Chatbot vs support service agent: who is more effective?
6 April 2023
Chatbots have been around for a long time, but the debate over their benefits and effectiveness has not subsided. Some companies still refuse automation, preferring to work only with live employees. Today we will take a detailed look at chatbots and agents to compare and find out which of them copes with tasks better.
Advantages of chatbots
- Available 24/7, allowing customers to get answers to questions in the middle of the night or early in the morning.
- They take on routine, repetitive requeststhat take time away from agents, but do not bring tangible benefits.
- Reduce the average response timeto seconds and reduce the number of customers leaving the site before the agent is released.
- Reduce the load onagents. An endless stream of incoming requests increases the stress level and prevents you from making informed decisions. By reducing the load on agents using chatbots, you can improve the quality of the team's work.
- Allow you to reduce the cost of expanding the team. The growth in the number of customers requires hiring additional employees. The introduction of a chatbot will not replace hiring by 100%, but it will be able to reduce this need.
- Increase brand loyalty. The chatbot will reduce the response time to requests and increase the independence of customers. This will increase the comfort and convenience of interacting with the company, and convenience is considered one of the main factors when deciding on a purchase.
Advantages of agents
- They can solve a problem of any complexity.Chatbots mostly work with simple and medium complex cases. The employee can deal with any problem.
- They cope with new processes and situations. Even the smartest chatbot can fall into a stupor when faced with a new situation. The agent is also not immune from this, however, after the initial stupor, a live employee is likely to find a competent solution to the problem.
- Many users prefer to communicate with a real person. Not every client will agree to solve their question through a chatbot. There may be many reasons for this, for example, uncertainty about the bot's abilities, the supposed uniqueness of its case, or personal preferences. In this case, a live employee will help the company not to miss the client.
Receive fresh insights, strategies, and market analytics.
Let's keep in touch
Chatbot or agent?
In short, the choice in favor of a chatbot or agent should be made based on a specific business task. However, you should not completely abandon the contact center staff or chatbots.
With a successful symbiosis, the chatbot will take on some of the tasks, increasing the speed and quality of service. And the agent, having more free time, can focus on non-standard and complex tasks.
With a successful symbiosis, the chatbot will take on some of the tasks, increasing the speed and quality of service. And the agent, having more free time, can focus on non-standard and complex tasks.
How to increase the effectiveness of a chatbot?
If you decide to implement a chatbot in your work, it is important to approach it wisely. There are many offers on the market, including from Webim, so it will not be difficult to choose a high-quality option.
Having selected a chatbot, configure the basic scenarios and connect it to work. As the chatbot communicates with users, you will determine what should be added and whether custom improvements are required. Try to work out the chat scenarios in as much detail as possible so as not to annoy customers.
You can also connect artificial intelligence (AI) to the chatbot. Such a project will be more expensive and will require more time to implement, but the benefits that you will receive will be incomparably greater.
An AI chatbot can learn, so its responses will get better over time. Such a chatbot will be able to work even with complex, unusual client requests. It still won't replace the agent by 100%, but it will cover a large layer of incoming calls.
Having selected a chatbot, configure the basic scenarios and connect it to work. As the chatbot communicates with users, you will determine what should be added and whether custom improvements are required. Try to work out the chat scenarios in as much detail as possible so as not to annoy customers.
You can also connect artificial intelligence (AI) to the chatbot. Such a project will be more expensive and will require more time to implement, but the benefits that you will receive will be incomparably greater.
An AI chatbot can learn, so its responses will get better over time. Such a chatbot will be able to work even with complex, unusual client requests. It still won't replace the agent by 100%, but it will cover a large layer of incoming calls.
Conclusion
A chatbot and an agent can and should work together. Such a partnership will help the company to use resources efficiently, process customer requests faster and better, and, importantly, reduce the burden on employees. Having eliminated additional stress, the team will stop playing a race against time and will be able to tackle strategically important tasks that are so often postponed due to lack of time or available resources.
Rox.chat provides effortless connectivity with all of them.
Stay connected with your customers
