From Queries to Conversations: Unleashing the True Power of Conversational Chatbots!

Online commerce started picking up in the late 90s, but there were very few takers. In India, we were just getting warmed up to ATM cards issued by banks, and no one wanted to use them on online websites. They weren’t sure if they could trust those sites with their banking details.

So, while the technology was available, most of those online commerce platforms did not find traction.

In 2002, IRCTC came up with the option of buying online railway tickets. As this was government-operated, people were fine with starting to use their banking cards on the IRCTC website.

IRCTC was the pioneer in getting Indians to use their cards online, and the rest became history.

Now, in the conversational chatbot or AI category, IRCTC is again leading the pack with its Ask DISHA chatbot.

We are talking about more than a million booked tickets every day on the IRCTC app, and IRCTC is hoping that about 30% of these will move to the chatbot, considerably easing the traffic on the website and app.

Initially, Ask DISHA was launched as a replacement for their FAQ section, but this did not have much traction. Now, with the introduction of ticketing and multi-language capabilities, there is a huge uptick for IRCTC’s AI assistant. Besides, it allows users to communicate with the system via Voice, Chat, and click-based options.

I have booked my last three travels using Ask DISHA, which was easier than using the app. In my mind, IRCTC is only scratching the surface with its AI virtual assistant, and there will be a lot more in the future.

The Rise of Conversational Agents in the Customer Experience Space

The global conversational AI market was valued at $5.78 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $32.64 billion by 2030, with a compounded annual growth rate of 20%.

A Gartner study states that the deployment of conversational AI within contact centers is expected to reduce agent labor costs by an impressive $80 billion by 2026.

Who will be the early adopters of conversational agents?

AI deployments require extensive development and integration, and organizations with more than 2500 agents and the necessary technical resources are likely to be the early adopters.

Chatbots are becoming indispensable in customer interactions, with almost 90% of the people having already engaged in at least one chatbot conversation.

Besides, a remarkable 62% of customers prefer interacting with chatbots rather than waiting for a human agent. Even small businesses have started integrating chatbots as a part of their customer experience function.

With conversational chatbots, you can handle almost all transactional queries and be the front for complex queries, making consumers’ lives easier.

Conversational Chatbots – Use Cases

Internet Service Providers

I don’t remember the last time I spoke to anyone at my provider’s customer care to lodge any issues or complaints.

I have been using their basic chatbot, which allows me to choose from pre-defined menu items to log my requests or complaints. Most interactions with my service provider are transactional and are few and far. Every time I have an issue, I go to their chatbot and log my request, which gets resolved within the given SLAs.

They don’t have to staff their customer service to handle such routine queries.

Education

When I wanted to learn about the course structure, I did not have to go through the educational institution’s website.

Instead, I asked that question to the chatbot and I got all the relevant brochures delivered as a pdf on the bot in addition to those documents being sent as an email.

Besides, bots can help guide students with admission procedures, answer common registration queries, and send out timely reminders.

E-Commerce

You have the Amazon’s of the world that proactively communicates everything related to your order even without you asking for it.

How about the smaller operators? They may not have the resources to do what Amazon does.

But can they do something about it?

Definitely, yes!

You can use a conversational chatbot that is integrated with your internal systems. This can handle most transactional queries related to your order status. With WhatsApp integration, these chatbots can make your life easy by constantly sending out reminders about your order and delivery status.

Healthcare

What is the biggest problem in the healthcare industry?

It is the no-show after setting up an appointment to meet with the consultant. This can bring in huge lost opportunities and operational inefficiency.

With a conversational chatbot that is integrated with the messaging app, you can send reminders to confirm, reschedule, or cancel appointments. This would allow the healthcare facility to reduce the number of no-shows, thereby saving money and making it more efficient.

We have helped one of the largest multi-specialty hospitals in India reduce their appointment no-shows to near zero.

Banking

I have been banking with one of the leading banks in India for the past 20+ years. I don’t remember the last time I visited their branch.

I use their Internet banking and mobile banking applications. Besides, they have assigned a dedicated relationship manager to address my needs that have not been fulfilled by the web and mobile applications.

While I was comfortable accessing their mobile applications to know about my transactions, managing the card limits, blocking the cards, etc., it still took some effort from my side to do them. Now, they have integrated a messaging app with their backend that allows me to do all of these at the click of a button.

It is very comfortable. Besides, I get offers on new products and existing products based on my usage patterns.

Government

Earlier, it used to be a struggle for me to pay my property tax and water tax to the corporation. You pay them only once every six months, and you tend to forget the credentials to access them.

Now, the corporation has come up with a chatbot. All I had to do was key in my mobile number, and they sent me an OTP to log in. I can access the details of my property tax and water tax that is pending. I can click and pay it from the bot itself.

How Do You Implement a Chatbot for Your Business?

Let me explain this with a use case of banking customer support for better understanding. Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can implement it.

Step 1: Goal Definition

1. Provide instant responses to customer queries 24/7
2. Implement updated FAQs to reduce call center load
3. Automated account-related services like balance checks and transaction history
4. Offer loan application guidance and eligibility checks

Step 2: Use Case Identification

1. Fetch real-time data on account balance and transaction history
2. Block a lost card, request a new one, and check card limits
3. Provide eligibility checks, interest rates, and loan application tracking
4. Help customers report suspicious transactions
5. Provide branch and ATM locations based on the user’s city or zip code

Step 3: Choosing the Right Chatbot

For the defined goals and identified use cases, a hybrid chatbot would be ideal, which combines rule-based flows for FAQs and AI for complex queries.

Step 4: Platform and Technology Selection

Identify the right partner who can provide you with a scalable framework and a working solution. I am assuming that, as a bank, you wouldn’t be looking at developing it in-house.

Step 5: Conversation Flow Design

Here is an example.

Customer: What is my account balance?

Chatbot: Sure, I can provide that. Please verify your identity by entering the last four digits of your account number.

The customer enters the details.

Chatbot (fetches data): Your current balance is INR XXXXX.

Use natural language understanding (NLU) to recognize different ways of asking the same question while offering quick reply buttons for common tasks. Also, ensure that there is a seamless transition to human agents for complex questions.

Step 6: Chatbot Training

This is a continuous process. What’s my bank balance Vs. How much money do I have? They are the same questions asked differently by different customers.

You will have to train your chatbot to understand this. You also have to bring on context awareness based on past interactions.

Besides, it would be a great idea to bring in multilingual capabilities. 

Step 7: Integrations

You will have to integrate your chatbot with core banking systems, CRM systems, security layers, and fraud detection systems.

This would ensure smooth operations of your chatbot.

Step 8: Test and Optimize

Test and optimize your chatbot based on real-time queries. You will have to test for the bot’s understanding of queries, security vulnerabilities, and integrations.

When in doubt, the bot should always refer the query to a human agent.

Step 9: Launch and Promotion

Roll this out in a phased manner with beta customers first. Then, you can roll this out with a mass campaign for all the bank users.

Step 10: Monitor and Scale

Monitor the efficacy of the chatbot by collecting feedback from your customers with metrics like CSAT and NPS. Slowly, you can keep expanding the use cases to make it a one-stop shop for all your customers’ banking needs.

Bots are the new apps. People-to-people conversations, people-to-digital assistants, people-to-bots, and even digital assistants-to-bots  – that’s the world you’re going to see.

– Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Look at these statistics:

• 90% of consumers expect instant responses to their inquiries.
• 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to an agent.
• Businesses using AI-powered chatbots have reported a 20-30% reduction in operational costs while improving customer satisfaction.

The future is conversational, whether it is about resolving FAQs or addressing queries, and chatbots are positioned well to address this expectation. 

A well-designed chatbot can handle about 80 to 90% of the queries.

Are you ready to transform your customer experience with conversational chatbots? The time is now, or you’d be too late to the party.