If you have been an internet user for a long time, we are sure that you have seen an increase in the use of chatbots. This is because more and more companies have started using chatbots as it helps them automate customer services. In fact, chatbots are saving money for these companies, and with the tech advancement, these chatbots are becoming efficient as well. 

According to research, chatbots have witnessed around 92% growth as a communication channel in the past two years, and 67% of global customers have used chatbots to get their queries answered. So, if you are still wondering what is chatbot and what can be done about it, we are here to spill the beans!

Understanding Chatbot – What Is It?

A chatbot is defined as a computer program or software which simulates human conversations through voice or text interactions. The utilization of chatbots is increasing in B2C as well as B2B environments. This is because it’s reducing the overhead costs, and the support staff can be leveraged to do other work. In fact, it enables the companies to offer customer services the entire day and night, even when the live agents aren’t on duty. 

The Working Of Chatbots 

The chatbots are designed with different levels of complexity, ranging from stateful to stateless. The stateless chatbots are designed to approach the conversation as if they are interacting with the new user. On the other hand, stateful chatbots tend to review past interactions and frame new responses accordingly. When companies have to integrate chatbots, it requires little to no coding because the chatbot providers tend to build everything for the users. 

In addition, their developers are responsible for building the conversational user interface for the third-party application. When it comes down to the implementation of chatbots, it is imperative to select the right natural language processing engine. For instance, if the user is interacting with the chatbots through a voice channel, it’s important for the bot to have a speech recognition engine. 

For this reason, it’s important for business owners to decide if they want to leverage unstructured conversations or structured conversations. This is because the chatbots designed for structured conversations are scripted, which helps simplify the programming but it puts a restriction on what users can ask. In the majority of business-to-business scenarios, chatbots tend to be scripted and only respond to FAQs or repetitive questions. 

Is There A Need For Chatbots?

Yes, chatbots are incredibly important for businesses, irrespective of which business you are running. This is because businesses are looking for ways to increase their sales and service productivity with utmost focus on efficiency and savings. In addition, the majority of chatbots are integrated with AI technology which makes sure there are proper conversations with the users to answer the asked queries. 

On a concluding note, chatbots are essential, and they are surely taking a twist on communication, and it’s only time that it will enhance communication between businesses and customers.