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5 Chatbot Features that Benefit Most Your Business

Table of Content

 

AI chatbots are the future of businesses some people will say. We agree with this statement and even more – we are sure that they are not only the future but already the present.

Here are 5 reasons why we believe in this:

  • Chatbots are already being used by businesses of all sizes and different industries to save money and time
  • Chatbots already provide a humanlike conversational experience for customers and save employees’ time for more valuable tasks.
  • Chatbots are already being used to automate routine tasks in customer service and support, sales, and marketing.
  • Chatbots are customizable to meet the specific needs of a business.
  • They are here since 1966 and still rocking!

According to the newest Research and Markets forecast, the global chatbot market size is expected to reach $3.99 billion by 2030. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 25.7% from 2022 to 2030. The chatbots for the marketing application segment are expected to register the fastest growth rate during the forecast period as chatbots can connect the customers directly to service providers. So chatbots are here to stay!

Here we collected for you 5 AI chatbot features to catch up with the trends:

1. Create a Marketing and Sales Funnel with an AI Chatbot

A sales funnel is a marketing technique that helps to generate leads and convert them into customers. It is an important part of any business. However, it can be difficult to create one because there are so many factors that need to be considered. A chatbot can help you with this task by generating a sales funnel in it and customizing it based on your needs.

The first step in the process is understanding what your goals are with the sales funnel and what your main objectives are. Next, you need to decide how many steps will be in the sales funnel, what will be involved in each step and how much time should pass between each step. You should also think about what type of content will go into each step of the process to create an easy-to-follow path, so users enjoy their journey and the business converts them into customers.

How to create a sale and a marketing funnel in a chatbot? It’s very easy – by connecting the chatbot elements to create the whole customer journey path. For example, showing your business products and services in the main menu cards with more information in the following card with details and button for order, newsletter subscription card to send customers news, updates, and promotions, and lead magnets material to grab customers’ attention. There can be more ways to lead customers right into the sales and marketing funnel to make prospects and conversions – with conversational AI answers directing to other action: a customer asks a question and instead of only answering, the chatbot can direct the customer to something more – a form to make a request, to read more about the topic with tips and tricks, a card with an option for purchase, promotional codes or anything that comes to your mind to not miss an opportunity for a sale.

Can the chatbot be a part of a sales funnel that start somewhere else, online, or offline? It is also possible. Creating direct links to forms in the chatbot or to a carousel with cards with more information and sharing them online in social media posts or ads can drive customers to them do a certain action with 1 click or scan. A specific place in the chatbot on a precise webpage can also be accessed with QR codes by customers not only online but offline and that triggers the sales funnel when customers are in your offline store, for example. By using direct links and QR codes that lead to an exact place in the AI chatbot on a particular webpage, the sales funnel can start from anywhere your customers are to not miss an opportunity for a conversion.

Sales and marketing teams have long used AI chatbots to help close deals and nurture leads through the sales funnel by answering customer questions, providing recommendations, and even upselling or cross-sell products and services to help close a deal. Because chatbots are available 24/7, your customers can always get the help they need, when they need it which could be a trigger for more sales and conversions during the time when the office sleep.

2. Business Catalog in an AI Chatbot

Business catalogs in pdf formats or paper materials aren’t so effective when customers cannot directly place an order and customers have to go to some other page on your website to buy the needed product or service. When a business provides not so many types of products or services, it can show them in a more interesting and attractive way to customers with an actual option for order in an AI chatbot in addition to its functionalities to answer 24/7 all the questions and deal with all other routine inquiries.

Product catalog in an AI Chatbot

Chatbots are an interactive choice to get your products in front of more people. A product catalog in a chatbot is an efficient way to engage your customers and offer them a shortcut to purchase your products. The benefits of using chatbots for product catalogs include:

– Increased conversion rates because of the customer engagement in branded and more interactive communication – that’s why the chatbot can serve also as a salesperson.

– Better customer experience because the chatbot is available 24/7, answers instantly, and provides more personalized communication.

– Reduced operational costs because the chatbot doesn’t have breaks, doesn’t need to be paid much, and saves employees many working hours for answering routine questions.

The product catalog in the chatbot can include buttons for more details about the products and their characteristics. Buttons can lead to tutorials or other videos, files for download with instructions on usage, or any kind of tips and tricks. Buttons also can lead to inquiry forms to fill out and direct orders with payment links. Organizing the information in the chatbot using all its features will ensure everything will be in one place – see the product, learn its benefits, and directly order it, get the assistance of the conversational AI that will answer the frequently asked question about the product and its specifics.

Service Catalog in an AI Chatbot

Service catalogs in an AI chatbot are a more interactive method to showcase the services that your business offers and make it easier for customers to find what they need. A chatbot service catalog can be an excellent tool for businesses that want to offer a variety of services and are looking for options to make their offerings more visible and attractive. It is an opportunity for you to communicate your company’s offerings in an organized and concise manner including pricing, availability, and other details. This will allow customers to find the right service for their needs quickly and easily and make the buying process much more efficient. How this is different from a website listing of services? Here is the answer: when customers look for a service to choose, they always have questions about it and they can be more than the information included in the website listings, so conversational AI comes to help. The conversational AI chatbot will always assist never mind what time of the day it is, and customers can receive all the information about the service right away and make the conversion now, not later or never because they will be guided and engaged by the AI chatbot with a more specific answer to their questions.

With a service catalog it is the same as with the product catalog – give your customers a 2-ways conversational tool to subscribe to the service, download a file for more information, see some videos and fill out forms or anything that will help them to make the direct order along with asking questions and receive an answer in a matter of seconds by the conversational AI – all in one convenient place. By providing easy-to-follow steps for exact actions with the 24/7 assistance by the AI chatbot, the customers will be more delighted with your services and become more loyal to your brand. Let’s be honest – customers love to receive anything easily and immediately and for sure in a more attractive way than the traditional ones and with an AI chatbot that is more possible than ever.  Our clients, the 5-star Hotel Casa di Fiore Spa and Medical and The Hotel Complex Izgreva are already showing their services with an option for booking in their chatbots, and have great results – customers use their AI chatbots, made on the Umni platform, to book a stay in the hotels and it happens easy and fast. By using a hotel AI chatbot these two hotels drive traffic to their websites along with freeing the time of the employees for collecting the customers’ information to make the reservations and saving time answering customer questions related to their stay at the hotel and dealing with the more valuable tasks.

3. AI Chatbot – The Knowledge Base Your Website Cannot Be

Your website is great. It has a lot of information, and it is well organized. However, there is only so much information that you can put on your website before it becomes hard to navigate in order to find information. An AI chatbot can help you show more information than your website can, and that information is personalized because it is triggered by customer questions. Customers ask a question on a certain topic and the AI chatbot answers them instantly – a two-way communication that websites themselves mostly do not provide. Websites have FAQ sections or gathered information for customers to read but do not provide the option for customers to find instantly what they are looking for based on their questions except when they have to contact an employee.

Your website is like a brochure. It is a static representation of your company. It does not change based on customer interest and search. A chatbot, on the other hand, is interactive. It can answer questions and give more information, all personalized to customer search: the answers themselves, the information section attached to an answer, the form attached to the answer that will be relevant to the question asked and the customer asking it.

Think about this situation. If a potential customer comes to your website and they have a question, they will have to search for the answer themselves. If they cannot find the answer and do not have access to company staff (or, don’t want, don’t have time, is not ready to talk with the business or else), they will likely leave your site and go to a competitor’s site. With a chatbot, you can answer their question instantly and automatically. This will keep them on your site longer and it will increase the chances of them doing business with you.

In addition, a chatbot can help you collect information from potential customers. The chatbot is becoming even more important in 2023 as an instrument for first- and zero-party data collection.  This information can be used to improve your products and services. It can also be used to create targeted marketing campaigns.

Overall, using a chatbot can help you show more information than your website can. It is a new opportunity to interact with potential customers and collect information from them. Chatbots give the opportunity to unlimited information sections and personalized forms for specific cases that are triggered by customer questions. This means that customers receive information based on their inquiries and exactly on the topic they look for. The data collected by the AI chatbot later can be easier analyzed and structured into topics for further usage and wider insight into customers’ needs.

You can learn more about the reason for using AI chatbot on your website in our blog post.

4. Direct Customers to a Specific Place in an AI Chatbot

If you’re like most businesses, you’re always looking for ways to improve customer engagement and increase sales. One direction to do this is by leading customers to a specific place in an AI chatbot on an exact webpage.

When a customer is engaging with your chatbot, they’re already interested in what you have to offer. So, if you can lead them to a specific place within the chatbot, you can increase the chances of making a sale.

Here are a few ways to lead customers to a specific place in an AI chatbot:

  • Use Promotions and Discounts

If you have a promotion or discount going on, don’t miss sharing it in your chatbot. This will entice customers to click through to learn more. And you can direct customers from all your business social media accounts, emails, messengers, and SMS with a link or by sharing a QR code offline exactly to the right section in the AI chatbot (on the chosen webpage) where you want your customers to be to get the discount and make a purchase.

  • Use Scarcity

If you have a limited-time offer, be sure to mention it in your chatbot by using a colored notification. This will create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to click through to learn more. The link can be shared with customers with an SMS notification, for example, that leads exactly to the promotion information and CTA in the chatbot.

  • Use Curiosity

If you have something new and exciting to offer, make a place for it in your chatbot. To pique customers’ curiosity about it, encourage them to click through a link in social media post, for example, to see it. Be sure to make intriguing content material and social media posts with CTA that lead to a specific place in the chatbot with the action you want your customers to do – make a reservation, download a file, subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form for webinar participation or anything else that comes to your mind and will be attractive to your potential customers.

  • Use Personalization

Personalization is the right solution to make sure that your customer is getting the most relevant information possible. In an AI chatbot, personalization happens by directing the customer to a specific place in the chatbot based on their needs via a link or QR code, or, based on accumulated customer questions/anticipation of customer questions, by providing a specific response, with expanded relevant information and/or form – all of them accessible and activated only when the customer asks a specific question.

Another opportunity for personalization: Let’s say the AI ​​chatbot has collected customer behavior data about something customers can’t find because your business doesn’t yet provide it. Based on searches and trends in the chatbot, you can add a new information section, service, or other, and direct customers to this section with a link in an email, social media post, SMS, or elsewhere.

Leading customers to a specific place in an AI chatbot is an opportunity to improve the customer experience and conversions. By taking the time to train your bot to understand customer questions and using direct links from social media accounts, emails, SMS, or other places to guide them to the right information, CTA or form, you can ensure that your bot is providing a valuable self-service that helps customers find what they’re looking for and accomplish their goals.

By using these strategies, you can increase the chances of making a sale. Start using these strategies today!

5. Chatbot Forms for Customer Data Collection

If you’re like most people, you probably use chatbots on a daily basis without even realizing it. Many messaging and mobile apps now come with built-in chatbots that can perform a variety of tasks, from ordering a pizza to checking the weather forecast.

Chatbots can also be used for more than just casual conversation. They can also be used to collect customer data as a first- and zero-party data collection tool. If you are not familiar with the upcoming cookieless world trends in 2023 after Google’s restrictions, now is the time to learn how to prepare for it – more in our blog post.

A variety of forms can be embedded in a chatbot on your website or app and can be used to collect a variety of information from your customers.

For example, you can use a chatbot form to collect contact information, such as email addresses and phone numbers. You can also use it to collect information, such as age, gender, customer needs and interest and etc. A form can be used as a questionnaire to collect customer preferences and opinions as well so to later analyze this information and use it for future marketing campaigns and sales.

Chatbot forms are used for lead generation, so customers provide their information willingly to receive something back – a whitepaper, a discount, an offer, a file, or something else that they want to have and give their information in exchange. The business forms can be used to collect emails to send customers more personalized offers, news, and useful information. Chatbot forms are also used for specific customer groups – personalized and accessible when a precise answer by the conversational AI module is triggered so only those that ask a certain question will access the form to fill it out. They will receive something in return and the business will collect this customer data for further analysis to target those groups with more personalized offerings.

Best of all, chatbot forms are easy to use and can be customized to fit your business-specific needs. So, if you’re looking for a tool to collect customer data, a form in the chatbot may be the perfect solution.

Meet your business goals and needs with the help of an AI chatbot

If you are looking for a solution to take your business to the next level, you may want to consider investing in an AI chatbot for your company. AI chatbots are quickly becoming one of the most popular tools for businesses, and for good reasons. They offer many benefits and features that can assist your business reach its goals and meeting its needs.

According to a report from in April’22 about the top 12 customer service technologies, published by CBInsights, AI-enabled chatbots were placed on the top as the first choice of a technology that businesses prioritize today to stay competitive. Leaders in all industries are already doing it so what is preventing you from becoming a leader in your industry? If you have questions or concerns and our blog posts and tips and tricks have not answered them, feel free to contact us to start your AI chatbot journey informed.

 
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