A great staff is hard to find, especially if you’re a small business owner operating on a tight budget. It’s no wonder you can run into chatbots on just about every website you visit. After all, it’s hard for a chatbot to resign (at least until AI becomes self-aware). Fortunately, customers aren’t totally opposed to chatbots—a whopping 62% of customers said they would rather use a chatbot than wait for a customer support representative.
But how can your business best use chatbots? We’ve got a collection of chatbot ideas for businesses that can help you deliver quality support and more. Then, we’ll explore a handful of tips to increase your chances of a successful chatbot launch.
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8 chatbot ideas any business can use
There are numerous types of chatbots available. With the rapid advancements in AI, both existing and future chatbots are in a constant state of flux, too. Fortunately, there are several core chatbot ideas for business that you can explore today.
1. Promo or campaign-specific chatbot
During promotions and campaigns, we often rely on landing pages, ad pushes, email marketing, and other marketing channels to get the word out. And, your sales team of course. Why not use a chatbot?
A promo or campaign-specific chatbot is built for a specific page. This kind of chatbot can provide tailored services and keep the discussion focused on specific campaigns or promo efforts.
For example, say you’re running a campaign to promote a new product or service. On your campaign landing page for this product or service, you can have a chatbot that greets visitors. From there, the chatbot can provide further details on the product or service, and answer any questions.
Not only will a campaign-specific chatbot help deliver a more helpful experience for customers, but it can even act as a form of lead qualifying and collect their contact info at the end of a conversation.
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2. Lead gen chatbot
A lead generation chatbot is a bot that’s more conversational and less salesy. This kind of chatbot can focus on providing information and answering questions visitors may have about products or services. Then, the bot provides an opportunity for the person to leave their email and name, basically acting as a form fill.
Typically, a lead gen chatbot should focus on asking guided questions that help qualify, or disqualify, someone as a potential candidate for a certain product or service. If you have multiple products or services, the bot should steer them toward the right one, before prompting them to leave their contact info. Think of a lead gen chatbot as a screening call from a salesperson.
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3. Feedback chatbot
Feedback and reviews are essential to any business, especially if you want to know how you can improve. Feedback and reviews are also a core part of the shopping experience for customers. An estimated 93% of people look at online reviews at some point.
Collecting feedback should be a top priority for you. To make this happen, you should simplify the feedback collection process. This is where a feedback chatbot comes into play.
A feedback chatbot takes a conversational, casual approach to collecting feedback or survey data. Rather than sending someone a survey email they’ll likely ignore, a feedback chatbot prompts the customer to leave feedback after their shopping experience, right there on the site.
A feedback chatbot can be serious, humorous, or playful, but the end goal is the same: gather survey or feedback data without presenting the same barriers or time commitment as a traditional survey. No matter the approach you take, you want to make sure you’re not asking too many questions, and that you’re making the process as quick and painless as possible.
4. Marketing chatbot
A marketing chatbot is the ultimate product specialist. A marketing chatbot should live on a product or service page, and serve to answer questions customers may have about various items. From there, the chatbot could offer insights and guide user toward whichever products or services make the most sense for specific customer needs.
A marketing chatbot should also give someone the opportunity to leave their contact info, especially if they’re interested in talking to a specialist about a demo or purchase.
5. Facebook chatbot
There are more than 3 billion monthly active users on Facebook. Not only is everyone and their mom on Facebook, but your business is also likely on there. And if it’s not, it should be.
Facebook Messenger is a quick and easy way for people to reach out to your business with any questions. Unfortunately, you may not be available to reply to questions in a timely manner. A Facebook chatbot can pick up the proverbial phone, anytime.
A Facebook chatbot is a bot that integrates with Facebook Messenger, allowing customers to get prompt replies from your brand no matter the time of day. Facebook chatbots are great for providing support, directing people to the right page or resource on your site, and even recommending services or products. Most of all, a Facebook chatbot at least lets someone know your brand is listening.
6. Billing bot
When it comes to providing timely support, few times are more stressful or important as those related to billing. A billing bot specialized in handling payments or billing-related issues can be a lifesaver in these situations.
A billing bot can integrate with your general chatbots or be tied to specific checkout pages. Regardless, a billing bot should answer billing-related questions, integrate with your payment platform, offer order info, and be capable of handling payments. Not only will this benefit your customer, but it will also help you collect payments promptly.
7. Booking bot
Depending on the kind of business you run, booking appointments is potentially a huge part of your day-to-day focus. A booking bot can help with this burden, either standing alone or integrating with your general bot.
A booking bot can answer questions and then guide a visitor through the demo or service booking process, collecting all essential information. From there, your sales team can go through the bookings and begin reaching out to the leads.
It’s important to ensure your booking bot plays well with your existing tools. For example, booking bots often pair with CRM platforms. Make sure any booking functionality within your booking bot works with your CRM, otherwise, the bot will cause more harm than good.
You also want to make sure you have the staff support required to handle an influx in appointment or booking issues and the bandwidth to deliver on the services booked.
8. FAQ bot
An FAQ section of your site for SEO is a great resource to offer, but an FAQ bot allows you to take things a step further. An FAQ bot focuses on answering any and all questions a site visitor has. Like other bots on this list, an FAQ bot can stand alone or integrate with your general chatbot.
When developing your FAQ bot functionality, partner with your sales and customer support teams. Ask them to flag any new, common questions as they arise. From there, make sure the chat flows are created for these new questions to ensure the bot is capable of answering them.
Just be sure to keep in mind that updating your FAQ chatbot is an ongoing process, as questions will evolve.
4 quick chatbot tips
The best chatbot ideas can only get you so far if they’re not propped up with the right foundation. No matter which of the chatbot ideas above you decide to try, these tips can help you get the most out of your chatbots.
1. Test, test, test
Of the customers who used a chatbot in 2023, only 25% said they’d want to engage with one again. It’s important that you make sure your chatbot is delivering a great customer experience, and testing is key to that.
First, you want to make sure the chatbot is playing well with your site and various tools.
- If you’re using it for billing, does it integrate with your ecommerce platform?
- Does it sync up with your CRM and capture customer info correctly?
- Is it syncing with your ordering system to provide accurate details for customers?
Next, it’s important to test the chatbot conversation flows. Is it asking the right questions and providing the right responses?
Have your team, and then a small team of external testers, run through various chatbot flows and offer feedback. Do they think the conversations are organic and helpful? How could they be more useful or streamlined?
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2. Track chatbot engagement and performance
Like any marketing effort or business venture, make sure you’re tracking chatbot performance. Both immediately after launch and throughout the course of your business, ask the following about your chatbot:
- Are people using it?
- Is the chatbot meeting campaign goals? Driving leads, collecting survey data, etc.
- What percentage of conversations result in a purchase or desired action?
- How long are average conversations?
Keep in mind conversation range can vary by type of conversation. A quick inquiry should be exactly that—quick. An FAQ session or product inquiry could be longer.
3. Embrace change
Your chatbot isn’t set in stone. As you track performance, make adjustments and see how metrics shift.
Outside your own chatbot performance, keep a close eye on the market and change your chatbot in kind. Are people expecting chatbots to perform a certain function? Make sure yours can.
Monitor chatbot developments and tech as well. If a new form of AI is available and changing the chatbot world, see how you can integrate it into your own chatbot functionality and workflows.
4. Seek out professional help
Don’t be afraid to get help from professionals. Chatbots are technical by nature, and the industry itself is always evolving. Help from chatbot pros can free you up to focus on driving your business forward, and ensure you’re getting the most out of your bot efforts. For example, if you’re ready to take these chatbot ideas to the next level, see how our solutions can help your business engage customers through the power of live chat.
How to make these chatbot ideas work for your business
There is a chatbot solution out there for just about any small business challenge. Try a few of these chatbot ideas to see what works best for your unique needs, and be sure to track and pivot your live chat strategy as it progresses.
To recap, here are the top chatbot ideas that you can work into your business’s marketing strategy:
- Promo or campaign-specific chatbot
- Lead gen chatbot
- Feedback chatbot
- Marketing chatbot
- Facebook chatbot
- Billing bot
- Booking bot
- FAQ bot
