Improve customer service through AI and keyword chatbots

A customer service chatbot uses AI, machine learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), to simulate and understand human conversation. Businesses use AI chatbots and keyword chatbots to automate elements of their customer service, drive efficiencies and boost customer satisfaction.

While chatbots have some limitations, they can play a useful role when performing the right tasks to support customers. In fact, they have a 28% satisfaction score among consumers.

In this blog, we look at the difference between AI and Keyword chatbots, how chatbots improve customer service, the benefits of having a customer service chatbot, and how to get started.

Customer service chatbots that interact with customers using pre-defined rules can assist with simpler customer service queries. Users are presented with a list of options the rule-based keyword chatbots are programmed to assist with, after which they choose the right option for them by entering the corresponding keyword.

Rule-based, keyword chatbots aren’t limited to only providing information, but can help customers to find and send precisely what customers are looking for.

AI or machine-learning chatbots can recognize speech and text inputs and engage in human-like conversations. They use technology such as speech recognition, NLP, sentiment analysis, and Machine Learning, to understand what is being asked and respond accordingly.

How to train an AI chatbot is best started by mapping the simplest and most frequent customer service inquiries. It is recommended to train intent-based AI chatbots with at least fifty variable phrases for every possible customer query.

Because this is a large task, companies who provide chatbots will often offer either templates or professionals to help provide phrasing covering most common customer questions.

The benefits far outweigh the challenges of development, however. Training an AI chatbot that speaks your branded tone of voice creates a consistent brand experience with a positive impact on CX.

Pairing a customer service chatbot with a contact center solution optimizes your contact center by offloading more repetitive tasks onto your chatbot. This frees up your agents to deal with more challenging support tasks.

Doing this improves contact center quality by offering immediate first-contact resolution for more common inquiries and more helpful assistance for complex customer service needs.

For an in-depth overview on the multitude of ways chatbots can help your business grow, check out our blog on key benefits of chatbots for businesses.

We took a quick look at some of the key chatbot business benefits in another post. Let’s now look specifically at the business benefits of using chatbots to automate aspects of your customer service:

Customer service chatbots can also help with lead generation by gathering relevant behavioral data from a customer. For example, if someone wants assistance purchasing a specific product, the chatbot could lead them throughout the entire sales journey and make recommendations based on their interests. The information gathered allows a business to send the lead to the right sales team and reduce shopping cart abandonment.

Customer service chatbots are incredibly beneficial for automating tasks that would typically be done by customer service agents. This frees up your agents to focus on more complex issues. Just think about all the time that can be saved by chatbots handling customer service inquiries, setting appointments, and booking hotel reservations. It’s a game-changer!

Sometimes, all your customer wants is a bit of simple information. When they can get this information quickly, it instantly resolves whatever issue they may have had. This leaves you with a satisfied customer. Chatbots can be programmed to provide this simple information that keeps your customers informed and satisfied.

Global Businesses today frequently interact with customers from various parts of the world who speak different languages. Customer care chatbots can offer multilingual support, allowing consumers to engage in their preferred language. This improves the customer experience while also expanding the business’s reach to other regions allowing them to communicate in any language.

chatbots collect valuable information from interactions with your customers by using a customer data platform, and when this is paired with a contact center solution that can present this information to your agents, it gives your business the ability to provide contextual customer service.

This empowers the chatbot to provide a more personalized experience to the customers resulting in faster resolution and improved agent productivity.

Customer service chatbots work 24/7, so that whenever a customer needs you, you can be there for them. In some cases, your customer’s specific issue may be so complex that it requires the attention of a human agent. There are ways a chatbot can help in this sort of situation, too.

The Brazilian remittance company CambioReal set up a chatbot that helps customers contacting them outside office hours to schedule a text or call with an agent.

Customers interact with businesses through many channels including SMS, chat apps, in-app messaging and social media platforms. But how can businesses provide consistent support across all these channels? The answer lies in customer service chatbots. By seamlessly integrating chatbots across multiple channels, businesses can ensure that their customers receive the support they need on their preferred channels.

Both AI chatbots and simple keyword chatbots have a range of use cases in automated customer service to help you achieve the business benefits we just explored.

The main difference between rule-based and intent-based chatbots is in how customers interact with them.

A rule-based, keyword chatbot provides a list of options that a user can choose from to progress their enquiry.

In this way, the chatbot can provide very specific and detailed information quickly and easily, with the added bonus that most live chat and messaging platforms offer features like lists and customizable quick-reply buttons so that users don’t have to type a response.

Conversational AI or intent-based chatbots, on the other hand, create a conversational interaction with users by interpreting user intents and sentiment. But how is this done? Intents are designed through a process called conversational design. This process includes designing the entire chat flow taking into account the goals and values of the chatbot, its personality, and its scope.

Customers can have perfectly natural conversations with an intent-based AI chatbot. The artificial intelligence that powers this experience recognizes customer intent and provides customer service in a way that seamlessly mimics the experience of conversing with a human agent.

To dive deeper into the different types of chatbots, check out our blog on the types of chatbots available today.

Nowadays there are plenty of solutions that make it easy for businesses to set up their own chatbots. Our chatbot building platform, Answers, simplifies the process into a few steps with its drag-and-drop interface that requires no coding experience.

You can simulate chatbot interactions to test how users see your messages – helping you make the appropriate changes before it goes live. And with the wide variety of channels, you can set up chatbots on all your customers’ preferred channels including WhatsApp and Viber.

For an in-depth overview on how to build your own chatbot with Answers, check out our video guide below.

You can simulate chatbot interactions to test how users see your messages – helping you make the appropriate changes before it goes live. And with the wide variety of channels, you can set up chatbots on all your customers’ preferred channels including WhatsApp and Viber.

We hope you enjoyed this look at customer service chatbot benefits and examples. Be sure to check out our related posts on: