4 min
Now more than ever we live in a volatile business environment, where competition is increasingly voracious and in which companies have to show all their competitive advantages in order not only to stay in the market, but to increase their profitability.
In this sense, the first contact with the consumer becomes a key turning point for their retention and loyalty. For this reason, during the last year we have seen how companies from all sectors have worked against the clock to offer a customer experience (CX) based on omnichannel and quality communication.
Faced with this scenario, the growth of the chatbot market and its growing implementation by companies worldwide becomes important, which is expected to continue in the coming years. This is confirmed by the Global Market Insights study, according to which the total size of this market worldwide will exceed 1.3 billion dollars in 2024. But what is behind this growing popularity of the chatbot? Are they really effective for customer service in an SMB? Or are they only suitable for large companies?
One of the reasons for the skyrocketing growth of this technology is that today’s society constantly uses instant messaging applications. In fact, during the last year these apps grew 9% year-on-year, according to a report by Juniper Research. Another reason that justifies this growth is that SMBs know that today’s consumer seeks immediacy and easy and fast solutions, which is why they prioritize the use of tools such as chatbots. This is confirmed by a study by OneReach, which shows that up to 64% of consumers prefer to solve their doubts or problems by chat rather than call customer service.
Therefore, this technology is more than intrinsic within the collective imagination of the current consumer. So much so, that during the toughest months of the pandemic, up to 46% of the companies that wanted to improve the customer experience used and implemented these assistants, and 33% have been doing so gradually, according to a study carried out by IBM.
Regarding investment, the companies that were pioneers in the implementation of these tools saw a positive impact on their income. In fact, up to 94% have already returned the investment involved in the implementation, compared to 49% of those who did later. Additionally, all respondents reported an average 3% increase in revenue, according to the same IBM study.
Traditionally, these chatbots have been services offered by large companies, because SMEs understand – wrongly – that they do not have enough demand to establish this type of tool. This is a very common mistake that can be of little benefit to the company in the long term, since this technology can become the solution for those SMBs or startups that cannot have a full-time resource to attend the chat, thus losing the possibility of offering the user the experience they are waiting for.
But in addition, the benefits for small and medium-sized companies can be numerous and the use of this technology will allow them to channel information and the distribution of functions to the right person, avoiding customer flight. Saving time and optimizing processes, the most precious assets in our current business fabric, will be another of the positive changes that can be experienced. Likewise, the user will see their customer experience improved thanks to the speed in the management and the efficiency of the resolved question.
In this sense, chatbots are adjusted to the needs of each business, because not all are the same, and you have to choose the implementation of this technology according to the preferences and needs that each company has to cover. But in addition, these virtual assistants will improve the first image that the user of our services or products has, in a way that encourages customer acquisition and loyalty.
On the other hand, they are programmed to collect information about the user, analyze and process it, and based on it, guide the user by offering what they really want to make the purchase of a certain product or service. With the passage of time and thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) they have the possibility of learning about their tastes and preferences, something that is also useful for companies when preparing personalized marketing strategies and campaigns.
In conclusion, having chatbots is synonymous with profitability by offering the customer a complete service, with a fast, instant and effective communication channel that improves the customer experience through technology. But, also at the company level it helps to build the brand identity, retain customers, optimize internal processes and, therefore, increase the sales ratio of our products or services regardless of the size of the company and, in the long term, the overall benefits of the company.
Nacho Ginés, CPO of masvoz
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