Even
before the pandemic, chatbots were emerging as one of the most
convenient ways for consumers to interact with brands. Among service
organisations in a
global survey from Salesforce
in 2019, 23% were already using artificial intelligence (AI) bots and
another 32% aimed to do so over the next 18 months. Another survey
found that 50%+ of consumers in Australia, France, Germany, the UK and
the US reported having used a chatbot to interact with a brand in the
past year.
Now,
as is the case with so many other digital tools and technologies,
COVID-19 is ramping up the adoption of chatbots across most industries.
Many companies have needed to accelerate
and extend their deployment of chatbots to keep up with customer service
requests during the pandemic – especially with people avoiding their
physical points of presence. In many cases, this threw a lifeline to
companies and their customers at a time that their
call centres were overwhelmed by queries from anxious consumers.
Chatbots
enable organisations to provide convenient, 24/7 service without
needing to make massive investments in contact centre infrastructure.
Even during these difficult times, chatbots
are able to offer instant responses to customers who need assistance at
any time of the day or night. They enable organisations to rapidly scale
up their service operations as volumes grow without training more
agents, while providing the interactive and immediate
feel of a WhatsApp or Facebook messenger chat.
As
we move beyond the pandemic, it seems likely that chatbot usage will
thrive. On the one side, companies that patched together chatbots to
alleviate pressure on their call centre will
have experienced how they can reduce costs and improve the customer
experience with this technology. From another end, many consumers who
were reluctant before to engage with chatbots will now have experienced
this service channel for the first time and enjoyed
what they found.
AI chatbots have matured
Certainly,
today’s AI-driven chatbots have come a long way from yesterday’s basic
scripted responses and they can be a pleasure to interact with. Natural
language processing (NLP) and
other underlying AI technologies have matured, meaning that chatbots are
getting better at understanding people all the time. Rather than
struggling with complex forms or navigating pages of FAQs, people can
simply type a message in a chat window using natural
language and get a useful response in an instant.
If
you are used to filling in reams of forms to apply online for a product
like car insurance, retirement annuity or a cheque account, the
simplicity and user friendliness of some chatbots
is a pleasant surprise. No need to go through pages and pages of text or
spend 45 minutes of your time on the phone to a call centre – you steer
your way through the process with the simplicity of a text message
conversation with a friend.
In
the background, powerful AI and algorithms are used to resolve your
query, whether that is generating a quote for car insurance or
recommending the
mix of funds and products you should include in an investment portfolio.
You will feel like you are answering simple yes/no, one-line or
multiple-choice questions, but the AI is using a complex decision tree
to steer the conversation.
It
will, for example, decide which questions to ask, and in which format,
based on your responses. The more sophisticated chatbots will also use
external
databases and contextual data to decide what to ask you and how—for
example, your location, the time of day that you are using the app, or
how long it took you to answer a specific question.
This
approach turns a process that was once an intimidating and
time-consuming chore into a simple interaction that takes a few
seconds.
Where the technology is headed
Naked’s
chatbots, Rose and Jade, are good examples of how this works in
practice and of how quickly the technology is evolving. When we launched
Rose,
our quoting chatbot, it made it easy to get quotes for car insurance,
and later, home insurance, and to buy cover without speaking to a call
centre. The bot is clever enough to let you send pictures of your car or
home contents, or submit your car licence through
the same chat interface. No more need to drive to inspection centres.
Jade
guides you through submitting any insurance claim on the app via chat
so that you don’t have to speak to a call centre. Now, in the
background,
machine-learning algorithms have become so sophisticated that Jade can
give instant, final approval for some claims without a human even
checking it.
This is just the beginning – both of these bots will soon be able to do even more.
Rose,
for instance, might soon pop up on third party sites so that you can
insure your new electronic devices as you order it from an ecommerce
retailer.
As for Jade, this chatbot is increasingly integrating with Naked’s 24/7
towing and roadside assistance and emergency home support partners to
provide even faster and smoother customer experiences. Issues that once
took long phone calls or forms to resolve can
now be dealt with in a chat that lasts just a few seconds.
Given
the pace of digital change this year, chatbots are here to stay. They
bring down sales and customer costs, so that companies can pass on cost
savings
to their customers in the form of lower fees or premiums. From the
customer’s perspective, the experience is just so much better and faster
– no drawn-out interactions, more
simplicity, and more convenience.
