Load One - Blog #chatbot

10 Reasons Why Conversational Marketing Should Be Your Next Focus

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 09:00:22 +0800

Business can be hectic and busy; sometimes it can be challenging to look past the day-to-day activities and plan ahead. However, looking forward to the future and taking steps to keep in pace with your market is important.

Conversational marketing--specifically the use of artificial intelligence in responding and conversing with your customers in real-time--is the latest trend that's worth a look, no matter what industry your business is in.

If you haven't given much thought to using chatbots and SMS to build a relationship with your customers, we've collated 10 reasons why you should consider them as your next focus in growing your business.

Reason #1 - Get Mobile

SMS and chatbots are innately mobile-friendly. When consumers spend up to 5 hours per day on their phones, it's important to be where your customers are. SMS is always present; chatbots are becoming more and more ubiquitous; and messaging apps are some of the highest-used apps today.

Reason #2 - Bots for Everyone

Gone are the days when automated bots are used purely for transactional purposes. Recently, more and more informational and utility bots are going live, from delivering curated news to managing your kitchen for you.

Reason #3 - Higher Effectivity

Conversational channels like SMS and messaging have higher open rates than traditional email. Email only has a 15%-20% open rate, while 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of receipt. Chatbots, on the other hand, have a 70%-80% open rate themselves.

Reason #4 - Availability

It's important to be available and responsible to your customers, whether you're in retail or service industries. It's good to know that 53% of buyers are also more likely to buy from a business that they can communicate with through messaging. Otherwise, they may opt to purchase from other businesses who have channels available to them.

Reason #5 - Recover Lost Opportunities

It's also easier to recover abandoned carts with chatbots or SMS. The best practices surrounding recoveries encourage an attempt to reach your customer within an hour of cart abandonment; if they're not reading their email, what's the point? A well-timed SMS or chatbot message can help; what's more, a friendly message just before they leave your site might help if they only need a little more information to complete their purchase.

Reason #6 - Online All the Time

When 60% of online purchases happen during the evenings or weekends, it might be a challenge to maintain a support team to handle the influx of questions and order management that inevitably happens during these off hours. Instead of paying overtime fees and having support staff work long hours, an automated chatbot that can handle common queries can help both with support questions and sales.

Reason #7 - Automation

Automation can help businesses immensely when it comes to cost efficiency and maintaining a quality level for all interactions. While one cannot do away with human agents, 20% of all conversations between businesses and customers can be fully automated; and for 50% of messages, humans agents come into the conversation only when needed. This results in more time for your human agents to address more complex issues.

Reason #8 - Preference Trends

Millenials can be highly self-service-oriented. In fact, 65% prefer to go online to get support rather than speak to staff in store or talk on a phone. In addition to saving time and resources by allowing them to find their own answers through conversing with an AI-powered bot, you help address their issues in the method they prefer, which results in higher approval ratings and better customer experience.

Reason #9 - Aftersales and Support Improvements

Many people may be worried about chatbots "taking over" their jobs, when it comes to customer support and sales agents. However, this isn't the case: AI-powered solutions and human agents are best deployed to complement each other's tasks. Implemented correctly, the use of chatbots can free up time for beleaguered support staff to allow them to work on more complex issues and provide a better, more satisfactory experience to cases that need it the most.

Reason #10 - Brand Building

Bots are more personal than social media or email. Done well, bots can encourage a good relationship between your business and your customer. After all, humans can end up projecting human characteristics on chatbots and positive feelings can go a long way toward solidifying brand loyalty.

There's No Better Time Than Now

Whether you're maintaining your bottom line or actively growing your business, a strategic conversational marketing plan can help you achieve your goals. Cost efficiency and customer experience improvements are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of a well-deployed plan.

Whether your plan employs SMS, chatbots, or a bit of both, an early start can help you maximize the perks it can bring. Start small, and start today.

Boost Sales With Chatbots [Winning Tips]

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 09:00:00 +0800

With the holidays fast approaching, an automated order-taker can help any business streamline their online purchases, leading to higher sales and revenue. Ecommerce websites and chatbots are a necessity for a fast-paced sales season.

But these aren't the only benefits a well-implemented chatbot can boost sales for any business. There are more things you can gain from adopting a chatbot, such as extending your market and omnichannel perks.

We've got a few tips you can do with your chatbot now to get ready for the holiday rush.

Tip #1 - Arm Your Chatbot with Answers

Your chatbot excels at fast response times to common questions asked by your customers. Make sure that you take advantage of this benefit! From price list questions to product information, having your chatbot answer common queries will mean less questions directed at your human sales and support agents.

Check with your sales and support teams what questions come up the most as customers transact with your business. You can also do a regular audit of your chatbot's conversations with your customers to see if there are any questions that your chatbot can't answer, and look into including that into your chatbot's knowledge base. This way, your chatbot grows as your business does.

Tip #2 - Online Greeters Can Give Presence to Your Business

A personalized, VIP experience can mean that customers are 80% more likely to purchase from your store. While gearing up your e-commerce site to take on personalization can be a daunting task, you can start taking small steps now by employing a chatbot as a greeter on your online store.

A proactive greeter doesn't have to be an annoying popup for your customers -- it's best to start the conversation with a visitor when they've done something your chatbot can help with.

If they've been to a few product pages but aren't adding anything to their shopping cart, that can be a great time for your chatbot to say hello and ask if they need any assistance.

Tip #3 - Take Back Those Carts

You can even gently remind your shoppers about unfinished orders they have. Have they left the cart behind on a previous shopping session, but came back to your site at some point in the future? Say hello and remind them they were interested in your products, perhaps they need some further information your chatbot can give them?

Businesses don't even need to wait until they come back--many chatbots can now detect intent to leave the website, and send a message to the visitor if they do. Are they leaving with items in the cart but not checking out? Send them a quick message to remind them! You can even tailor promotions for these people, such as shipping discounts and free samples.

Since 70% of shoppers will probably abandon their cart, recovering even half of these can mean a lot of sales for your business.

Chatbots Are Part of Your Team

Chatbots are a valuable part of your team. Integrated well, they can enhance your customers' experience as well as free up your employees' time to focus on more complex tasks that can bring in higher revenue for your business.

Far from being a transactional tool to speed up the sales or support process, chatbots can help build customer loyalty and solidify your brand. Take the time to streamline your chatbot, just like any team member you have--a little investment in time and strategy can mean a lot.

Building Brand Loyalty with Conversational Marketing

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 09:00:07 +0800

Online consumption is at an all-time high in 2020. Businesses and brands have enjoyed high viewership and online engagement from internet users who have turned to online means of reaching out to businesses. Whether it's for their necessities or luxuries, customers have used the internet to fulfill these needs.

On the other hand, the higher consumption rate and increasing internet know-how for potential customers have also meant stiffer competition between brands. Businesses without an online presence have needed to learn how to get online, and fast. But it's oftentimes not even enough just to be online.

Businesses often need to go to great lengths to attract new customers and even keep loyal customers. The wealth of variety and information online can lead to an overall decrease in customers' trust and loyalty.

How can businesses keep their customers' trust in this environment? One of the best tools for this task is chatbots, for their power to build conversations and relationships with customers.

What Drives Brand Loyalty?

While having a stellar product is important for brand loyalty, there are other key drivers for loyalty. Some of the biggest trends in driving loyalty include:

Personalization - 79% percent of customers are very satisfied with loyalty programs with high personalization
Presence - the ability of a brand to be present across multiple channels and seamlessly interact with the customer through these channels mean higher customer engagement
Social responsibility - customers like supporting brands with a purpose that resonates with theirs
Emotional loyalty - companies that can build an emotional connection with their audience enjoy 46% more spend than customers without emotional bonds

Investing in improving customer loyalty is key to business longevity. It may be a challenge to develop solutions in measuring loyalty but the payback is significant.

Chatbots and Brand Loyalty

Chatbots are uniquely positioned to help with this need to maintain emotional connections with customers.

While they are not replacements for human interaction, chatbots help in resolving many common issues and queries. This can be done to help maintain customer expectations on responsiveness and reliability without the need for a large support staff. Human staff can handle special, complex issues while chatbots can help in more routine tasks.

Chatbots Can Drive Personalization

A greeter chatbot on your website can help maintain a friendly demeanor for your brand, as well as obtaining the details of your potential customer and storing it for later use. A chatbot that is later on able to greet your shopper by name helps customers feel important and valued by your business.

However, make sure you don't fall prey to petty personalization that does nothing special for your customers. Reward customers when they connect with you, whether it is with promotions, updates, or a more tailored experience according to their tastes.

Chatbots Driving Presence

Businesses need to be where the customers are. With messenger and chat applications in heavy use by everyone, your business's ability to be in the applications that your customers are in is important. A customer is more likely to connect with your business if you are available where they need you to be.

Unfortunately, maintaining multiple channels can be a daunting task, which is why multi-channel chatbots can be a lifesaver. This also makes sure that when your customer interacts across multiple chat applications or your website, your business is responding to them in the same way, and they won't need to repeat themselves.

Chatbots Driving Social Responsibility

Consider making your brand's advocacies and purpose resonate through your chatbot's personality. Don't fall prey to forgetting about personality when it comes to programming your chatbot. Use your chatbot's personality to drive home your brand's image as well as your vision and mission.

Consider these two chatbot messages:

Thank you for purchasing! Please check your email for your order confirmation.

versus

Hooray! You've saved up to 5 trees by purchasing our recycled paper.

We'll send you an order confirmation soon, so check your email!

The latter drives home the fact that your shopper has just helped make the environment just a little bit better by purchasing from your business.

Chatbots Driving Emotional Loyalty

Lastly, a chatbot with a personality that speaks to your brand's values will help customers connect better with your business. This depends heavily on your brand's identity as well as your target market's expectations, so make sure you check your buyer personas when building your chatbot's personality.

Sentiment analysis is important when it comes to chatbots. When this is a challenge for some AI engines, the ability to quickly flag a conversation to handoff to a human customer care personnel is important.

Consider using keyword and phrase triggers to determine when a customer needs to be handed over to a human being. An effective transition helps in keeping customers happy without sacrificing responsiveness for your overall brand.

Putting it All Together

An effective loyalty program for any business does not stop at just reward points and mailing list updates.

Being available and responsive to your customers is an important part of your whole program. This boost in customer experience can be very favorable to any business, regardless of the industry.

5 Facebook Messenger Selling Secrets You Need to Know

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:00:36 +0800

Whether you're a small business or a big franchise, there is one common denominator when it comes to driving sales in the current climate: you need to make social media work for your business. A strong online presence and social media presence can cement brands and push revenues for all kinds of business.

The current hot topic on everyone's lips is harnessing conversational marketing and selling through chat channels like Facebook Messenger, Viber, Whatsapp, and others. All brick and mortar businesses study branch locations carefully, because being where the customers are is important. That's no different when pushing online sales.

Here in the Philippines, when 96% of internet users are on Facebook and 89% are on Messenger specifically, any business would benefit from a solid Facebook and Messenger presence.

Source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-philippines

Furthermore, SproutSocial and Pew Research Center's Facebook demographics show that 74% of high-income earners use Facebook.

With these numbers, it's clear that Facebook is simply too big to ignore as a sales channel. Many people are already using Facebook to sell, to various degrees of success.

There's no time to waste. We've collected five important tips that you need to know or do in order to power your online sales in Facebook messenger.

Harness the Power of Groups

It sounds simple, but it's important. Facebook Groups and the Marketplace are actually big drivers when it comes to online sales, especially when you hit the right note. Aside from getting your business the online traffic it needs, the pandemic has driven hyperlocal marketplaces to overdrive--and it continues to be the case many months in.

Brand awareness is important, and if your brand is active in local Facebook Groups that is appropriate to your business, this comes back as goodwill towards your company. You should have a healthy mix of community-driven Groups and marketplace Groups. While the latter are likely the lowest-maintenance groups to join, don't underestimate the former for their power to push brand awareness.

Product Photography is Important

Pictures attract eyeballs, and the more eyeballs directed to your product posts, the better it is for your online sales.

An inviting, clear shot of what you're selling is important. Ditch the cluttered background and off-focus shots so that your audience knows what the picture is for immediately.

But make sure that your photo is accurate and shows exactly what you're selling. A stock photography of a "similar item" can mean disappointed buyers who have different expectations of what they'll get.

Respond Quickly

The longer customers wait to get a response from brands, the more time they have to look for your competitors' products or get distracted with other things on Facebook. Buyers want and expect answers fast.

If you're finding it hard to keep up with inquiries, consider investing in a chatbot to make sure that your brand is not seen as unresponsive. A snappy answer and a friendly chatbot can tell customers your brand is serious about customer experience and that they can rely on you for what they need.

Follow Through

Don't forget to follow through after a sale, whether it's by sending them an email or message through Facebook Messenger. Set up an automated email or chatbot message to make sure you don't forget and to free up your time.

This act can help turn one-time buyers in loyal customers. Make them feel like a VIP after they order from you, by doing some of the following ideas:

Check with them if they've received their order
Ask them for feedback on their order
Give them exclusive promotions if they order again
Etc.

Even if they didn't complete their order with you, they still deserve a message! Look into sending recovery emails or messages when you have abandoned carts. Recovering a good chunk of these can help you boost sales.

Stay Updated

Facebook and the communities around it can change drastically from one day to another, so it's important to stay updated and do your research. Look out for what's selling in the areas you do business in. You can see how your competitors are pricing and marketing their products, and even what emerging trends your business can utilize.

Remember that Facebook Messenger and the Marketplace are great places to test out a new product or marketing campaign. You don't need to invest a lot to see what will sell, so make sure you use these insights to your advantage.

Raising Customer Loyalty with SMS and Chat

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:00:00 +0800

Getting new customers can be difficult. Oftentimes, this can be one of the most difficult tasks a company can have. In today's economy when the market is tightening their collective belts, new customers can be a challenge. However, being able to depend on your loyal customers can significantly ease concerns on cash flow and longevity.

Notably, the top 1% of your customers can spend more than 30 times your average customers over time. This makes them even more valuable. Turning new customers into regulars must be a focus for any business.

Thankfully, with online consumption and online shopping at an all-time high, it's even easier to stay connected to your market. When businesses use chat and SMS together, the effectiveness of conversational marketing is even more pronounced.

How Chat and SMS Help Retain Customers

Engaging with your customers in the channels they prefer is important to build goodwill with your customers. Remember the following facts:

82% of customers expect an immediate response when they have questions (source)
53% of buyers are more likely to buy from a business they can communicate with (source)
61% say that messaging as a way to communicate is the easiest way to connect with a business (source)
Millenials are increasingly gaining the predominant purchasing power, prefer instant messaging as a support channel (source)

Whether it's a conversation through instant messengers or SMS, consumers expect quick responses to their questions to the businesses they interact with. Failure to respond quickly can mean loss of opportunity and sales.

Making sure that your business can interact with your customers through both SMS and chat can be a differentiator. If they're on Facebook, Messenger can be a key communication tool; otherwise, SMS can reach those who do not have mobile data.

Follow Through After First Contact

Make sure you follow through after the first time they interact with your business. This is why automated responses are important, whether it's on instant messenger apps or SMS.

Regardless of whether it's an actual purchase or simply an inquiry, making an impression afterward can be favorable to your business. This is why setting up a message to thank them for their purchase is important.

Don't be pushy, but give them the option of signing up for further updates through a mailing list or an SMS list. If you have a website for your products and can set up membership for your customers, even better. Make sure they know the perks of building a better relationship with your brand: saving their details for faster checkouts, accessing past orders, remembering their favorite products, and so on.

Give Back to Your Customers

Don't underestimate the power of lead magnets. These are offers, promotions, or other incentives that you can give potential customers in exchange for email address or phone number.

These can serve two things: as freebies and support for your current customers, but also ways to grow your own customer base.

What's great about this is that once you provide these, you can leave it available for your current and future potential customers alike.

Evaluate and Update

Don't forget to always review your customer retention strategies. The market is always changing, and what works a year ago might not be as effective now. This is even more important in a fast developing marketing landscape like conversational marketing.

Always check to see if your marketing efforts to keep your customers engaged are working as you want it to, or if you need to change it up.

A little planning can help you easily turn potential customers into loyal customers.

5 Signs Your Business Needs a Chatbot

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 09:00:02 +0800

Chatbots are everywhere right now.

From small sellers with a side hustle to big businesses like Sephora, Autodesk, and JP Morgan Chase, automated assistants are more ubiquitous now than ever before.

It's gaining traction especially here in Asia and the Philippines, where experts are forecasting high adoption rates within the next few years.

Source: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/chatbot-market

But is it a fad or something that your business needs to seriously consider? It may be difficult to decide with new technologies like this. So we've made a list of five top signs that your business might need a chatbot.

Let's get started.

Sign #1 - Majority of Your Revenue is From E-commerce

If you are selling products online, it's likely that you've come across many instances where your customers need some form of assistance to complete their orders. Maybe it's asking for your recommendations, clarification on a product's specifications, or concerns regarding your shipping policies and the like.

Surveys show that 83% of online shoppers say that they are more likely to purchase if they had someone to assist them via chat. It's a

But hiring live chat salespeople and customer service staff can take a while to train, and may not be available to your customers 24/7 like an automated assistant or chatbot can be.

Sign #2 - You Deal With a High Volume of Simple, Repetitive Queries

This may be true whether you're in the e-commerce industry or otherwise. You may be seeing a trend with your sales and customer service teams fielding these kinds of routine questions:

How much is Product X?
Can I see a price list?
How long will it take to ship?
Can I return the item if it is defective?
Is there warranty included?
What happens if X?
Do you accept payment via X?
And so on

It might be time to invest in a chatbot.

Chatbots can respond faster and will free your time from these repetitive queries. This way, you can focus on things that need more brain cells, like this car rental company that automated 68% of their service calls with bots.

Sign #3 - Your Customer Support and/or Sales Team is Swamped

If queries are going unanswered for even hours because your team is busy addressing other issues, you may be losing out on valuable sales or leaving your customers dissatisfied. Everyone is online these days, where it's easy to find another seller or support a different brand. Your relationship with your customers is important.

That's why getting chatbots to answer routine queries will make your sales and aftersales support better. Routine question? Get an accurate, fast response. Complex issue? Human staff have more time to spend on making sure they address your customer's dilemma in the best way possible.

A faster and first-rate response from your team (chatbot and human representatives alike) will lead to more satisfied customers.

Sign #4 - You are Scaling Up Your Business Quickly

Hiring and training competent staff does not happen overnight. It takes time away from your veteran support specialists. We believe it's important to hire and train support staff correctly, but if you're quickly expanding your business, it might be tempting to cut corners and thrust new, untrained staff right into the thick of things.

However, a chatbot can help you quickly scale up sales and aftersales support without overly taxing your team. Your veterans will have time to train, your new staff have time to learn, and your customer service will continue to be top-notch throughout your expansion.

Sign #5 - You Need to Focus on Customer Experience

It's a challenging online business landscape these days. Customer experience is number 1, and it's easy for potential customers to find your competitors and switch.

When instant gratification drives many sales, 82% of consumers expect an immediate response when they have questions. That's difficult to maintain if your staff is swamped, and loss of sales momentum can lead to customers looking elsewhere.

Conclusion

If your business fits into many of the above scenarios, it might be time to build a strategy around conversational marketing and chatbots. Chatbots are cost-effective solutions to scaling up a business quickly and can vastly improve your current processes.

Just remember these five signs:

Majority of your revenue is from e-commerce
You deal with a high volume of simple, repetitive queries
Your customer support and/or sales team is swamped
You are scaling up your business quickly
You need to focus on customer experience

There are many benefits to installing a chatbot, and some of these benefits may even surprise you.

If an automated assistant is your next "hire", check out Chatbuddy. Whether it's order-taking or appointment-scheduling, or simply managing your customers' concerns, Chatbuddy can help you bring your business to the next level.

Conversational Marketing: Get to Know the Basics

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 09:00:03 +0800

Many businesses are changing the way they communicate with their customers. Brought about by a surge in online consumption and the steady march of technology, customers expect more and more things from the brands they love.

One of the biggest trends in business is the shift to conversational marketing. As one of the newest buzzwords in marketing, it's easy to get lost when it comes to figuring out what this new trend can do for business.

But that's no reason to stay in the dark.

What is Conversational Marketing?

Conversational marketing is engaging with your customers through conversation via chat. It's not a new sales or marketing funnel. You can still use your website, your social media accounts, your SMS subscriber lists. In fact, it's best to build on top of them.

A quick feedback loop between your customer and you is important with conversational marketing, just like a real conversation. This conversation can happen in chat such as Facebook Messenger or Viber, or in SMS through great use of prompts.

Conversational marketing is simply a new way to move people through your marketing and sales funnels, in a way that quickly brings them into a relationship with your brand.

Quick Feedback is Important

Customers are impatient. A delay in getting them the information they want can drastically affect the chances of a sale. A standard lead capture form can mean delays in addressing their questions. In fact, 82% of consumers expect an immediate response when they have questions.

This is where chatbots are becoming more and more popular. Able to quickly answer the usual routine questions, chatbots can help start that crucial relationship with your customer. In the past, scaling up customer and sales teams can lead to delays and significant expense, but a chatbot can help qualify leads before your expert staff comes in and lands the deal.

Give Your Brand a Breath of Life

While chatbots can't begin to replace humans in your sales and customer service teams, they can be around to interact with your customers 24/7.

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of your business being able to say "hello" to your customers when they need them to be there. Research shows that 53% of buyers are more likely to buy from a business they can communicate with via messaging.

Scale Quickly Without Sacrificing Quality

Everyone loves a booming business. But one of the biggest challenges when scaling up services is making sure that quality and customer experience doesn't drop.

A 24/7 chatbot being able to address the majority of your customers' questions and issues is key to making sure that your staff isn't overwhelmed and you can scale up your team without sacrificing training time.

Whether it's taking orders, booking appointments, or answering questions, an automated chatbot can help with challenges for booming businesses.

Conversational Marketing is Here to Stay

It's important for a business to always look forward and look at the trends in the market. One step ahead is always best. That's why it's important to take a serious look at chatbots and conversational marketing.

In a world that values engagement and connection, the value of a more human approach to marketing like conversations cannot be underestimated. More and more businesses are adopting chatbots, and it's time to look into this same trend, no matter your industry.

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