There’s no question that chatbots have drastically changed the way business owners reach out to their customers. Programmable communication bots have taken over many B2B and B2C businesses. The evidence is all around us. A Juniper Research study predicts that by 2020, chatbots will play a role in a staggering 85 percent of all interactions between businesses and their customers.

Part of what makes chatbots so valuable is the way they can catch the interest of our customers and keep them engaged. If you’re new to the world of bots on your website or business social media page, you may be wondering how you can implement chatbots in ways that improve customer engagement.

Here’s what you need to know.

One of the most common uses for chatbots is to solve customer issues on the fly. No one wants to think that their bot may get stuck and not be able to answer a customer’s question correctly–but as these issues arise, you’ll start to notice patterns.

Instead of letting this gap break you, let it define your business. Make sure you reach out to that customer and help them in any way that you possibly can. However, if you notice that multiple customers have a similar question that your chatbot can’t answer, you’ve just identified an issue with your program.

Luckily, you can adjust the conversation flow and help future customers when they are having similar issues. Once you pinpoint a trend, you can ‘retrain’ your bot to anticipate this problem and help the customer. Future customers will be able to get an answer if they run into the same problem. The result is a more engaged customer who is pleased to discover that the company they are using understands where they may run into problems.

Bots are Great at Cross-Promoting

If you have a standard help bot on your website, you can encourage it to ask the people who land on your site to sign up for your business through the Facebook Messenger application. Email is still an accessible and relevant way to generate leads, but social media is closing in fast.

Depending on your customer persona, they may prefer to get your marketing messages through the Facebook Messenger application over traditional email. You have to make sure you’re presenting that option to them when they land on your website.

Here, we can see an example of a popup that encourages customers to sign in with Messenger to get a free guide–and future offers

Source

However, there is an option at the bottom for the customer to sign up with their email address. If the customer opts to use the messenger, your bot will be there to help close the deal by delivering excellent content to your new prospect.

Make Sure Your Bot is on 24/7

We know that there are going to be times when you have to take your chatbot down for analytic analysis and tweaks, but other than that you should try to keep your bot up 24 hours a day. Chatbots Magazine conducted a survey and discovered that 66 percent of millennials say that 24/7 service is something they consider a benefit to websites currently using bots.

Source

The same survey revealed that 61 percent of baby boomers think that getting an immediate answer to their question is an excellent benefit of using a chatbot. In other words, customers want to engage with you and your business. If you have a bot available to handle customer concerns–regardless of the time– you’ll stand a better chance at keeping and engaging leads as they go down the sales funnel.

Conclusion

There are plenty of reasons you should consider adding a chatbot to your website. Technology today makes it easier than ever to install and set up your first bot. The most important benefit is that you’ll be able to keep a constantly open line of communication with your audience.

Communicating with potential customers adds leads to your marketing list, helps you identify key issues or questions regarding your product, plus it helps build engagement and rapport. The longer you use a chatbot on your website or social media channel, the stronger bond you’ll create with your audience.