Thanks to chatbots, depending on their purpose, design and advancement level, we, as users, can easily order a cinema ticket, take advantage of help in choosing a product in the online store, find a solution to a technical problem with a purchase or receive various types of information.

Chatbot in the company – examples of applications

– answers to the most popular questions related to the product or the purchasing process,
– preliminary lead qualification – obtaining information on the expectations of a potential customer,
– comparison of the offered products based on data provided by the user,
– testing the level of customer satisfaction with the product / service.

The simplest chatbot is based on rules – the mechanics of its operation use a set of predefined answers to specific questions. As you click on the next options, new branches will be activated in the tree. More advanced bots use machine learning, thanks to which, to some extent, they “themselves” choose answers based on keywords and their construction, in theory increasing their capabilities with each subsequent interaction with the user. The most developed chat programs are based on artificial intelligence, which allows them not only to “learn” to interpret new words, but also to generate statements in natural language.

Chatbot in the company – is it worth it?

From the company’s perspective, the greatest advantage of a chatbot is the relief of the customer service department. The bot is usually able to answer frequently asked questions and solve simple user problems. If the matter asked by the client requires an employee’s intervention, the bot will provide the consultant with basic data after an initial “conversation”, thanks to which the consultant will be armed with information about the question category at the beginning of the conversation, saving time – both for the employee and the client.

Despite the many undeniable advantages, it is very easy to implement a chatbot in a way that will do more harm than good. The installation of the chatbot in the company must be thought out and properly implemented.

What should we watch out for when “hiring” a chatbot in a company?

In customer service, even the most advanced chatbot builds a psychological wall between the company and the contacting user at the outset. No human likes to be treated – mechanically. Of course, this is an individual matter, but for most clients, making contact with the program creates a feeling of being an ignored petitioner to some extent.

Conversation with a bot (especially underdeveloped) can be irritating – explaining the problem to a consultant is usually faster and easier in terms of communication than “clicking” through the available options to finally find – or not – a specific issue or reach the option of contacting a person on the hotline.

Bots process natural language better and better, but it will be a long time before they learn less standard grammar structures and will be able to fully “understand” every question addressed to them. Even greater complications arise with bots that try to interpret verbal speech. Then the first system is to understand the message using the speech recognition system and process the message into a text form, and then tag individual words. This involves a huge amount of data – each person speaks with a different voice, has a slightly different accent or phonestic habits, and there are potential interference or background noise on the line. It should also be remembered that we usually construct verbal messages a bit differently than written ones. It is only at this point that it comes to the “standard” interpretation of the text, which in itself is a multi-faceted, intricate process.

If the bot cannot recognize the interlocutor’s intentions quickly and accurately, the stairs begin. Some users will resign from contact at this stage, which can be considered a Pyrrhic victory (less work for the service department, at the cost of annoying the customer at best, losing the customer at worst).

Let’s assume that the message has been fully understood and the bot has data on the basis of which it is able to help the user. As in the case of the list of frequently asked questions (FAQ), messages sent by the chatbot must be as specific and precise as possible. In this case, placing a wall of text in front of the user, overloaded with various topics orbiting a specific issue, but not touching it directly, will increase negative feelings from the entire account.

How to implement a chatbot?

The key aspect – as usual in business – is the answer to the question of what tasks the chatbot is supposed to fulfill and, above all, to whom it is intended. Only after a thorough analysis of the purpose and requirements of the target group, it is worth moving to the design stage and then implementation.

Therefore, you should collect a database of questions with which customers (no matter if current or potential) turn to a given company – the brief should be as detailed as possible. The good news is that in the vast majority of cases it is not necessary to create a chatbot from scratch – there are hundreds of ready-made programs on the market that we can implement with the help of specialists according to our needs and requirements, for example by integrating the chatbot with the company’s CRM system.

Why is it worth putting an FAQ on the website?

– Provides the customer with immediate help – the user can quickly find an answer to his question, which shortens the shopping path. You can read more about customer path mapping in e-commerce in the article on our website.
– It saves time – both for you and the client. Regardless of whether the questions are answered exclusively by you or the company is handled by an extensive customer service and technical support department, each interaction takes time and involves an employee. The FAQ allows you to skip direct contact for the most common questions, but do not leave them unanswered.
 – It proves that you care about consumers – the FAQ in a clear, friendly form presents various procedures on the company-client line. Transparent presentation of opportunities in future cooperation (whatever form it may take) is a great value for the user, as well as a great way to show your experience, customer-friendly approach and build trust.
– It has a positive effect on SEO – the FAQ is a full-fledged subpage that, like others, affects the positioning of the entire website. This creates a great potential for improving SEO, including thanks to internal linking. In addition, it is a subpage with a lot of content, willingly “clicked”, with opportunities for systematic expansion of the content – web robots like it!
– Allows Google Featured Snippets to appear – a properly constructed question-answer scheme may be considered by Google as valuable enough to appear as a highlighted fragment above the search results.
– Provides data – thanks to analytical modules, you can check which issues (and how) are most often checked by users, which allows you to refine procedures and implement the necessary changes. The FAQ is a great source of knowledge about customer needs.

In many places – from large online stores to small service business sites – the FAQ, despite being published by poor execution, is on the verge of uselessness. A poorly made list of frequently asked questions is not only of little value to the user, but can even irritate him and lead him to redirect his internet steps elsewhere.

FAQ – selection of questions

The first step, of course, will be to refer to your and customer service experience. You perfectly know the needs of customers and the topics that are most often discussed in communication. It is also worth taking a look at the websites of the closest competitors operating in the same industry – many issues will probably be similar. In the case of online stores, must-have is, for example, a clear presentation of payment mechanisms, returns policy or warranty procedures.

FAQ – structure

A typical FAQ list has a rolling question-answer structure. It is very important to properly group the questions into specific categories – asking about the features of a product or a selected service package is a slightly different matter than a loyalty program, login data or the account deletion process. Categorizing topics greatly facilitates navigation and accelerates the user reaching the issue of interest.

The questions should be presented in first-person form – just as the client would type them. You should also use friendly language and avoid industry jargon.

The answers in the FAQ are usually short and as specific as possible – the user came to the page in order to obtain a concise, factual answer. This is no place for grass-talk. If the explanation requires more than a few paragraphs of text to be accurate, it is probably worth considering creating a separate subpage, and providing basic information in the FAQ, followed by a link to a more comprehensive article. If you decide to publish an extensive answer in the FAQ, be sure to take care of the appropriate structure of the text – take care of the right headings, legible text and division into paragraphs.

It is worth paying attention to the right choice of keywords – the question must be easy to find. An appropriate structure based on structured data also means that in the search results the elements of a given FAQ will be presented in an extended form, the so-called rich snippets.

At the end of the list, it is worth placing a contact form or at least a link to it in case the user does not find an answer to his question or needs clarification of some issues with the consultant.

Video and FAQ

Sometimes short films appear as part of the FAQ, most often simple animations (so-called explaining). This may be a good solution in some situations (e.g. when an issue requires specific steps that are easier to present graphically than text), but it has many disadvantages. First of all, a large part of people “scans” the text with their eyes faster, ergo assimilates the necessary information more efficiently than it would be in the case of even a few dozen seconds long film. The video itself will not affect SEO as much as the traditional text form, and it will also slightly extend the loading time of the subpage.

The answer in the form of a video makes sense especially in the case of typical technical support issues, e.g. assembly instructions for a given product or presentation of its specific function. Of course, you can always use a mixed form – text and video, which will complement each other.

FAQ – update

First of all, the FAQ cannot be treated as a complete whole. It is an important element of the website and should be a constantly evolving organism – in most companies, new questions arise every day, some of which perhaps should be on your website.