Wouldn't it feel great if your sales copy would communicate with your leads, serve them dynamic content based on their need, and even start closing deals on their own? That sounds like every marketer's dream, and e-commerce sites would benefit exceptionally from such innovation. Chatbots can do all of the things mentioned above and probably much more. A conversational chatbot is a software solution that simulates human-like verbal interactions and helps the user in fulfilling their purpose by either aiding them in the processor executing them on the user's behalf. Today, I am going to discuss four unconventional ways of using conversational chatbots for your online store. Read more below.
#1 Evaluate Buyer Journey (And Use It For Digital PR And SEO)
It is well known that chatbots can be used at multiple touchpoints across a website which includes site navigation, generating product suggestions, fetching customer data, answering FAQs, and executing requests like providing invoices, tracking product delivery. No doubt, chatbots are used specifically to make these interactions like a client servicing representative on your behalf, but if your e-commerce store's visitors need to use them consistently for the same set of problems, you better fix your website. Ultimately, requiring a chatbot to use your e-commerce website for the same issues isn't the goal of chatbot integration.
For instance, if you find that the inbound traffic has to use your chatbot for getting to a particular page often, you can make suitable improvements in site navigation. Also, if you find that customers seek answers to a particular query repeatedly, you can try to include relevant data in your web copies and product descriptions. Similarly, track the buyer journey using chatbots and try improving the user experience. Start with the queries that lead to conversions, and then you can optimize other aspects of your e-commerce website. This might require extra effort, but I find that this is a great way to allow your visitors to give suggestions willingly instead of leaving your site right away.
Chatbots can also serve as excellent tools for sourcing user-generated content for digital PR. You can ask your visitors to rate your product/service, share their experiences on their social media, ask for referrals, and even push for rating you on client review websites.
#2 Serve Specially Abled Clients
People with disabilities like Alzheimer's disease find it difficult to communicate with the sales representatives as they keep losing the conversion tracking. Even the best sales rep might get overwhelmed and opt to converse with other leads due to simpler communication. This is exactly where chatbot integration does wonder. It can engage with specially-abled clients and provide them with any piece of information within their database without getting overwhelmed. Moreover, the user is less likely to feel pressure since the communication is with software as opposed to human beings. This wonderful idea was shared by Andrew Fox, CEO of Aim Workout.
As a brand, this move will help you become more inclusive and serve customers with various disabilities as they would be able to make purchases. You can also use voice-activated chatbots to serve this purpose. This would be equally useful for people dealing with anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental health issues where they tend to avoid socializing with complete strangers.
#3 Gathering Information For Return Merchandise Authorization
Processing return merchandise requests is one of the most difficult tasks for bigger stores. While getting your product returned in case of any handling damages or faulty shippings is a must, but it is also necessary to prevent customers from sending the items back for the wrong reasons. I find that in many cases, people return the products ordered online simply because they were unable to use them properly. With the shortened product cycles and rampant changes in aesthetic and functional design, the chances are that your first-time customers won't be able to use your goods proficiently. Educating them can ward off a significant amount of dissatisfaction and reduce the rate of returning shipped items.
A chatbot can help address the issue by engaging with the customers and understanding why they need to return the ordered item. The chatbot can ask the customer to input the reasons and attach proofs in the form of images. It helps to process return merchandise authorization faster, and the chatbot can easily guide the customers who need the training to learn to use your products. Currently, most of the e-commerce stores require the customer to mail them or fill an online form that would be later verified by an executive, only adding to the time required.
#4 Target Impulsive Customers With Shorter Attention Spans
Here's where you can use conversational chatbots powered by NLP to identify and target impulsive users. You can train the chatbot to use sentiment analysis for dropping deals while conversing with the site visitors based on their previous activities. This might need more sophisticated tech implementation, but it will allow you to imitate in-person sales pitches, one of the biggest tactics missed out when selling online. You don't necessarily need to send product images or descriptions directly. Instead, you can go ahead with more subtle signals like mentioning the item name and asking the user if they would like to glance at it.
This method will work like a charm for the more recent generations owing to their FOMO obsession and relatively shorter attention spans. I have seen many brands using chatbots to serve this purpose, but most of them don't use this tactic on a full-fledged scale. You should integrate 360-degree customer data as well as their site activity and purchase history, inventory management data to market them relevant products. This can be considered a natural upgrade to chatbot integration, but since it isn't employed by all online businesses, you can surely grab the early bird advantage.
Summing Up
The true potential of chatbots remains unexplored to a large extent. They are surely providing us with the facilities that the billionaires enjoyed in the older times. We can ask chatbots to remind us of our meetings, make online orders, know about new topics, and a lot more which would otherwise require us to employ an army of subject matter experts. As an e-commerce store, you should definitely go for these unconventional uses and experiment with them. I hope this article on conversational chatbot use cases adds value to the subject.
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