September 7, 2020 
Artificial Intelligence is game-changing and is improving the way businesses interact with customers.
One of the innovations that have tremendously improved the customer service terrain is the AI-powered chatbot. It is a very effective but affordable tool for every business.
Chatbots can do what would have been virtually impossible two decades ago: answer customers’ enquiries 24/7, rectify issues and resolve complaints without the need of human involvement and offering quality customer service to hundreds of customers instantly.
Artificial Intelligence is tested and trusted. In business circles, it is used to facilitate seamless service delivery both in sales and marketing. In customer service and support, AI can be used to meet customers needs.
With an effective and easy-to-use chatbot builder like zebrabuzz, you can build chatbots that can assist your business to improve customer experience, improve the relationship between customers and make more sales.
A single AI-powered chatbot is intelligent enough to swiftly respond to your customer’s most frequently asked questions.
So let’s explore how AI-powered chatbots can add value and create a positive impact on your customer service and tremendously boost the efficiency of your customer service team.
Why do you need an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot?
A chatbot is powered by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. This means it can reply to your customer’s questions like humans and can also exhibit human traits and behaviour.
It uses machine language to automatically learn and get better as it becomes more familiar with your customers’ questions.
AI-powered chatbots can utilise your business’s frequently asked questions or articles to give instant reply to whatever questions your customers may have.
You can also build your chatbot to mimic your brand identity – by giving it a friendly or business-like tone.
Here are why you need an AI-powered chatbot in your social media customer service strategy:
Your business has international customers, or your business is expanding internationally
It may amaze you to know that only 25% of internet users communicate in English. So how does your business provide support to your customers in their native language?
An AI-powered chatbot. You can build a chatbot that will offer multilingual support to your customers.
This means any language initiated by your customer will get an instant reply from your messenger bot, eliminating potential communication barriers.
Building a multilingual chat bot is a brilliant and highly strategic move for any business thinking of expanding. Use Zebrabuzz to build a multilingual chatbot now
You want to reduce operational cost
Among the numerous advantages of chatbots is their ability to lower operational cost. Chatbots can also reduce the number of calls to customer centres by effectively interacting with customers.
When customers get a satisfactory response from chatbots, they wouldn’t need to badger your human agents with calls. This tremendously lessens the incoming call volume.
It is difficult to cut staffing cost while delivering quality customer service, but with a chatbot, it is possible.
A chatbot can handle hundreds of customer’s interaction at the same time. This means saving expenses on salary and wages.
Today, quality chatbots are very affordable and are cost-efficient. Looking for an AI-powered simple-to-build chatbot platform, that combines budget-friendliness and effectiveness.
Omni-channel support
Today’s customers are tech-savvy and constantly demand a seamless and hitch-free interaction and engagement with businesses across various channels, devices or platforms.
This is what omnichannel support entails – the ability to interact and engage with customers across various channels. It is the key to improved user experience and brand loyalty or patronage.
This is why AI-powered chatbots are highly essential. They can help you connect to your customers in multiple channels and touchpoints.
Chatbots can be integrated to Facebook messenger, Whatsapp, SMS and business websites, through a one-click process.
Your human customer reps can’ t be available 24/7
Unlike human customer service representatives, chatbots are always available to attend your customer’s needs 24/7.
This means your chatbot can always reply to your customer’s enquiries swiftly, whether at midnight or during business hours.
The response, of course, will be tailored, natural and contextual. Any complex questions can be seamlessly transferred to human agents. This will boost customer satisfaction.
Read: What are the Benefits of Chatbots to a Business?
Using AI to improve your business
AI chatbots are already becoming a crucial part of social media customer service strategy. It has so many benefits from the ability to save time to bettering customer satisfaction. As we have learnt earlier, chatbots also reduce expenses and operational cost.
Here’s how to use AI-powered chatbots to increase the profitability of your business:
Instant replies
Nothing frustrates customers like delays, long queues and waiting times. AI-powered chatbots can be used to provide instant assistance and replies to customer’s enquiries.
You can utilise your bots as primary contact with your customers to limit delays and slow-response, and transfer to human agents, only when necessary.
Round-the-clock availability
It has been estimated that more than 40% of customers today expect 24/7 customer service. This shows that 24/7 availability is vital for customer retention. Businesses can deploy AI-powered chatbots to offer quality 24/7 customer service.
Chatbots can easily be trained with knowledge articles and resources to interact with your customers and provide swift replies at any time of the day or night. This will boost customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Improved customer satisfaction
Recent statistics have shown that up to 60% of millennials have interacted with chatbots at least once in their lives. This shows the growth of chatbots and its ability to satisfy customers.
Before you build or even deploy chatbots, you should have a customer service strategy, which should include the role the chatbot will play. This will help you understand if the chatbot is meeting your customer’s expectation.
