Excellent customer care is essential for the success of any business. Yet, many e-commerce platforms struggle with it. Dealing with customer queries and concerns may take longer than necessary. It leads to frustration on the part of the customer. In the end, they may leave and go to your competitors. It happens because they do not feel like they’re essential to your business.
Here are interesting statistics to help you understand the importance of customer service. First, 91% of customers remain loyal if you recognize, remember, and provide recommendations. Second, a great purchase experience increases the likelihood of repeats by up to 86%.
82% of customers will stop doing business with you if they’re not happy with the customer service. As a result, you spend five times more acquiring new customers than you would by trying to keep them.
AI chatbots are a fantastic way to improve customer service. You also get tons of other functionalities that you can use to improve your business.
eCommerce Trends 2021
Why Your eCommerce Business Needs AI Chatbots – eCommerce trends 2021
Before we go into the discussion, let’s start by understanding what AI chatbots are. AI chatbots use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing.
Smart Ai chatbots can understand human intent better. They also make it easier to provide an almost human type of communication with customers.
What makes AI chatbots so attractive is trainable, dependable, and scalable. You will understand these points a little better as we proceed.
1. AI Chatbots Help With Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing is a trend that is catching on. Businesses use real-time conversations online to better engage with customers. It also allows for a level of personalization in the messaging.
But it is not as simple as it sounds. First, you must invest in the right automation to keep the conversations going, such as AI chatbots.
2. You Don’t Have To Deal With Human Issues
Dealing with human resources can be difficult. You have to deal with emotions, sick days, and even truancy. For example, have you ever made a call, and the customer representative seems to be in a bad mood? In other instances, no one answers your calls.
With AI chatbots, you don’t have to worry about such things. Customers get access 24/7 and get instant responses to queries. AI chatbots learn to repeat questions and can, in most cases, answer up to 80% of them. If it cannot answer the question, it will redirect the customer to an agent.
3. Better Customer Service
You probably find shop assistants are beneficial when you visit a brick-and-mortar store. Research shows that you are not alone.
Up to 83% of online shoppers need some help to purchase? They could be looking for advice or recommendations. In some instances, even navigating the website may be difficult for others.
The AI chatbots are that shop assistants on your e-commerce platform. They can interact in the same way a shop assistant does with you.
You can also reduce abandoned carts. The AI chatbots will remind the customer to complete a purchase. You can also get insights into why the shopper decided not to complete the buy.
4. AI Chatbots Can Start Interaction
Many companies find it challenging to start conversations with customers. Most discussions are about selling a product, which can turn off for customers. Think about it, how much time do you give to sales agents who call you.
Yet proactive interaction is becoming more critical. It is essential if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Even with thousands of customers, AI chatbots can quickly initiate such. They are not time-bound. They can communicate with people in different time zones at the appropriate time.
Conversations can be informal so that the customer feels like they’re talking to a friend. It helps maintain top-of-mind awareness. They will also feel more comfortable transacting with a company they think cares for them.
5. Cost Savings for the Company
You may argue that the initial cost of installing AI chatbots is high. But, think about it long-term. Calculate how much money you spend on having an in-house customer support team.
Factor in things like salaries, insurance, office space, and equipment. Also, put a cost to how much you lose due to human error or inefficiency. Then, you will realize that the right AI chatbots will help you save a lot.
6. Get Access to Real-Time Information
Real-time information is critical if you want to improve your business. It allows you to analyze the feedback and take necessary action. Moreover, you do not have to wait for the agents to type up reports with chatbots.
You can set the chatbots to generate reports at specific times. You also get access to real-time information anytime you need it.
7. A Great Way to Collect Data and Insights
AI chatbots do so much more than communicate with customers. For example, you can program them to connect relevant customer data with simple questions. Such insights are critical for improving your offering.
AI chatbots learn purchase patterns and behavior. It helps you make recommendations to the customers. It provides a fantastic marketing tool. You achieve better targeting and message personalization. You can also make decisions on which product lines to drop or improve.
Chatbots can also allow you to gather rich leads by collecting specific information. For example, it will enable you to know the hot leads resulting in conversions. As a result, you save time by not focusing on cold leads.
Final Thoughts – eCommerce Trends 2021
AI chatbots help you improve customer interactions resulting in better service. By learning human behavior, they can make recommendations for specific products. Feedback to customer concerns is prompt because they work 24/7.
The right AI chatbots will reduce the cost of customer care. Yet, it is important to remember that they are still machines. It does not matter how effective they are. You cannot replace the entire customer care team with chatbots.
It is vital to have someone oversee the performance of the chatbots. The teams will handle some of the more complex issues that the chatbots may not handle.
7 Reasons to Use AI Chatbots in Your eCommerce Business
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