Throughout the pandemic, chatbot usage skyrocketed as organizations looked for a way to safely engage with customers and keep their business operations afloat amid new obstacles. To put it into perspective, there was a 67% increase in chatbot usage between 2018 and 2020. This jump in usage can be primarily attributed to the pandemic’s acceleration of the digital transformation and updated capabilities offered by chatbot applications.
So, what should brands know about implementing a successful chatbot widget? First, they have to prioritize conversational design to provide customers with a natural conversational experience.
But, what is conversational design?
Conversational bot design is the process of encoding various versions of frequently asked questions to arm chatbots with the ability to address customer service needs. To ensure conversations are natural and to avoid AI roadblocks, developers must include around 400 variations of the same customer intent to anticipate different phrasings of the same question.
Conversational design is critical when utilizing chatbots to keep customers engaged because let’s be honest, we’ve all been annoyed with a bot at some point that did not properly address our questions or needs directly! As a brand, you’ll want to avoid such scenarios at all costs when building a loyal customer base. Here are three key benefits of conversational design:
1. Customers value the human touch of a chatbot experience because it makes them feel valued, heard and understood
2. Conversational chatbots keep customers engaged rather than frustrated and help brands collect valuable feedback
3. Conversational experiences provide businesses with clear insights about what end-users want, helping to understand users better and keep the chatbot scalable over time
What industries is conversational design important for?
All of them! But, for starters, the banking industry must adapt conversational design, move to a digital landscape to keep up with the market or update their apps to meet industry standards and remain competitive. For example, companies like Apple and Google already provide digital wallet applications and contactless payment options and hold the potential to facilitate the majority of digital payments and banking operations down the line. For banks to stay ahead of the curve, it’s crucial they lean into any and all digital tools to boost the customer experience.
Another great use case is the impact it will have on the restaurant industry – evidenced by the recent partnership between Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken Restaurant and Hi Auto. The chicken restaurant’s drive-thru orders saw an uptick of 22% in 2020, resulting in longer wait times for customers. To address this challenge head-on, Lee’s worked with Hi Auto to incorporate meaningful solutions to boost the customer experience. Through this partnership, the company utilized chatbots to greet customers upon arrival and work to submit their orders. If the customer asked a question that does not register within the AI’s database, it automatically alerts a human employee to assist the customer.
Similar to Lee’s Famous Chicken Restaurant, Design Café, a home interior design company, struggled to keep up with an influx of customers during the pandemic, so they turned to conversational design for help. To quickly implement changes, Design Café teamed up with Yellow Messenger to design a chatbot that could help facilitate customer queries when a live agent was unavailable. Through partnering with Yellow Messenger, Design Café was able to provide 24/7 support to customers, whether they had a quick question or if they wanted to book a meeting with a designer. By implementing a seemingly small change to its business, Design Café was able to enhance the customer experience and boost satisfaction.
As we head into an increasingly digital and contactless world, solutions like conversational design will be paramount to brands across the board.
How does a brand implement conversational design?
Implementing conversational design correctly and efficiently takes time, resources and a dedicated team of experts to ensure customer expectations are being met. Many businesses need to outsource this form of app development and should look to lean on omnichannel communication providers to help boost their tech offerings.
Below are a few key benefits of partnering with a group of experts to implement conversational design that all brands should consider:
• The ability to deliver optimal bespoke chatbots to customers, minimize time-to-market and maximize the customer experience and foster business results
• A team to support in co-creating a chatbot application, and help building flow for ease of use
• Collaboration in developing and defining the personality of the chatbot
• Customization of the chatbot services to best meet specific client solutions and goals
As customer expectations climb to new heights, it may be worthwhile for your brand to embrace conversational design and chatbots to meet new needs.
