Chatbots arrive to disrupt multiple industries.
Here’s a look at some of the sectors that are most effected and demonstrate how chatbots continue to make businesses more cost effective and responsive.
1. Human Resource Space
Chatbots are digitizing human resources processes and slowly transforming the space which was primarily dominated by human employees.
A recent survey of 350 HR leaders conducted by ServiceNow finds 92% of HR leaders agree that the future of providing an enhanced level of employee service will include chatbots. Through social media platforms, chatbots have proved to be crucial in attracting talent and turning job seekers from passive into active candidates.
In the human resources field, the scope of chatbots in HR is endless. From the screening of candidates to background checks, chatbots can prove to be efficient and independent. The added benefit of employing chatbots as a human resource professional is that they can work 24*7, all days of the week and lower the workload of applications. Chatbots can also be trained to answer HR related queries and could also automate training sessions for employees.
Additionally, they can provide the answers to basic queries like payroll inquiries, health benefit etc. and free up time for human HR employees to focus on more complex tasks.
2. Marketing & Advertising Space
Due to their conversational abilities, chatbots are great for interacting with employees. Such traits make them perfect for marketing.
Already marketing bots are being introduced in established companies like Sephora, Bank of America and Pizza Hut. Considered to be cost-effective, marketing chatbots can integrate with social media platforms like Facebook Messenger and Whats App. This, in turn, allows advertisers to sell their products to a bigger audience at a low cost. Potentially, in many cases, online sales transactions also happen through such platforms.
With increasing tech reliance, marketing chatbots have a huge scope in the future for sending out customized advertisements and reducing the irrelevant ones. Marketing chatbots also provide companies with genuine customers’ feedback. They can additionally analyze the pattern of such feedback and present it to the company so that improved strategies can be designed in the future.
3. Customer Service
A report by Gartner recently showed that by 2020, a quarter of customer operations will use chatbots.
By employing chatbots in the field of customer service, costs could cut down by 30% and more importantly, create efficiency. A huge percentage of customers never return once they experience bad customer service. But with automation, such issues will be resolved. With wait timing being eliminated, customers can expect prompt services.
Whether it is a product query or a basic question on return order, the chatbot can handle queries with unmatched speed. Without having to call or email, chatbots are designed to resolve issues through instant chats that are tied to different social media platforms like Facebook Messenger, Whats App, and Twitter.
4. Media and Publishing
Recently, CNN launched a bot that provided highly personalized services, to deliver content for its readers and viewers online. By adding it to Facebook Messenger, users can receive alerts tailored to their interest each day.
Publishers can leverage this inexpensive technology for engaging a wide audience through their customized content. Chatbots also allow publishers to directly connect with their readers, which in turn can increase the engagement rates of readers.
TechCrunch’s chatbot has been met with success after employing chatbots. According to DigiDay, TechCrunch uses Chatfuel to send out trending stories once a day. By sharing your location, Chatfuel allows readers to access stories based on their time zones. The WSJ’s Facebook chatbot also updates readers with headlines and news from its paper edition.
But so far, chatbots remain an extension to the main publication and beneficial mostly for filtering news and sending personalized alerts.
5. Travel
Travel is another industry that chatbots are disrupting. From ticket bookings to journey queries to customer service, travel bots are changing the way passengers travel.
Amtrak’s chatbot, responds to customer service requests and directs users to relevant information. With more than half of Amtrak’s tickets being bought online, Julie is a powerful online assistant. In the case of complex situations, Julie unhesitatingly directs passengers to a human customer representative. For the airline industry too, the process remains the somewhat the same. Chatbots are being employed by airline companies to make the travel experience smooth for users.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines updates in flights, check-in notifications, and boarding documents, through the social media platform, Facebook Messenger. Skyscanner’s travel bot allows users to search and book flights in no time. Once the passenger inputs the travel details, they can look at a number of options. The bot also recommends place is the user is unsure of where to go and just types ‘anywhere’.
For chatbots to fully infiltrate and disrupt industries, it will have to evolve much more than from its current phase. Over a period of time, it may not be surprising that much of the traditional work spaces will employ chatbots to offer more prompt and data-driven services.
By Deena Zaidi