{"id":6120,"date":"2019-06-12T11:11:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T18:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/?p=6120"},"modified":"2023-08-22T09:53:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T16:53:34","slug":"benefits-of-chatbots-for-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/data-science\/benefits-of-chatbots-for-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Chatbots for Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chatbots are evolving at an accelerated pace, and there\u2019s a pretty good chance that we have all interacted with an artificially intelligent chatbot at least once. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent years, chatbots have started to play a more prominent role in enterprise operations across industries. Today, chatbots can be integrated into apps, social media platforms, and websites to enhance customer service functions and marketing strategies.&nbsp;<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going forward, chatbots will be the underlying force that helps businesses scale, boost productivity, enhance customer service, and cut costs.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, before we go any further, let\u2019s clearly define them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Are Chatbots?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A chatbot (or chat robot) can be defined as an artificial conversational entity that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">leverages text-based signals or key pre-calculated user phrases <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16366\/chatterbot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to stimulate interactive human conversation<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. While chatbots might be the rage at present, they have been around for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the earliest examples of chatbots is <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/psych.fullerton.edu\/mbirnbaum\/psych101\/Eliza.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ELIZA<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a simulation of a Rogerian psychotherapist that first emerged in 1966. Another example is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2014\/06\/when-parry-met-eliza-a-ridiculous-chatbot-conversation-from-1972\/372428\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PARRY<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which in 1972 attempted to model the behavior of a paranoid schizophrenic.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With significant strides made in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, chatbots have come a long way. Today, they can <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/inthechat.com\/the-history-and-future-of-chatbots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">adapt and learn based on every human interaction<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and perform simple tasks on their own without human intervention. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This has lead to bots being developed for specific purposes, like virtual assistants (like Alexa, Siri, and Watson) that access data to answer questions or perform tasks. In 2016, Facebook opened its APIs to chatbot developers on its messaging platform. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Twitter followed suit the following year, enabling businesses to use chatbots to perform basic customer service or customer engagement functions. However, we are still a long way from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daytranslations.com\/blog\/translation-bots-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">closely replicating human conversations<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/data-science\/ai-web-development\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read here about the AI use cases in Chatbot working, complementing the work of human programmers. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Are the Different Types of Chatbots You Can Build?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While there are many types of chatbots serving different purposes, the following are the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibm.com\/blogs\/watson\/2017\/12\/3-types-of-business-chatbots-you-can-build\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">main types of enterprise chatbots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that businesses can build:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support Chatbots<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Skills Chatbots<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assistant Chatbots<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support Chatbots<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support chatbots are primarily constructed to master a single domain. This can be, for example, expertise in a specific area (like extensive knowledge about the company). These types of chatbots need to have context awareness, multi-turn capability, and personality.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support chatbots should be able to seamlessly walk users through major business processes and quickly answer FAQs. So when you build support bots, it will be essential to take a short-tail and long-tail combination solution. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will be critical for support bot developers to make sure that the bot is extremely easy to navigate. They should also spend time ensuring that the bot can execute tasks that the users actually care about.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Skills Chatbots<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Skills chatbots can be described as single-turn-type bots that don\u2019t need much contextual awareness. They only need to focus on a set of commands that can make life easier for people. These tasks can be something as simple as turning the lights on or off.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Skills bots will demand speech functionality, so the user doesn\u2019t have to turn on a device or click buttons. The key here is to build a skills bot that can follow commands quickly and allow the user to multitask while engaging with the bot.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As people usually learn what to say (and how to say it appropriately) quickly, there isn\u2019t any need to build contextual awareness unless you\u2019re developing an advanced skills chatbot. Developers of skills bots will need to focus more on keeping integration with home appliances as simple as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assistant Chatbots<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assistant chatbots are more or less a combination of support bots and skills bots. They work best when they have a little bit of knowledge about a variety of topics. Assistant bots have become common because of the extensive adoption of Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assistant chatbots need to be highly conversational and entertaining. Siri is an excellent example of an assistant bot that\u2019s often engaged because it tends to be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaltrends.com\/mobile\/funny-questions-to-ask-siri\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">quite amusing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developers building assistant chatbots need to make it easy for others to understand how the bot is trained. The most challenging part of this scenario will be to cover the extensive range of questions that individual users may ask. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enterprise Chatbots<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For enterprises, chatbots offer the benefit of further communication that helps solve problems. According to a recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mk0drift0ho9g7wbfexi.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018-state-of-chatbots-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> conducted by Drift, SurveyMonkey, Audience, Salesforce, and myclever, 37 percent of respondents stated that they expected to receive quick answers to questions during an emergency. Another 35 percent said they expected detailed answers or explanations to their questions. However, another 34 percent indicated that they used chatbots as a means to get connected to a human. This emphasizes the need for businesses to always have that option. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The respondents called out other key benefits of chatbots:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">24-hour service (64 percent)<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instant responses to inquiries (55 percent)<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quick answers to simple questions (55 percent)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers also preferred a&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chatbot.com\/blog\/six-customer-journeys-you-can-enhance-with-chatbots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">swift answer to their questions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as opposed to a wholly accurate one. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It doesn\u2019t come as a surprise that 43 percent of respondents stated that they preferred to communicate directly with a human instead of a chatbot. This can be directly attributed to their concerns about the following:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">30 percent of respondents were worried that a chatbot might make a mistake<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">27 percent worried that it could only be accessible via a specific medium like Facebook Messenger <\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">24 percent didn\u2019t think that a chatbot would engage them in a friendly manner<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interestingly, when it came to human interaction, these concerns remained the same. So what does this means for enterprises and chatbot developers? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When developing chatbots for specific business purposes, developers need to focus on end-user experiences. This means that the chatbots need to be designed thoughtfully and intelligently to deliver enhanced customer experiences. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this juncture, it\u2019s also important to note that chatbots aren\u2019t suited for every type of business. For example, it\u2019s well suited to online retailers, but maybe not for the healthcare industry, where miscommunication to lead to serious negative repurcussions. The same is true when it comes to a software-as-a-service model, as the needs are considerably different.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While customers may always prefer to talk to a \u201creal person,\u201d enterprises can\u2019t ignore the fact that chatbots generate leads, engage with the customer at the right time during the buyer\u2019s journey, and are capable of interacting with thousands of customers at the same time, cost-effectively. One example: Tommy Hilfiger\u2019s use of a Facebook Messenger chatbot resulted in an 87 percent rate of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2017\/08\/01\/chatbots-on-facebook-messenger-linked-to-increased-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">returning customers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is probably the reason behind the exponential growth of the chatbot market. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandviewresearch.com\/press-release\/global-chatbot-market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> suggests that the chatbot market is currently growing at a compound annual rate of 24.3 percent and is forecasted to be worth as much as $1.25 billion by 2025. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.capgemini.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2018\/01\/conversational_commerce_research_report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conversational Commerce<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, about 35 percent of users have purchased products like clothing or food with the help of a voice assistant. Approximately 44 percent of users would like to initiate a bank transfer with the help of a voice assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another 56 percent of users would like the help of voice assistants to order food from restaurants. The same study also found that users were highly satisfied with using voice assistants to order food (87 percent), make financial transactions (87 percent), buy a variety of products (86 percent), and order taxis (83 percent).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"bg-leaf-50 p-4 my-3\"><h4 class=\"fw-bold text-center\">Get To Know Other\tData Science Students<\/h4><div class=\"row row-cols-1 row-cols-lg-3\"><div class=\"col\"><div class=\"card success-story-card h-100 d-flex justify-content-between mb-0\"><div class=\"flex-grow-1 text-center\"><a class=\"d-inline-block rounded-circle\" href=\"\/success\/peter-liu\" style=\"width:125px;height:125px;overflow:hidden\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/springboard-images\/image\/upload\/v1629203191\/Student%20Success\/Peter_Liu_125x125.png\" alt=\"Peter Liu\" style=\"object-fit:contain;max-width:170px;height:125px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"fw-bold mb-0\">Peter Liu<\/p><p class=\"text-muted lh-1\">Business Intelligence Analyst at Indeed<\/p><\/div><div class=\"w-100 d-block d-md-none mt-3\"><\/div><p class=\"mb-0 mx-auto text-center\"><a class=\"btn btn-primary mx-auto\" href=\"\/success\/peter-liu\">Read Story<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><div class=\"col d-none d-md-block\"><div class=\"card success-story-card h-100 d-flex justify-content-between mb-0\"><div class=\"flex-grow-1 text-center\"><a class=\"d-inline-block rounded-circle\" href=\"\/success\/ginny-zhu\" style=\"width:125px;height:125px;overflow:hidden\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/springboard-images\/image\/upload\/v1629203192\/Student%20Success\/Ginny_Zhu_125x125.png\" alt=\"Ginny Zhu\" style=\"object-fit:contain;max-width:170px;height:125px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"fw-bold mb-0\">Ginny Zhu<\/p><p class=\"text-muted lh-1\">Data Science Intern at Novartis<\/p><\/div><p class=\"mb-0 mx-auto text-center\"><a class=\"btn btn-primary mx-auto\" href=\"\/success\/ginny-zhu\">Read Story<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><div class=\"col d-none d-md-block\"><div class=\"card success-story-card h-100 d-flex justify-content-between mb-0\"><div class=\"flex-grow-1 text-center\"><a class=\"d-inline-block rounded-circle\" href=\"\/success\/jasmine-kyung\" style=\"width:125px;height:125px;overflow:hidden\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/springboard-images\/image\/upload\/v1629203191\/Student%20Success\/Jasmine_Kyung_125x125.png\" alt=\"Jasmine Kyung\" style=\"object-fit:contain;max-width:170px;height:125px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"fw-bold mb-0\">Jasmine Kyung<\/p><p class=\"text-muted lh-1\">Senior Operations Engineer at Raytheon Technologies<\/p><\/div><p class=\"mb-0 mx-auto text-center\"><a class=\"btn btn-primary mx-auto\" href=\"\/success\/jasmine-kyung\">Read Story<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best Practices: How to Use Chatbots to Grow Your Business<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re considering building a chatbot to grow your business, you have to first identify its primary purpose and then follow a set of best practices that go beyond the natural language processing (or NLP, which falls under the domain of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/data-science\/data-science-definition\/\">data science<\/a> and artificial intelligence,) and personality of the bot.<\/span> and the <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">personality of the bot.\u00a0This means that your chatbot development team will have to account for multiple ambiguities, interruptions, and unexpected scenarios that are innate in real-life conversations. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chatbot software like <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilemonkey.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MobileMonkey<\/a> can be especially helpful, especially if you&#8217;re already identified a specific set of needs, like <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilemonkey.com\/blog\/what-is-a-marketing-bot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">integrating a chatbot into your marketing strategy<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think Like a User <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the planning stage of the project, it\u2019ll be crucial to take a step back and start thinking like a user. You can get everyone in the company involved in this exercise to cover all bases and answer as many questions as possible upfront before building the bot.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This approach will help you save time by negating the need to make a lot of changes in the future. It\u2019ll also go a long way in making a good impression on the end-user.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Establish a Standard Welcome Message <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The welcome message is one of the most important messages that your chatbot will deliver. It should be conversational but designed to help your users (or customers) understand that they will be engaging with a chatbot (and not a real person).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">List What Your Chatbot Can Do<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In your welcome message, you can also list all that the chatbot is capable of accomplishing. This will help users avoid wasting time on activities that aren\u2019t supported by your bot.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The welcome message should also provide users with the ability to restart a conversation. This will help users feel less trapped while engaging with your chatbot. At the same time, make it easy for users to transfer the conversation to a human.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give It a Personality <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Siri\u2019s popularity has a lot to do with its personality. So when you start developing your enterprise chatbot, make sure that it has its own character that\u2019s closely aligned with your brand values.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it\u2019s best to avoid setting a gender. In this scenario, a neutral gender is the best option as it doesn\u2019t draw too much attention to its personality. This approach will help the end-user focus more on the task and not the bot. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intent Training and Natural Language Processing<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chatbots need intent training as part of the natural language processing phase of the project. This can take the form of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chatbot.com\/blog\/new-training-feature-is-here\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conversation training<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that helps the bot identify the right conversation it needs to start with the user. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entity training is also essential to help the bot recognize \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Named-entity_recognition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">entities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d from the conversation with the end-user. Imagining the set of conversations that a chatbot might have will make it much easier to design your enterprise chatbot.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seamlessly Manage Interruptions<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your chatbot also needs to be well equipped to deal with interruptions effectively. A user might change their mind halfway through the interaction, for example, and want to change the topic of the conversation. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chatbot should also be able to switch topics on demand instead of pushing the user to stick to a fixed decision tree that it\u2019s programmed to follow. If the user is unsure about how to proceed, the bot can also provide quick suggestions to help them make a decision. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Versatility Is Key<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you talk to a human being, it\u2019s very rare that they would use the same words or sentences during an interaction. To make chatbot experiences feel natural, developers need to make the conversation as versatile as possible by including a variety of messages a bot can choose from.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Develop a Protocol to Deal With Ambiguities <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes, a bot can identify a variety of values for a given entity, but it won\u2019t be able to handle something it wasn\u2019t designed to accomplish. For example, if you ask an online retail chatbot which smartphone was better, the bot won\u2019t be able to engage unless it was developed to compare smartphone models. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this scenario, the chatbot will come back to whether or not the user is going to make a purchase decision. Whenever a conversation runs out of steam and the user has stopped engaging, it\u2019s best to ask the user if they want to continue the conversation 30 minutes after their last message.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a Plan to Manage Risk<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you build chatbots that pull dynamic data from multiple sources, there\u2019s always a risk of running into technical issues. This makes it vital to set up robust error handling mechanisms on all dynamic services to ensure that users are informed when things go wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test the Chatbot Internally and Externally<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before launching the bot on your website or mobile app, it\u2019s essential to test it internally and externally with trusted users. This approach is the best way to capture all the different variations in conversation including nuances of the product or service. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it is launched, it\u2019s important to have a human element monitoring and improving the intelligence of the chatbot. As mimicking humans is extremely difficult, it\u2019s best to start with most basic and common questions and then build over time.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guard Rails <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whenever users stump the chatbot or ask a question that\u2019s beyond its scope, developers need to ensure that the bot can make an elegant transition into a live chat with a human. As user experience is paramount, ensure that the bot doesn\u2019t repeat \u201cI don\u2019t understand your question\u201d more than three times.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this scenario, depending on the type of business, you can also employ some humor to diffuse any potential issues that may arise.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bots in Action<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"578\" height=\"328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/expedia.png\" alt=\"expedia chatbot\" class=\"wp-image-6123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/expedia.png 578w, https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/expedia-400x227.png 400w, https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/expedia-380x216.png 380w, https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/expedia-380x216.png 420w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 578px) 100vw, 578px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/hijiffy\/top-3-chatbots-that-are-changing-the-travel-industry-d325082c50b8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The travel industry has quickly embraced chatbots. Expedia&#8217;s Facebook Messenger bot lets users book or manage a trip on the go. For new customers, it requests basic information about where they want to stay and then shows the most popular hotel options in that location. The bot shares links that will move users to Expedia&#8217;s website to make the booking, but after a transaction, the conversation will move back to Facebook, where the bot will share a link to the traveler&#8217;s&nbsp;itinerary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/roof-ai-chatbot-1024x802.png\" alt=\"roof ai chatbot\" class=\"wp-image-6124\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordstream.com\/blog\/ws\/2017\/10\/04\/chatbots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Real estate companies around the U.S. are working with Roof to help boost lead generation and lead assignment. This bot&nbsp;responds to user queries immediately and prompts potential leads for additional information before assigning the lead to a sales agent, decreasing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saleshacker.com\/6-ways-to-fix-a-leaky-sales-funnel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leakage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"297\" height=\"407\" src=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/duolingo.png\" alt=\"duolingo\" class=\"wp-image-6125\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.impactbnd.com\/blog\/marketing-chatbot-examples\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duolingo built a bot to help keep users on the app longer and solve a major pain point: practicing their conversation skills in a safe and judgment-free environment. There are multiple characters with whom a language learner can converse, including a chef and a police officer, which adds to the fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The benefits of chatbots are becoming clearer all the time. These AI features aren\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon. They will continue to play a prominent role in brand engagement, generating leads, and delivering enhanced customer experiences. <\/span>Advanced chatbots developed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/data-science\/what-does-a-data-scientist-do\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"24427\">data scientists<\/a> and AI engineers will help in the medical field in the near future by earning people&#8217;s confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So if you\u2019re thinking about leveraging a chatbot to grow your business, make sure to build one that can provide a unique experience that can set you apart from the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"rm has-background\" style=\"background-color:#efeff6\"><strong>Since you\u2019re here\u2026<\/strong>Are you interested in this career track? Investigate with our free guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/data-science\/what-does-a-data-scientist-do\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"24427\">what a data professional <em>actually<\/em> does<\/a>. When you\u2019re ready to build a CV that will make hiring managers melt, join our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/courses\/data-science-career-track\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/courses\/data-science-career-track\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Data Science Bootcamp<\/a> which will help you land a job or your tuition back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chatbots are evolving at an accelerated pace, and there\u2019s a pretty good chance that we have all interacted with an artificially intelligent chatbot at least once. In recent years, chatbots have started to play a more prominent role in enterprise operations across industries. Today, chatbots can be integrated into apps, social media platforms, and websites [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":6726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"marketing_tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-data-science"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6120"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49267,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions\/49267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6120"},{"taxonomy":"marketing_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/marketing_tags?post=6120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}