5 Surefire Ways to Increase Sales and Improve Customer Service with Chatbots

Business is moving towards a more customer-first approach to its strategies. In order to increase sales, a business has to establish customer loyalty through top-notch customer service.

Chatbots make it easy to provide great customer service, eventually resulting in increased sales -- which chatbots can also simplify.

Read on for 5 surefire ways to increase sales and improve customer service for your business using the automation power of chatbots.

1. Use Chatbots for Lead Gen

Does your business rely on high-quality leads to be passed onto your sales reps to generate value from and close? If so, chatbots can simplify lead generation for you by allowing you to catch leads with ease across multiple channels.

For example, whenever a Facebook Messenger bot interacts with a user, the user will become a contact of your Facebook Business Page. The bot can go even further and ask for the user’s email, phone number, or other information relevant to you.

This allows you to add the user to various other contact lists be it a simple marketing mailing list, lead nurturing campaign or pass them onto sales as qualified leads.

The best part about using chatbots for lead generation is that chatbots don’t have set working hours; they are available all the time allowing you to better nurture leads instead of just generating them.

2. Use Chatbots to Increase Engagement

Chatbots are pieces of software programmed to serve a certain functionality. They can even have fun ”personalities” and act as a friendly shop assistant who you can turn to when you have a question.

You can align your chatbot’s “personality” with your brand’s tone to create consistent brand messaging. Many businesses actually give their chatbots names (see Rob Bot, 10to8’s chatbot) and backstories. You’ve never thought that “employing” a chatbot can be a cost-effective branding exercise too, huh? You can even add the chatbot to your Meet The Team page.

Utilizing your chatbot for branding activities can boost customer engagement and hold customer interest, which will ultimately result in more conversions and sales.

The chatbot can even be used purely for entertainment, for example when waiting for a human to respond or data to load. Not exactly a chatbot, but Domino’s Pizza Tracker, Dom, does a really good job of informing pizza-lovers of the status of their meal while at same time entertaining them with dad-jokes. Such fun ideas can invite publicity around your brand, for instance, people guessing whether the pizza tracker is real.

If the goal is quick engagement and response, you can set up auto-responses. For instance, the Facebook auto-responders can directly message a user who comments on a Facebook post that has this specific setup. Use this setup on posts that are meant to spark engagement by asking questions, offering discounts, and more.

Another example is Click-to-Messenger ads. They function like regular Newsfeed ads but direct the user to a Messenger window with your chatbot instead of your website. Ads like this result in more contacts and thus, generate more leads.

These two tools can be combined and implemented in a number of ways, through contests, polls, quizzes, and more to delight your customers and keep them engaged with your brand.

3. Use Chatbots for Frequently Asked Questions

Every business has a group of questions that they are asked frequently. They may be about shipping details, warranty, pricing or data protection inquiries. That’s why most websites have an FAQ section - which visitors either take the time to find or they don’t and instead reach out to you.

The thing is, answering the same questions over and over again takes up a lot of time that could be used to work on projects that generate revenue and grow your business. That’s where chatbots come in handy.

Using FAQ chatbots to answer the most commonly asked questions will give you more time to focus on other tasks. Additionally, it means that customers get an immediate response to their questions in a mobile-friendly interface so that they can receive service wherever, and whenever.

4. Use Chatbots to Provide 24/7 Customer Support

Beyond being mobile-friendly and servicing customers on the go, chatbots can also provide customer support 24/7. You will no longer need to worry about business hours or timezones if you serve customers worldwide.

Customer service chatbots function day and night, meaning that your customers can interact with them whenever they have a question.

Depending on the level of functionality you program your bot with, your customers will be able to ask questions, collect services, buy products, and more.

Providing 24/7 chatbot support can increase customer satisfaction and improve your overall customer service. This will empower you, human support team, to step in only if a more complicated question that a chatbot cannot solve comes up. So you will be able to provide quick and high-quality support.

5. Use Chatbots to Sell Your Product

Believe it or not, consumers are comfortable with buying products from chatbots that provide a customized purchasing experience.

Programming your chatbot with a sales functionality can bring you more direct sales as prospects can make a purchase straight from the chatbot interface. If your business relies on lead generation and a sales team to generate value from leads, chatbots can also shorten the sales cycle.

The sales process will also be simplified, as the customer will be easily lead through the sales funnel. Although a chatbot might not be able to close the deal for you, it can definitely arrange a call for the client with your salespeople. And scheduling calls as early as possible can dramatically speed up the sales process.

Additionally, you will be able to focus on good quality customer experience, as your chatbot can take care of numerous other tasks that don’t require human input. Your support, sales and customer success teams can focus on onboarding, retention or loyalty programs which can result in even more sales, amazing customer satisfaction rates, more renewals, and lower churn rates.

5. Use Chatbots to Simplify Your Work Week

Without a doubt, chatbots are great tools to simplify a number of different tasks: they can generate leads, increase engagement, take care of FAQs, provide 24/7 support and even sell your products and services.

Using chatbots for these and any number of other functionalities can save you time and money which you can allocate towards other things.

As with every automation you implement in your business, chatbots can save you countless hours a week and depressurize you. Implement a chatbot today and start reaping the benefits tomorrow!