Does the rise in the popularity of chatbots portend the disappearance of human chat on business websites?
Not now. Or anytime soon.
Sure, chatbots can handle a company's routine inquiries, cut queue times, and collect trend data for improving customer experience and service.
But only a living, breathing, knowledgeable company representative can help solve complex issues while empathizing with a frustrated, disappointed, or angry customer.
Only human chat representatives can provide the personal, individualized communication that even technology cannot fathom at this time.
In fact, even high-tech may never be able to completely replace human interaction–only enhance it.
What a business large or small cannot afford to lose is its emotional connection with customers. Can chatbots build trust with customers? Stir human emotions? Mimic an actual give-and-take of information?
Of course not. Customers know full-well these "bots" are computer-generated, algorithm-and-keyword-driven forms of communication.
According to a recent study by Tagove, chatbots solve about 80 percent of customer queries without human supervision. Plus they can manage an unlimited number of "chats" at the same time.
However, a recent Accenture study shows that 83 percent of consumers still prefer communicating with a real-life representative of a company. Today's consumers may want answers now, but they value the personal touch just as much.
Eventually, the most visionary, customer-sensitive companies will come up with the ideal blend of chatbots and human support representatives–using the best of their capabilities, in cooperation with each other.
