Think about your favorite in-store experiences. Maybe it's in a restaurant, or perhaps in a shop while you look for something to purchase. It may even be at a service center, interacting with support personnel as you seek a solution to an issue.
Chances are, this good experience has left you with only good things to say about the brand you’ve talked with. Perhaps you’ve come home and told your family about what happened; maybe you’ve recommended the brand to a friend in need of some opinions further down the future.
Now, what if that interaction had gone differently? What if, instead of a cheerful smile and greeting, the staff assisting you looked at you impassionately and said, “What do you want to do today?”
Chatbots are powerful tools that can work great in tandem with a stellar customer service and marketing team. However, a lackluster and transactional voice may not work well with your market. It may even signal to your customers a disconnect between you and them, and cost you a potential or returning customer.
It’s important to ensure your chatbot embodies your brand and business. But where do you start? Here are a few important questions to guide you through the exercise.
Who: Dive Into Your Buyer Persona
When it comes to knowing how to address your market, few tools are as effective as your buyer personas.
Buyer personas describe your target customer: who they are, what they do, what decisions they make, and what values are important to them. Personas provide important information that can inform your business decisions, from product development, to marketing and branding.
If you have not yet taken the time to pinpoint your business’ buyer persona, it’s not too late to get started now. Keeping your buyer persona in your mind as you go through creating your chatbot will point you in the right direction in terms of tone and delivery.
What: Curate Your Own Offerings
Unfortunately, there is such a thing as “too much of a good thing”, and that includes having too many choices before buying a product or service. Don’t be afraid to focus your chatbot’s offerings in order to not overwhelm your customer.
In choosing what to offer, take into consideration the products or services that your customer would most likely be talking about when engaging with your chatbot. Would they be interested in new products, or support for past purchases?
While this data may not be available to you when you create your chatbot, make room for future adjustments. As your chatbot engages with your customers, focus on the most popular offerings that your customers are talking to your chatbot about, and make sure you adapt your conversation tree accordingly.
Where: Placement is Key
Think about where your chatbot should be placed, but also where the entry point of your customer comes from. Intent is important, and where your customers are messaging from can provide key information that can help your chatbot zero in on your customer’s needs.
Messages coming from a visitor to a website may mean a more serious intent to purchase, rather than inquiring on Facebook pages. A message while your customer is on a product page is more likely to be a question relating to the product itself.
If your chatbot can anticipate your customer’s needs, this can reflect well on perceptions about your brand and building loyalty.
When: Hit the Right Tone With Time
Time can play a part in your chatbot’s conversation in more ways than just determining whether to say “Good morning” or not. While certainly useful, think about time in how it affects your character’s mood and intention.
Messaging during working hours can mean your customer would appreciate a more direct, no-nonsense approach that gets them to their purpose in as short a period of time as possible. They will be less patient browsing through a catalog of options than if they were talking to your chatbot in their downtime, at leisure after work.
Is your chatbot primarily answering support concerns, or an ongoing task? Perhaps your customers would appreciate a daily reminder about their package, or even that a product they’ve been eyeing is back in stock. When would be the best time to remind them about this?
Time--whether exact or relative--can be a valuable tool in choosing the right tone or delivering the right message to your customer.
Why: Determine Your Customer’s Purpose
Your buyer persona and anticipation of intention based on placement and time all boil down to one thing: discovering what your customer needs when they talk to your chatbot. Recognizing this and acting on it is key to customer satisfaction.
There will be times when the intent is not clear, when there is not enough information to point us in the right direction. Regardless, quickly determining intent through a solid conversation tree is important in structuring and guiding the customer through the conversation.
If there are no satisfactory, correct answers that your chatbot can give, don’t leave the customer hanging. Make sure to provide them the correct direction to meet their needs, whether it is forwarding them on to a customer service representative or filling out a form for further action.
How: Focus on How You Say It
Delivery and tone is just as important as what you message your customers. The lack of visible and aural cues mean it is all the more important that your wording and tone convey the appropriate meaning.
Your buyer persona is important in this part, as with any other. A young, vibrant market may enjoy a fun GIF or two; an older, professionally-inclined persona looking for solutions may appreciate a straight, no-nonsense approach.
Avoid phrases that are too on-trend, or ensure that you revisit your conversation tree regularly that your messaging does not become dated or inappropriate.
Chatbots are Here to Serve You and Your Customers
Chatbots can be a valuable piece in both your marketing efforts and customer service teams. It doesn’t have to be a transactional or robotic conversation that your customers need to go through. Implemented well, your chatbot can become a key piece in your brand marketing strategy.
Whether you’re in the food, retail, or service industry, a well-implemented chatbot is not only an assistant in automating your business; it can become something that sets you apart from your competition.
It all boils down to breathing life to your chatbot like it is a key part of your staff and business.