You’ve probably seen a little bubble at the bottom of a website you recently visited. In fact, if you look toward the bottom of this page you will see our chatbot just waiting for one of us to talk to you (depending on what time you are reading this!).

By now you probably know that customer service plays a huge part in your marketing efforts. Chatbots are just one of the many ways your company can leverage the strategy in your current marketing plan.

Chat Is Here To Stay

Chatbots are everywhere and there’s a big reason why they are imperative to your marketing strategy – today’s generation. The professionals that are coming up the ranks would rather text their conversation than actually talk about it.

I am not among this group of professionals (I’m in the more ‘seasoned’ crowd), but I too would rather chat online than call and hit ‘1’ for this and ‘2’ for that. Plus, I am a multitasking fool. I like the fact that I can chat with a representative of the company that I am interested in and keep working on whatever tasks I have at hand. Yes, the word ‘tasks’ is meant to be plural because that is my daily life – never just one item at a time, but many at the same time.

While I’m chatting online, I don’t have to worry about being rude if I get distracted by answering a staff member’s question or responding to a client via email and won’t find myself saying, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Your company’s Facebook page has a chat function, why not your website? For years I have been telling clients, “You have to be where your clients are.” Now let’s add a little fresh seasoning to this strategy: Now you not only have to be where they are, you have to provide the communication options that will appeal to them and that are proven to increase your close rate too. Even Forbes has reported that chatbots are showing a 400% ROI.

I have 3 clients in 3 different industries that are experiencing this. Let’s take a look at why they added this strategy and love it.

Hospitality Chatbot Increase Reservations

Of course you may be wanting me to tell you the clients’ names here, but you will be disappointed as we take our clients’ privacy seriously. One thing I can tell you is that this client owns a vacation rental company in a beautiful mountain playground in New Mexico.

We introduced the chat function to them in early 2017. At first it took some adjustment, but now it comes naturally. Since incorporating the chat functions and the numbers have been run, the company has contributed 35% of their reservations to their website chatbot. These were actual conversations that turned into reservations. Of course, this small company is getting noticed for their impeccable customer service and amazing rentals as well.

Ecommerce Website Increased Quote Requests

This global company sells high-ticketed items on their website, and they needed to increase their quote requests. They implemented the HubSpot chatbot function a year ago. They used the Slack platform to help manage the chats coming in since they have a large sales team that monitors the chats. That way, they knew instantly if the chat had been picked up by another team member or if it was theirs for the taking.

Their quote requests increased by 120% and retailer accounts increased by 72% since implementing the chat function. These numbers have been traced back to the implementation of chat conversations.

AI and Chatbots Working Together for Efficiency

Last but not least is our client that sells compressors internationally. We introduced the HubSpot chat function to this client shortly after they onboarded with us. It was a lot to take in, so we helped them out with managing their chatbot. We quickly learned that some of their chats were not qualified for their compressors, as they only sell commercial compressors and not residential. Once this was realized after careful review, we added AI to their chatbot.

The chatbot asked particular questions to help save time by eliminating those who were not qualified. Depending on which triggers were hit, the AI either told the end user that the client did not carry what they were looking for, or that it would hand over their inquiry for us to take care of. The client’s team is now handling the chatbot on their own as they are able to handle inquiring customers who are qualified for their product.

The chatbot has a proven ROI of 67% and a full year has not been completed to-date. This does not include all the time that has been saved by reducing the inquiries that are not relevant, and we all know that time is money. Of course, you might be thinking that the messaging of their site must be misleading. Unfortunately folks don’t always read, so you get some that don’t realize they are in the wrong place, even though the first thing they see on the client’s homepage is “commercial.”

Now that you have great examples of how chatbots can benefit your company, what are you waiting for? Get to chatting!!!