How to Design a Chatbot that can Improve Customer Experience?

Nothing makes for a bad customer experience, like feeling like they are stuck in support prison. Even if there isn't a human to speak to, a well-designed bot will allow customers to exit at any moment.

FREMONT, CA: The pandemic has had a significant impact on how companies provide support to their clients. Customer service must now be available online and quickly.

Many companies are turning to messengers to provide quick, friendly, and personal support to their clients. They're using chatbots and automation to make these support experiences work at scale.

From the beginning, chatbots have shown great promise in resolving support issues: customers save time, as well as businesses save money — a clear win-win. However, creating bots that actually assist customers is a difficult task. Many bots engage in bait-and-switch behavior, introducing themselves with great fanfare but failing to assist the user after they spend time typing out their issue. This has been a frustrating experience.

[vendor_logo_first]There are a few things companies can do to prevent this. Set expectations with consumers first. When a bot says something generic like "Hi, what can I help you with today?" it's a bad sign because very few bots can answer all customer questions.

Rather, the bot should provide clues as to how it can assist. A good bot may use user context to recommend appropriate queries it can assist with, or it might briefly explain some of the things it can do.

Rather, the bot should provide clues as to how it can assist. A good bot may use user context to recommend appropriate queries it can assist with, or it might briefly explain some of the things it can do.

If a company's platform allows it, the bot should be able to quickly determine whether or not the user's query can be answered by an automated system. Bots are most useful when dealing with common, straightforward questions that do not necessitate the bot learning complex problems. A good bot would send complicated, long-tail problems to the human support team ahead of time.

Nothing makes for a bad customer experience, like feeling like they are stuck in support prison. Even if there isn't a human to speak to, a well-designed bot will allow customers to exit at any moment. If companies don't have enough human support resources, don't be tempted to keep users in the bot flow.

Building a navigation flow without a clear exit or trapping the customer without a place to go is not useful for the customer experience. Bad experiences result in frustration, negative word-of-mouth, and a reluctance to engage with self-serve content that will help later.

The best way to let users leave the bot depends on the situation. The most obvious solution is to have a button that is always present and allows the customer to leave. However, some less apparent features will suffice

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