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When the trees were big, and the channels of communication with Internet users were small, a robot appeared in ICQ, which entertained visitors with anecdotes not of the first freshness. Visitors, in turn, had fun in return: they wrote random messages to the funny robot and had fun when he answered them inappropriately.
Since then, many gigabytes have flown away, and virtual assistants today work in a variety of companies that run a wide variety of online businesses. In this article, we answer why this happened, what will happen next and how much you need a virtual assistant.
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant or chatbot is a program that can simulate a conversation with a user in a language they understand. The fact that a chatbot is able to entertain a careless surfer is somehow forgotten today, but the level of communication of virtual assistants with customers and buyers of companies is constantly being improved. The main reason is that chatbots are used as one of the tools in online sales. We’ll talk about sales later. In the meantime, let’s go back to chatbots for a few minutes and figure out how modern virtual assistants work.
All modern chatbots can be divided into two broad categories.
The first are created on the basis of keywords.
There is some supposed scenario (ideal or not, another question), when the developer roughly imagines what the user may be interested in, what questions he can write, what words to use in these questions.
Often, even the virtual assistant itself prompts the visitor what exactly they can ask him, or the client, starting communication with the bot, can select the desired button, which indicates the topic of interest to him.
The second option is Chabots created on the basis of artificial intelligence and capable of machine learning.
Such small representatives of miniature Skynet. These virtual assistants do not need keywords, but are able to communicate with clients based on the context of their requests. Plus they are self-taught.
Of course, making a program using artificial intelligence is more difficult. It will take much longer to develop, and a business that wants to have such an advanced robot at its disposal will pay much more than for a bot built on the basis of hard scripts.
It makes sense for business representatives to think about the justification for investing in effective online tools, and not about their own vanity. To do this, you need to understand how and where the virtual assistant will be used by the business.
How virtual assistants are used in B2B
Chatbots have freed businesses from many routine tasks.
What can and do they do?
They can unload your technical support operators, saving the latter from answering typical user questions.
The algorithm is the same: all kinds of scenarios of communication between techies and users are taken, standard answers are written for standard situations, and the technical support operator can enter into a dialogue with the client when no standard solution is suitable, or if the client insists and writes to the bot “call me a person! “.
With the help of a bot, it is easier for a client to learn about discounts, promotions and sales, get information about current vacancies, book a hotel room, analyze the quality of the advertising platform from which he intends to drive traffic to his products and attract an audience.
The most pleasant thing for the owners of an online platform on which such a tireless assistant is installed is that the bot works 24/7, does not ask for a salary increase, respectful attitude, and respect for their rights. Doesn’t strike or procrastinate. Yes, sometimes glitches can happen with robots, but here, as they say, it’s a matter of technology.
The main function of virtual robots is to help sell products and services. This online tool is used by many companies in USA, Europe, EU countries, Europe and around the world. The Alanbase online platform also uses this technology for online sales, and here’s why.
SaaS platforms and companies that use chatbots have increased their online sales by 67%. These are the results of a recent survey.
How did they do it?
The fact is that bots accompany a potential client at all stages until the purchase.
How does it usually happen? The company launches traffic. The client sees an advertisement, clicks on the “Continue” or “Learn more” button and falls into the tenacious, but unobtrusive embrace of a virtual bot.
First, the robot collects data about the client, and then it can personalize information for him, highlighting exactly those offer parameters that arouse the greatest interest in the buyer.
Of course, at the final stage of online sales, a person can enter the game – a ROP or a sales manager, but the robot will do all the preliminary “warming up”.
There is also such a stage in online sales as “boosting”. This is when a client who is either still thinking, or has not yet decided whether to go to competitors or buy here, comes in portions more and more new information about the correctness of the purchase here, this particular product, in the proposed version.
On the one hand, a sales manager can, of course, make regular phone calls to a client, which is still “tormented by vague doubts.” In this case, there is a big risk that at the next call the client will send the manager on an erotic journey on foot, and will definitely not buy anything. So, we entrust this robot – let it send short messages to the client until he makes a purchase from us.
Instead of a conclusion
If your SaaS platform hasn’t got a virtual assistant yet, fix it now!
You may not want to play with artificial intelligence, and a rule-based robot is fine for you. If all your business processes, including communication with potential customers, have prescribed rules, plus you have statistics on previous requests and requests, it will be much easier to make such a bot by giving a clear technical task to the developers.
The advantages of integrating a bot into the company’s existing business processes are obvious:
- unloading technical support workers;
- collecting data about potential customers and buyers;
- personalization of information for buyers;
- customer support at all stages of the sale and, as a result, an increase in the number of transactions and real customers of the company.
Remember the song from the children’s movie about Electronics? “Robots work hard, a person is happy.” It looks like that time has already come. So make your robots work hard!
