Chatbots are surely a hot topic of 2018. Started from helping businesses with their customer service, thanks to their adaptability, these AI tools have soon taken over other areas as sales, marketing, finance and many more.
However, as the popularity increased, many misconceptions about chatbots rose and spread around the Internet. These “rumours” contributed to the scepticism towards this new technology and prevented to spread even further. Here, we are going to debunk 6 myths that are mining the potential benefits they can bring to as for business performances.
Chatbots are going to take our jobs
“Chatbots are going to take our jobs” is arguably the most popular myth.
As any major innovation brought to the job market, chatbots are going to change and reshape it. Accordingly, some careers will be obsolete and not-requested anymore, but other will adjust to the need of the market while other new professional figures will appear.
Additionally, there is a school of thought that, at Strillobyte, we believe in. Chatbots and, generally, artificial intelligence is not conceived as a human replacement, but, a human enhancement. The ultimate goal of this technology is to help human do better their jobs. Chatbots and AI will take care of smaller and repetitive tasks so people can concentrate on what they do best.
Chatbots are just a trend
Many hesitant business people are thinking that chatbots are just a new trend that soon will disappear. Well, chatbots are here to stay.
Automated assistants have been around a long time (Eliza, the first chatbot was built in 1964). And now, thanks to developments in tech and artificial intelligence, chatbots have evolved and are going to become a steady presence in businesses.
Researches show that the chatbot market is going to grow exponentially in the next decade. Indeed, its worth will increase from 190.8 million US dollars to 1.250 billion US dollars (an astonishing growth of +555.14%).
Building a chatbot is easy
There are many platforms out there with the promise of building a chatbot in 3 easy steps, and some of them actually allow you to do that. However, the tasks that you can make the chatbot to do for you can be very limited. Indeed, the development of some features requires a professional developer. Moreover, there is always the risk that the DIY chatbot won’t work as intended having bad repercussions on the user experience.
As chatbot developers, we recommend hiring a professional to build a chatbot that is tailored onto your needs or, if you built it by yourself, to check whether everything works properly.
Chatbots can be use only for customer service
Another misconception that many people have when they first approach chatbots are that this technology can be used only for customer service, which is very much false. Their use in customer relationship is largely spread because of the many pros that a chatbot provide to a business (check this blog post to learn more)
Indeed, chatbots represent one of the most adaptive technologies that the tech market offers at the moment. They are used in almost every business areas, from marketing to finance.
Our customers prefer talking with human personnel
What scares the newest adopters is the fear that their customers will be averse to the new technology, hence the brand will be affected by it. It is true that you should always consider your target audience before implementing new strategies, but here are some facts.
If your target customers are millennials, chatbots are the right tool to please them as for complaining. According to Salesforce, Millennials want the customer service to be fast, prefer text messaging over phone calls, are an hyper-connected generation and demand personalisation. A chatbot can achieve all these goals (Read this article from our blog to learn more)
Otherwise, you could always consider a mix of human personnel and a chatbot. Indeed, this technology can also be a facilitator as for sorting out problems before handling to the related department.
Chatbots can only work on Facebook Messenger
Chatbots for Facebook Messenger are widespread and many brands are turning to them for having a 24/7 customer service on a platform near to their target audience and for driving sales. Despite their efficiency on this platform, chatbots can perform extremely well in other environments.
Indeed, without the constraint of Facebook limitations, these tech tools can accomplish a wider range of tasks. For example, if your website offers an extensive array of products, a chatbot can help users to find quickly and easily what they are looking for improving their experience (if you want to find more about, contact us).
Do you have an idea for a chatbot that can make a difference in your business strategy?
Get in touch and our team at Strillobyte will guide and support you through an exciting journey!
