoses instantaneously. Experts also expect to see blockchain tech in education, insurance companies, and retail. Just imagine the business implications of no longer having to sign, print, and scan contracts.

6. Machine Learning

It might sound futuristic, but machine learning (ML) has long affected how you interact with the tools on our computers. For instance, Gmail’s spam filter makes use of a robust algorithm that recognizes and sorts messages based on their content. As time passes, the algorithm learns how to identify messages that come from strange email addresses, or ones that use odd syntax, and marks them as spam. In short – machine learning keeps your inbox spam-free.

According to TechCrunch.com, big retailers everywhere use this same technology to augment their online customer service. 

“Home Depot needs to show which bathtubs in its huge inventory will fit in someone’s weird-shaped bathroom,” explains reporter Lukas Biewald . “Apple needs to show relevant apps in its app store. Intuit needs to surface a good help page when a user types in a certain tax form.’ That’s why the research firm Gartner predicts investments in machine learning will only grow in the near future. Over the next year, businesses are expected to spend 3.5 trillion dollars on IT services globally – and a big portion of that is expected to fund ML technology.

Businesses that don’t have access to these resources need to keep an eye on what startups do with this technology and watch for improvements to software packages and analytics tools. Making strategic investments in customer management, individual marketing, or inventory management software with machine learning capabilities will only place you ahead of your competitors.

Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are many other technologies that are working wonders for your market counterparts as we speak. As a business owner, you should be on a constant lookout for new ways to innovate and get things done in a better manner. 

The foundation of a robust future for businesses has already been laid down by rapidly occurring technological advancements. Only those that adjust their sails and are willing to keep up with the pace at which these inventions are happening, will be the ones that emerge out victorious in the long run.

The post Top 6 Technological Solutions that can Transform your Business Completely appeared first on SiteProNews.

Using chatbots also improves your marketing efforts and conversions on what is missing on your marketing strategy. 

What is a Chatbot?

A chatbot is a type of service that is powered by rules, sometimes artificial intelligence. It is a program that lets you interact in a chat interface. 

The service could be made up of several things, and could potentially exist in a major chat product like Slack, Facebook Messenger, Text Messages, and so on. 

Is it good to use messaging platforms?

As an advertiser, why should you target message platforms? Well, primarily for their user base.

Apps like Messenger, Skype, Slack, WhatsApp, and their competitors are growing in number. In fact, Facebook Messenger alone has 1.3 billion monthly users.

Because of the growth in these platforms, the demand for these bots to initiate simple conversations and solve the problems of its users are also much higher. Here are the seven ways chatbots can boost conversions:

1. Great for customer service

Excellent customer service is important for your company. However, your customer service team can only do so much. 

Since your business is online, most of your prospects expect 24/7 customer service. To help cope with this demand, chatbots are used by the customer service department to help customers with the information they might need. 

So, if you are spending a lot of time tracking deliveries, booking appointments, or checking your return policy, adding a little automation goes a long way. Chatbots help with the overall customer experience and move them much quicker to the bottom of the sales funnel. 

2. Building brand awareness

You can use chatbots to let people know what your company does. 

When you convey your brand in a way that is appealing to your target audience, you are turning them from a cold audience to a warm audience, further moving them down your sales funnel. 

You can do so by providing them a greeting message, allowing them to know more about your business. Another option is to provide a menu that allows people to ask questions, learn about who you are, what you do, and other relevant information. 

3. Upsell or cross-sell

AI-powered chatbots can be powerful tools. Not only do they interact with your customers, but they also learn more about your customer’s behavior. 

You can also use these bots to generate sales. For instance, if a person buys a shirt via chatbot, it will let them know that it is quite similar to what they bought before, and will suggest other related items to match the shirt with another item like a watch or pair of shoes. 

4. Personalized communication with customers

A chatbot helps personalize your customer’s experience. 

It will track previous customer browsing behavior and products purchased, to give customers the perfect style they are looking for. 

5. Product recommendation

Since some people initially do not know what they want, your chatbot gives you a perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation with them if they need help. Thus, you can turn your chatbot into a buyer’s guide of your latest products.

It is also a great way to drive sales to your business. By creating a help guide, answering concerns or explaining the product’s benefits, you can quickly give your customers the insights that they need.

This eventually results in a sale and builds customer trust and loyalty in the long run. 

6. Retargeting customers

Bots retain information, and you can utilize those details if you want to go the extra mile.

Rather than paying for advertising, you can use a chatbot to personally reach out and offer relevant content at the right time. This is the perfect opportunity to remind a user of a product they left in their shopping cart. 

7. Engaging potential customers

Chatbots are a great way to showcase your brand personality. Use witty ad copy, as well as compelling texts and images, to establish a meaningful connection with customers.

Chatbots also make the checkout process more engaging. You can offer engaging status updates every step of the way. This lets you showcase your brand voice and make the checkout process waiting time much more enjoyable. 

Over to You

Chatbots are great tools that you can leverage to boost your conversions. Not to mention that they are becoming more and more advanced as technology evolves over time. Thus, you can expect a chatbot’s capabilities will continue to improve. 

So, if you are not utilizing chatbots yet to boost your conversions, you are potentially leaving a lot on the table. Take advantage of being ahead of the curve and start building your chatbot today.

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