Chatbot: What They Are And How They Work

In the era of Social Networks, communications between brands and customers have become increasingly direct, fast, efficient, human and effective. True, nothing can replace face-to-face chat, but there are many innovations that a brand can take advantage of to get as close as possible to this precious result.

And here, in the modern social, economic and relational context, the recent development of Chatbots can become an opportunity not to be missed for a Corporate Video Production Companies In Dubai and for various reasons. But what are Chatbots? What are their characteristics? And how do they work?

What are Chatbots

Chatbots are software capable of simulating human behavior and intelligent conversation between two people, just like in a common chat, thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies. These are virtual assistants capable of responding to user requests.

As the name suggests, composed of the English verb to chat, chat, and bots, the Chatbots are chats in which one of the two interlocutors is not a human being but a virtual robot with which to converse, to whom to ask for information and request assistance.

In practice, Chatbots are programs that allow you to set up and manage the automatic interaction of instant messaging, a valuable communication tool for companies, both to enter into relationships with their customers and to promote offers, products, and services, both to offer an efficient after-sales service of Customer Care.

ChatBots are based on messaging platforms, such as Facebook Messenger and Telegram, but just think of Siri, the virtual assistant for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Cortona, the Windows assistant, and Google Now, the virtual assistant for Android smartphones and tablets.

The functions of Chat Bots

Currently, different types of Chatbots have been created and the most used ones are those that allow:

• Provide users with timely news about topics he has selected;
• Offer specific discounts and promotions to its customers;
•  Respond at any time to requests for information from customers (or potential customers) and to do so by returning timely and relevant information to them, efficient responses;
• Purchase the selected products without having to abandon the instant messaging interface;
• Provide immediate support for the purchase of e-commerce products or services.

The characteristics of the Chatbots

Why is it convenient for a company to invest in the integration of a Chatbot into its Social Media Strategy?

The answer lies in the characteristics of the Chatbots themselves, which are:

• Convenient, both because many platforms integrate this social networking service within them, and because creating an ad hoc one is not particularly expensive, and, moreover, because it saves resources in terms of time and money. A Chatbot, in fact, unlike what a single human being could do, is capable of responding and managing a potentially infinite number of chats and requests from users;

• Efficient and instantaneous, since Chatbots are always active, every day, 24 hours a day, thus reducing the waiting time for a response for the user and offering them the best solution immediately. In this way the Chatbots are able to meet the needs of customers and users with speed and efficiency;

• Courteous and polite. Courtesy and education are fundamental qualities for a brand that wants to maintain fruitful relationships with users and its customers. Often, in fact, the problem with chats is that those who offer support and assistance and at that moment represent the brand cannot keep calm in all situations, always turning with courtesy, education, and kindness, qualities that instead the Chatbots ensure, in any type of conversation;

• Precise and capable of solving users' problems. Chatbots are software that accurately respond to user requests and who know how to concretely solve their problems. Not only that, because these intelligent conversation systems, over time, understand how to make the answer to be given to those who enter the question more efficiently and precisely.

How Chatbots work

Chatbots must be associated with a page that supports them (for example Facebook) and, once installed, they will intercept every message that a user sends privately to the page in question (think of Facebook Messenger). Based on the default settings, Chatbots respond immediately and effectively to users' requests, conversing with them and evolving interaction after interaction.

That's not all, because every Chatbot has a web address associated with it, so that brands can promote their Chatbots with ad hoc strategies or even with buttons and calls to action that will induce users to consult and use them.

The big advantage of Chatbots is that it is the user who decides to subscribe and access the chat and, therefore, will no longer be interrupted and disturbed with promotional messages, often invasive, but he will decide to contact the Chatbot himself, to choose the number of times and the situations in which he wishes to enter into a relationship with the bot and the brand, to establish whether he wants to receive notifications or not.

A further innovation that has enhanced the functionality and effectiveness of the Chatbots has been the integration of payments in the chat, thus allowing companies to sell their products and services directly through the chat itself, with a few clicks and without users must abandon the ongoing conversation.

Chatbot: opportunity or alienation?

There are many opportunities that Chatbots offer to brands: the ability to communicate promotions instantly, the efficiency of conversations, and the ability to solve problems, the effectiveness of the Social Customer Care service, to remind you of the most important.

Obviously there is no shortage of criticism. There are those who argue, in fact, that Chatbots are a further real step towards the alienation of human conversations.