When technology was on a rise, it took other industries with it as well to achieve the "so-called-impossible".
When talking about Commerce, it is probably one of the few industries that faced the most disruption at the hands of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence that delivered us E-commerce as the byproduct of these changes.
Speaking of Chatbot technology, it is a small part of Artificial Intelligence just like Machine Learning. Chatbots have played a big hand in changing the commerce industry. In fact, as shown in the image above, Chatbots are expected to take over 85% of customer service by the year 2020, something that is a clear indication of the positive reception of this technology by industries and organizations.
Now, as useful these chatbots are in enhancing the user experience when a user visits the website or a mobile application, they may not work optimally every time, something that is a reason for concern.
The primary thing that you can do to make sure that your chatbot is the best available in the market is to choose a competent app development company that knows how to perform flawless chatbot development. Secondary to this, we have some tips that you can also try to make sure that your chatbot is performing to its full potential and hence ever-increasing user experience.
However, before that, let's go through some key metrics to evaluate the chatbot performance.
Activation Rate
It is the rate at which a user responds to a chatbot's first text message in the form of a question or an answer related to the business. So, to evaluate the activation rate, you need to examine - Number of users that interacted with the chatbot, the number of users who replied to the chatbot's message, the total number of users sending query messages to the bot.
Session Per User
To determine the efficiency of the chatbot, this is another key metric that is very useful. Here, the result may vary based on the purpose of the chatbot. Suppose, your chatbot's primary goal is to answer users' queries, and if they are frequently visiting the bot, it might be a sign that they are not satisfied with the answers they get at a time. Whereas, if your chatbot is supposed to encourage users to buy your products, these several interactions are a boon for you.
So, now with the basics out of the way, let's move on to the tips to optimize your chatbot's performance.
Careful Selection of the Bot's Platform
Because Chatbots are a part of technology, they need a base or platform in this case on which they can be developed. Now, to procure higher efficiency from the chatbots, app development companies must consider this a priority to carefully choose the platforms. There are many platforms and multi-purpose frameworks available in the market rendering higher Chatbot performance such as Chatty People, PandoraBots, Microsoft BOT framework, etc.
Use Images, GIFs, and Videos
Though AI-powered chatbots are a great way to be in touch with your customer 24X7 by generating contextual conversations with them based on the data collected by the bot to learn from the past customer behavior, there are still certain things you can initiate in your bot to optimize its use.
You might not want to bore your customers with just the textual chatting functions, giving them an experience that they will think about later is something you should aim for. In which case, you should use content like videos, images, etc. in your bot conversations so that the users are more interested in the engagement hence increasing the user experience. This is an ideal way to employ for shopping portals on which users can directly see the products just inside the chatbot tab. One case in point is the FPT Shop.
Refrain From Open Questions
However efficacious a chatbot may be, it still does not compare to human intelligence. Though they are able to curate conversations around a few topics they are programmed to handle, they are not yet capable of conducting conversations solely on their own.
Program your chatbot in a way that it only asks questions it can give an appropriate response to. Say, your chatbot must question "Do you want this shirt in red or blue?" Instead of asking "Which color do you want in this shirt?" for a different color stated by the user may not be available.
Decrease the Downtime of the Bot
Chatbots are more efficient than humans in the sense that they are always online, meaning they can cater to the users 365 days a year. This is one of the reasons why businesses invest in chatbot app development in the first place. So, when you are deciding which platform is the most ideal for your business model, you should also check the probable downtimes of the bot server and how is its performance.
Keep Security a Priority
It has been noticed that in 2018 people made online transactions of $2 billion USD through Siri, Google Assistant, and other assistants. This means that developing a chatbot that is secure will boost the confidence of the users on your platform. You can ensure the security via methods like data encryption, use of access tokens, etc. to keep the malicious attackers at bay. What is more, one thing that is usually forgotten but is highly important is updating the outdated libraries. Doing so enhances the security shield of your chatbot
Keep Testing
For better chatbot performance, it is advised that you keep on testing your bot's efficiency on different aspects such as from a user aspect, developers aspect and more. This way you can detect any underlying issues with your bot before they create much mess.
By doing all the above-mentioned tips, your chatbot is assured to give you show results in its performance and also an increase in the user experience, which is a boon for your business in the long run.
