Studies show that the number one reason for contacting a chatbot is to receive an answer to a query. If we’re scouring the internet for a particular set of clothes and we find it – albeit not available for our size – then a solution would be to contact the store so they can double-check if they might have the item.
What happens if we just don’t feel like talking to someone on the phone, though? You already know the answer: contact the website chatbot. You log onto their webpage, open the chat box, and write your question. In a prim and proper manner, the bot will answer your inquiry, and you’ll have saved yourself an awkward, half-hearted conversation with a tired store employee.
The pioneers that are at the forefront of this new frontier of quick customer service are called “FAQ-based chatbots.” Here’s how they work.
What Is a FAQ-Based Chatbot?
FAQs – frequently asked questions, that is – are one of the biggest difficulties that customer service operations have to deal with. If you have a big business, then you’re probably receiving hundreds of calls (or messages) per day. Most of these calls, however, don’t have as much mass or weight as others: they’re quick and could have easily been avoided if the customer properly did their research.
As such, to deal with a constant barrage of frequently asked questions that take up valuable time and manpower, businesses have taken to developing chatbots whose sole purpose is to answer common customer inquiries. The customers can’t be expected to actively seek out information about a product all the time; after all, one of the keys to turning a profit is making it as easy as possible to purchase the product.
These FAQ-based chatbots have been proven to drastically improve the speed and efficiency with which customer service questions are answered. A well-designed chatbot can:
- Allow human customer service agents to focus on the difficult tasks.
- Maintain a 24/7 online presence so that customers can always reach you.
- Properly inform and guide customers to greatly reduce future calls.
- Build rapport between your brand and your target audience.
- Give your brand a tangible “face.”
The automation of processes that would take up resources in order to be completed is a great boon for any business, especially one that is hard-pressed on time or employees. While a FAQ-based chatbot can help solve or divert a huge amount of questions, it’s important to remember they’re not an end-all solution to customer inquiries.
How Do FAQ-Based Chatbots Work?
Most FAQ-based modern chatbots are of three common types: rule-based, artificial intelligence, and hybrids, which aim to be a mix between the previous two. These terms detail their internal learning mechanism and function as such:
- Rule-based: Also called linguistic based, rule-based chatbots attempt to predict the sort of question a customer might ask. By setting up a well-defined range of parameters that can pick up on the intricacies of language, a chatbot can attempt to guesstimate what a customer might be conveying to them, after which it will draw a relevant answer from its database.
- Artificial intelligence: Frequently called Natural Language Processing (NLP) bots, this type is considered to be more refined than their rule-based counterparts as they attempt to dissect and understand the language that is being spoken with a customer. These chatbots are most frequently the ones that present you with several choosable and predictable follow-ups to their answers.
- Hybrid: Chatbots can be a complex and sophisticated topic to tackle, which is why some companies have taken to settling down for a mix between rule-based bots and artificial intelligence bots.
Your Questions, Answered
With the internet being inhabited by millions of chatbots, we can’t help but hark back to the time when we didn’t have such luxuries at our disposal, and we had to painstakingly hold conversations with store employees on the phone, or – God forbid – leave our homes to go visit the store itself.
It’s hard to imagine such a time, we know. Fortunately for us, chatbots are only getting better and better. We can do so much without getting up from the couch, after all – and we’re not surprised businesses like to take advantage of this with chatbots. Oh, the modern day and age – how we love you!
Interested in finding out more about chatbots? Learn more here!
