How to Integrate Chatbots Into Your Conversion Strategy Adding a chatbot to your website to guide shoppers through the buyer's journey is actually not difficult.
By Syed Balkhi Edited by Dan Bova
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Have you landed on a website lately and been greeted by a little box popping up in the corner to say "Hello"? You probably have because that's a chatbot -- and they're everywhere.
Related: 4 Uses for a Chatbot That Will Transform Your Business
Maybe you've never interacted with a chatbot before and don't exactly understand the need for them. But the truth is that that helpful little box isn't there only to welcome you to a website, it can actually be used to improve your customer experience and increase conversions.
Increase conversions? Maybe that makes your ears perk up! Suddenly you're interested in this chatbot trend.
And the good news is that adding a chatbot to your website that can communicate with and guide shoppers through the buyer's journey in a personable, human-like way isn't difficult, What's more, there are a number of tools available that make it incredibly easy: You just plug in some information about your company and your customers, and your chatbot is all set to skyrocket your conversions.
If you're ready to start making sales day and night, here are the leading ways to integrate chatbots into your conversion strategy.
Improve customer service.
Even if you don't implement chatbots for any other reason, you need to implement them for customer service. Consumers these days are used to instant gratification; with the advanced technology that's available to them 24/7, they're accustomed to getting what they want, when they want it.
So, your customer service needs to be available at all times. Furthermore, according to research in the Harvard Business Review, people are willing to pay higher prices for faster customer service. In the study, customers who received customer service in five minutes or less were willing to pay almost $20 more for the same service.,
To underestand this motivation, imagine this scenario: Consumers interested in your software product, for example, typically have many questions about the product before being ready to buy.
They might want to know if your software is the right solution for their business, if it has certain features, if it will work with the current software they're using, etc. With a chatbot, consumers can get all those questions answered immediately, eliminating their hesitations regarding taking the plunge and making a purchase.
And that's the advantage: Customer-service chatbots aren't just for keeping your current customers happy; they can be used to boost your conversions too.
Related: Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business
Give product recommendations.
Instead of having users search through your online store trying to find the perfect item, you can bring those coveted items straight to them, using chatbots. Bots can speak to customers to find out exactly what they're looking for and provide them with options that meet their needs; it's like giving them their very own personal shopper.
As the example below from MVMT illustrates, a user can tell the chatbot that he or she is looking for a men's watch and can even provide the style preferred, like a leather band. The chatbot will then curate the best products, along with a link to purchase. The company doesn't have to stop there either; it can also easily upsell and cross-sell items with a chatbot.
Chatbot example
Image credit: Shopify
Using chatbots to give product recommendations is like placing your hottest products in the hands of online shoppers and virtually walking them to the checkout.
Qualify leads.
Since some of your site visitors may not be the right fit for your product or services, especially in B2B industries, you need to qualify your leads in order to determine if you should be spending your valuable time trying to convert them, or if you should move on to a visitor who's more likely to buy. Luckily, you can use chatbots to qualify leads for you.
Chatbots can be set up to automatically interact with visitors to your site, welcome those visitors, then ask them lead-qualifying questions that you've pre-determined, such as:
What brought you to our website today/What problems are you looking to solve?
What is your budget for this project?
Who is the decision-maker at your company?
What other solutions are you evaluating?
Having your chatbot qualify leads for you will weed out those visitors who aren't worth your time, so you can focus on the ones who do. You'll also have gotten all the information you need to help you make the sale.
Engage users on social media.
What if users didn't even have to visit your website to make a purchase? That's a reality with chatbots.
A lot of people prefer to interact on social media -- they're already there most of the day anyway and might not want to take the extra step of finding their way over to your website. In fact, according to studies from Michigan State University featured by the American Marketing Association, chatbots provide a better mobile experience for users.
In the MSU experiment, only 35 percent of respondents completed a web-based survey on their smartphones, while 76 percent completed the same survey via a Facebook messenger chatbot. This indicates that you can capture more customers on social media using chatbots.
Many companies are already taking advantage: For instance, Domino's Pizza launched its own Facebook Messenger chatbot whereby customers can order a pizza straight from the social media platform:
Domino's Facebook Messenger
Image credit: IPG Media Lab
With chatbots, you can add an even more convenient way for consumers to make a purchase from your business. Users can bust out their credit cards and place an order right from their favorite social media app.
Over to you
Welcome to the new world of online shopping. There's no need to miss out on sales during after-hours because your chatbot can convert shoppers into customers any day, any time, and guide visitors from their initial interaction or welcome all the way through becoming a repeat, loyal customer.
Related: The Definitive Guide to Chatbots: These Bots Are Here to Serve.
So, clearly, integrating chatbots into you conversion strategy is something to consider very, very carefully.
