The World of Chatbots
5 Ways This Technology Will Influence Your Next Purchase
By John Feng

聊天机器人的世界
此科技将会影响你作出下次购买决策的5种方法

你有多少次想要询问某个产品当前促销活动，但是你意识到是凌晨3点？好吧，也许不是经常这样，但碰巧我们所有人，作为消费者，在“常规”客户服务关闭的几个小时内有问题并需要帮助，虽然你仍然会在第二天记住它，而这个品牌却失去了领先优势。

现在让我们可以通过5种方式，让您受到这些复杂的“机器”的影响而作下购买决策：

高度个性化的购物协助

我们正式处于“大数据”时代，所有公司都意识到这一点。通过他们的实体店，网站和社交媒体，他们不断收集有关其客户及其行为模式的数据。现在，当您在绝大多数网站上购物时，您可以选择通过聊天机器人获得帮助，您与它的互动越多，它将为您提供更好的服务。

即时可用性
Chatbots将实现您的梦想，即使有数百万人试图联系公司，也可以在您需要时为您提供所需的全部关注。

没有更多“请等待”和暂停音乐
实际上，75％的客户在持续不良的经历后放弃了通话，而不是回拨并致电竞争对手。好吧，如果您将通过聊天机器人服务，您将无需等待任何事情，几乎所有您的问题都将立即得到解答。

更多人际互动
“机器”将为你提供比人类更人性化的服务。

最终决策中的影响
在关键时刻，机器人将在那里为你服务。它不仅会提醒您购物车，还会向您发送收据，向您提供补充产品的建议，并询问您的意见。

How many times have you realized that it would be so good to ask about a certain product or about current promotions about a specific brand but then you realized it was 3am? Well, maybe not that often, but it happens that we all, as consumers, have questions and need help during hours wherein the “regular” customer service is closed and in that specific moment there are two options: either your commitment to the query goes beyond that day and you will still remember it the next day or not, and the brand just lost a lead.
 

And this is precisely where Chatbots are closing a gap, especially when they introduce themselves to you during the hours of greater need. Starting at 65%, AI Chatbots can reach almost 80% of effectively answered queries as they gather more data along the years. This leaves human customer service with less monotonic answers to the simplest questions.
 

Let’s now go through 5 ways in which you will be impacted by these sophisticated “machines”.

Highly Personalized Shopping Assistance

We are officially in the era of “big data” and all companies are aware of it. Through their physical stores, websites and social media they are constantly collecting data about its customers and their behavioral patterns. Right now, while you are shopping in the vast majority of websites, you will have the option to be helped by a chatbot and the more you interact with it, the better service it will provide to you. It will learn what you like, what is your price range, your favorite brands and which products you are looking for and will recommend what you need (with some margin of error, obviously). Besides this, the AI technology underlying the most sophisticated Chatbots recognizes the typing pattern of every customer and then maintains the conversation accordingly.
 

Immediate Availability at Any Time

Who likes to wait nowadays? Exactly, no one! And the newer generations are even more intense in this “feature”. According to a study, 89% messages that require an answer are ignored and those which get answered have to wait on an average at least 10 hours.
 

Chatbots will fulfill your dreams, giving you all the attention you need exactly when you need it, even if there are millions of people trying to reach out to the company. You will be served as if the company exists only for you.
 

No More “Please Wait” and On Hold Music

It may seem small and insignificant, but it is one of the most critical aspects of customer service. In fact, 75% of customers who abandon a call after a bad on-hold experience do not call back and call a competitor instead. Well, when you will be served by a chatbot, you will not need to wait for anything and almost all yours questions will be answered immediately.

More Human Interactions

Now I am telling you that “machines” will give you a more human service than humans. It sounds ludicrous, but according to Mr. Devine, CMO of WorkFusion, an AI-powered systems company, “they don’t have bad days and they don’t get frustrated by typical customers”. Moreover, Chatbots will always provide you with the best customer services practices as they are not liable to human error. Maybe you will find it frustrating to talk to a machine, but it will deliver the best service to a very large group of people.
 

Impact in Final Decision Making

In the crucial moment, the bot will be there for you. It will not only alert you about your abandoned cart, but will also send you the receipt, advise you with complementary products and ask you for your opinion so that all other users can have a better experience with your knowledge. The bot will keep you informed even about your shipping and will be your first contact if something went wrong with the purchase.
 

Wrapping Up

Whether you are a big fan or not, you are already being influenced by Chatbots and you have to work extremely hard to avoid them in future. They are already very sophisticated and they will only get better with time. With every small interaction with anyone, they will learn and get more natural/human so, in the end, the expression ‘talking to a machine’ will no longer be accurate…