ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD TRAIN THEIR CHATBOTS WITH VARIOUS PHRASES IN ADVANCE SO THAT THEY CAN RECOGNIZE THE CORRECT INTENTS .
CHATBOTS
Every chatbot behaves differently , depending on its purpose , topic coverage , and target user . However , there are general best practices to follow when building a chatbot that can improve its quality and lead to a better CX :
• Pre-train your Conversational AI . When a chatbot comes to life , it usually only has a small amount of training data . Organizations should train their chatbots with various phrases in advance so that they can recognize the correct intents .
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Q : WHAT STEPS CAN CONTACT CENTERS TAKE TO PREVENT FUTURE ISSUES AND IF THEY DO OCCUR , TO RESOLVE FASTER AND MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN BEFORE ?
A : Companies must train their chatbots how to understand customer intent and continuously test the technology to ensure that , if issues occur , they can catch and resolve them before their customers experience them .
Having an automated and continuous chatbot testing approach , like those outlined in my answer to the last question , improves the quality of the chatbot , thereby ensuring it performs as expected while reducing the efforts of enterprise IT teams .
Effective chatbot testing examines the way a chatbot understands customer intent , and it will do so continuously as the chatbot evolves and consumer input changes . This testing can also be done at scale to ensure the chatbot can perform even at high volumes .
Chatbot testing must evaluate how the bot performs in the various channels it resides , whether that is on the website , in a mobile app , within an IVR , or on Facebook Messenger or other channels .
This comprehensive testing provides value in every phase of the bot development lifecycle , enabling companies to :
• Deliver on their business goals of improving customer satisfaction and reducing costs .
• Mitigate the risk of chatbot fails and negative brand impact .
• Accelerate their chatbot development cycle .
• Increase agent efficiency and improve churn by equipping them to properly direct customer inquiries that can be handled by the chatbot .
Q : FINALLY , HOW CAN CONTACT CENTERS BEST MAXIMIZE THE BENEFITS OF CHATBOTS ?
A : A successful chatbot is defined not only by the technology that powers it , but by a well-thought-out conversational design .
• Use a fallback strategy . It ’ s impossible for a chatbot to answer every single question . This is either because the AI is not yet fully trained or the chatbot is being asked questions that it is not designed to answer .
There are several ways chatbots can handle these fallbacks . For example , a chatbot can capture the contact details of the customer and forward them to a live agent who can then assist the customer .
ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD TRAIN THEIR CHATBOTS WITH VARIOUS PHRASES IN ADVANCE SO THAT THEY CAN RECOGNIZE THE CORRECT INTENTS .
• Get feedback . Ask users to provide feedback on the chatbot and recommendations on how it can be improved upon . Receiving negative feedback can help identify where there is room for improvement . This can provide a wealth of suggestions and ideas to further improve the chatbot .
• Think about the user experience ( UX ). When designing a chatbot window , focus on including elements that follow the company ’ s branding , such as typography or color . Use interactions like buttons , quick replies and cards to give the user predefined options to choose .
Using such elements can enhance UX because users often don ’ t know how to write the question or what information the chatbot needs .
Brendan Read is Editor of Contact Center Pipeline . He has been covering and working in customer service and sales and for contact center companies for most of his career . Brendan has edited and written for leading industry publications and has been an industry analyst . He also has authored and co-authored books on contact center design , customer support , and working from home . Brendan can be reached at brendan @ contactcenterpipeline . com .
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