The world today is facing an unprecedented challenge, everything has come to standstill. It’s not only that the offices have shifted to Home but also everything around us has changed completely be it the way we shop, go out, eat, drink, travel, etc. Social distancing, long queues for food and movement restrictions, not to mention the worry of infection, is increasing people’s desire to do more online, at a distance.
The Global pandemic has changed the way in which people interact with a brand and how Businesses operate like no one ever anticipated. The rate at which the business undergo transformation to match customer expectations has increased manifolds. Being technically advanced is no longer a good to have thing but a must-to have in current situation.
Still, unprecedented and uncertain times bring opportunities with them and the strongest companies always emerge as game changers .Understanding the customers priorities, meeting their expectation and navigating decisively through uncertain times with agility, resilience, focus and precision should be the ingrained in the strategy of any business.
Here we will look into some of the challenges that companies are facing due to COVID-19 and how Conversational AI can help change the world of business.
Conversational artificial intelligence (AI), aka virtual assistants or AI-powered chatbots, that allows information access through text- or voice-based interaction, is proving its worth during the coronavirus crisis. It allows the business to transform customer and employee touchpoints into fast meaningful and rich interactions.
And there is no better time that today that Conversation AI can help businesses to protect their share in the market and gain confidence among the customers. With human interaction pushed to a corner it is only bots that can prove to be a lifesaver for the companies, be it resolving customer queries, taking orders, booking appointments chatbots can do it all.
According to one estimate, the global market for conversational AI is expected to grow from $ 4.2 billion in 2019 to $ 15.7 billion by 2024 (with a combined annual growth of 30.2 percent).
Self-service enables customers to complete the task they need whenever and wherever they want in a cost-efficient manner and with virtual assistants self-service has moved to a whole new level, customers need no human intervention and can get their work done through the chatbots. Lets take the example of Health care facility where users can book their appointment, get their reports, timely reminders of next visit, generate prescription etc. all by themselves.
The interaction can be as simple as product inquiry, price conformation, or as complex as submitting a for form/document verification, the chatbots are capable of handling them all. This has reduced the burden on our customer support staff and freed up the resources. Thus creating a frictionless experience, increasing Brand engagement, and proving to be a differentiator in this competitive world.
The high level of Personalization that these Chatbots offer ensures that the conversation is relevant and there is a human touch associated with it. The bot remembers the previous conversation and responds to the query in a more efficient manner.
Virtual Assistant can make conversation relevant as it knows complete information of the person with whom it is interaction such as name, age, geographic location, behavioral data etc.
Example: In Education System Chatbots can take up the ancillary tasks such as sending timetables, conducting quizzes, reminders about lectures, tutorials etc. in accordance with the student behavior thus offering personalize experience and free up the teachers to take more tasks and give personal attention to students.
Interacting with different channel at once has become the new reality. People are texting on WhatsApp and the same time they receive a notification or E-mail they switch tab and read those mails, ask Alexa to reads latest news, play songs, recommend movies, all these things are happening simultaneously. With options available in abundance and switching quite convenient the attention span of the customer has gone for a toss, you need to be present everywhere and catch their attention in fractions of seconds.
Conversation AI allows businesses to deliver seamless Omnichannel experience. Integration of processes and back end system ensures customer can carry out same conversation on Application, website or WhatsApp with any hassle.
Also multi lingual support makes it more interactive and conversation in vernacular language helps businesses reaching the last mile of customer. Voice assistants, Video calling facility act as cherry on the cake and give user more interactive and engaging experience
Virtual assistants have reduced the time in which the queries gets answers .It strikes a correct balance between the conversations and makes it two way. Most of tasks such as document submission, verification, product related queries, can now be automated. It has proved to be a boom for the financial industry as most of the tasks that required manual interventions such as account and balance inquiry, policy renewal or expiry reminders, KYC, signature etc. are now be done automatically through chatbots. This helps the organization to improve operational efficiency and scale.
These virtual assistants are also powered with data analytics properties where they can capture and interpret the conversation and drive results. It can tell us what customers think about our products, what the sentiments are and these insights are very important for the growth of any business. Automatic knowledge base & content creation identify is the most relevant data insights to automatically create custom content for each user and provide service recommendations to employees. Users’ likelihood of converting based on internal and external data, enabling sales to prioritize leads can be automated through conversational AI. It also enables users to have conversations that feel natural with machines by speech or text.
Refine the Customer Acquisition Process
Lesser Efforts & Costs
Better Retention Rate and Revenue
Conclusion
Chatbots must not be considered as something that can only address the work of the support staff such as resolving product queries, product tracking, etc. but there is much more to it. If used to its full capabilities these assistants can help transform the business and completely change the way in which customers engage with your brand.
There is no better time than today in which companies can embrace technology, Conversational AI is not a trend it as here to stay can form the backbone of any business. Especially COVID-19 has accelerated the need to be technologically advance and be prepared for the future as we do not know what next has to come.
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