I just watched the film “Multiplicity” from back in the 90s.
It’s a story about a guy who had too much on his plate. Menial activities like work and admin kept him away from his wife, his family, and other things he was passionate about.
So when he found a way to clone himself, he proceeded to do just that.
He used his clones to do all the humdrum activities and tedious tasks that always kept him from doing the things that he really wanted to do.
It’s 22 years later and although we aren’t cloning ourselves... yet.
Chatbots are an exciting new technology that’s in the process of evolving into the next best thing, and many companies are beginning to take advantage of this.
Large US retailer Nordstrom has been using chatbots since 2016. Online and bricks and mortar stores like Glassons are working with them, and of course, Google and Amazon have been on the chatbot bandwagon for years.
Chatbots are more than just AI programs that respond to commands. If used correctly, they have the power to become extensions of ourselves and like virtual employees.
Anyone who has worked in a corporate or office environment will understand how exhausting it can be when you don’t have time to do the work that matters, because of ongoing administrative tasks and routine communication. Chatbots can be build and trained to not only take over our day-to-day tasks (so we can spend more time on creative endeavours and important projects) but also to adapt to our personalities and become more like us.
The compelling thing about chatbots is that they live in direct messaging apps such as Skype and Facebook Messenger, which means you can make yourself available to clients anywhere, any time.
Here are a few ways in which chatbots are being used right now to help businesses increase productivity and creative output, by eliminating unnecessary workloads.
1. Bookings And Meetings
Chatbots can be used to facilitate bookings for businesses such as hotels and office meeting rooms, but also to schedule client meetings with doctors, lawyers, Banks mortgage brokers (for example Squirrel Mortgages chatbot, Alan), and more. These types of chatbots can be especially handy in office environments, where meetings have to be set for large teams of employees with conflicting schedules.
2. Business Database Queries
Chatbots can be used to send custom queries to databases and retrieve simplified reports or information. Think of it as the layman’s SQL. Instead of sending complicated queries that require programming knowledge, useful information can be retrieved from business databases by simply asking the chatbot questions such as: ”How much is our turnover for the day?” or “What are the projected sales for Christmas?”
3. Personalized Customer And Employee Surveys, NPS and the like
Chatbots can make contact with your customers or employees to ask them sets of questions regarding their satisfaction with your product or company. What makes this experience unique is that these types of chatbots are able to react to the answers given, branch out to other sets of questions, or even react accordingly to emotional inputs from the person answering the questions.
Even better, factors like NPS can be gathered immediately following a chatbot interaction, in the same channel, and with very little effort on the part of the user. In our findings to date – customers are delighted with the chatbot experience!
If you want to shift the culture of your business in a new healthy, productive, and creative direction, chatbots are the way forward. To find out about more interesting ways big businesses and brands are using chatbots and other types of AI, contact us.
