Chatbots, when first introduced for customer support, was no more than a mere pop-up module that executed rule-based commands – a couple of customer queries were resolved based on pre-defined rules and nothing more.
But today’s modern chatbots can do a lot more – they can understand the intent of the customer and respond accordingly, learn from customer inputs and become smart over a period of time, provide support in multiple languages and do more.
These advanced chatbot features make bots an ideal solution to automate customer support and answer the most common support question. Customers have also started to accept and successfully interact with bots, thanks to the advanced chatbot features.
In fact, studies suggest that 80% of businesses will have some form of chatbot by the year 2022 – could be for customer support, lead generation, marketing, scheduling, or more.
In this article, we’ll be talking about seven must-have chatbot features. So, if you’re planning to deploy a chatbot on your website, make sure you keep an eye out for these features.
If you need to know more about chatbots and the benefits of using them, this read might be of use to you.
👉 Conversational AI Chatbots – The What, Why and Everything Else
7 Features Your Chatbots Must Have
1. Omnichannel Support Feature
This is one of the chatbot features that can improve your customer service standards to a great extent and is a must-have one for deployment.
Brands that have implemented omnichannel strategies were able to retain 91% of their customers. When deploying a chatbot, make sure that you can deploy the bot on multiple platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Website or App, etc.
This helps your customers have connected experiences as they do not have to repeat themselves again on every platform, thanks to the contextual history chatbots can provide. Your support agents can simply take a look at the conversation across platforms and understand what the customer needs.
Inconsistent customer experiences and having to repeat themselves over are two main reasons why customers leave a brand. And having an omnichannel capable chatbot can fix this issue and allow you to provide great customer service.
Simplify360’s AI Chatbots are omnichannel enabled and you can deploy on the platforms you prefer – WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Website and more. Your support agents can view all your customer conversations across different platforms in one unified platform, making it easy for them to understand the context and provide support.
2. Analyze Customer Sentiment
When agents offer customer support, they understand the emotion behind a customer’s message and provide support accordingly. They empathize with the customer and provide personalized support which is something that chatbots have been lacking.
But today, chatbots have become so advanced that they understand the sentiment and intent of the customer and provide personalized responses. At times, people have even stated that they couldn’t identify whether they are interacting with a chatbot or a human agent.
So, how does this happen – Artificial intelligence chatbots.
AI chatbots are powered by Natural Language Processing technology that allows chatbots to intelligently identify customers’ sentiments and intent. Chatbots understand the emotional state of the customers and provide personalized support based on the same. This allows chatbots deliver a wholesome support experience to customers.
3. Ticket Routing to Support Agents
Chatbots are clever!
Today’s chatbots can do a lot more when compared to chatbots of the early stage. But even then, it’s common for a chatbot to face a scenario where it could not resolve the customers’ issues.
Reason – the issue could be complex or the user will specifically ask to talk to a live agent.
It is at these times your chatbot should be able to identify and route the ticket to a live support agent. This is one of the chatbot features that can differentiate your customer support from your competitor’s customer support.
Your chatbot should be able to identify whether the issue is a complex one and if yes, it should transfer the query to the right agent. Also, if the customer specifically asks that they want to connect with a live agent, the chatbot should be able to transfer it to an agent.
Majority of consumers state that one reason why they hate chatbots is because it does not allow them to connect with a live agent. So, when you choose a chatbot, make sure that the agent transfer feature is present.
SimplyBot AI chatbots can be customized to escalate issues to the right support agents in specific scenarios. Also, SimplyBot is intelligent enough to understand the customers’ context and route tickets to agents based on sentiment and priority.
4. The Ability to Learn & Scale
This is an advanced chatbot feature that is quite mandatory if you’re looking forward to building a consistent, automated support ecosystem.
Rule-based chatbots (traditional chatbots) work based on a set of rules and do not do anything beyond that. If your customer comes with a complex query, the chatbot fails to offer a solution. They do not route the ticket to agents or learn from customer queries to become better.
But AI chatbots, on the other hand, use Machine Learning technology to constantly learn from customer queries they get. Over a period of time, they become smart and start to handle queries they haven’t been trained to resolve.
Simply put, your chatbots can learn, become smart and handle customer queries on their own without your interference. And that’s a feature your chatbot must have.
5. Chatbot With a Self-Service Approach
Your customers love it when they are able to resolve things by themselves. This way, they do not have to wait for a support agent to resolve their queries.
Deploying a chatbot with a self-service approach can go a long way in helping improve the customer experience.
Your chatbot should have links redirecting the customer to FAQs and helpful articles based on their issue. This can improve metrics like first contact resolution, average handle time and customer satisfaction. When choosing a chatbot, make sure that you can add your knowledge base links, helpful articles and FAQs to it.
6. Your Chatbot Should Have a Personality to Represent Your Brand
Chatbots are one of the most underrated brand representatives. Every time your customer interacts with a chatbot, a meaningful connection gets created. And this can make all the difference for your brand.
Your social media posts and all your marketing collaterals reflect the tone and culture of your brand. Similarly, your chatbot should also be capable of the same. Deploying a chatbot with your brand’s tone and culture will help customers subconsciously remember your brand. And for this to happen, your chatbot should be highly customizable.
You should be able to give a name for your chatbot, an avatar, customize its look & feel and the way your chatbot interacts. After all, at the end of the day, what matters is the user experience and how much customers love your brand. And having a customizable chatbot can help you do this with ease.
Simplify360’s AI chatbots are highly customizable and comes with all the features we mentioned above – you can give a name to your chatbot, customize it according to your brand values and do more.
Your chatbots represent your brand and leveraging this can really help you build meaningful relationships with your customers. Speaking of customizing your chatbot, you might find this article helpful,
👉 Name Your Chatbot: 5 Simple Steps to Give Your Bot a Name
Let’s look at the next must-have chatbot feature.
7. Multilingual Support Feature
This chatbot feature is a must, especially if your business is global and your customer base is spread across different parts of the world.
When you start providing support to customers in their native language, it creates a sense of connection between you and your customers and improves the satisfaction rate to a great extent. Your customers become more loyal to your brand and tend to stay with you for a longer period of time.
With Simplify360’s AI chatbot, you can provide support to customers in over 50+ languages. This helps you stay connected with your customers in the languages they most prefer.
So, those are the seven chatbot features that will make your bot a success. Apart from this, you should also look out for features like chatbot performance insights & metrics and data security which is something that all chatbots come with today.
Final Few Words
Chatbots have evolved to a great extent today. Today’s chatbots can resolve support queries, collect leads, schedule appointments and do a lot more. And using them as a part of your customer support can make a huge difference for your business.
You can respond to customer queries on the go, and deliver great customer support and even better customer experiences.
Choosing an AI chatbot like SimplyBot can make your customer support easy and automated. You get all the features mentioned above and more. With an easy onboarding process, you should have no trouble deploying a chatbot for your business (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, etc). To know more about SimplyBot, you can request a demo.
Also, here are a couple of chatbot related blogs you should find useful,
👉 Chatbot Fails – 5 Reasons Why Chatbots Fail and How to Avoid Them
👉 9 Chatbot Best Practices You Should Be Following In 2022
👉 7 Best Conversational AI Platforms You Should Consider Using In 2022
So, that’s pretty much it when it comes to chatbot features. Let’s catch up on our next blog!