An artificial intelligence-powered chatbot can serve as a powerful tool in a conversational AI strategy to benefit your business. Let’s explore ways that companies use chatbots and strategies to consider. 

What Are Chatbots?

A chatbot is a computer software application using artificial intelligence (AI) that can respond to text prompts and chat, making it useful for customer service, marketing, and sales. Some chatbots operate within a predefined conversation workflow. Chatbot conversations can be structured and defined as part of the guest experience. A chatbot can quickly answer FAQs in real time, provide links to resources for customer service, qualify website visitors for sales lead generation, and more. 

What Is Conversation AI?

These more sophisticated chatbots rely on AI, natural language processing, and machine learning to converse with users. These bots mimic human conversation through text or voice interactions, typically online, and offer more powerful capabilities and uses.   

How Are Companies Using Chatbots? 

Service and Hospitality

Marriott International and Aloft began using AI-powered chatbots nearly a decade ago. Guests engage Aloft’s chatbot via text messages to place service requests from a smartphone. Marriott Rewards chatbot is available on Facebook Messenger, Slack and other platforms. Loyalty members use the chatbot to research and book travel, link to reward accounts, and chat directly with Marriott customer engagement associates. 

• Hotels use a chatbot for guest services. Can your hospitality or service-based business benefit from using a chatbot for guest check-in, scheduling, price request, FAQ, or other service?  
• Identify repetitive tasks that can be automated and provide better, faster, 24-hour service for customers, freeing employees to perform more high-value work and personalization. 

Financial Services, Banking, and Insurance 

Financial chatbots are AI-powered virtual assistants. Bank of America launched its tool Erica in 2018. Nearly 32 million clients access the AI tool via the bank’s app to answer questions, live chat with a bank specialist, view rewards, and push notifications for alerts and bill reminders.  
 
HDFC Bank’s Eva provides similar services in speedy fashion, holding more than 20,000 daily conversations with customers worldwide. Eva has “answered more than 5 million queries from around a million customers with more than 85% accuracy.”  

In financial services, insurance, tax preparation, or other industries, can a business implement a chatbot for a core use case? Clients can use a chatbot to complete claims or loan applications or checklists for documents, procedures, and scheduling. Personalize the bot with a name and messaging to align with company branding.

Healthcare 

The healthcare market for AI-powered chatbots is projected to reach an estimated $943 million by 2030 in the U.S. Again, a chatbot provides a convenient 24/7 way for users to research and provide information rather than fill out a form. A chatbot can offer a non-judgmental anonymous experience for patients disclosing certain medical information. For the healthcare provider, a chatbot reduces care costs while fulfilling basic and routine service requests.  

Implementing a chatbot can be a smart solution for private healthcare practices such as a counselor, chiropractor, dental office, physical rehabilitation, or skin care center.  

• Use a healthcare chatbot to gather information about a patient’s condition, allergies, and insurance to schedule appointments faster at a specialized facility or lab.
• Reschedule appointments that are missed or cancelled.
• Pre-book appointments for a treatment plan.
• Use a chatbot to prompt questions that can assess symptoms or needs.
• Design the chatbot to guide patients through the paperwork process by asking questions about insurance coverage or walking through a claim filing process for reimbursement.
• A chatbot can also collect patient feedback, send vaccination and appointment reminders, help locate healthcare services, or communicate timing for prescription refills.   

Lead Generation 

An AI chatbot can reduce the time spent on lead generation for real estate, leasing, insurance, and appointment-based home services such as roofing, solar, and remodeling.  

Here are five lead generation AI products to consider. 

• Structurely is a lead follow-up and qualification tool that engages leads and increases the likelihood of generating qualified sales opportunities.  
   
• REVE Chat offers a chatbot, live chat, video chat, and real-time online support with its Cobrowsing feature. Its tools can be used for customer engagement, customer service, and sales across a wide range of industries. 
   
• Drift works by installing a lead generation chatbot on your website that engages with prospects. The chatbot automates customer support, generates high-quality leads, and increases efficiency in sales and marketing. Drift’s clients include companies in financial services, technology, and manufacturing. 
   
• Outreach is a platform for lead generation and sales execution that incorporates AI and machine learning tools to produce personalized email templates, record live meetings, capture real-time transcription, and more. 
   
• Customerly’s customer service software includes live chat, video chat, and other tools to build meaningful relationships with customers. The video chat feature enables a company to deliver demo videos, highlight products, and provide real-time support. 

Chatbots and AI-powered tools can be effective ways to engage customers, provide personalized service, generate leads, and build your business. It’s important to evaluate customer needs customers as well as the company’s customer service journey, sales process, and brand experience. Determine and define how a tool can best provide value-added solutions.    

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