20 stats on how chatbots are changing customer interaction

Is your online customer service guilty of long waiting times, slow responses and receiving repetitive questions? AI chatbots might be able to fix that, and are considered to be the latest SEO strategy for improving user experience.

A chatbot is an AI-powered messaging service that is usually available as a customer service tool to help users reach answers from a business in a short amount of time. These tools are perfect for repetitive tasks which can easily be automated. For example, chatbots can help with providing opening times, updating on delivery tracking or directing users to a certain page on the site.

Chatbots can also be stand-alone tools, such as Chat GPT (powered by Open AI) and Gemini (powered by Google). These are becoming increasingly popular and can be used for all kinds of queries and data-processing tasks.

To get a brief understanding of what some chatbots are capable of, take a look at what Google are doing with their tool, Gemini:

Google – Welcome to the Gemini era

For online businesses, integrations of these chatbots are growing across both e-commerce and lead gen industries, as their versatility makes them useful to all kinds of user queries.

Let’s take a look at how they are being used, and what effect they are having on the way customers interact with businesses.

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Exposure to chatbots

• 88% of people had at least one encounter with a chatbot within the last year.
• Of those, 80% said that they had a positive experience

What are people using chatbots for?

• 35% of people in a Customer Reports survey said they used chatbots to ask questions instead of a search engine.
• Another 35% use chatbots to explain a certain topic in simple form
• The same survey said 23% use it for writing and 17% use it for idea generation.

What are businesses using chatbots for?

• 41% of businesses that use chatbots for sales purposes have seen an increase in revenue by around 67%.
• 37% of businesses are using chatbots for customer support interactions.
• An MIT Technology Review revealed that 90% of businesses using chatbots for customer experience saw faster resolution in complaint resolution.

There are a range of different reasons why businesses might want to use a chatbot, and this is made possible by the quick advancements in AI technology.

For example, many UK banks who experience the same requests day in and out, have now automated these requests through chatbots, as seen by Natwest Bank.

Cora – Helping you with your everyday business banking needs

Chatbot vs customer service agent

• 71% of consumers stated that AI and chatbots help them attain faster responses.
• 90% of all chatbot customer queries are resolved in an average of 11 messages
• As per a research study by Outgrow, 64% of consumers consider 24/7 availability as one of the best features of chatbots.
• 59% of chatbot users expect a reply in under 5 seconds, even if it only recognises the user request.
• However, 60% of consumers would still prefer to wait in queue for a real agent to reply rather than receive an instant response from a chatbot.
• 48% of customers are less interested in chatbots being ‘human-like’ and chatty, and are more focused on if chatbots give accurate and helpful information.
• The companies surveyed stated chatbots were responsible for increasing customer satisfaction scores by 24%

Influence on consumer behaviour

• Usually, 53% of retail customers leave the site after waiting around 10 minutes for a live agent.
• 36% of people say chatbot suggestions ‘always’ influence their buying decisions.
• Only 2% of consumers think that chatbots are ‘unhelpful’
• 96% think that companies who use chatbots take extra care of their customers
• More general studies on AI indicate 50% of people are still hesitant about using it, which includes chatbots.

These AI tools are changing the way that people interact with businesses across many different sectors. As people become more comfortable and trusting with AI, the user experience can only improve.

If you want to discuss improving your user experience with our team, get in touch today.

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