Using Chatbots for Automated Customer Support and Lead Gen

In today's on-demand world, your customers expect instant answers. They don't always want to wait for an email response or to be put on hold on the phone. This is where chatbots can be a powerful tool for your business.

A chatbot is a computer program, often powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), that is designed to simulate a human conversation with your website visitors. It can answer questions, provide information, and guide users, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

When used effectively, a chatbot can be a fantastic tool for automating your customer support and for generating new leads.

The Benefits of Using a Chatbot

• It Provides Instant, 24/7 Customer Support: A chatbot can instantly answer your most frequently asked questions, even when you and your team are asleep. This can dramatically improve your customer satisfaction.
• It Saves Your Team Time: By handling the repetitive, common questions, a chatbot frees up your human support team to focus on the more complex and high-value customer issues.
• It Can Generate and Qualify Leads: A chatbot can be a proactive lead generation tool. It can engage with your website visitors, ask them a series of qualifying questions, and even book a meeting for your sales team directly in their calendar.
• It Can Guide Users Through Your Website: A chatbot can act as a personal concierge, helping users to find the right page or the right product on your site.

Common Use Cases for Chatbots

1. Answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This is the most common and valuable use case. You can "train" your chatbot on a library of your most common customer questions.

• Example: A chatbot can answer questions like, "What are your business hours?", "What is your return policy?", or "Where are you located?".

2. Lead Qualification

A chatbot can be a powerful tool for your sales process.

• How it works: When a new visitor lands on your site, the chatbot can proactively engage them with a question like, "Hi there! Are you interested in learning more about our services?" It can then ask a few follow-up questions (e.g., "What is your company size?", "What is your biggest challenge?") to qualify the lead.
• The Result: If the lead is qualified, the chatbot can then either provide them with a relevant resource, or it can directly schedule a call with a human salesperson.

3. Appointment Booking

You can integrate your chatbot with your calendar to allow users to book meetings or appointments automatically.

4. E-commerce Product Recommendations

An e-commerce chatbot can act as a personal shopper, asking a customer about their needs and then recommending the right products for them.

Best Practices for Using Chatbots

• Don't Pretend it's a Human: It's important to be transparent. Your chatbot should introduce itself as a bot. Trying to trick a user into thinking they are talking to a person will only lead to frustration.
• Give it a Personality: Your chatbot's tone of voice should be aligned with your brand's personality.
• Always Provide an "Escape Hatch": The user must always have a clear and easy way to request to speak to a real human agent. A chatbot should be a helpful assistant, not a frustrating barrier.
• Start Simple: Don't try to build a chatbot that can answer every possible question at once. Start by training it on your top 10-20 most frequently asked questions. You can build out its knowledge over time.

Tools for Building a Chatbot

You don't need to be a programmer to build a chatbot. There are many user-friendly platforms available. Some are known for their easy-to-use interface and generous free plans, while others are more advanced and powerful customer communication platforms with sophisticated chatbot capabilities. Some platforms are heavily focused on using "conversational marketing" and chatbots for B2B lead generation.

Conclusion

A chatbot can be a powerful and efficient addition to your marketing and customer service toolkit. By using it to provide instant answers to common questions and to proactively engage and qualify your website visitors, you can provide a better user experience, save your team a huge amount of time, and create a new and effective channel for generating leads for your business.