Bots are everywhere around us. They now are the technological revolution that they promised to become a few years ago. We may not realize it yet, but these bots take up different forms and are all around us, from Siri on our iPhones to Google Assistant and Alexa. They’re already a part of our everyday lives. But chatbots are not restricted in their potential. You can use your chatbot for everything in the business scenario too, from customer retention to customer loyalty.
Bots have a huge potential to save time. They even have the ability to carry out complex tasks with relative ease and in different ways. These have made them valuable and necessary to us but how about businesses? What are the prospects of bots to help develop your business?
Chatbots have been vastly used in the business world of late. If you’re tech-savvy and are into business, then there’s a high chance you know about chatbots. But what do chatbots really offer the business? How do they help the company grow and retain customers?
In this article, we will explore some of the ways that businesses can use chatbots to improve customer loyalty.
1. Gather information and gain insight into customers
This goes far beyond just chatting with customers. You can use chatbots to gather information and gain deeper insights into your customers. This is in fact, one of the chatbots’ most potent abilities.
Having a knowledge of the customers’ patterns will give you a good idea of the products that they prefer. You can use this information to manage your inventory accordingly.
Chatbots have the ability to store information about the type of questions that they ask. This gives the business management an idea of expected questions customers asks. You can even upsell additional products. All you need to do is increase the sales funnel through tactics like providing coupon codes.
2. Respond to customer queries
This is the most basic way for small businesses to use chatbots. If you're not counting this as one of the ways to use your chatbot for customer satisfaction, leading to greater loyalty, you're missing out.
The bots are used as the first point of contact between the customers and the business. This is even more necessary if you are in an industry that has plenty of jargon; there is a high chance that people will call you to ask basic questions.
So, it will be a great idea for you to load your chatbot with the most frequently asked questions. This will save a lot of time for both the customer and the business. It will even increase customer satisfaction as they get answers rapidly and thus increase customer loyalty.
3. Personalize the content experience
Chatbots can use data such as customer purchase history and browsing behaviour to make personalized recommendations, which can increase the likelihood of repeat business.
Additionally, chatbots can provide customers with special offers and discounts based on their behaviour, which can further increase loyalty.
Many businesses now use chatbots in a way that solely focuses on content. It has now become a part of their strategy. These bots provide the customers with content that is specific and relevant to them and their needs. Content that is specially curated for them. This way, the business can gain more traffic through social media without appearing to spam anybody or force anybody.
4. Collect feedback from your users via your chatbot
Another way that businesses can use chatbots to improve customer loyalty is by gathering feedback. Chatbots can be programmed to ask customers for feedback on their experience, giving businesses valuable insights into how they can improve.
Additionally, chatbots can be used to conduct surveys, which can provide even more detailed information about customer preferences and behaviour. By using this information to make improvements, businesses can show customers that they value their feedback and are committed to providing a high-quality experience, leading to increased loyalty.
5. Add chatbots to your loyalty program
When creating your loyalty programs, in order to bring your most loyal customers even closer to you, you can also add chatbots to it. Train your chatbot to ask your customers for referrals. Reward the customers that are most loyal and provide them with discounts. Your chatbot must be able to do all that you need it to do in your loyalty program.
You can also train your chatbot to send ‘thank you’ messages to everyone. This is one step into ensuring that your customers are happy, and it might compel them to come back. Every time they complete a purchase, you should compliment them. Thank them for their patronage, trust and the loyalty that they have in your business and your brand.
Conclusion
Customer loyalty is an important part of every business. It is the only way you can ensure that your business continues to grow. If you're already using a chatbot to automate some of your business processes, then why not use a chatbot for customer retention & loyalty as well? The fact that chatbots relate directly with the customers means that you can target your audience easily with a chatbot. This is something you should definitely take advantage of!