Can chatbots be used for anything other than simple question and answer? This is the topic we have explored, without industry restrictions and taking into account the latest trends. It is fundamental that nowadays in traditional Meta, Insta, Twitter communication, the content and messages on fan pages are controlled by the brand itself and the dialogue is essentially based on brand messages, while in brand messenger communication, the consumer, the fan, initiates the conversation.
Because they have practical questions that they want answered in the quickest and easiest way - like where is the Allee store, or a bakery or Burger King nearby.
There are basically two main types: the pre-programmed and the one with artificial learning - the latter are less common, but when using them, the user often doesn't realise that he or she is not actually communicating with a real person, because their verbal capabilities are deceptively similar to human communication.
Chatbots can automatically answer the common, regular questions listed above, and more advanced versions can do much more than just answer the above questions, they can redirect the enquirer to another page, and they can closely support the sales process.
"Skyscanner's flight finder, for example, sends us a list of possible trips with just a few clicks and a few words. We just tell it where we want to travel and when, allow it to query our location to determine our departure point, and it's ready with offers. In the comfort and familiarity of Facebook Messenger." The technology is fairly new, evolving along with developments in artificial intelligence. In the near future, its range of applications is expected to grow by leaps and bounds, and with it its social acceptance.
The existence of the chatbot
Chatbots have been around for decades, but their potential has not yet been exploited by businesses. The solution is to simulate human conversation, to "think", so to speak. It is an advanced software that is capable of the most similar conversation to human communication. It can handle an unlimited number of conversations at a time.
The Chatbot is a new direction for users to connect with the online world. Many people compare it to an app, but a chatbot is more than a set of pre-programmed lines. Apps are characterised by the fact that they communicate according to a pre-planned pattern.
They can talk to people, albeit in a more limited way than when live people talk to each other: there is room for improvement in this direction, which needs to be perfected. They have the advantage of being available to people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
They respond quickly, faster than a real person can. The chatbot is already capable of replacing human workers for certain tasks. Fast, efficient, able to answer questions in a fraction of a second, it is a great help to a company in its customer service activities. Last but not least, its efficiency is much cheaper than using live personnel.
Types
As briefly mentioned earlier, there are two basic types of chatbot. There are the scripted ones and the intelligent ones. The conversations with the pre-scripted type of chatbots can only take place in the pre-defined way and directions. For each question that arises, a preprogrammed answer is given. The chatbot cannot deviate from this in any way. This is the simplest type of chatbot. Artificial intelligence gives users a much simpler and at the same time more flexible answer to the questions they ask, from which the chatbot learns and improves itself, and uses the experience it gains during the contact. The simpler chatbot will only provide answers and will not understand more complex questions or ambiguous questions.
Where can it be used?
Many people think that chatbot applications are limited, but today's online world disproves this. A colourful array of areas opens up when we look a little further behind the scenes. It can be used in many different areas, to name a few:
Customers prefer to chat when contacting businesses, according to a Facebook/Meta survey:
63% of survey respondents communicate more with businesses than 2 years ago
67% of survey respondents expect to send more messages to businesses in the next two years than they have done so far.
So the opportunity is there, regardless of how it is implemented, it's up to us to take advantage of the benefits of technology!