Humans have a limit to the number of clients they can handle at once. However, with chatbots, there is no such constraint and they can handle as many queries as required at once.
- Reduced Costs – chatbots eliminate the requirement of any manpower during online interaction and are hence seen as a big advantage by companies receiving multiple queries at once. This also presents companies with the opportunity to save on costs while aligning chatbots with their goals and hence presenting customers with a particular type of interaction leading to conversion.
- 24-7 availability – Unlike humans, chatbots once installed can attend queries at any time of the day. Thus, the customer doesn’t have to wait for the company executive to help them. This also lets companies keep an eye on the traffic during the non-working hours and reach out to them later. On the other hand, while hiring people, there would be no access to these potential customers and could lead to loss of business.
- Learning and Updating – AI-based chatbots are capable of learning from interactions and updating themselves on their own. This is a big benefit when it comes to investing time in educating the executives about the same. Due to machine learning and algorithms capable of updating themselves, the need for same is eliminated while using a Chatbot.
- Multiple Customer Handling – Humans have a limit to the number of customers they can handle at once. However, with chatbots, there is no such constraint and they can handle as many queries as required at once. This is a major benefit of using chatbots as no customer stays unattended and everyone’s problem is being resolved. Developers are trying to come up with new features which can work on voice assisted services and help in guided sales. However, this is still expected to take some time, but will be a major breakthrough in the Chatbot and AI industry.
Disadvantages of chatbots
- Complex interface: It is often considered that chatbots are complicated and need a lot of time to understand what you want in customer. Sometimes, it can also annoy the client about their slowness, or their difficulty in filtering responses.
- They don’t get you right: Fixed chatbots can get stuck easily. If a query doesn’t relate to something you’ve previously “taught” it, you won’t understand it. This can lead to a frustrated customer and the loss of the sale. Other times they do understand you, but they need double (or triple) as many messages as one person, which spoils the user experience.
- Time-consuming: Chatbots are installed with the aim of speeding up responses and improving customer interaction. However, due to the limited availability of data and the time needed for self-updating, this process can be slow and costly. Therefore, there are times when instead of serving several customers at once, chatbots may become confused and not serve the customer well.
- Installation cost: Chatbots are useful programs that help you save a lot of labor by ensuring availability at all times and serving several customers at once. But unlike humans, each chatbot needs to be programmed differently for each business, which increases the initial installation cost. Considering the last-minute changes that can always occur, this is a risky investment, as updating the program will generate additional costs.
- Null decision making: Chatbots can attack the nerves of more than one because they are not able to make decisions.
This can lead to problems. For example: Microsoft launched a chatbot for Twitter. In less than 24 hours, the content it received from users turned it into a racist and misogynistic account. It is very important that your chatbot is well optimized, so that it does not end up being a disaster like this.
Disadvantages
Now, the disadvantages.
AI chatbots can imitate human responses, but they are still far from imitating human emotions. Many customers want to connect with brands on a level that is not yet possible with AI chatbots.
Introduction to AI chatbots
Implementation of AI in marketing has helped improve campaign performances by leaps. An integral part of such campaigns are AI chatbots. The market for which is expected to grow from $2.6 billion in 2019 to $9.4 billion by 2024*. Some of the key factors fueling the growth in the market are:
Variety of Uses
It’s possible to use chatbots in more than one area in a business. You could use them for customer orders, customer service, and advertising just to name a few.
Although using chatbots may provide faster customer service overall, they aren’t perfect. Simple ones may have only limited responses for customers. Therefore, not all customers will get the answers they are searching for.