When communication and connectivity were at their peak, the outbreak of COVID 19 occurred. For some of the industries, the distribution of the information remained at its peak. Many businesses struggled to address the user queries, and it also caused a lot of stress to the employees, such as in the traveling sector. In the traveling sector, most of the flights started to be cancelled, and the travel, hospitality staff, were flooded with chats and calls.  In such times business realizes the importance of the chatbots as they were very easy to create a very systematic customer service. Chatbots were able to fill this gap. Though there was a need for customer service agents, the pandemic has demonstrated how valuable technology can be during crises.

Chatbots

Chatbots are also commonly known as conversational agents, a software application that can easily mimic or speak the human language to simulate an interaction or conversation with an actual person. In other words, a chatbot is an AI (artificial intelligence) program that can start a conversation by using a natural language through a website, messaging, phone, or mobile application.

Google was one of the first platforms that have launched its own chatbot with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

For instance, if you want to purchase a pair of shoes from a retail shop, you have to go through their site and find out what you are looking for to buy it, but what happens if the shop has a bot? In such a case, you only have to write a message to the brand through social media, and you need to tell them what are you looking for? If you have any queries or doubts about the product’s size or measurement, you can easily get your answer.

One of the biggest advantages of having a chatbot is that you don’t need to download it, unlike the other application. Moreover, you are not required to update it, and you do not have to make space in the memory of your phone. You can get a number of bots integrated into a single chat. In this way, you don’t have to jump from one application to another.

Why are these chatbots so important?

Chatbots are the most promising and advance human-machine interaction, from the technology point of view, chatbot represents the natural response system to the queries. Moreover, from the point of view of technology, a chatbot can show and represent the queries’ natural and automatic response and take advantage of NLP (natural language processing). The formulation and creation of the answers to the queries in natural language are examples of NLP, which the companies apply. Chatbots are the pieces of software, majorly designed to automate a task. A chatbot can connect a series of data sourced through API to easily offer service and information on the demand, for instance, information about the status update, weather forecast, news, etc.

Without spamming people, a chatbot can serve most of the pressing updates. Nowadays, chatbots are in higher demand for most companies for their functionality and capabilities. With the help of push notifications, brands can easily share the information during the time of crises and can wait for the users to get in touch with them. Chatbot also helps people to receive important information and updates, and in COVID 19 pandemic, they are gaining increasing importance.

What are the capabilities of the chatbot?

Skill of interpretation

Consumers and users can easily ask questions using their own language, and chatbots will help them to deliver an intelligent and intuitive online experience. Chatbots will be able to process the query and doubt of the user, and it will respond according to the algorithm, which will infer the message, and it will also share a suitable response. With the help of natural language processing algorithms, it becomes quite easy for the chatbot to interpret, define, and determine a series of actions based on the user’s query. For instance, it can classify your query on an urgent and non-urgent basis.

Long term memory

Chatbot follows a series of algorithms before responding so that it can process the intent of the queries. These algorithms are generally stored in the memory of the chatbot. Chatbots are designed in such a way that they remember you as a user, and they can store your information and details so that if you return or revisit them, they can refer you easily. This is how they are able to answer your questions and evolve over time to answer all the questions; for instance, they will remember that you have postponed the flight tickets.

Emotional awareness

Chatbots can use the insights of the chat content and provide better services to users. This can be done by making use of Psychology, To avoid the unwanted situation, a chatbot can also detect the instances which require human intervention. The chatbots can also determine the level of urgency by the words, tone of the voice, and context. For instance, if a user uses negative words or connotations, it will help the chatbots determine it as a negative reaction.

Plays different roles

You can classify the chatbot depending upon the queries they resolve, as they help you collect and complete the information and task; as an agent, chatbot plays roles such as storing, collecting, processing and converting the data. Chatbots take up the ownership of identifying the problems, and also they provide the solution to the customers.  They provide accurate information and updates; now, many companies are using these chatbots to provide important information at the time of COVID 19.

Integrates with CRM

Chatbots can easily integrate with the orchestrate workflows and critical system of the CRM. Chatbots can also handle real-time actions and also the complex multi-steps which spam the multiple applications.

Omni capable

A chatbot can converse seamlessly across several digital channels, retains data and context for a seamless experience. And it can also pass the information to the agents as well.

Pre-trained

Chatbots are already trained to understand the specification of the brand; they also preconfigure to resolve the common user issues of a particular business.

Conclusion

Today companies have started looking for and using chatbots, and chatbots have become an important part of the COVID – 19 pandemic. Chatbots help enhance human efforts at such times; it is very important that the company start to leverage these features so that they can help the users and customers at such times.

Author Bio

Ravi Sharma, CEO of Webomaze – # 1 SEO Company in Chandigarh is a highly enthusiastic entrepreneur. He has got a great grip on the idea of effective eCommerce Strategies, SEO processes, and tactics which are vital for virtual exposure. He is a fun-loving person and a keen traveler who always hunts to find adventure in new places.

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