Although the term “Chatbot” is still a buzz word to many people, this revolutionary technology has already been considered “the next big thing” due to massive benefits it can bring to companies across various industries. In this article, we will discuss several chatbot use cases to solidify our claim that businesses should embrace chatbots.
1. E-Commerce
According to a research conducted by Chatbots Journal, a leading chatbot community, E-Commerce will benefit the most from chatbots compared to other industries.
Successful commerce relies much on B2C (Business-to-Consumer) interaction. Chatbots enrich the relationship between online shops and customers with “conversational commerce”, making B2C interaction quicker and friendlier than just a mere business transaction. Different customers would feel like they have their own virtual assistants who understand and attend to their needs, which ultimately leads to higher customer satisfaction!
Moreover, chatbots’ ability to personalize messages can also be scaled with ease. They track users’ buying history, moods and schedules to make an offer even before they are asked. The more data, the more accurate. Big e-commerce stores with massive data definitely get the most out of a customer support system powered by chatbots.
2. Public Transportation
Chatbots in public transport embraces simplicity and efficiency. Let’s take an example of how they help plan and automate our navigation. You – as a user – start a conversation with a chatbot through a simple Facebook Messenger interface. The bot asks questions to collect your information, such as the destination, departure and arrival time, or which particular bus or train you are looking for. The bot performs a real-time search based on provided information. Afterwards, it presents the best available options. Now, you just have to choose one option. The bot then will instruct you step-by-step how to navigate through your whole journey.
The advantages brought by chatbots are indisputable: They are a fool-proof piece of technology which is not only efficient but can also impress any customers, even the toughest ones.
3. Airlines
Chatbots can save airlines millions of dollars which are often lost to poor system management and customer service each year. Firstly, chatbots have already been utilized for handling bookings and payments. When customers book with human agents, there are many ways things can go wrong. For example, booking dates and time may get messed up because of human errors. The process is also much slower because human agents have to take note of the information and give it to a computer anyway. Why not book or change flights directly with a chatbot?
A well-designed bot can make booking and paying a breeze. Instead of using drop-down menus, customers type their information. This gives them better control over how flights are booked or changed. The paying process can also be done efficiently with the chatbot asking for details such as bank name, bank account number. Then the money is transferred on time and safely. Chatbots can keep a conversation thread so that customers can review their payments and any changes if they’d like.
Speaking of which, chatbots are better than humans at organizing flight information for you. Airlines not employing chatbots often scatter customers’ crucial flight details across many places. For example, any information regarding the purchase of tickets is stored on the ticket-selling website. The confirmation is stored in the email inbox. The boarding pass is in the phone’s passport or physically carried by customers. And any updates are notified through a text message. Managing customers’ information wouldn’t be that complicated with chatbots which keep everything in one platform such as Facebook Messenger. When the need calls, customers just have to ask the bots for their information or get automatically updated about changes.
What’s more, as customers view their information, they can ask chatbots anything such as “What is the departure gate?”, “What is the luggage limit?”, or “What are the foods and drinks for this trip?” These common questions can be answered very quickly and accurately by chatbots, reducing the need and the money required to pay human agents. Besides, these bots can also be programmed to show strategic travel recommendations or advertisements that drive more revenue for airlines.
4. Restaurant
In this area, chatbots provide 24/7 and instant assistance in terms of food ordering, seat reservations, customer feedbacks, and so on. They can take personalized service to a whole new level by remembering and predicting users’ food preferences. They can even help users with shopping and making delicious meals.
Imagine you have a supermarket where you sell foods, drinks and recommend customers on recipes. It would be wonderful if your customers can connect with your brand via an AI bot which can up-sell, cross-sell and down-sell your products.
Starbucks and Domino are twos of the most notable chatbot business use cases. The Starbuck Barista bot “listens” to customers’ personalized drink orders as if they were speaking with a real person. Domino bot helps customers get the best deals, processes orders and payments, as well as answers other common questions.
5. Hospitality
Chatbots can increase conversion rate and reduce bounce rate for a hotel’s website. Once installed, they work relentlessly to satisfy current customers and engage new ones. They take care of everything from advertising to pre-arrival and leaving stages. Customers could get any information they need from the hotel, have their schedule organized, check in and out seamlessly and most importantly, have their complaints dealt with immediately.
In addition, today’s customers, especially entrepreneurs, expect hotels to remember their information and preferences. Chatbots help by collecting all the data about customers and make the next visits more personalized and enjoyable.
Moreover, these AI bots remind customers that their restaurants or hotels have more services that may suit their needs. They’re able to do this by pop-up notes that do not annoy customers. It’s difficult for a human to do this without sounding like he’s advertising to take customers’ money.
6. Government Services
Chatbots are extremely useful in the context of government services. Not only they can handle repeating queries by civilians and residents effectively and effortlessly, they also an important one is the Department of Motor Vehicle. The number of vehicles is increasing every day, which puts a huge strain on this department when it comes to dealing with vehicle-related matters. Even in developed cities such as New York or Paris, one has to wait for quite a long time to complete all the processes.
Chatbots help to solve this problem. If you want to renew your license plates or need parking permits, you can work with a bot in just a few minutes in the comfort of your home. It is the same as getting permissions from the Department of Motor.
What’s more amazing is that chatbots can cut down on all the unnecessary bureaucratic processes involved in other government services such as filing for identifications, getting official government marks on papers, or registering a start-up. Imagine governments don’t have to spend a huge amount of money on hiring human workers who do slow work and might make mistakes. Instead, they have bots that work efficiently 24/7.
Furthermore, the government can use chatbots as channels to increase civic participation in policy making and feedback. It is very “cool” for a government to have a high-tech bot which can converse effectively with citizens like actual city officials, collect their opinions and help policy-makers to make the best possible decisions.
7. Finance and Banking
In the financial world, chatbots are used to make ultra protection against security preach possible. For example, some bots can automatically lock a credit card, inform the authentic owner of malicious activities and only let the owner reactivate it through a verification process.
Furthermore, chatbots are particularly helpful in upselling and cross-selling finance products. They can be programmed to pop up at certain times to make offers to the customers. For example, when one’s card needs renewing, the bot can notify, help with the renewal process and cross-sell other kinds of cards to increase profit margin.
Banks are also integrating this technology. Bank of America – a multinational banking and financial corporation – has a chatbot called Erica. In addition to helping customers with ordinary transactions and notifications, it can update their FICO, a measure of consumer credit risk, score and recommend financial management strategies. Another example is JPMorgan Chase’s recent cut on employees’ workload by over 360,000 hours thanks to chatbots.
8. Education
The education sector can take advantage of chatbots to automate many processes. A typical example is essay scoring, which saves teachers of massive open online courses (MOOCs) an enormous amount of time.
Another one among chatbot business use cases in education is answering FAQs about school-related matters. Each year any school, whether it’s primary school or a university, welcomes a large number of students who are simply clueless about how things work. Common questions like “How do I register for this course?”, “What are the regulations regarding cooking in the dorm?”, “What extracurricular activities do the school offer?” or “What are the foods that my children will eat here?” can be answered by bots instead of a human agent who might make mistakes under pressure.
Chatbots are also being recognized as a crucial tool for enhancing the feedback system. Normally, teachers don’t have the time to ask every student their opinions on various aspects. That’s why students usually do just one survey after a course to give their feedback. This surveying method has major problems such as the foul language, the dishonest opinions, and the lack of interaction that makes students feel valued. Chatbots can help by interviewing each student directly via an interface. This way, anyone with a smartphone and Internet can access the platform to be interviewed. The bot acts like a committed teacher who can get honest opinions from students to improve the teaching system.
Moreover, a learning app called SuperMemo helps students repeat old lessons when they are about to forget them to achieve long-lasting knowledge retention. Other chatbot business use cases in this sector are AI teaching assistants that have the ability to design highly-personalized curricula for students of different educational levels.
9. Healthcare
When a patient has a request, a nurse has to type information into a computer. However, the human employee is much more likely to make mistakes in processing information than bots. If there is a mistake, it might affect the whole schedule of the patient, leading to serious consequences. In this case, a chatbot can help the patient make appointments much faster and more accurately.
Similarly, the process of billing and paying invoices could be speeded up with a bot. In addition, hospitals can earn the trust and loyalty of patients by programming AI bots to give personalized health advice and automatically update health condition.
10. Insurance
Traditionally, customers have to wait and speak to human agents to file their claims, which is a time-consuming and tedious procedure. However, a chatbot can do the same thing in a matter of seconds. Users just need to send their text-based or voice-based request which can be received via various channels, and the bot will collect crucial information and schedule everything in seconds.
In addition, chatbots have been known to increase the net promoter score (NPS) for insurance companies. The more satisfied customers get, the higher this score is. This means higher profit and bigger growth rate.
11. Internet of Things (IoT)
The proliferation of IoT is inevitable as there are more and more devices being connected to the Internet. This poses the serious issues of security and function management, and chatbots are one of the best solutions we have these days.
In terms of security, chatbots are usually more secure, reliable and accurate than humans. They use methods like two-factor authentication, threat detection, and other ways to make sure only the legit user has access. Regarding functionalities, they can respond instantly, give useful instructions, take care of our chores, learn our behaviors, etc.
Moreover, they are the best solution to the “app fatigue” phenomenon. Are you tired of having to use so many control devices and apps for different functions? Have you ever been confused by the number of remote controls at home which you do not even know how to use? You only need a chatbot to manage everything in your house!
12. Cable
AI bots built on Machine Learning drive more revenue for the cable industry by offering the right subscription options at the right time. They can use customers’ viewing history to predict the perfect time for an offer. In many cases, they also help customers proceed through the upgrade process seamlessly, creating the satisfaction which will bring customers back next time.
Other chatbot business use cases in this field include instant technical assistance and account management. Millions of cable users worldwide no longer have to wait for an unduly long time before they can get help with small technical issues. If they have any questions about their accounts (balance, subscriptions, security settings, and so on), chatbots will provide reliable aid instantly.
Related: Top Chatbot Business Use Cases You Might Not Know (Part 2)
