Chatbot Usage Soars as Users Tire of Apps

Immediate gratification is the goal when a customer reaches out to your contact center. Nobody wants to wait in an IVR queue—or even wait for a callback—if there’s a more efficient option. And consumers are learning that chatbots are the quickest route to satisfaction. Conversely, they’re noticing that apps present hurdles when it comes to issue resolution.

Chatbots are customer service robots increasingly being deployed by e-commerce sites to solve customer problems. They use artificial intelligence (AI) to interact with customers and meet their needs, creating a bridge to the company’s knowledge base. Advancements to the technology have effectively retired old limited digital scripts that had the unfortunate side-effect of exasperating users. Emerging chatbots have the potential to have the reverse effect.

Over time, AI bots will continue to develop and brands will trust them more to solve customer issues. In the meantime, most companies employing bots are using them in combination with human service providers. Depending on the quality of each “channel,” these companies are working to obtain just the right balance of bot and human.

Meanwhile, mobile e-commerce sales continue to set records. Yet, the decade-long mobile engagement strategy that requires consumers to download a new app is starting to falter. Case in point, new data released by Adobe shows that the growth in app launches is four times greater than consumer installations. Adobe also discovered that app abandonment is on the rise, with half of all downloaded apps being used fewer than 10 times.

Chatbots present an alternate way to engage mobile consumers. Whereas pre-bot mobile chat platforms required all interactions to have a human component, new bot-enabled ones offer both self-service and human-assisted service. This blended approach will provide a better customer experience for consumers who prefer using their mobile devices to connect with companies.

In this way, chatbots offer businesses the next step forward in customer service excellence.