At Content Savants, we have been receiving some interest among clients regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence and chat bot services on their websites.  To be sure, there has been quite a bit of growth in this area, and off-the-shelf applications are making it possible for small businesses to afford and implement the service on their websites.  Having this technology available on a company website can convey tendencies toward innovation with an orientation toward cutting edge technology.

It can also drive your customers insane and totally destroy any notion of building a personal relationship with your customers.  For telecommunications companies – the ones who really don’t want to talk to you no matter how personable they try to make you feel – chat bots are a perfect way to manage high volumes of customer calls (to be sure, if their services were well-designed to begin with, customers wouldn’t need to dial up customer service). 

Nonetheless, expectations on the part of customers to receive a fast response are increasing.  As your business grows (thanks, in part, to your social media marketing efforts), you will also have greater interactions from a larger base of customers.  Customers may let a small business slide in terms of response times, but large companies should know better.  So it begs the question, is offering a chat bot to respond to customer queries better than a slight delay in response? 

In our view, it is better, if it helps your customer to feel in control.  Chat bots are more effective when inquiries are standard, and where customers use standard language or nomenclature that a computer can recognize and respond to.  For customers who are less grammatically inclined, and which may have individualized inquiries, chat bots will be an enormous frustration. 

The important question to ask is, does the customer have an alternative?  If the alternative is easily available and clearly visible – such as a direct line number to call or an email for customer service – then chat bots can be very convenient for customers seeking a quick reply on an easy question. 

Otherwise, we recommend avoiding chat bots like the plague.  The time and effort you will need to spend in repairing your customer relationship will not be worth the menial savings in customer response time (not to mention the expense in licensing and development costs).