Chatbots - new trend or overrated hype?

What do Siri, Otto the Bot and Poncho the Weather Cat have in common? They are chatbots - the new digital helpers in messenger form. Messengers in general are nothing new in marketing. Daily exchanges via messenger services, such as those offered by Facebook, Threema or Wire, are booming. Consumers and providers have been using them for some time now for customer service, referral marketing or competitions, for example. However, consumer behavior and demands have changed significantly: Consumers are pushing for more and more flexibility. Brands and providers must be prepared to receive important support and service requests at any time of the day or night. However, the research company Gartner predicts that only one third of customer service communication by 2017 will require human interaction. Conversely, this means for companies: Two thirds can be taken over more quickly and efficiently by automated software such as chatbots.Where there is still a lot of catching up to do with voice-based variants, there are countless text-based digital helpers romping around the World Wide Web. In Facebook Messenger alone, there are now 34,000 bots from a wide variety of companies to meet the needs of users. They are capable of learning and are programmed to receive data and respond to certain keywords and phrases in order to answer individual customer queries. But to what extent can these supposed all-rounders actually influence the customer journey at key touchpoints?

Trend or hype? How helpful are chatbots really?Entertainment leads to brand loyaltyWhat was previously seen as engagement, such as clicking on ads or watching videos, is now taking on a whole new meaning thanks to digital assistants - namely automated customer dialog. Officer Judy Hopps from Disney shows just how successful this can be: instead of the usual movie trailer to tease the audience, users went on a detective hunt together with the bot and experienced their own interactive stories. Chatbots are therefore ideal for breathing new life into more conventional elements such as movie trailers. Poncho the Weather Cat also does this vividly - in addition to the weather forecast via Messenger, the digital weather cat also provides outfit tips. A gimmick that brightens the mood even in the heaviest rain showers.Next Level: PersonalizationExpert advice is more in demand than ever: What form of accident insurance makes sense? What data volume is recommended for streaming? Are the shoes in the online store also suitable for long hikes in the mountains? What at first glance appears to be a time-consuming process can be answered quickly and easily by digital assistants. Questions such as "Where do you live?", "What music do you like?" or "What is your dream travel destination?" are unproblematic and even welcome in the form of chat. With chatbots, brands can continue to personalize their customer dialogue and optimize the customer journey accordingly. The important thing here is to regularly adjust the chatbots so that they can act within their scope and also learn to a certain extent. For example, a digital assistant that is programmed to generate recommendations for shoes will not automatically be able to do the same for handbags, despite thematic similarities. This is where it becomes particularly clear that product recommendations are often based on emotions, stories and very personal experiences. Chatbots, no matter how much user information they have collected, are at a clear disadvantage here. When it comes to recommendation marketing, 74% of consumers still rely on word-of-mouth from friends, family and influencers. When it comes to recommendations, it is clear that familiarity, emotionality and credibility are more important than speed and constant availability.Anything is possible, isn't it?Even though the number of bots is constantly growing, they should still be used sparingly and in a way that benefits both the customer and the company. While these utilities are useful for consumer relationships, real people should be at the forefront of communication. After all, anyone hoping for 100 percent accurate advice from digital assistants, or even more so an emotional approach or assistance, will be disappointed. Chatbots quickly reach their digital limits, especially when it comes to providing support to critical or disgruntled customers. This is where customer advisors are needed who can recognize the emotional mood of the other person, respond to it and offer individual solutions to problems. Companies that use chatbots selectively and not as a lone warrior on the customer front have a better chance of positioning new products more successfully by responding to inquiries more quickly, for example. Chatbot-driven services are particularly beneficial for the service sector, such as banks, insurance companies, travel or mobile phone companies. It is precisely these companies that need to take their customer service to a new level with bots. The travel portal Kayak, for example, offers users the opportunity to put together their trip quickly and easily via Facebook Messenger. If the regular user account and the Facebook account are then linked, delays or changes to travel details are displayed in Messenger. In a world where customer support is becoming the most important success factor, a digital assistant like this could make a big difference to the competition. Companies should generally ask themselves the following questions before implementing a bot to ensure that they do not invest unnecessary capital in programming: How can a chatbot bring the services or products on offer closer to the customer? How can this increase the conversion rate? Could this also be increased organically, without a bot? And very importantly: Doesn't it perhaps require emotional expertise at the touchpoint that a chatbot cannot provide?Conclusion: Chatbot hype promising, but no guarantee of successThe potential of chatbots is definitely huge and, above all, far from exhausted. However, there is still a lot of development work to be done before we can have a natural conversation. The goal of a self-improving bot equipped with A.I., which learns from previous attempts and independent data sources, deals flexibly with input and thus solves problems independently, still seems a long way off for the time being. While they can often score points with simple questions and guarantee companies savings in terms of capacity, money and time, they are often wrong when it comes to recommendations, for example, or do not appear credible. However, as soon as developers take the next step with Siri and co. and implement real A.I., there are hardly any limits to the digital helpers. Decision-makers should therefore weigh up the customer touchpoints at which a chatbot offers an extension of the service level and at which points in the customer journey the human factor is decisive.