In the realm of customer assistance, businesses often face the question of whether to employ a chatbot or live chat. Before making any decisions, it’s crucial to understand which approach is best suited to your business needs, as each has its own advantages. In this article, we will delve into the benefits of both live chat and chatbots, while also highlighting important factors to consider when choosing between the two.
Let’s dive in without further delay.
Live Chat vs. Chatbot
When it comes to integrating customer support on your website, live chat offers numerous benefits that make it a valuable addition. Here are a few key advantages:
1. Boost sales:
Building trust and loyalty among website visitors is vital for successful transactions. Having a real human available for shoppers to communicate with during the purchase process, especially when they have doubts, is instrumental. Live chat functionality has been shown to increase the likelihood of customers returning for another purchase by 62%. In addition, 38% of customers credit live chat sessions for their successful purchases. By providing quick responses and understanding customers’ needs, sales agents can guide them through the buying process, suggest suitable products, and reduce cart abandonment rates by up to 30%.
2. Cost-effective:
Live chat is a cost-effective alternative to phone support. Research by Forrester indicates that live chat customer support is 17% to 30% less expensive than phone calls. With the ability to handle multiple visitors simultaneously, live chat agents can multitask efficiently, resulting in reduced staffing costs compared to phone support representatives.
3. Superior problem-solving:
While help articles and knowledge bases are valuable resources for customer support, accessing them can sometimes be challenging for users. Live chat enables agents to quickly share relevant links and resources, eliminating the need for lengthy troubleshooting procedures. Additionally, features like co-browsing and screen-sharing allow complex issues to be resolved swiftly and efficiently, something that is not possible with phone support. By saving time on query handling, these tools enhance team productivity and customer satisfaction.
4. Stay connected with site visitors:
Not every website visitor makes an immediate purchase. By implementing live chat, you can capture visitor details and convert them into customers. Before initiating a live chat session, you can request users to provide their contact information, enabling you to recognize existing clients and deliver a more personalized experience. This information can also be used for future marketing campaigns, allowing you to encourage potential customers with offers and discounts.
The Importance of Chatbots
Chatbots play a crucial role in online businesses for several reasons. Here are some essential benefits:
1. Multilingual support:
Chatbots provide multilingual assistance, catering to the diverse language preferences of online users. With chatbots, you can expand your customer reach and ensure that visitors receive support in their preferred language, irrespective of whether it’s English or another language.
2. Improved personalization:
Customers value personalized service, and tailored experiences lead to repeat business. Chatbots excel in providing personalized conversations and engaging one-on-one experiences with customers. By analyzing visitor responses and past purchases, chatbots can make personalized recommendations for products and services.
3. Omnichannel support:
Chatbots enable businesses to be present wherever their customers need them. Integrating chatbots into various platforms, including social media channels, ensures that customers can seek assistance and support conveniently. Popular chat apps like Instagram and WhatsApp are preferred by customers for customer care queries, as they offer faster and more convenient communication compared to email.
4. Cost savings:
Chatbots with AI capabilities can significantly reduce the cost of customer care. IBM research shows that chatbots can handle 80% of daily tasks and lower customer care costs by 30%. By taking care of repetitive queries, chatbots allow human agents to focus on more complex tasks, saving time and money for businesses.
5. Sales funnel management:
Chatbots can effectively manage the sales funnel by qualifying leads, converting them, and closing deals. Many companies already use chatbots for sales and customer service tasks. They simplify the sales process and can be utilized for upselling, marketing, and cart recovery alerts. For example, if a customer abandons their shopping cart, chatbots can notify you so that you can take action to encourage the completion of the transaction.
6. 24/7 availability:
Customers expect prompt assistance at any time. Chatbots excel in providing constant support, with well-programmed bots capable of managing up to 91% of interactions without human input. Offering overnight service not only satisfies existing customers but also opens doors to emerging markets in different time zones.
Factors to Consider when Choosing between Live Chat and Chatbots
When deciding between live chat and chatbots, consider the following factors:
1. Purpose:
Determine your business objectives and purpose. If you want to automate repetitive tasks and provide quick responses to frequently asked queries or appointment bookings, an AI chatbot may be suitable. On the other hand, if you prefer one-on-one human support for complex problems, live chat software is the way to go.
2. Response time:
Chatbots provide instant responses, while live chat might involve a short wait time to connect with an appropriate agent. If quick responses are crucial for your customers, chatbots have the advantage of shorter hold times and faster response times.
3. User experience:
User experience varies depending on customer requirements. Live chat representatives are better suited for assisting with account details or complex issues, while chatbots excel at providing information about products or services.
4. Cost-effectiveness:
Chatbots offer cost savings compared to live chat. Managing a team of live agents can be expensive, whereas chatbots require a one-time investment.
5. Availability:
Chatbots are more likely to be available 24/7 compared to live chat agents, which can only operate during business hours. If round-the-clock availability is important for your business, chatbots are a favorable option.
In conclusion, both live chat and chatbot are valuable tools in the customer support market, offering personalized experiences and cost and time savings. It’s recommended to try both approaches and evaluate their ROI before committing to one. If you’re looking for a platform that combines live chat and chatbot services seamlessly, consider using Neeti Bots. Neeti Bots provides both functionalities, allowing you to create a successful customer support strategy. It’s a user-friendly, no-code platform that offers customization options, making it accessible even to non-tech-savvy users. Try Neeti Bots today to meet your customer’s needs effectively.
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About Neeti Bots:
Neeti Bots, developed by Neeti Brand Accelerator, is an AI-powered chatbot for B2B and B2C websites. It helps businesses accelerate lead generation with an easy-to-build and automated chat interface.
Neeti ChatBots engage visitors, reduce customer acquisition costs, decrease bounce rates, increase session time, and also enable new digital customer acquisition models.
Visit www.neetibots.com for more!
