7 Ways Sales Chatbots Can Benefit Your Business

I WORK FOR ORGANIZATIONS THAT NEED SOMEONE THEY TRUST AS A PARTNER AND CHAMPION FOR THEIR BRAND. AS AN OUTSOURCED DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, I JUMP RIGHT IN AND FOCUS ON WHERE THE NEED IS THE GREATEST AND MOVE FORWARD FROM THERE. I AM CURRENTLY TAKING ON 1-2 NEW CLIENTS. PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM SO WE CAN SCHEDULE A COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION.

Chatbots can now be found everywhere, from online banking portals to e-commerce sites and everything in between. According to current estimates, 47% of consumers are open to using a chatbot to make a purchase, and a study by Juniper estimates that chatbots will account for $112 billion in retail sales by 2023.

So why are chatbots quickly becoming a necessity for businesses of all sizes?

Chatbots enable businesses to provide 24/7 customer service at scale without the need for additional agents. They can reduce friction in the purchasing process, increase sales, gain insights to fuel personalization efforts, improve customer interaction, and serve global markets effortlessly with multilingual chatbots.

Of course, not all chatbots are created equal. Some chatbot solutions generate unnatural conversations, lowering the customer experience (CX) and potentially causing brand damage.

Key features of chatbots that help businesses increase sales

Many businesses underestimate the value of chatbots in terms of increasing sales. While they may not be as charming as your top sales associates, they can serve thousands of customers at once, answering their burning questions on your website and social media channels in real-time and automatically picking up on any useful data that can help you convert potential prospects into paying customers.
We’ll look at seven ways they do this with sales chatbots below.

Generate new leads and learn about your customers

Chatbots use conversational marketing to engage customers, for example, to learn where they are in their purchasing journey, what they require assistance with, and so on. This allows them to quickly qualify leads before directing them to the next step.

Your company can use an artificial intelligence chatbot to ask visitors what they’re looking for. If they simply want to look over your services and expertise, it will direct them to the relevant website pages. Chatbots can also set up a call with one of your lawyers if they say they need to hire someone right away.

Chatbots for sales can also generate new leads by requesting contact information from website visitors, which is then entered into the sales funnel. Following that, the customer will receive marketing materials (such as discount alerts, customer case studies, and more) to warm them up and increase the likelihood of them converting later on.

Provide conversational support to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week

Customers have more options than ever before in today’s global economy, which means they won’t wait for you to answer their questions during “office hours.” Responding to a customer’s inquiry within 5 minutes, on the other hand, increases conversion rates by 100x. Consider this: “90% of customers in the United States consider an immediate customer service response to be “important” or “very important.”

The lesson is clear: businesses cannot afford to leave customers hanging.

Organizations can ensure that they respond immediately at all times by using an AI chatbot. This is a game-changing breakthrough. Companies will provide excellent, first-class customer service even when their customer service team sleeps. Chatbots will engage prospects, direct them to relevant resources and pages, inform them of discounts, and collect critical marketing data along the way.

In a recent survey, the majority of respondents (64%) cited the availability of a chatbot 24/7 as the main benefit. This was followed closely by the ability to get an instant response and being able to answer simple questions. These results show how chatbots can improve customer service, making it easier and faster for users to get the answers they need. With a chatbot, businesses can provide round-the-clock support, allowing customers to get help whenever they need it.

Respond to frequently asked questions

Nothing is more infuriating than hiring customer service representatives only to have them spend hours each day answering the same questions. When customers have questions, it’s important to help them gather the correct information.

Fortunately, this is where an AI-powered chatbot can come in handy. Give chatbots the answers to all of your customers’ frequently asked questions and let them handle these types of common yet mundane queries.

This has two major advantages. To begin, this will free up your customer service agents to focus on high-value queries. Let human agents focus on more challenging tasks that require nuance, empathy, and a thorough understanding of people’s needs, while chatbots handle basic FAQ-type responses.

Second, customers will receive prompt and precise answers. You will remove any roadblocks that are preventing them from converting, increasing the likelihood that they will successfully progress through the sales funnel.

Make product suggestions

Bots provide far more value than simply answering common questions. They can even serve as a virtual assistant, proactively recommending products and informing customers of new discounts and releases. Consider that 47% of consumers would happily purchase items from a chatbot, according to research.

Offer a customized customer experience

Customer service representatives excel at the human aspects of their jobs, empathizing with customers and establishing trust. However, this does not imply that prospects and customers only trust customer service representatives. Consider the fact that 67% of customers trust personalized recommendations and suggestions provided by conversational AI interactions.

Indeed, chatbots have an advantage over human agents in that they can automatically use visitors’ account information and past purchasing behaviors to provide personalized recommendations in real-time. They provide personalized assistance, saying the right thing at the right time, and leveraging what they know about visitors to provide the most valuable purchasing experience possible.

Lower cart abandonment rates

Businesses are extremely frustrated by abandoned carts. Customers have browsed, selected what they want, and added it to their carts—but they disappear before they convert. What appeared to be a certain sale vanished before their eyes.

So, how do chatbots fit in?

If the sales chatbot collects the visitor’s contact information, it can send an automated follow-up email encouraging the customers to continue shopping. Alternatively, they can send customers reminders when they return to the site, alerting them to the items in their cart and encouraging them to convert. These types of reminders, in fact, have an 80% open rate (compared to 25% for abandoned cart recovery emails) and a 10x higher click-through rate.

Sales chatbots can provide immediate feedback to customers

Companies must take every precaution to safeguard their customer experience. According to data, customers who have a positive CX spend 140% more than those who have a negative experience and are more likely to stay with the company for five years. Customers may leave and never return if a company provides a single negative experience. The stakes have never been higher because there is more competition than ever before.

Chatbots can check in with customers and ask them about their experience and how the company can improve. They will collect critical customer feedback that will be immediately relayed to the rest of the company, demonstrating how the company can improve its CX while highlighting what they are already doing well.

Some customers, however, may not want to provide lengthy responses. In this case, chatbots can simply ask customers to rate their company’s customer experience by selecting an emoji, allowing them to provide valuable feedback with a single click.

Don’t miss out on the benefits of sales chatbots for your business! Our team at Verde has compiled a list of the top seven ways these automated assistants can help you boost your sales and improve customer satisfaction. Click here to learn more about how Verde can support your tech stack needs.