Why Chatbots are Increasingly in Demand for Businesses?
Suresh Mehta, an HDFC Bank customer, got pleasantly surprised when his bank started interacting with him via Facebook Messenger – through a chatbot named IRA (on HDFC Bank on Chat). Gone were the days of providing a number of identifying inputs through phone-banking or standing in a queue before the bank’s on-premise helpdesk to get simple information about the bank’s products etc. Nisha Chandra, an avid user of the entertainment site Gaana, swears by its efficient chat system to find just the right tune for her streaming with perfect timing. There are many other examples of companies and people interacting through this latest smart technology, namely a Chatbot.
What are chatbots?
A Chatbot is a small piece of software program designed to interact with human beings through text or voice interfaces. They are also known as conversational agents and can be found on various websites, apps or voice-over services offered by different brands for multiple purposes.
Chatbots can be programmed to help the customers on the basis of a few specific keyword-driven responses from their posted queries. Or they can be designed to simulate an almost normal conversation like just another regular person for entertainment or other purposes.
Examples of chatbots in India
With the progress of digital marketing through social media channels and website/apps based approach, using chatbots to engage, interact and help with customers has become a useful trend in India these days. Many brands across industries are now using bots embedded in their websites or commercial apps or even stand-alone helpdesk apps built on different messenger platforms like Facebook Messenger, Slack etc. even government sectors are not lagging behind in this digital world of creativity and innovation.
A few of such engaging chatbots are:
- Aabha on UIDAI (Aadhar) website
- Disha on IRCTC website
- IRA – HDFC Bank On Chat – uses Facebook Messenger platform
- Gaana chatbot – India’s first live music streaming chatbot
- Engazify bot – a chatbot based on Slack for HR level team bonding activities
- Ruuh – an interesting chatbot built by Microsoft India team on Facebook Messenger platform for purely entertainment purposes
On that note, there exists a grey area of whether Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa are all chatbots or not. Even without going into the technical details of their structure, purposes, etc., it’s mostly agreed upon that these software applications encompass broader horizons than simple chatbots.
Why is the demand for chatbots increasing for businesses?
Chatbots satisfy a raging demand of serving online customers instantly with minimal overload resources and effectively engage them in getting their queries answered on a first-tier customer-support-model.
Here’s a brief overview of how chatbots help modern businesses:
- Automated customer support: Enable round-the-clock customer services for at least the basic transactions such as search & user info registration etc.
- Unlimited simultaneous user interactions: Perform multiple user interactions simultaneously and with equal efficiency, unlike the human counterparts’ limited client-to-staff ratio. This enhances optimum resource utilisation.
- Better opportunity of brand building & storytelling: Chatbots are the constantly alert representative of your brand online to let the customers enjoy a better experience from your business, increasing its brand-value.
- Precise and smooth customer engagements: Chatbots’ mechanical efficiency helps to smoothen out the customer responses categorically to ensure a precise interaction.
- Easy, fast and economic development process: Various platforms like Facebook, Slack,
etc. offer the essential infrastructure as well as APIs to develop your own chatbots easily, fast and economically. This significantly reduces the cost of development and implementation.
