In the past decade, no tech has advanced customer service more than chatbots. From changing when and how audiences connect with brands, to transforming the way brands personify themselves, bots have had an incredible impact on the industries they’ve been adopted into. And if you’re in customer service, chances are you’ve seen firsthand just how bot technology can make you and your team’s lives easier. If you’re new to chatbots though, it can feel overwhelming trying to integrate them into your processes. In today’s BetterBot blog, we’re going to hopefully create a little more clarity by zooming into several common ‘problems’ customer service teams face – and why the right chatbot will solve them. 

5 problems your chatbot should solve

Giving back precious time to your teams

In the multifamily real estate space, around half of all prospective leads go unanswered. Why? Simply because property management teams don’t have enough time. This is a common problem across many industries and is one that’s easily remedied with a bot. A chatbot is like a customer service rep that’s always available, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. And with less time spent answering hundreds of inquiries each day, you and your team can spend more time on high-level tasks – like improving your social media presence. In fact, bots can save on average 57.1 hours a month per property. That’s a huge chunk of time your team could be saving.

Handling endless queries with ease

We’ve all experienced that one type of customer that can’t stop with just one question (or five). It can be frustrating and time-consuming to go back and forth with someone when you’re trying to juggle the rest of your day’s tasks. Enter a chatbot, which allows customers to ask as many questions as they’d like and always receive service with a smile. Never again will you have to deal with these extra-inquisitive prospects.

One of the great things about chatbots is that, with the right programming, they can not only share information but crunch numbers and handle tasks like resetting passwords as well. All of the dull and repetitive tasks your customer service team used to have to handle can be taken off your plate!

Personifying your brand

Many brands struggle to create an engaging presence and persona online. It can be tough to create a tone of voice that people want to engage with on your website alone, which is where a chatbot comes in. Guided conversation chatbots like BetterBot are programmable with a variety of different conversational styles and “personalities”. Want your brand to come off as fun and humorous, or direct with no-frills? It’s easy to give your chatbot whatever personality you think your customers will engage the most with. And when you strike the right tone, your audience will keep coming back to engage with your bot (and your brand). 

Less stress on your audience

Most people today don’t want to have to call or email a customer service rep to get an answer on something. It’s time-consuming and anxiety-inducing – especially for those of us who dread phone calls. Having a one-stop customer service bot can greatly reduce the stress on your customers and make it easier for them to engage with you in positive ways. And, if they have a question or complaint that can’t be answered by your bot, they can let you know how best to contact them with a human representative. 

Making it easier to get customer info

Traditionally, if you wanted to get information from a customer, you had to direct them to an oftentimes tedious form. Unless people really want to do business with you, they’re unlikely to spend 5 minutes on a form and freely offer up their info like that. With chatbots, you don’t necessarily need to shove forms in your customer’s face. Chatbots can actually get all the information that traditional forms can, like email address, phone number, etc. And, they can do this through a naturally-flowing conversation. If you’ve had a hard time following up on leads because you didn’t have any contact info, a bot can help you get the info you need to be able to reach out and convert that lead. 

While chatbots can’t solve all our problems (we wish!), they’re definitely a powerhouse when it comes to creating easy solutions for everyday customer services issues. Learn more about chatbots and what they can do for both your teams and your audience in our guide here.