10 Ways AI and Chatbots Reduce Business Risks Chatbots are powerful tools that can have a positive impact on companies of all sizes.
By Murray Newlands Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Intelligent virtual assistants have gained a lot of prominence in the business world since they were reintroduced by major platforms like Slack, Facebook, and Twitter. Despite the fact we have only grazed the potential of chatbots, they've already changed the way companies communicate with their audiences.
Moreover, efficient corporations have found alternative uses for bots. For example, chatbots are now utilized as internal-facing assistants that can increase productivity and employee satisfaction throughout a company. AI-powered bots have the potential to address and mitigate different risk areas for businesses of all sizes, so they provide a viable, cost-effective solution for many different scenarios.
In this article, I'll discuss how virtual assistants can reduce business risk and how you can easily and efficiently implement a chatbot into your company's operations.
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Defining chatbots and AI.
Before going into chatbots and their benefits, you should understand the technology that powers these assistants. In a nutshell, chatbots are dedicated programs that employ machine learning and virtual intelligence, also known as AI. Thanks to advancements in both these fields, AI-powered virtual assistants can now learn independently and provide assistance to consumers without any additional human intervention.
Chatbots can also be used as fantastic internal-facing tools. Creating a quality chatbot to help your team is like providing everyone with an assistant. Although it will have limitations at first, using an internal-facing bot can help you speed up your internal processes and create an efficient communication network for all of your workers.
The best part about implementing a chatbot is that you won't need to hire developers or cover expensive fees. Thanks to platforms like my company ChattyPeople, you can create bots for free and in a matter of minutes. Best of all, it uses a purely visual interface, so you won't need any coding knowledge to create an AI-powered chatbot. Plus, chatbots can be integrated into a huge variety of channels, including Facebook Messenger and Slack.
Related: 5 Reasons Machine Learning Is the Future of Marketing
How can chatbots address business risks?
As I mentioned before, AI-powered bots make a great addition to companies as internal- and external-facing tools. Having a virtual assistant to help your customers is like making several additions to your team without hiring more workers.
Internally speaking, they can completely revamp your communication structure and become a centralized source of information. You can use chatbots to address and mitigate an array of risks found in all companies, regardless of their size.
These include, but are not limited to:
1. Provide around-the-clock customer service
As a consumer, there's nothing more frustrating than having to contact a product or service provider outside of working hours. Instead of setting up an automated response, you can incorporate a chatbot that helps your current and future customers when you aren't available.
Chatbots can work as a self-service tool that helps clients check on their orders, update account information, or make payments. This is especially helpful during weekends and outside hours of operations because your customers will not have to depend on one of your team members to get an answer.
Related: How to Create a Facebook Messenger Chatbot For Free Without Coding
2. Help sort through high-request volumes.
Having a high volume of customer service and sales inquiries can be overwhelming. Chatbots work as a filter that helps you organize and sort through the numerous requests you receive. They can help you send requests to the appropriate department, carry out requested tasks, and even generate a personalized response for the clients.
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3. Analyze trends in Big Data.
Thanks to their processing and analyzing capacities, AI-powered chatbots can also help you categorize and interpret big data. They can help highlight important patterns and trends you can use to enhance your products and develop better solutions that add value to your services.
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4. Targeted sales and marketing campaigns.
Big data analysis can help with a number of departments. That being said, your sales and marketing departments can use the information gathered through big data analysis to create tailored campaigns and strategies. These campaigns can result in significant improvements in both closing rates and marketing qualified lead generation, exponentially growing your company at the same time.
Related: What Is a Slackbot and How Can You Use It to Make Money?
5. Predictive analytics
Once you set up a reliable sales and marketing machine, you'll be able to use predictive analytics to plan ahead. Once you've built your sales funnel through your chatbot, you'll be able to predict sales and calculate how much money you make on monthly basis. You can use this information to develop future budgets to give you a more realistic idea of your growth rate down the line.
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6. Overall improved productivity
If you implement a chatbot that's integrated to all of your major work tools, you'll create a seamless experience that gives you back a lot of your time. We spend a huge amount of time replying to emails, verifying information, and sending responses. Chatbots can help you filter these communications, answer the ones that don't need your input, and let you invest your time into revenue-generating activities instead.
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7. Better interdepartmental communication
Accepted business models often feature a clear separation between departments. Because of this, many of these different areas have trouble establishing effective communication lines. Bots can help solve this by working as a centralized point of contact where workers in different departments can communicate and collaborate without having to break the multidepartmental mold.
Related: 4 Steps to Knowing What Your Customers Want Better Than They Do
8. Potential assessment
Bots can also help you assess and analyze your internal operations to identify areas of improvement. Besides gathering data and crunching numbers, they can ask employees for their opinions and present feedback to key decision makers within your company.
Related: The Google Tool That Helps You Make Better HR Decisions
9. B2B applications
Companies that do business directly with other organizations can use chatbots as B2B applications that help cultivate a strong relationship with their clients. These bots can help provide information, assist during the sales process, or specialize in setting appointments with the right employees.
Related: Top 7 Chatbot Monetization Strategies You Need to Know
10. Talent management
Talent risk management has recently gained prominence in the executive world, and bots can assist during the recruiting and knowledge transfer stages. This will simultaneously lower employee stress levels and mitigate unforeseen talent loss.
Finally...
Chatbots are powerful tools that can carry out an array of actions, leaving a positive impact on companies of all sizes. Follow the tips outlined above to implement a chatbot into your organization and to reduce business risks across the board.
