Your customers expect personal, real-time interactions through the channel of their choice. 67% of people would rather message a business than speak with a person (Source: Zendesk), and that number is expected to grow. Why? Because it’s fast, convenient and personal. But responding to all those requests can be expensive and time-consuming, and may come too late.

The solution: automated chatbots plus live chat with real people. Most businesses understand how live chat works but may not completely grasp how it can work effectively alongside an automated chatbot. Read on to learn more.

What is a chatbot?

At its core, a chatbot is simply software that simulates human conversation. It’s no secret that the word “chatbot” can elicit a mixed reaction. For some people, it conjures up images of frustrating interactions with “dumb bots” that lead nowhere. But the numbers say different — research from Salesforce and MyClever concluded that 69% of people think chatbots offer benefits by delivering quick answers to simple questions, and 62% of customers suggest they provide a real benefit by enabling 24-hour replies from a business versus a phone call, email, or through an app. For most consumer interactions, chatbots are becoming the preferred first point of contact.

There’s a good reason for that. At Massively, we see chatbots as half of a two-part solution for businesses — combining automated and live chat in one place lets you deliver 24-hour answers and automate “high volume, low touch” tasks, including up to 80% of routine customer questions, freeing up real people to handle more complex issues.

That being said, let’s get into the different types of chatbot your business can make use of.

Scripted (rules-based)

Scripted chatbots are the most basic conversational experience. They’re essentially decision trees that move the customer through a conversation based on the choices they make at any given step. Usually, these choices are indicated by suggested responses or other prompts, rather than being based on free-text interactions. Though very simple, these chatbots can sometimes be the best experience, since there’s virtually no chance for them to fail or deliver an incorrect response.

Conversational

Conversational chatbots are more advanced, allowing the customer to free-text questions or responses at any time. There are a wide variety of techniques and technologies that enable this experience, but in general terms, the bot understands the intent of the text the customer enters and determines the best reply. No bot is knowledgeable about a business without information about that business, so the bot must have specific information (data) about the business and be trained to enable the chatbot to answer free-text customer questions.

Though more complex, and thus more prone to getting answers wrong, these conversational experiences can be the best way for businesses to serve their customers FAQs and similar information. If a customer can go on their preferred channel, type in their question and immediately receive an answer, that’s better for them than hunting through an FAQ page on your website, and it’s better for you than having a real person spend their time answering that question — everybody wins!

Hybrid

Hybrid chatbots can guide the customer with buttons/suggested replies, but are also able to answer free-texted questions and have a seamless handover to a “human in the loop” who can answer complex questions or complaints.

Which approach is the best? Of course, the answer is “it depends.” The experts at Massively can help you decide.

Conversational best practices:

Although there are no concrete rules for building engaging and helpful conversational experience, here are some best practices to keep in mind:

No dead ends:

• Let the user “opt out” of the bot and talk to a human… either by incorporating live chat or using a contact flow to collect user details if a real person isn’t available.

• Even with “suggested/quick reply” buttons, users want to “just ask.” Make sure you convey what your bot can do and be prepared to catch these cases and reply appropriately (Massively has built-in tools to help with this so seek help from the experts!).

Respect the channel:

• Messaging is a personal and intimate channel. Brands need to be invited in and earn the privilege by providing value (utility, information, service, etc).
• Keep messages short. Expect short attention spans and avoid long, verbose exchanges.
• Sometimes, it’s best to only speak when you are spoken to.

Have a personality:

• Messaging is a great opportunity to convey your brand values and to personify your brand voice; make sure you keep it consistent!
• Although the intent isn’t to fool the user into believing they are talking to a real person, sounding too robotic can be off-putting for the user. Make your bot sound personable, if not like a person.

Use rich media:

• Just because the medium is conversational and text-based, it doesn’t mean the bot can’t go beyond that. Emojis, GIFs, images, memes, videos, carousels and links make the experience richer for the user.

Don’t try to trick the user:

• It’s OK to acknowledge that the user is talking to a bot and that the chatbot doesn’t know everything. Pretending that the opposite is the case will only lead to user frustration and disengagement.

Understand the purpose of your bot and set measurable KPIs from the beginning:

• Is your bot delivering a service? Your ability to effectively or quickly deliver the service may be based on having the right KPIs (fewer interactions or re-engagement rates).
• Is your bot trying to entertain or lift brand attributes? Engagement metrics may be the best KPIs (more interactions or competition rates). If you are trying to generate leads, qualified contacts may be the best metric.

As always, with any other questions you might have regarding live chat, chatbots or conversational marketing, Massively is there to support you.