Contact Center Pipeline May 2023 | Page 33

CHATBOTS ARE ALSO GREAT AT PROVIDING A PERSONALIZED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE FOR RETAIL CUSTOMERS .

RETAIL CHATBOTS

Summer is around the corner . And that means new clothes , garden supplies , lawn care , home renovation supplies and tools , and recreation and sports gear . And just ahead is fall , winter , and yes , holiday shopping . Which also means retail sales and support including online : where chatbots can help customers both directly and indirectly with contact center agents .

Here ’ s what we asked Christoph Börner of Cyara about this application of chatbots :
WHAT ARE THE PRIME FUNCTIONS AND REASONS WHY CHATBOTS WOULD BE USED IN RETAIL ?
With a recession looming , more retailers are deploying chatbots to not only improve their customers ’ experiences , but also to keep productivity up and costs down .
As a result , chatbots are becoming a matter of necessity . Here are the reasons why :
• Save time and money . Chatbots often follow a question-and-answer pattern that mimics the back and forth of a real human conversation . Thus , they are perfect for answering frequently asked questions from existing and prospective customers .
This gives human agents more time to focus on complex inquiries instead of spending their time answering simple questions that can be handled by a chatbot .
• Generate more qualified leads and higher revenues by creating a better user experience ( UX ). One of the worst things a business can do is allow visitors to leave their site because they couldn ’ t find something they indeed offer . Chatbots solve this problem by guiding users to their desired product or service .
Chatbots are also great at providing a personalized shopping experience for retail customers . For example , Sephora ’ s chatbot connects customers to a beauty expert that helps them pick out the best product for their specific needs and supports them through their purchase decisions .
By creating a better UX , chatbots are generating more upselling and cross-selling opportunities for retailers , transforming customer assistance channels from cost centers to profit centers .
• Provide immediate help , 24 / 7 . It ’ s a 24 / 7 world . Accordingly , people expect to be able to contact businesses at any hour of the day . Chatbots make it possible for retail organizations to meet these expectations .
• Increase customer satisfaction . Chatbots provide customers with a convenient self-service experience . Rather than navigating a website through drop down menus and search bars , chatbots provide conversation-based interfaces , which simplifies the customer ’ s overall experience .
Chatbots can also help companies improve their CX for a wider audience . For example , younger customers who might not want to take the time to navigate a retailer ’ s website may respond better to a chatbot .

CHATBOTS ARE ALSO GREAT AT PROVIDING A PERSONALIZED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE FOR RETAIL CUSTOMERS .

CONVERSELY , WHAT CHALLENGES DOES THE INSTALLATION AND USE OF CHATBOTS POSE IN RETAIL ?
While chatbots continue to experience tremendous growth driven by the meaningful benefits they deliver to businesses and customers alike , they ’ re also commonly plagued with challenges that include misinterpreted customer intent and delayed or disrupted hand-offs to live agents .
Chatbots in contact centers are usually text- and voice-enabled . In addition to the challenges that retailers face with text input , voice adds a few more layers of complexity because the number of possible user inputs are limitless .
When using a voice-enabled chatbot , there are more variables to take into account , such as different accents , voices , languages , poor bandwidth , or phone quality and background noises .
When a chatbot cannot understand a customer ’ s intent , it often fails to provide a route to human escalation . It ’ s crucial for these handovers to happen seamlessly for the customer , which includes relaying all the background information captured by the bot during its interaction with the customer .
ANY RECOMMENDATIONS SPECIFIC TO RETAIL ?
Contact centers maximize the benefits of chatbots , and every chatbot behaves differently depending on its purpose , topic coverage , and target user .
As mentioned in the article , there are several general best practices to follow such as pre-training Conversational AI , fallback strategies , obtaining feedback , and having a UX focus when building a chatbot .
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