What is omnichannel in customer support chatbots
Chatbots are nothing new anymore. They have been in the market for several years, sometimes directly attending conversations on channels such as Facebook Messenger, offering to help on web pages, and even, more recently, to notify via WhatsApp.
The major software manufacturers have their own chatbot
technologies (IBM, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, SAP), and there are many other
companies that offer the final configurable chatbot service; either using their
own proprietary technology or that of one of the large manufacturers mentioned
above.
This scenario has managed to establish this technology and
its applications, and allows us to make an analysis of the chatbot type par excellence : the customer support chatbot
or customer attention bot . In general, when we say "chat-bot" we
refer to a bot (that is, a "robot", capable of automating a type of
task. In this case, support communications with users), through a written
channel " chat ".
It is common to generalize as "chatbot" according
to the channel through which the user and the virtual assistant (bot)
communicate. This leads us to the second concept that we are going to cover in
this article: omnichannel, also known in English as omnichannel .
What are customer support chatbots
A customer support chatbot or customer attention bot is a
computer system that allows automating customer service . In general, it will
be by written channel through messaging applications, be it a chat window on a
web page or an app like WhatsApp; although there are other channels and means
of communication as we will see later.
The simplest chatbots present the user with a series of options, like a menu, guiding the user through a decision tree to which messages or questions are associated with the user at each node or point of the dialog. These chatbots act as "wizards" or step-by-step guides, but they are not conversational. An advanced chatbot is able to converse in natural language with the user, that is, it is able to understand the user's messages that the user writes in natural language in an open way. To make this possible, use is made of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, which is a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
A customer support chatbot can be aimed at users who are end
customers (for example: potential buyers on an e-commerce website) but also
internal (for example: employees who consume internal services on a corporate
intranet), or even to external auxiliary customers (for example: on a
third-party provider portal).
The type of service that a chatbot can provide is classified
into four types. While a particular chatbot can cover several of these types
depending on the level of intelligence configured:
• Notifier
Chatbot: Talk to users to communicate alerts, news, and messages.
• Responsive
chatbot: supports users in a specific context.
• Content
chatbot: send relevant content and interact with the user.
• Advisory
Chatbot : Use knowledge from other sources to help users.
The business context in which it can be applied is very
broad, and can be applied to any business or point of contact with the client,
in the same way that support would be given by human agents:
• In
businesses such as: retail, banking, insurance, industry, public
administration, etc.
• In
services such as: pre-sale, post-sale, information points, incident management,
support to operations, etc.
Chatbots have a very positive impact both for those who
provide the automated support service and for those who receive it: