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5 Benefits of Using Chatbots for Business

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By Kayla Matthews

If you want to stay ahead in today’s business world, you need to leverage technology. AI is one of the most promising aspects of technology today, and chatbots are an excellent way to use it. Chatbots for business is a growing field and one you should consider looking into.

The word “chatbot” may make you think of the robotic, monotone voices you’ve heard on calls in the past. Today’s bots are far superior, though, and are a handy resource for any company. Here are just five of the ways you can benefit from a chatbot for your business.

1. Increased Profits

Traditionally, you’d answer customer questions with an employee, either a dedicated customer relations agent or whoever’s free. This model can end up being costly, though. You may not be able to afford a dedicated service agent, and answering questions can distract employees from their regular work.

If you automate the relations process with a chatbot, you avoid these expenses. Chatbots don’t need a salary, and you allow your employees to focus on their other tasks, accomplishing more at once. Some researchers even suggest that chatbots will save businesses $8 billion a year by 2022.

2. Unlimited Availability

Chatbots are also available at any time on any day. You can only work for so long, but you never know when your customers may have questions. With a chatbot, you can help them get the answers they need whenever they need them.

Even during regular business hours, traditional customer service systems can have trouble keeping up. If you have more callers than you have service reps, you may have to put people on hold. Chatbots, on the other hand, can talk to multiple people at once, so everyone gets immediate service.

3. Versatile Customer Service

When you use a chatbot for your business, you also create a more versatile customer service platform. For example, 64% of consumers prefer texting over calling, so you want to provide the same experience across both. Since the same chatbot system can handle both calls and texts, it can deliver consistent service for all customers.

Chatbots also allow for multilingual support. Finding an employee who’s fluent in many languages is challenging, but finding a robot that is isn’t. That way, you can help your customers no matter what their needs are.

4. Fast Responses

Your consumer base may be just as busy as you are. They want information as fast as they can get it, but traditional customer service systems can be slow. Since AI works so much faster than people, chatbots can offer almost instant responses.

There are many reasons why a human employee may be slow to answer a customer. They could have to think about the answer, think about how they’d phrase something or they could be distracted. Chatbots don’t experience any of those pauses, so they can work faster.

5. Fewer Errors

Another benefit of chatbots for businesses is that they reduce the risk of human error. If your employees are tired, distracted or have a momentary lapse of judgment, they could accidentally tell a customer incorrect information. Chatbots don’t have this problem.

Chatbots don’t forget anything, and they don’t get distracted. They will almost always give the right answers. That kind of reliability is hard to ignore as a business.

AI Will Drive Tomorrow’s Business World

The potential of chatbots for business is substantial, and it’s growing as the technology gets better. If you want to improve your customer service, you should consider investing in chatbots. Not only will it help your customer more, but it’ll save you time and money.

AI applications are driving industry, and will likely shape the business of tomorrow. Resources like chatbots will become standard practice before long, and you can see that trend is already starting to take place. If you want to move your business into the future, consider chatbots.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

How to Use AI for Your Business

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By Kayla Matthews

One of the most significant breakthroughs of the past few decades has been artificial intelligence. However, AI has mostly reserved for big tech companies that could afford to research how it worked and develop custom AI-powered tools — until recently.

There is now a variety of tools, platforms and solutions directed at end-users who don’t necessarily have deep AI or technical knowledge — meaning that almost every business can take advantage of the tech. Here are a few different applications of AI for your business, regardless of size.

Customer Service Chatbots With AI

One of the biggest benefits of AI is that it can overcome some of limits of conventional automation. Customer support chatbots, for example, have proven tough to automate well. Most of the time, the hard-coded, pre-written responses that make these bots work make them inflexible — and, as a result, not great at helping customers. Usually, if a customer needed a question answered and they turned to a chatbot, they’d end up speaking to a customer support rep, anyway — or click away when they couldn’t get an answer.

While these conventional chatbots are clunky, however, most customers still want support right away. They’re also willing to talk to a chatbot if it means getting support sooner. For many businesses, especially smaller businesses, service reps can’t be available 24/7. Some kind of automated solution will probably be necessary — but conventional chatbots can’t always provide quality customer service.

AI chatbots take a more intelligent approach. These bots use tech like natural language processing to more intuitively read and respond to customer questions. They’ve proven  much better at handling basic customer requests than conventional bots. According to data from Salesforce, 64 percent of service agents with AI chatbots are able to spend their time handling complex customer issues, compared to 50 percent of agents with non-AI chatbots.

These AI chatbots also collect a lot of information — like what a customer needs or even how they’re feeling — that they can pass on to a customer support rep, if the bot can’t handle the customer’s request. Reps who pick up requests from a chatbot will have a much better idea of how to help the customer as a result.

AI-Powered Workforce Management

Another strength of AI is its ability to find patterns in vast amounts of information. This means that AI tools are great at using large data sets — like historical sales data — to make predictions.

Most businesses with employees generate serious amounts of staff and customer data, but don’t take full advantage of this information.  AI-powered workforce management tools can apply AI algorithms to your business’s data to optimize employee scheduling and forecast workforce needs. The insights these platforms generate can help you avoid over- or under-staffing. By offering an estimate of how many customers will be in your store, hour-by-hour, you can more accurately schedule employees.

Business Intelligence With AI

Business intelligence (or BI) tools with AI also allow businesses to more effectively use the data they create. These tools help companies collect, organize and analyze business data — information on sales, marketing, payroll and anything else — so they can make better decisions about their business direction.

Most modern BI platforms from major companies — like Microsoft’s Power BI or IBM’s Cognos Analytics — come with AI tools active by default. If you learn the platform, you won’t need any advanced training to take advantage of these features. Often, the AI features actually make the platforms more valuable and easier to use. For example, Power BI includes natural language processing. With this feature, it’s possible to type in a plain-language request — like “what were our highest-selling products last quarter” — and you’ll receive a visualization of that data, no menu-navigation or coding necessary.

Applications of AI for Any Business

Artificial intelligence has changed how the biggest businesses analyze data and solve problems. New AI-powered tools and platforms allow businesses of any size to do the same thing. Chatbots with AI can intelligently respond to and answer customer questions. Analytics platforms can take the data that businesses already generate and analyze it.

As AI tech becomes more advanced, it’s likely that new AI tools will be developed, and that existing platforms will continue to add AI-powered features.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

 

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Do Your Employees Have All the Tools to Sell?

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No matter what your brand has to offer the public, it is key your employees have all the needed tools to sell.

Sure, if you run a one-person operation, then worrying what employees have is rather moot.

That said many business owners do have employees under them. As a result, it is important that they know what their workers need to be successful with consumers.

So, do your employees have all the tools to sell?

What Might You Be Lacking?

In looking at what your workers may need to make selling to the public easier, consider the following:

  1. Technology – They may have need for sales commission software. That is to best track results when working to sell. So, be sure your employees have the necessary tools. Speaking of such software, does your company have it now? If not, it would be well worth your time to look to add it to your office. The right software makes it much easier to track who is doing what when it comes to sales. Keep in mind that happy and organized employees tend to be better ones. As such, knowing the software you offer them is tracking all it should will make things run smoother. Also be sure if you have employees traveling for you that they have access to the right tech items. This makes it easier for them to not only stay in touch with you and clients they meet, but also record what they do for you.
  2. Experience – There is only one way for employees to get experience selling to the public and that is doing it. That said be sure to train your employees the right way from day one. Bad selling techniques can doom an employee early on within your company. He or she has a much better chance of succeeding (as does your business) when they have been trained right. Do not assume when they come to you with sales experience that the experience they have meshes with you.
  3. Marketing and Advertising – It makes it easier for your employees to sell when folks know you. As a result, are you doing all you can to promote your brand through smart marketing and advertising? That will go a long way in making it easier for your workers to form a bond with consumers. When a consumer knows about your brand, he or she can be easier to approach. That is of course unless they take issue with your brand in the first place.
  4. Confidence – Finally, do you instill confidence in your team? Sure, work can get tough at times. You might even raise your voice a time or two. That said providing support to your employees means more than resources. Show them you support them as both workers and people. Such support can go a long way in increasing the chances of a sale.

As you review what your employees have to make sales, anything you need to do different?

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics online.

 

How Collaborative Tech Can Help Businesses Escape a Growth Rut

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By Kayla Matthews

While the rapid advance of technology is a boon to most business owners, others find it overwhelming, confusing and unnecessary. Adding to the confusion are workers who voice concerns over increasing automation, the increase of threats like viruses and malware, and next-gen systems that are too costly during their initial launch.

To ease the transition for these business owners, IT teams are turning to collaborative technology.

The Rise of Cobots

You’ve been hearing about robots for decades, but what about cobots? Instead of replacing human workers with AI-driven, fully autonomous machines, many business owners are embracing the modern cobot. Instead of working in opposition to your current staff or taking over their jobs entirely, cobots have one clear goal: to work with their human counterparts and strengthen productivity across the board.

It’s a winning situation for everyone involved. The majority of your roster will likely keep their jobs while your company benefits from the heightened productivity and efficiency that is only available through advanced hardware like cobots.

Next-Gen Software

Software solutions are a dime-a-dozen, especially in the business sector. It’s sometimes difficult to separate legitimate apps and utilities from viruses or malware — but there are some highly useful programs available to today’s business owners.

One such program, Encircle, is meant specifically for modern enterprises and highly collaborative environments. According to recent case studies, organizations that use Encircle boast a 65 percent reduction in administration tasks, a 160 percent increase in reporting accuracy, a 250 percent increase in workplace efficiency and more.

There are plenty of applications to choose from, depending on your software needs. Other popular collaboration tools include Skype, SharePoint, Office 365, Yammer, OneDrive and many more.

The Internet of Things

Both the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are gaining a lot of momentum in the 21st century. While the latter is relevant in industrial professions — like manufacturing, construction, mining and fossil fuel production — the generalized IoT has tremendous potential to transform how business owners run their enterprises in the future.

According to top experts in the field, the IoT has four potential benefits for modern businesses, including:

  • Greater operational efficiency
  • Better customer service and an improved customer experience
  • Decreased risk in everyday operations
  • More business value through new services and programs

Business owners who want to make the most of the IoT will need to collaborate with a knowledgeable and experienced IT team, because the scope of the IoT is too large, complex and involved for one person.

New Marketing Initiatives

The newfound emphasis on collaborative tech is creating some new marketing initiatives, too. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two methods that draw increased traffic to your website. In this case, SEO ensures your website is accessible via today’s search engines while SEM gives your site a higher rank in any search results.

For even greater effect, business owners turn to social media marketing. Today’s social media portals — including Facebook, LinkedIn and more — are the ideal platforms for testing out new marketing strategies, collaborating with partners and strengthening the overall customer experience.

How Collaborative Tech Benefits Everyone

Although the most obvious benefits of collaborative tech come to those on the frontlines, including IT officials, business owners and the modern workforce, greater collaboration on a professional level ultimately benefits us all.

Today’s customers can demand a level of personalization that wasn’t available five or 10 years ago, and owners can conduct business with their partners through high-definition video conferencing. It truly is a system that trickles down to benefit everyone involved.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Featured image: Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

GetResponse: More Than Just an Email Marketing Tool

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getresponse-reviewBeing a marketer in the age of the internet makes me one of the luckiest people in the world. I get to reach audiences across the world from right at home, and I can do it with a limited budget, based on the merits of my brand and my creativity. I love my job… usually.

I will admit that there are times when I get frustrated. Sometimes I feel so annoyed with the tedious, never ending tasks of promotion that I feel like selling my computer, moving to the Appalachian Mountains and starting a llama farm, never to see another piece of analytics data again.

Given my endless search for ways to fob off those pesky to-do tasks, and my inability to do so on my team without them wishing me dead, I am slightly obsessed with marketing tools. I have been signing up for free trials in the search for the perfect one, and so far I have found a number that I like.

This is my latest attempt at seeking marketing platform perfection, and I am happy with what I have so far found.

What Is GetResponse?

GetResponse is, at the heart of it, an email marketing platform. You use their email creator to apply templated (of which there are many), and launch campaigns that are targeted to segmented email lists you can upload from your hard drive backups. Pretty straightforward, right?

Actually, no. I went into signing up for GetResponse thinking I would be using a MailChimp clone, like so many others on the web these days. What I ended up with was a unique, helpful marketing tool that covers a number of tasks that I normally hate doing, and makes them easy. And emails are only a part of it.

An Expansive Features List

Email Creator and Templates – There are a lot of templates available, as well as their email creator for your own designs. What I love most about these – other than how simple they are – is that they are responsive. So no matter where the customer is viewing them, they will look the way I intended.

Marketing Automation – In order to create automated tasks, you make a workflow chart using drag and drop. Each connects to different commands, triggered by the behavior of the customer. These automated tasks are a quick way to improve conversions, without having to manually draft messages.

Landing Pages – A solid landing page is a great tool to turn those leads into sales. But making them can be time consuming, and using services that make fast ones cost a lot of cash. Having such a feature available to users built in with the price of their other tools is a great move by GetResponse.

Form Generator – Want to get some feedback on your site or products? You need a form, and they happen to have a generator for you to use. You select the type (scroll, popup, ect), and fill in the different areas. Then they do the rest, hosting the form on your site where it will hopefully catch some interest.

A/B Testing – You have to be regularly A/B testing your materials if you want to make sure you are getting the best possible results. I love that this dashboard has a tester right there for you to use, alongside past campaigns that might offer clues for future success.

Webinars – You have so much to teach and give. Why not host a webinar? You can get this feature with the second tier and above account, and it is worth it.

Auto Responder – Whether it is a message stating that support will be in touch, or a happy birthday message to your customers, you can set up an auto response quickly.

Multi-Source List Import – Build your lists by importing from your hard drive, or pulling them from services like Gmail and MSN. Segment them quickly and easily.

Analytics – Get solid data on your performance with their analytics charts and insights. Make smarter decisions moving forward by seeing the real time successes and failures of your campaigns.

My Experience With GetResponse

I signed up for their second tier plan, for $49 per month. My plan was just to try it for a month and consider the cost an investment that I may possibly lose. I am happy to say that didn’t happen, as I have been loving GetResponse all month.

The email creation is surprisingly easy to use. I am not a designer, which anyone who has seen my attempt at building even simple sites can attest to. Emails are no different, and I have had trouble getting templates to work for me as I customize them on other platforms. Here, I had no trouble at all. Knowing that the emails were responsive also really helped, as I knew they would look good no matter the device.

I had a bit of a tough time figuring out the automation feature at first. But with some tinkering I managed to work the drag and drop automation lines, and created some cool little tasks that I could run in the background. I mostly focused on ecommerce messages, such as if they put things in their cart but didn’t go through with a purchase. They would get a message reminding them of the item.

I also created several landing pages, and A/B tested them to see which led to a greater subscription rate on our newsletter (the biggest source of marketing success for our campaign to date has been through email outreach).

My Rating: Five Stars

I really like GetResponse so far. I haven’t had time yet to try all of their features; webinars has had to wait, but I am eager to give it a shot. Everything else has been awesome, and I couldn’t be happier with how their features have improved the time I have spent on marketing tasks.

All in all, this is a five star product.

How to buy technology without going crazy

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Q: How many technology vendors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: Depends, what’s your budget?

Technology buyers have changed, and so has the buying process. According to recent research, if you’re a baby boomer, you’re likely to rely heavily on industry analysts for advice in the early stages of the decision. If you’re a Gen X decision-maker who’s about to pull the trigger, you prefer live or in-person demos.

But you may not even realize the generational or experiential biases you are bringing to your purchase decision. You’ve probably formed habits that may or may not be helping you make an effective technology choice.

And you have a LOT of choices. Not to freak you out, but this graphic is just for marketing technology.

ChiefMarTec Technology Landscape 2016

 

Become a better technology buyer

Over the last 20 years, I have talked with hundreds of technology buyers in various stages of the decision process.

One scenario that comes up often is the disconnect between the person who will ultimately use the technology and the person who is procuring it. The most effective organizations put those two people (or teams) in the same room and lock the door, not letting them out until they understand thoroughly what will be purchased.

Another frequent issue is “champagne dreams on a beer budget.” If you’re a buyer on a strict budget, assume that you’re going to need to triage the feature set you’re getting. Figure out what’s a must-have and what’s a nice-to-have, so you can live without paying for expensive customizations.

Don’t start Googling technology vendors until you know your business goals, your budget, and your timeline.

 

How to buy technology efficiently

  1. Start at the beginning. What business challenge are you trying to solve, what business goal are you looking to achieve? How is your own success measured? If you have answers to those questions, it will be pretty obvious whether a particular technology can help you or not.
  2. Nail down your budget and resources. If you don’t have either of those things, you shouldn’t waste time getting software demos. (Dude, that’s boring anyway.) Knowing how much you can spend, over what period of time, will help you know if you should visit the Ferrari dealership or look at the used cars on Craigs List.
  3. Let the mission drive your feature set, not the other way around. Design mockups and super-detailed feature requirements are fun to brainstorm, but don’t let them drive the whole process. You may discover new ways of achieving your goals if you allow the technology vendor to share their expertise. They are probably talking to others in your niche all day long, trying to solve the same problems, and they may have a fresh take on things. There may be features you didn’t even dream up. If you need to provide a pixel-detailed mockup, expect to make a significant investment.
  4. Know the process. For larger technology purchases, you may need to have legal resources to review the agreement you’ll be signing (particularly if it’s software-as-a-service, where you’re accessing a platform from your browser). Make sure that you have buy-in and participation from anyone on your team who needs to sign off on the purchase.
  5. Establish a timeline. When do you want to start actually using the technology? Will it be available? Do you need training before it’s released into the wild?

It’s easy to see technology vendors as adversaries in the sales process…after all, they want your money, right? However, the good vendors also want to build a strong partnership with you so that you can work together over the long haul. Look for sales teams who treat the purchasing process as a partnership and give you sound advice along the way. That’s probably a good clue as to how you’ll be treated as a customer, too.

What are your lessons-learned for buying technology?

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee