With the above said, the creation of chat bots in the 1960’s has become one the most prominent and unconventional ways in which businesses can offer exceptional service to their clients. With the development of computer programmes in the 21st Century, the design of these bots has signified a new dawn in the digital marketing environment, one which has revolutionised the way communication occurs between businesses and their clients.
A chat bot is an artificial intelligence programme which pilots conversations with clients either via text, visuals or audio. These conversations can occur through websites, messaging apps and mobile apps. The software is created in such a way as to imitate human behaviour to give the impression that an actual human being is conversing with the client whereas in fact, it is the bot.
As mentioned above, chat bots are designed to emulate human behaviour, and as such the chatbot takes the form of a virtual assistant in which the computer programme conducts conversations with the client via audio or visual methods, or in messaging apps where the bots communicate with clients via text messages or texting apps. The artificial intelligence programmes sweep the messages typed or recorded by the client or any keywords they can identify. Once that is done, they take the identified keywords and search for them in their database and select the most appropriate answer for the client. The programmes are created for the purpose of mimicking human beings that reply in real time, which leave clients satisfied with the service required without them having to do any strenuous labour such as driving to the business or calling them, achieving a positive customer experience for the business. The use of algorithms is present as well, as they assist the bots in conducting conversations which are case sensitive to each conversation.
You may not realise it, but there are many computer programmes which you are familiar with, but did not realise, were chat bots. Here is a list of three examples that may be more common than you may have known.
You may have found yourself on a website and seen a message appear on the side of the web page from a product such as Vanish stain remover or service providers such as First National Bank inviting you to converse with them via messaging. This is a type of bot where drift messages are used with the hopes of luring potential customers from casual browsing to intentional pages where a customer might be converted.
On Facebook Messenger, you may have noticed that when you send a message to a service provider at 2am, they respond immediately and attend to your query as best as they can. The use of the Facebook chatbot is available to all their users.
If you have an Apple device, then you will be all too familiar with Siri. Siri is a virtual assistant which is available 24 hours a day for Apple users. The programme acts as an assistant by offering services to users such as finding them the nearest restaurant or giving them definitions about a word they do not understand.
Chat bots are certainly a force to be affiliated with. If you as a business, are looking for a way to take your customer service to the next level, then chat bots are an innovate journey that you want to explore.
