Why Chatbots are the future of Market Research

As technology is continually changing these days, businesses are looking out for the emerging technology to promote and market their products and services which clearly demonstrates that the companies must stay adaptable to compete with other companies.

With each progression in our digital evolution, we move closer to a world where endless marketing opportunities exist thereby opening a gateway to a platform to lure more and more customers to their business. One such breakthrough in the emerging trends of the domain of marketing is Chatbots and they are everywhere! Do you know why chatbots are used? If not here is the answer to all your queries.

Why Chatbots are the future of Market Research

Brands are utilizing chatbots for pretty much every possible task in customer service, doing proper chatbot market research efficient team communication, better sales, and marketing, etc. The results have been quite fruitful and it’s safe to say that the bots are digging in the long haul. Various financial specialists from different industries have faith in the potential of chatbots and subsequently, they are greatly contributing to the growth and development of our bot mates. With technological advancements fueling the growth, the bot technology has come a long way indeed. From a basic menu/button-based chatbot to logical AI chatbots, the number of options that we get is a luxury!

Chatbots are the computer-generated programs that benefit from Artificial Intelligence to communicate and generate conversational interactions with the end-users or customers. Simply put, a bot is simply a computer program that automates certain tasks and in the case of a chatbot, the task being automated is a one to one conversation with a person.

A chatbot is generally narrated as one of the most promising and technologically advanced expressions of communication between humans and machines. Yet, from a technical perspective, a chatbot represents the natural development of a Question-Answering system leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP). Drawing up responses to questions in natural language is one of the most typical instances of Natural Language Processing applied in various businesses’ and end-user applications. It facilitates the online consumers to select the most appropriate services and products as per their needs, answers frequently asked questions from the online customers, notifies the customers and also gives support after a purchase. 

A chatbot gives a response depending on the input from the user. This process may appear simple but in practice, things are quite complex. The ability to recognize the user’s intent and retrieve data and relevant information present in the user’s request is the foremost condition and the most pertinent step at the fundamentals of a chatbot: If you are unable to precisely comprehend the user’s request, you won’t be able to provide the correct answer.  Reverting the response once the user’s intent has been identified, the chatbot should provide the most relevant response for the user’s request. The answer may be any of the following:

1. A text extracted from a knowledge base that contains diverse answers
2. A generic/predefined text
3. A logical piece of information based on data the user has provided
4. A non-ambiguous question that aids the chatbot to correctly comprehend the user’s request
5. Data stored in a company's database systems
6. The result of  a task that a chatbot performs by communicating with one or more backend application

Depending on how a particular bot was programmed, we can divide them into two major groups: A Simple Chatbot (works according to pre-prepared commands) and Smart Chatbots (trained or advanced chatbot).

1. Simple Chatbots work based on predefined keywords that they understand. All these commands are written individually by the developer using regular expressions or various forms of string analysis. If a user asks a question that does not include any of the pre-stated keywords at all, the robot cannot understand it and, as per a predefined command, responds with messages like “Sorry, I could not understand your request” or whatever it is designed to answer.
2. Smart chatbots depend on Artificial Intelligence when they communicate with users. Instead of pre-written answers, the bot responds with adequate suggestions on the topic. In addition to that, all the words said by the user are recorded for later processing.  

Now the question arises that why would a business need a chatbot? The answer is very simple: To get rid of the routine tasks and simultaneously processing of several requests from users. Other than that, an enormous speed of processing users’ requests with the help of chatbots is greatly adding to the customer's loyalty towards the business.  The customers benefit equally from the chatbots as they are increasingly gaining interest in this technology. Moreover, the reason why people prefer to interact with chatbots over the dull and sluggy emails are:

1. Productivity: Chatbots provide assistance or access to information quickly and efficiently.
2. Entertainment: Chatbots are a great source of enjoyment and entertainment as they amuse people by giving them funny tips and also help in killing time when users have nothing else to do.
3. Social and Relational factors: Chatbots fuel the conversion rates and enhance social experiences. Chatting with bots also helps to avoid loneliness, gives a chance to talk without the fear of being judged and improves conversational skills.
4. Curiosity: The newness of chatbots sparks curiosity; people want to explore their abilities and to try something new.

AI Chatbots use can be used in different industries like telecommunication, training, travel, food & nourishment, wellbeing and some more. Indeed, even a great deal of media organizations, web based business organizations, banks, hotel chains, airlines, insurance agencies, medicinal services suppliers, retailers, café chains, and government elements are proficiently utilizing chatbots to handle straightforward customer interactions, as it builds client meeting for promoting and acquaints various ways with speak with them.

Modern chatbots are often used in places where simple interaction with a limited range of responses is needed. This may include marketing applications and customer service, where the chatbots can provide answers to queries on topics such as services, products, and company policies. If a customer's questions surpass the abilities of the chatbot, that customer is usually transferred to a human operator. Chatbots provides enormous help to the marketing team for upgrading the brand or product or increasing the sales which further increases the chatbot future scope of the company’s welfare. 

Communicating with the end-uses through chatting rather than sending emails or text messages has proven to draw a lot more crowd to the company as well as to its Social media handle. Large businesses usually design references for smart chatbots to unlock and share experience in the company more effectively and helps in decreasing the flaws of expert desks fluently. Many a time, chatbots are used online and in messaging apps, but now they are also included in many OSs as smart virtual assistants, like Siri for Apple, Google Assistant for Google/Android Devices and Cortana for Windows. Dedicated chatbot appliances are also becoming increasingly common, such as Amazon's Alexa. These chatbots can perform a great variety of functions based on the commands of the user. 

Almost every business, whether big or small incorporates these interactive agents into their daily functions, operations, communication with customers and sales processes. Chatbots can assist to:

1. Improve customer service

It is the finest alternative for those who do not want their customers to: 

• Keep waiting for the operator’s answer — “Please stay on the line, your call is important to us”. 
• Dig for an answer in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) —users do not have time for scrolling through dozens of pages with instructions.

2. Receive responses faster

Once a company sends out a survey, they want to start analyzing the results right away. With emails, the least could be a week. With messaging apps, one could start receiving responses in a few minutes. As a matter of fact, the average response time for messages is just 90 seconds. With the help of chatbots, one can watch data come in real-time with every question the respondent's answer. There’s no need to wait for respondents to finish the survey or worry about losing data if the respondent drops off before the end. 

3. Streamline the shopping process

It only requires to convey the need to the chatbot and the bot will forward the information to the concerned department. Besides, the chatbot memorizes your preferences and uses this information when you return (Machine Learning).

4. Personalized communication

A chatbot answers specific questions of visitors instead of displaying a long list of irrelevant information. More the attention a customer gets, the greater is their desire to buy something. 

5. Leverage engaged audience

Market research is not a one-and-done job. To ensure that the research is always up-to-date, one needs to be constantly communicating with their target market. With chatbots, it is very easy to re-engage anyone who has previously responded to any of your surveys. You can send follow-up surveys based on the respondent’s previous answers and send them new surveys that may be relevant to them. Respondents who have already engaged with you will be more likely to complete future of chatbots surveys, which ultimately will result in greater survey completion rates and better data regarding the target market.

6. Improve a response rate

Approximately 90% of queries sent from Social Media handles like Facebook and Instagram pages remain unanswered.  The chatbot responds to each one of those messages and converts more visitors into buyers.

7. Automate repetitive tasks

Most customers need  answers on similar questions like, “When do you work?”, “What’s your location?”, “Home deliveries?”, etc.  In order to not have to repeat the same routine every time, make a chatbot.  

8. Get better quality results

To get the most relevant results, you need to ensure that you are only asking people questions that are relevant to them. With conventional market research methods, this is impossible, as all respondents answer the same survey questions. When respondents see questions that are irrelevant to them, they may either select a random answer or stop filling out the survey altogether. With chatbots, it is possible to tailor your survey questions depending on respondents’ answers to past questions, and even provide encouraging messages to ensure respondents complete the survey.  This will boost respondents to provide accurate information and stay connected until the very end. 

Essentially, market research is a conversation with customers regarding how they feel about a particular service, product, business or brand Using the Social Platforms that already exist (like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, Text Messages, etc.) coupled with Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots can initiate the conversations that businesses need to have with their customers. So, are chatbots really the future of market research? The answer is “Yes!” The future of chatbots is bright and it can make businesses effective in terms of services and sales. Just like every new data collection technology the chatbots will drive the industries to adopt and adapt, ultimately providing consultants and researchers with one more tool for the toolbox.

Squareboat is a leading Chatbot company that offers a variety of chatbot services with very reasonable pricing. We offer a variety of Chatbots like Voice-based Chatbots, Customer Support Chatbots, NLP/ AI Chatbots, Virtual Assistant Chatbots, and many more as per your requirement. Squareboat can be your go-to for all your Chatbot requirements.

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