Artificial Intelligence (AI) opens up all sorts of opportunities for our businesses and our websites, including the chance to provide a better user experience. One such way of doing this is by implementing on-site AI chatbots that can answer FAQs and help users find the information they need without using staff (or your) time.
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What is an AI Chatbot?
An AI chatbot is a type of software that can have a conversation with a person. It can respond to questions, follow a conversation, and adapt its answers based on newly received information. All these responses are automated so, after initial setup, they require very little input from a real person (other than the person asking the questions), and so can save small business owners lots of time.
AI chatbots are often found in the bottom right corner of a website. Usually, you select a chat button and can start interacting with it in a similar way as you would use something like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
How Can an AI Chatbot Help Small Businesses?
An on-site AI chatbot can save a small business time and money while also providing better customer service.
24/7 Responses
A 24/7 helpline is often beyond the means of a small business, yet many shoppers will be online well after usual business hours. An AI chatbot assists users in getting an immediate response, whatever time of day they’re online. This means that you can help them at the moment they’re interested in buying, therefore increasing your chances of making a sale.
Help Users Find What They Need
Instead of users having to manually look around a website to find what they need, a chatbot can work in a similar way to a search function, but with a better understanding of user queries. Users can enter what they’re looking for and the chatbot can give them a direct link. It’s straightforward for the user and much quicker for them. It can also go further than a standard search by anticipating and suggesting follow-up questions and answers that the user might find useful.
Answer Common Questions
How much time do you or your team spend answering the same questions over and over again? A static FAQ page can help solve the problem, but providing dynamic answers via a chatbot can be more efficient, detailed and personal. Overall, a better user experience and more time saved for your team.
Increase Sales
Not only can AI chatbots help answer user questions, they can encourage sales by recommending products and making it easier for customers to buy. They can also assist with upselling, recommending additional products based on what a user is already interested in.
Provide Order Status Updates
A chatbot continues to be useful to customers even after an order has been made. Customers could use your AI agent to get updates on their order such as delivery status. Again, ongoing care like this improves user experience and builds trust in your business.
Analyse User Needs
It’s always good to know what your website visitors are asking because it gives you useful insights such as if you’re missing information on your website, if a layout is too hard to navigate, or if they would like you to stock a particular type of product.
Analyse the conversations your users have had with an AI chatbot and see what they ask. If similar questions come up regularly, you can use those to make improvements to your website and to anticipate the needs of future customers.
Best Practices for Using an AI Chatbot
Like anything website-related, best practices will help your business and your customers get the most out of an AI chatbot. Here are some best practices to keep in mind.
Include a Disclaimer
Clarity helps build trust, so it’s always worthwhile letting users know that they are interacting with a chatbot and not a real person. Depending on your business and how you’re using the chatbot, it may also be worthwhile including a disclaimer that states information may not always be accurate. This is particularly important for sites that provide “your money or your life” advice, such as in health and law.
Providing some kind of disclaimer at the start of an interaction can help balance expectations and provide a more satisfying experience.
Train Your Chatbot
Many chatbots allow you to add them to your site “out of the packet”. While this is convenient, it’s worthwhile balancing convenience with usefulness. A chatbot that has been trained with clear parameters and detailed guidance will be able to provide more accurate and relevant answers.
Predefined Questions and Responses
You can make the AI chatbot experience even smoother and more productive by providing prefilled responses for the user. For example, if they’re on a product page and start an interaction, think about what kinds of questions they may be about to ask. They may ask how much postage is, or how long delivery takes. By anticipating this and having selectable questions, you make the experience smoother for the customer, moving them through the sales funnel and helping them make a purchase.
Of course, depending on your chatbot, it could be the AI that comes up with the questions, not you!
Have a Human Available
It’s always important to provide an option to speak to a real human. This option could become available when an AI chatbot recognises it can’t adequately answer a question, or there might be a command (such as “please let me speak to a human”) that generates direct contact details. Doing this will allow you to help users where a chatbot can’t.
When you give the option to speak to a user, remember to manage expectations by providing expected response times and office opening hours. That way, someone asking at 11pm at night, for example, will know not to expect an immediate response.
Continue Analysing and Training
To ensure the effectiveness of your chatbot, you should continue to analyse how it’s being used, how it’s responding, and the actions of users after an interaction (for example, do they buy something, or do they leave the site without converting?). Use this information to help continue training the AI for improved responses and understanding.
Top AI Chatbots for Small Businesses
Now that we’ve talked about advantages and best practices, here are some of the best AI chatbots for small businesses.
Keep in mind that you may need the help of a developer or AI chatbot expert to help implement these effectively, though others are designed to be more easy to install.
GPT Trainer
Offering both a DIY option and tailored solutions, GPT Trainer is a no-code AI agent created especially for small businesses. It can be embedded on your website as well as integrated with other platforms such as WhatsApp.
HubSpot Chatbot
HubSpot’s free chatbot builder is a simple option that can be built without coding knowledge and is a good budget-friendly choice. You can also integrate it with HubSpot CRM for personalised replies to existing customers.
ChatGPT
One of the most well known chatbots, ChatGPT can be integrated onto your website as a chatbot. As a platform that’s so popular, ChatGPT brings a degree of trust and recognition that both users and business owners will appreciate.
Aimdoc AI
With a pleasing interface, Aimdoc AI boasts a lot of great features. It can scrape your website and fill knowledge-gaps by learning through other conversations. You can integrate it with many tools, and a real person can take over an AI chat at any point. It can also sync with calendars so customers can set up a meeting directly within the chat.
Aimdoc is one of the more expensive options on this list, but it’s useful and more valuable for more complex requirements or larger websites.
JotForm AI Agents
Very user friendly and easy to use, JotForm AI Agents is a popular and powerful option for an on-site AI chatbot. There is a generous free plan as well as multiple tiered pricing if you need a little more. There is a selection of thousands of customisable templates, multi-platform integrations, and versatile use cases to suit any kind of business.
Conclusion
AI chatbots can be of great help to both businesses and users through saving time, reducing costs, and providing 24/7 support. For small businesses there is a wide range of options – both free and paid – with numerous features and capabilities. Whether you have a small site with simple needs or a complex business that needs something more robust, there’s an AI chatbot out there for you.