Create Your Own Chatbot Online and Increase Productivity Chatbots are wonderful tools for productivity and efficiency.
By Murray Newlands Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Chatbots are wonderful tools for productivity and efficiency. They allow you to automate tasks which would otherwise take forever to complete, thereby enabling you to focus on other more important things related to your business.
Bots are also potent enough to render app fatigue irrelevant. With the sheer number of apps these days, downloading a new app for undertaking just about any task -- and being inundated by a range of notifications and instructions -- can be energy-sapping. To circumvent this, you can create chatbots online to augment the efficiency of your existing apps.
Using bots, you can engage more efficiently with your colleagues and/or clients in popular chat platforms where they are most likely to spend time -- Facebook, Whatsapp, Slack, Twitter -- as well as your own smartphone. Chatbots also give you the flexibility of remaining within the platforms and apps that you use most frequently, which reduces the chances of unnecessary distractions and impeding your productivity. Let's take the case of Jarvis, which serves as a reminder bot embedded within Facebook messenger. Bots like these offer great convenience and streamline processes that would consume a lot of time, money, and energy.
Related: Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business
Utility at its best.
You can use bots for just about anything, be it work-related purposes, shopping, buying tickets, addressing customer service issues, or influencer marketing. They can be utilized to heighten your business prospects by attracting new customers and retaining existing ones while lowering the dependency on time-consuming human intervention. Thankfully, the technology of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly sophisticated, thereby constantly expanding the scope of chatbots. In the parlance of managing your brand, these bots can take a lot of burden off your shoulders and help you become more productive.
Related: How to Create a Facebook Messenger Chatbot For Free Without Coding
Simplify things; don't complicate them.
Most of us have already been utilizing automation, even on a small scale. Whether it's the self-service kiosks, touch screens, or the numerous features in our smartphones, we're subconsciously wired to the benefits of automation -- as long as it makes things easier and doesn't complicate them. As a business or an entrepreneur, you may want to ensure that you communicate with your customers in a manner with which feel comfortable and knowledgeable. When you do that, a lot of things begin to fall in place and your overall productivity increases. Using new technologies merely for the sake of using them when the customers are simply not ready isn't going to get you anywhere.
Related: 7 Ways Chatbots Can Benefit Your Marketing Strategy
Ensure adequate engagement.
As you progress further in your business or entrepreneurial journey, you're likely to develop a steady online following. Remember, they are going to be responsive only if you offer something that holds their attention. Not adopting a thoughtful approach while curating your chatbot can seriously hamper productivity, because negative publicity spreads faster than positive publicity. To that end, understand the needs and preferences of your customers before having them interact with bots. When a bot-customer conversation is initiated, ensure that it is engaging, interactive, specific, and yes, time-saving. No one is going to wait beyond a few minutes for your chatbot to respond.
Related: Top 7 Chatbot Monetization Strategies You Need to Know
Productivity benefits within an organization.
Chatbots can be used by members of a company or organization to keep them updated about new agendas and projects, which in turn helps plan out their workload accordingly. Bots can set up daily reminders and create an inclusive community that unites the entire workforce for a dedicated cause. As opposed to setting up manual calendar reminders, you can leverage chatbots as an accessible, centralized reference point within existing online communication platforms. In addition, brands can use chatbots for their training programs where they can brief new employees about the various company policies and ensure they have a smooth transition. The good thing about bots is their quick response times, reduced errors, and ability to tackle multiple tasks simultaneously. For instance, Riot aims to identify a chatbot within its web messaging community to simplify mundane tasks for its customers by launching close to three fresh bots per weeks (internally).
Related: 10 Facebook Messenger Chatbot Marketing Expert Tips
Respect your customers and their choices.
Customers may become irritated when they are forced into engaging with a peripatetic chatbot when they actually look forward to interacting with another human with clear-cut responses. In your zest to develop an amazingly cool chatbot, you may want to remember the timeless golden rule: it is the customer that counts -- always.
Understand and respect what your customer expects out of you and deliver it. If they are comfortable with a button within the chatbot window that they can click on to begin interacting with a real person, then do exactly that. If done appropriately, chatbots can make a lot of contribution to your business's overall productivity. They can also make your employees perform better and with heightened clarity by sharing some of their burden, which takes a lot of their time. Since chatbots are all set to become more evolved, you may want to integrate them intelligently to position your brand in the right place and make the most of what technology has to offer.
