Bots: Humans VS Machines

Business tries to automate communication with customers: one of the oldest technologies in this area is IVR (Interactive Voice Response). It emerged in the sixties of the last century. Now it exists in an improved form, but the essence has remained the same. In short, it looks like the following:

A person calls a support service number, where he or she is met by an automatic system with pre-recorded voice messages. IVR offers a menu system, where, gradually, step by step, the user reaches the goal of his appeal. According to some studies, consumers do not like such methods: 61% of those who call and encounter the voice menu, are dissatisfied, and more than half interrupt the conversation and relations with this company. The findings of this study are obvious: customers do not like voice menus. But what makes companies still turn to IVR technology?

24 hours a day, 365 days a year

To answer a large number of calls from consumers during the working day, business needs to maintain a call center: a single-channel telephone and one specialist will not cope with the influx of calls, and consumers do not like to wait until the operator is free, they want to receive an immediate answer. In this case, IVR is the solution: each client can get through and start solving problems.

So, using IVR instead of a call center with live operators means lower costs, greater accessibility and, at the same time, rejection for the majority of users. In the end, you have to choose which is more important: saving or quality of service.

There is a way

The progress comes to the aid of business: all-pervasive networks, powerful and inexpensive computer systems, diverse databases, social platforms.

A modern person is almost tied to a smartphone and is always in touch. At the same time, voice communication is becoming an increasingly less preferred form of interaction, because text input, unlike voice conversation, is available in almost any situation. You can type a message and read the response while in public transport, being in the office among curious colleagues — neither noise nor the presence of outsiders would interfere.

One more ingredient remains to be added to this dish to understand how useful and nutritious it can become: artificial intelligence. Machine learning systems progress very quickly, they penetrate many areas of life. For efficient operation, these systems need large amounts of data: modern users generate and send so much diverse information on the network that it is more than enough for training, testing and setting up almost any service.

Bots are in the end of it all

When the power of modern technologies and the popularity of the mobile Internet are combined in one product, we get the services that turn the market around. Bots have become a long-awaited outlet for companies that want to establish high-quality communication with their existing and potential customers.

Within the framework of fairly simple software solutions, an instant response at any time of the day is available. Users can receive information about the company, find out the characteristics of the product, clarify data about the service, place an order and even complete a deal. To do this, business needs to organize the connection of the bot with the existing information databases of the company and configure the correct interaction with the consumer.

Complicated system, developed cognitive functions and diverse reactions result in bots that can freely communicate with the user, take into account the history of the relationship of a particular client with the company, proactively conduct a dialogue, encouraging the client to continue cooperation with various bonuses.

How the bots are created and where do they go to

Bot development is a fairly established market where software solutions exist for mobile applications, company websites, social networks, instant messengers. There are services with which you can create a bot and configure it, without knowing programming languages, just by constructing the logic of work, while only connecting standard blocks.

However, the choice of the channel in which the company bot will operate is a non-trivial task. For example, a website is a fairly reasonable and comprehensive solution, but users will not actively visit an unknown resource. Bringing customers to the website requires serious investments, especially in highly competitive niches. Perhaps, it is worth staying on your own mobile application? Well, this is also not the best option for most companies.

Development and promotion in this case will also require considerable investments, and the resulting benefits may be negligible. According to the study, 80% of the time, smartphone owners use only five applications. Naturally, there are many companies that would like their applications to be among these five. Most likely, the consumer will prefer to regularly use some kind of universal software, with which he or she will receive more information and perform the usual actions without switching.

In a foreign territory

Social networks and instant messengers are the applications that are most likely to fall into a number of frequently used ones. This means that companies will have to establish contact with their customers there — in the stream of posts, likes, reposts, chats and communities. Fortunately, this is not difficult at all. The decision to create a bot in social networks has a lot of advantages, but the disadvantages also exist.

One of the main ones is that you have to invest resources (money, effort, time) in a platform that does not belong to the company, in a platform that works according to its own rules and is interested in getting the attention of users no less than its younger partners promoting their own business.

The information giants, which own the most popular services among users, have firmly taken the place of intermediaries between the business and its customers. Companies that would like to use such a hot and affordable channel as social networks, instant messengers and mobile platforms are left to be satisfied with the fact that they leave the site owners.

But the appetites of huge technology corporations are not yet quenched. The current state of affairs does not suit them to the end. There are still unreached areas where you can find customers. And now the game is on a new field.

Real life bots

The most advanced and successful bots are voice assistants. Information giants have long been aware of the promise of live communication between their intelligent systems and users in a continuous mode.

Assistants and other intelligent systems, backed by the power of the search, social, mobile and trading platforms of their owners, are advancing and capturing markets. A lot of money has already been invested in promoting Alexa, Siri, Alice, Cortana, Marousi and many other bots of information giants, but no one is going to stop.

Voice assistants take over consumers' homes and cars, becoming a global intermediary between people and the Internet. The day will soon come when user activity will smoothly shift from mobile platforms to smart devices surrounding a person. It happened with stationary computers, which gave way to laptops, which, in turn, surrendered before the invasion of mobile devices. Now we are witnessing a new transformation.

Well, the business will probably have to adapt again and go where users prefer to spend time. Now bots will need to be implemented on the basis and under the guidance of smart assistants, sharing the profits and user attention.

Image courtesy of Extract Systems