There’s much hype about chatbot these days. It’s a new opportunity for businesses around the world. But what it is and why is it so popular?

What is a Chatbot?

Call it chatbots, bot or conversational interfaces. A chatbot is basically a computer service or program that is powered by rules and oftentimes artificial intelligence (AI) and interacts with the users through a chat interface. They are set to revolutionize the arena of customer communication while customer service and support more convenient. Bots have the ability to interact like humans do, essentially because they leverage two of the advanced technologies to facilitate interaction – artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP).

The popularity of chatbots has resulted from its massive potential to simplify customer-oriented processes and build better business-customer relationships. There are two main types of chatbots – artificial intelligence based bots, and Script based bots. Both these chatbot types can aid in creating a personalized content experience – from reading articles and watching videos to purchasing products online. Some of the other impeccable benefits chatbots can provide to your business includes:

Driving Tune-ins:

With the help of a chatbot, you can drive tune-ins by notifying users an hour before to remind about a show they wanted to tune in and watch.

Increasing Online and In-store Sales:

Chatbots are intelligent. Based on user preferences and past purchases, chatbots can be used to send product recommendations to customers which are more likely to transform into sales. You can even send promotional coupons to users to make in-store or online product purchases. In addition, bots can help to connect the users to your mobile commerce site or application and encourage them to buy the products directly ensuring their convenience.

Improving User Engagement:

These days, a majority of enterprises have an established web presence. However, user expectations have evolved with the increase and advancement in technologies. While humans are bounded by time and 24/7 availability constraints, chatbots are available at any point in time when the customer has a problem. This is probably a major reason to use bots. Chatbots further provides the users with an interactive experience by letting them know that someone’s listening to their problems and ensure they will be resolved. Chatbot implementation if done right via custom mobile application development services can help your customers easily find the products they are looking for, inspire immediate purchase and make the customer return for more.

Facilitating Mobile-readiness & Immediate Availability:

Alongside a web presence, it is essential for enterprises to establish mobile presence leveraging mobile apps as well as mobile-optimized websites. Given the way chatbots have penetrated the mobile app industry, most app development projects where chatbots have to be integrated do not require you to tweak the user interface. They are readily available for instant implementation.

Minimizing Costs & Maximizing Returns:

The best part about chatbots is that they are inexpensive. Chatbot platforms like Facebook Messenger and Kik offer the required infrastructure and APIs for developing the chatbots for your business. This requires minimal maintenance. Also, the task is automated which eliminates labor-intensive work that the developers usually have to do.

What can be other use cases and benefits of chatbots for mobile apps? Share your knowledge with us using the comment box below.