The Present and the Future of Chatbots Decoded

    Chatbots, B2B, B2C, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, Chatbot Trends Report, Intercom

    After taking over public imagination, chatbots are on the verge of living up to their hype. Now new research commissioned by Intercom indicates the sectors where chatbots can impact the most.

    Experts maintain that chatbots have the potential to transform businesses in several ways: by helping companies meet ever-increasing consumer demands, and by delivering radical efficiencies, naming a few.

    As per the first Chatbot Trends Report that surveyed a sample of 500 consumers and business leaders – business owners saved an average of $300,000 in 2019 by utilizing chatbots. This is the most significant impact happening across support and sales teams.

    Chatbots are spreading rapidly beyond the realm of customer support, driving growth over all stages of the customer lifecycle. Sales teams are now the most common use case of 41%, followed by the support of 37% and marketing at 17%.

    Read More: The Global CMO’s Biggest Challenge for 2020, and How They Will Tackle It?

    But for consumers, there’s some room for improvement: approximately 74% expect to encounter a chatbot on a website, and 87% of consumers still prefer humans to chatbots for quick interactions. Also, 25% of consumers don’t care if they’re talking to a chatbot or a human, as long as they get the desired outcome.

    The survey also found that chatbots are used for a range of automated tasks, from routing visitors’ questions to the concerned team to booking product demos, qualifying sales leads, and engaging website visitors.

    Although chatbots are put to varied uses across the sector, B2C firms were twice as likely as B2B firms to be satisfied with their chatbot investments. B2C queries are less complicated and more repetitive than B2B ones. Sector-wise, the technology industry has 73% chatbot usage,  manufacturing 57%, retail 67%, and healthcare 56%.

    Read More: The Bigger the Riskier!

    This year, chatbots delivered high returns for sales adopters due to massive improvements in how to accelerate the sales job:

    • Chatbots push sales by an average of 67%, with 26% of all sales initiated through a chatbot interaction.
    • 35% of business leaders confirmed that chatbots helped them close sales deals.
    • The top three sales use cases are: qualifying leads and collecting information, engaging website visitors, and booking product demos.

    Over the last 30 years, the way consumers sell and buy has changed tremendously. Gone are the days of telemarketing, cold calling, and, to some extent, mass advertising. Modern consumers expect personalized, fast responses through live chat. Chatbots shine when volumes are high, and scaling is needed for these conversations.