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It is estimated that an average of 1.4 billion people use chatbots. Chatbots facilitate a number of conversational AI functions for your business, including improving customer service and increasing your revenue. Chatbots are also a great business tool for customers to interact with your business for commonly asked questions after hours.
There are times, however, when a customer's issue may be too complex for a chatbot to complete on its own. This could require the use of transferring the customer to live agents for a successful resolution to the problem.
But how do you effectively flow your conversations from your chatbots to a live agent? In this guide, we'll explain how to transfer to a live agent with ease. So keep reading for more information.
Chatbot to Human Interface
Chatbots do so much to enhance the customer experience when interacting with your business online. Chatbots utilize conversational AI to intuit keywords and phrases. This determines what information in their database is useful for solving minor issues and answering common questions.
In the banking and healthcare service industries, around 75 to 90% of all customer service inquiries can be handled by chatbot services. This is because these industries often have the most repetitive sets of questions that chatbots are adept at being able to handle. This saves the resource of live chat agents to use only when it is necessary.
Newer chatbots can even infer a customer's mood by their wording and can adapt their programming to provide a better level of interaction. Their prompts can assist in calming the customer and getting their session back on the proper track.
Chatbots try their best to learn human speech patterns and syntax to undertake customer service protocols. But in reality, a chatbot system, while helpful, is not entirely infallible.
Pros and Cons of a Chatbot
The chatbot function of a business website has many benefits and features to offer. However, there are some other drawbacks to this system alone that may make it less desirable. We'll look at both of these sides here.
Pros of a Chatbot
Chatbots are speedy. They can provide an answer to a customer's concern in a matter of a few minutes, not hours or days with email and phone contact options.
For customers who need a simple or common solution to an issue, this is ideal since they can go about their day much quicker. Less time trying to communicate with customer service makes for a happier and more satisfied customer.
But chatbots are also an affordable customer service option with a high ROI. By using them as a first-line for your customer service, you're saving money on customer service representative administrative costs.
Chatbots also provide valuable analytic data on your customer base, their major areas of troubleshooting or concern, and their email addresses for creating leads. Transcripts of chats are saved for analysis at a later point in time.
Plus, chatbot interactions can come with an instant customer satisfaction rating at the conclusion of the session through a survey rating the quality of the service received.
Cons of a Chatbot
For all of its benefits, a chatbot may not be a customer's first choice of a viable customer service option. Customers who are not tech-savvy may get confused trying to communicate this way or will just outright refuse to speak with anything that isn't a live human.
60% of consumers believe that chatbots cannot understand or interpret their needs the way that a human customer service agent can. They would prefer to wait for a human representative over a chatbot.
Chatbots may have difficulty with an issue that isn't by the book. If they don't have an answer that fits the problem readily available in their database, the conversational AI will experience hiccups.
Many times a chatbot may get stuck in a cyclical pattern of conversation that can frustrate the customer who feels they are not getting a straightforward answer.
Of course, chatbots are no substitute for the real thing, and more complicated issues may not be able to be properly understood or resolved. This is where the need for live agents comes into play.
Benefits of Live Agents
Live agents can fill in the gaps where chatbots falter. A live agent is a human customer service agent that may step in to resolve more complex customer inquiries. It provides the option of one-on-one interaction in real-time.
For complicated or tricky matters, a live agent is akin to an ace in the hole, the heavy hitter who can come through in a pinch. With the chatbot feature, you may not need to use the live agent for every situation, but knowing they are available as a backup option can be a great relief.
For the customers who don't want to use a chatbot at all or who are running into a dead end in finding an answer to their problem, the live agent option can be a great relief.
The ability to streamline the customer experience between chatbots to a live agent will help set your business apart. Especially from those who don't offer multiple customer service options or don't use chatbots at all.
How to Transfer to a Live Agent
When providing a customer service option, it doesn't have to be an either-or situation. It is possible to use both the live agent and chatbot features simultaneously. So, how can you blend the two customer service options together seamlessly?
The first step that needs to be taken is a way for the customer to initiate a transfer to the live agents in case they cannot find a proper answer to their inquiry. This may be a certain word command that the customer will type into the chat window to summon a transfer to the live agent feature. A message at the start of the chat to inform the customer of this word is ideal.
An example of this could be 'Type HELP into the box at any time during the chat to be transferred to a live agent'. So when the customer types 'HELP' into the chat box, this informs the chatbots to start the process of handing off to a live agent. They may also type something like 'AGENT' or 'Chat with Live Agent'.
Another way to go about this is by using a trained chatbox that can detect when the chat is not progressing as it should be to a proper resolution. For instance, if the chatbot asks YES and NO questions in sequence to get to the root of the problem, but the customer responds NO many times in a row to these questions, it may be a signal to the chatbot to initiate the transfer to a live agent.
A chatbox may appear on the screen with a message like, "Would you like to speak to a live agent?" with a YES or a NO so the customer can tap or type in their response. Connecting to the live agent should then take place.
Connecting to a Live Agent
Once the handing off to a live agent begins, the live agent will receive a notification on their end to make the transfer and start the live agent chat. There should be no need for disconnecting from the current chat screen for another one.
The live agent transition should take place all in the same chat window to make it easier for the customer and to avoid confusion of multiple chat windows open at the same time. If somehow the customer gets disconnected from the chat window, the agent should be able to send a link to the email address provided to rejoin the chat.
The transcript of the customer's issue as described to the chatbot at the start of the chat will be included for the live agent. This is beneficial since they will not have to start all over again from square one, saving both the customer and the live agent time. All of the customer's information, accounts, and past orders should be available for viewing as well to help expedite the process.
If, however, there are no live agents available because they are busy or it is after hours, a message asking the customer to please come back during regular customer service business hours should appear on the screen.
Innovative Services for Live Agents and Chatbots at Aivo
Chatbots are a great benefit for providing 24-hour answers for your business's website, and they are a great compliment for live agents. You don't have to choose.
Our Omnichannel platform is a simple all-in-one solution for Web, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. Intuitive AI leads the conversation and transfers customers to a live agent with ease.
Book a demo today and see how you can improve your customer service.
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