Ever noticed a pop-up message on a website with a hello or a question? Many companies and websites use these chatbots to enhance their customer experience online. The use of chatbots is constantly increasing and the development of AI (artificial intelligence) is perfecting this technology.
What Is a Chatbot?
Chatbot is short for chat robot. A chatbot is an instant messaging application with an attempt to replicate human interactions. It can be described as a computer program that simulates human conversations. These interactions happen via text message or sometimes can be conducted with a voice too. A chatbot is programmed to work without a human operator. It has the ability to answer questions because of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology.
How Does a Chatbot Work?
A chatbot works on a combination of predefined scripts, codes and machine learning. A chatbot responds to questions with the information available at that particular instant. In case of an instance when there isn’t sufficient information available for the program to answer the question, it will either avert the question, provide alternate questions or redirect the question to a human operator. The cool part about this is that even during a setback, the chatbot tries to learn from these interactions. Thus, getting better overtime.
Best Benefits of Using Chatbots in Businesses
Chatbots are widely used by businesses to increase speed, efficiency and customer engagement. Some of the ways chatbots prove to be important for businesses are:
- Companies can get data on their customers using chatbots. People generally enter basic data such as name, age and gender which helps chatbots to personalize messages for their customers. Using machine learning, chatbots can learn a lot about users via the interactions that happen via text.
- Chatbots are available 24X7. Especially, when there are no human operators available due to odd customer timing or traffic of queries. In such scenarios, chatbots come in handy and do the job efficiently.
- Chatbots are a big source of marketing. Many brands advertise via chatbots. They often showcase products and their benefits that can intrigue people to check them out. They are a great channel to build a relationship and sell to the audience.
- They provide quick and instant responses. As all the data is available, it is a matter of seconds for a chatbot to produce a response that would otherwise take more time for a human.
Chatbots In Our Lives
We’ve all engaged with chatbots without even knowing it. Be it Siri (Apple’s voice assistant) or Alexa (Amazon’s voice assistant) or travel websites that ask you basic questions about your travel dates, durations and budget to come up with a personalized travel plan are chatbots too. Moreover, Chatbots are now used by many food delivery companies too that ask a series of questions about cuisine, dish and quantity to help you place your order.
Frequently Asked Questions about Chatbots
1. What are some of the popular companies that use chatbots?
Skype, Facebook, HDFC and Nestle are some of the famous companies that make use of chatbots.
2. What language is used to make chatbots?
Python is widely used to create chatbots. It uses a combination of machine learning algorithms to generate responses for a chatbot.
3. Is the use of chatbots efficient?
Chatbots have evolved in the last few years. They come up with better responses with more interactions via machine learning and better programming. This has helped businesses use chatbots effectively to scale up their businesses.
