Communication, Chatbot, Real-time communication tool

Communication made easy? (Chatbot + Real-time communication tool)

28/02/2019 by Rina Tse (A&A Limited)

Introduction

When it comes to customer services, consumers often seek immediate forms of contact. In recent years, many businesses place a strong emphasis on real-time customer engagement, and they take interactions a step further by implementing chatbots, which allow customer service automation within the web and mobile devices. However, although chatbot plays a significant role in this modern age of digital transformation, it cannot completely replace human beings. Therefore, this article will talk about how communication is made easy when chatbots and real time communication tools associate with each other, pushing customer services to another level.

Chatbot + UC-NOW

Chatbots are programs developed to automatically engage with received messages based on certain keywords. They can also adapt their responses to fit the situation through machine learning and natural language processing. Likewise, UC-NOW is “a real-time communication and collaboration software that helps enterprises engage today’s autonomous and digital customers” [1]. So how can chatbots and UC-NOW work together to make communication easier?

A&A Limited has created an ecommerce website that sells wine to demonstrate that the combination of chatbot and real-time communication tool provide better customer services than just implementing chatbot itself. At the beginning of the conversation, it will be handled by chatbot to answer customer enquiries and assist customers with wine selection. However, when it comes to more advanced and in-depth questions, chatbot may fail to respond and that it will connect the customer to the real-time communication tool, UC-NOW. A staff member will be interacting with the customer through UC-NOW to resolve customer issues and provide more suitable recommendations based on the customer’s personal interests. UC-NOW is quite similar to Skype as it allows video conferencing, file sharing, and scheduling or appointments. Yet, UC-NOW is better in the way that it does not require customers to download an application and register as a member. Instead, they can simply connect to the real-time communication tool with just a click to the link provided.

Although chatbot is a major innovation in AI and has remarkable potential to change the way we purchase goods and services online, this example clearly highlights that chatbot cannot completely replace humans. This is because chatbot can be too mechanical and that it will not be able to answer all customers’ queries. Therefore, this example reveals that the collaboration between chatbot and real-time communication provides digital customer engagement with a human touch in order to capture every business opportunity in the contemporary digital world and to take customer services to a higher echelon.

Conclusion

Chatbot plays a vital role in providing 24-hour customer support and a more personal customer experience. The use of chatbot also helps optimize a business by collecting and storing big data. However, there are potential risks of using chatbot. For instance, chatbot may not be smart enough to answer all customers’ questions. When this happens, it is important to utilize real-time communication tool, such as UC-NOW. It will allow staff members to communicate with consumers through video conferencing, file sharing, and more. Therefore, it is evident that communication is made easier when chatbot collaborates with real-time communication tool, providing better customer services than ever before.

Reference

[1] https://www.u-c-now.com/en/product#product-what