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November 12, 20192021 Digital Marketing Trends To Watch Out For (Part 1)
November 15, 2019What is a chatbot?
According to Oxford Dictionaries, a chatbot is “a computer program that can hold a conversation with a person, usually over the Internet.” A great example of a chatbot is a function on your mobile phone, Siri.
Essentially, a chatbot is an automated assistant that communicates with us through text messages, a virtual companion that integrates into websites, applications or instant messengers and helps businesses to get closer to their customers.
Why is it important to have a chatbot in Singapore and Asia?
The normal working hours in Singapore are from 9 AM to 6 PM. After those hours, the Central Business District turns dark and silent. In those hours while you’re out-of-office, business inquiries may be coming in from overseas. While it is normal for us to respond to those inquiries within one to two business days, it will impress your potential customer even more if you can respond to them within five seconds at 3 AM. In order to do that, we’ll need the help of online chatbots to save time and efforts by automating customer support (while we enjoy our beauty sleep!).
On top of getting everything automated, we should recognise that the website should be a 24/7 salesman for your business. So, it should act and respond like one.
In fact, chatbots are so widely used internationally that Chinese WeChat bots can already set medical appointments, call a taxi, send money to friends, check-in for a flight, and has many other uses. All of the daunting tasks that were once done by humans behind the screen are now all fully automated by the system.
Example of Chumen Wenwen, a WeChat chatbot, is being used. Just let it know what you want: restaurant, movie, massage, and it will send you a list of all the things around you.
How to generate leads with a Chatbot?
Essentially a chatbot should be used to engage the website visitors and help with their issues, answer their questions, or collect a lead. But how do we do that? Here at iSmart, we have tried and tested several ways to use chatbots effectively on our website. We’ve found the following to produce the best results.
1. Collect contact information using a pre-survey chat
Ask your visitor some questions before the conversation starts and get personal information, such as their name or e-mail address. Regardless of how the conversation continues, you already have your visitor’s data and you can use it later for marketing and sales purposes.
2. Personalise your conversation with returning visitors
When a returning visitor enters your website, you can use a chatbot to automatically greet them and ask a question, such as, “Welcome back, (First Name)! Are you interested in this product?” If they respond positively, you can allow them to leave their e-mail for later contact.
A chatbot can tell a returning visitor from a new one – you can use that to address returning visitors with a discount to encourage them to buy. This will encourage them to decide on making the purchase faster.
3. Engage with visitors who are about to leave a form
Let’s assume that you had a visitor on your contact page and they filled out the form, but, for some reason, they didn’t submit it. At that very moment, a chatbot can engage them and help with their issues, answer their questions, or collect a lead.
How do to implement a Chatbot on your business?
As a silver agency partner of HubSpot, we’ve used the HubSpot Conversations tool since it was announced in INBOUND 2017. Our aim in using HubSpot’s chatbot tool is that all points of contact we’ve had with a contact will be recorded in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM). With everything measured on one platform, we’re then able to better send out the right content to the right people, all done at the right time.
The best thing is that the HubSpot Conversations tool is free for all! According to HubSpot “With live chat, team email, and an easy-to-use chatbot builder, HubSpot gives you the messaging tools and context to have personalized conversations with prospects and customers at scale — for free!”
Ready to start automating your one-to-one conversations with your website visitors and improve conversions by 25%? Reach out to us today.
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