Overview
Do you want to lead the race in digital marketing? Whether it is answering questions and inquiries, generating leads, automating HR, monitoring internal functions, automating email service, managing the supply chain, or product onboarding, conversational AI has penetrated every area of a business. The article discusses the top-10 conversational AI use cases that can serve as models to scale up your business in 2021.
Introduction
Conversational marketing has sparked great interest in recent years. And the most popular application of conversational marketing is chatbots which are widely used in business operations worldwide. All the vital components of conversational AI such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), Automatic Speech Recognition are innovatively infused in chatbots for business so that there can be no limits to what such tools can achieve.
The utility of conversational marketing can be understood better if we examine the possible ways in which the said technology can be used in the business. Specific use cases can serve as paradigms for businesses to adopt for future success.
Top 10 Use Cases Of Conversational AI In Business
The following section discusses the top ten use cases of conversational AI that can serve as models for your business to follow.
1. Answering Questions and Inquiries
Let’s assume that an event management company organizes an event and promotes it by digital marketing to attract an audience. For an audience as large as 10,000, providing premium support and guidance is only possible by deploying an AI chatbot that can respond to audience queries instantly round-the-clock.
The company can set up a chatbot for businesses to answer the usual questions of people regarding entry fee prices, venue address, schedule of the event, etc. Once the chatbot is installed, the company can put it on its webpage or mobile app for the bot to interact with clients.
An example of this use case is Slush, an event organizer that conducts entrepreneurial events worldwide. The chatbot for business on Slush’s website handled a significant 64% of all consumer inquiries efficiently, owing to the 24/7 availability of the AI chatbot on Slush’s website. Slush saw a sharp rise of 55% in conversations with the company than the past year.
No matter whatever may be the size of a brand’s user base, a chatbot for business effectively reduces the workload of the customer service team, even providing bonafide support to the brand’s target audience.
2. Generating Leads With Sales Intent
A company profits better by targeting web visitors that are already interested in its products. Such audiences are categorized as ‘warm leads.’ Warm leads are the visitors who have already engaged with the brand’s website and are more likely to respond to sales questions.
A live sales team can’t effectively handle warm leads because the traffic on the website is anonymous. A company can add a chatbot to its website homepage as a use case for targeting warm leads. This chatbot for business can be formulated to ask sales-related questions to your visitors and help them to complete the checkout process.
An example of this use case is Seattle Ballooning, a hot-air balloon ride company that perfectly targeted its warm leads with its AI chatbot. Their chatbot for business can ask relevant questions and provide options to select the problem the client is facing. Using the customer responses to the questions, the chatbot can build customer profiles themselves.
This implies that Seattle Ballooning can give customized services throughout the buying process. Employing conversational marketing through its chatbot for business, Seattle Ballooning successfully promotes itself to an audience already looking for buying guidance.
3. Simplify Pricing Methods
Visiting a company’s pricing page can be a hassle for visitors as they might get confused with the innumerable options displayed on the site. To simplify the pricing plan for the prospective customer, landing a chatbot for business on the company’s pricing page eases the issues with pricing. A chatbot can politely ask the visitors if they need help to decide which product or service they can choose.
Any business aiming to simplify its pricing models can use this chatbot use case to their advantage for increasing engagement on their pricing page.
Amtrak, a transport service in the U.S, has deployed this chatbot use case on their website. Its chatbot for business assists customers find the shortest routes to their destinations. The technologies of conversational marketing equip their AI chatbot to book tickets for clients. The swiftness of response leads to customer satisfaction. This can be further testified by increasing their booking rate and user interaction by 25% and 50%, respectively.
4. Automating Human Resource Sector
Conversational marketing in the form of chatbots for business is transforming the way the HR sector functions today. AI chatbots are equipped with the power of automation. Various aspects of conversational AI like Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), sentiment analysis, predictive analytics, etc., equip them to interact with thousands of employees in human-like conversations.
A particular use case is HR chatbots who can help the HR department select eligible candidates from numerous applications based on predefined metrics. An AI chatbot’s conversational analytics helps HR engage smoothly with applicants, removing the biases during the selection process, ensuring fair competition. Chatbots for businesses channelize the onboarding process methodically, doing away with irrelevant steps even as educating new employees about the organization.
5. Monitoring Internal Help Desk Functions
AI chatbots help in enhancing the productivity of the internal workforce. The self-learning element of conversational marketing technology empowers the software systems of chatbots for businesses to examine human language. These AI chatbots can help the IT help desk of an organization inspire team efficiency and drive productivity.
As an IT service use case, conversational AI uses the Enterprise Language Model (ELM), which serves as a knowledge base for the chatbot for businesses to understand the specifics of your organization. Using the ELM, AI chatbots can resolve service requests or handle pre-processing to assist human agents in resolving issues. As an integral part of the IT help desk ticketing system, these chatbots for businesses extract several complex entities from the cache of user requests and tackles manifold back-end jobs using Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
An instance of a chatbot for business managing service requests can be: “I need to repair my laptop.” The chatbot for business monitored by conversational AI will identify the keywords “repair laptop” and furnish the corresponding support link from the organization’s database.
6. Automation of Email Services
Companies deploy AI chatbots as sales assistants who speak like humans and interact with visitors with promptness, professionalism, and persistence. Using AI-driven conversational messaging creates an impression that visitors interact with a live agent, not merely a bot, so natural is the flow of interaction.
As a use case of Email automation, chatbots for businesses play an active role in driving cold leads, passing confirmed leads to sales, and tracking probable follow-ups to cultivate scope from leads that would have remained dormant otherwise.
The following gives a detailed insight into how chatbots for small businesses can monitor Email automation.
- Engage Cold Leads- AI chatbots as sales assistants ferrets through an entire database of old contacts in an attempt to activate cold leads to convert them into prospects once again.
- Pursue Lesser Important Leads- A sales team can’t search through an entire cache of potential leads to find out which of them might turn out to be prospective. Chatbots for business implements sales outreach to find out which of these leads might qualify as a prospective one.
- Pass Hot Leads Off to Sales- Once interaction with the AI assistant proceeds, the chatbot for business will recognize if a lead is prepared for a sales call. At this juncture, the live agent takes over to invest in that specific lead without wasting a second on the leads that may never culminate in anything.
- Execute Prospective Follow-Ups Steadily- After that, chatbots follow up leads through a trail of persuasive emails. This offers your business the opportunity to have meaningful discussions with qualified customers without the need to mail to all and sundry, leading nowhere.
7. Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management assumes a significant role in the present era where supply-demand is high. Such a situation encourages competition and triggers uncertainty. With information becoming the pivotal factor in a supply chain, solution providers are veering towards conversational AI to upgrade the workflow and productivity of the supply chain.
- Admin and Guide for Procurement- As an instance of this specific use case, the chatbot acts as the procurement assistant to speed up the procurement process. The bot comes up with solutions for the customers based on the identified specifications and procurement tactics, considering the preference of contracts, suppliers, and items. The AI chatbot can convey the approval of procurement through conversation. The chatbot ensures that the procurement process is efficient and that it also complies with the rules.
- Predicting Customer’s Behavior- Consumer behavior cannot be predicted every time. They might cancel an order even when the order is at the point of delivery. This wastes your business’s time and logistical efforts. This is where AI chatbots prevent the loss of productivity among your logistics team. Companies can deploy chatbots for business engineered by conversational AI and Machine Learning to assess the unpredictable nature of consumer behavior at the right level in such instances. By AI and ML, AI chatbots minimize manual errors and time in the process.
- Minimizing Charge-Back Hazards- Customers can claim a return of money or a penalty from brands in case of a delay in product delivery. The use case of an AI chatbot in this regard is that it examines the reasons why the customer demanded a charge-back. Thus, the chatbot for business shuffles through the necessary data such as the nature of order and shipment, placement, and location to analyze the reasons for failure.
8. Conversational Banking
The conversational marketing abilities of an AI chatbot make it an ideal use case in an era of digital banking. The use cases are as follows:
- Provide Basic Answers- Conversational AI empowers chatbots for businesses in banking to answer diverse non-complex inquiries on banking products or client accounts. Such questions may include “How can I apply for a credit card?” or “What is the interest rate on my savings account?”
- Provide Location-Based Responses- For answers to questions based on one’s location, AI chatbots can trace the user’s location via GPS and provide an accurate solution every time. Such questions include, “Will transaction fees be charged on this card?” or, “Where is the nearest branch of my bank?”
- Check Balance- Users can ask chatbots for business to provide the balance details for their accounts. By virtue of conversational AI, the AI chatbots also alert users if balances run the risk of falling below the minimum amount. This enables clients to handle their accounts better without visiting their e-banking account or speaking with the bank authorities directly.
9. Product Onboarding
Onboarding is the system of guiding users actively to explore new value in your service or product. The onboarding process ensures that the client can use the product quickly, especially when using it for the first time. The entire process comprises the beginner’s experience, the training, and the customer’s final acclimatization with the product.
An example of an onboarding use case is Plum, a skincare brand that serves best to elaborate the idea. They created a chatbot for business along the lines of conversational AI, which teaches new users how their services and products function. The AI chatbot begins by introducing its software and furnishing social proof. The chatbot then asks users if they would like to know more about their software. If the user chooses ‘yes,’ the AI chatbot starts illustrating how the Plum mobile app functions.
10. Fetching Estimates And Quotes
Before deciding to buy a product, a buyer tries to connect with the company’s representatives to know more about the price of the product or service, i.e., a quote, to arrive at a decision. As a use case, chatbots for businesses equipped with the powers of conversational marketing can comprehend the keywords in a client’s quote request and state the exact prices for the products. As the AI chatbots have direct access to the database, it answers what the buyer asks for in no time.
An example of this use case is Staples, an American retail company. Their chatbots for business shows clients if it has a product or service in stock – and then state its price. The chatbot displays the product images and has a ‘SHOP NOW’ button below so that buyers can visit the page quickly and purchase the product whose price the AI chatbot quoted.
Conclusion
Chatbots for business enhance client experience over the years. Emerging businesses have also started adopting this technology, and chatbots for small businesses have helped them boost sales to a great extent.
With AI chatbots being deployed in diverse sectors, we have many use cases making communication in start-ups seamless and consistent. And, bot development forums like WotNot provide personalized customer experience with its no-code bot builder that drives your ROI and gives your business that cutting-edge it required all this time! Hence, the days are not far when your business will serve as an inspirational paradigm for other start-ups to follow.
Author Bio:
As a co-founder of WotNot, Hardik helps companies across verticals generate more leads by making businesses customer-centric with chatbots. Having worked with a multitude of businesses to streamline their processes with chatbots, Hardik strongly believes that chatbots will mark the next wave of the digital revolution and are the way forward in ensuring customer and business success. His unmatched business planning and management skills make him an invaluable asset to the organization.
