How To Deliver Customized Experiences at Scale with Chatbots

Providing clients with a custom experience is the name of the game in today's tough online shopping industry.

Eighty-four percent of clients, as reported by Salesforce, prefer to be dealt with as individuals rather than statistics. Who can blame them, though? Everybody wants to feel like the king or queen of the shopping world!

But don't worry, my dear friends, because we have a secret weapon: chatbots for Instagram and Facebook Messenger!

These bots can interact with clients in a way that is almost as good as chatting with a human when mixed with AI and natural language processing which lets them interpret user intent and respond in context.

Furthermore, they can take in feedback from users in real-time, allowing them to improve their abilities and better understand your consumers' tastes.

You may be thinking right now, "But I'm not an AI specialist! If I wanted to make a chatbot, where would I even begin?" Don't worry, my friend!

Rule-based chatbots built using drag-and-drop tools can still provide personalized customer service that everyone craves.

There's no need to recruit a horde of customer support representatives or call in the coding wizards! With a chatbot on your side, you can make every customer feel like a VIP.

So, why is this VIP treatment so vital in eCommerce marketing? Let me elaborate.

To create a successful customer experience strategy, customer expectations need to be fulfilled every step of the way, and expectations are high nowadays.

Everybody wants the red carpet treatment, and if you don't provide it, they'll take their business elsewhere faster than you can say "chatbot."

Have no fear though; with a chatbot on your side, you can provide your consumers the individualized service they love and keep them coming back for more!

So put on your best suit (or your favorite pair of sweatpants; I won't judge) and get ready to learn all about the chatbot customer experience strategy that will help you provide your clients with the highly customized service they deserve!

Why do customers demand personalized service in eCommerce?

Oh, the wonders of technology! It's turned us into a bunch of spoiled little divas who expect quick gratification at every turn.

Who could blame us, though? When we're browsing through our Facebook and Instagram feeds, we want to see stuff that speaks to us and makes us feel like the stars of the show.

For eCommerce brands, though, it's not just a matter of showcasing your goods and crossing your fingers. No way, dear friends.

You must go above and beyond and provide them with an experience that is as individualized as a love letter if you want to win the hearts (and wallets) of the amazing 1 billion active monthly Instagram users.

I'm talking about wooing them in a way that makes them feel like the only customer on the entire planet.

And when a consumer feels like they're getting the VIP treatment, it's like music to their ears. It demonstrates that their favorite brand is concerned about their needs and preferences, which over time contributes to the development of trust and brand loyalty.

How can chatbots help you understand who your customers are?

The most obvious benefit of a chatbot is that it responds to questions faster than a cheetah on Red Bull and is accessible around the clock to meet all of your clients' needs.

That already makes for great customer experiences and reliable service. But that's only the beginning, my friends.

Chatbots for Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Messages are like your own personal James Bond, gathering all sorts of interesting information on your consumers.

Social media not only provides access to a wealth of data, but customers actually expect businesses to use that data to create customized experiences that cater to their particular needs and interests.

So, start your chatbot buddy up and begin gathering information by conversing or doing enjoyable quizzes a la Buzzfeed. Your customers will spill the beans on themselves.

The real kicker is that personalization not only makes customers happy but also increases customer satisfaction.

How? Your chatbot can help customers find exactly what they're looking for in the blink of an eye by giving customized recommendations and experiences based on a customer's purchase history or browsing activity, making that cheetah appear like grandma at the wheel.

It can lead your visitors to checkout in minutes, and it does it 24/7 with no days off, while your entire team is sleeping!

Strategies for Delivering Personalized Chatbot Experiences

To discuss the personalized service that a chatbot can provide, it's important to learn more about the many tactics that, when combined, can give your consumers the sense of being treated like high-priority VIPs—something that every DTC brand strives to achieve.

So here's a list of six game-changing methods that, when followed correctly, will have you saying, "Oh Chatbot, where have you been all my life?"

Leverage Customer Data

We're back at it with the data. Data, data, and more data! It is the foundation of any plan aimed at improving both the work of chatbots and customer care personnel because this is where individualized experiences dwell, inside the data acquired from each and every one of your customers.

Therefore, knowing your customers is something that all departments within an eCommerce brands seek, from R&D to marketing, because their needs and likes translate to sales.

Data, on the other hand, is the foundation of any customer service department; it is essentially the clay from which you will construct the perfect tailored customer relationship management.

And what do you know? Real-time customer data collection and analysis made possible by chatbots gives businesses invaluable knowledge of their clients' preferences, habits, and past purchases.

This customer data analytics can be used to deliver personalized recommendations, promotions, and support, therefore gathering it is always the first step.

Quizzes and surveys were discussed earlier, but brands have developed a variety of other methods for gathering information that can even be transformed into games, allowing customers to play with your chatbot.

They get exciting prizes, and you get your information, so it's a win-win situation.

Understand Your Customer's Journey

If you've never given "customer journeys" a thought, here's where to start: to provide personalized experiences, and better yet, to have a regular customer turn into a loyal customer that comes back again and again, businesses need to understand the individual customer journey from start to finish.

A customer journey map outlines the steps a customer takes through their entire customer experience when interacting with an eCommerce brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase support.

These maps are drawn by analyzing data and feedback, so you can identify weak points and opportunities for personalization, ensuring customer success.

Chatbots make this process so much easier since most chatbot softwares have built-in stats that will let you check customer interactions in bulk and adapt your journey based on what your target audience wants and needs.

Provide Personalized Recommendations

We previously mentioned AI and NLP, and even though creating chatbots with the capacity to learn and adapt is quite a technical challenge, it is also extremely rewarding for the DTC businesses that achieve it.

AI powered Chatbots can provide personalized product and service recommendations based on a customer's preferences, behavior, and purchase history.

This not only helps customers find what they are looking for quickly, but also increases the likelihood of repeat purchases.

Offer Omnichannel Support

Ok, now some of you might already have an active chatbot inside your website or might've tried one in the past with little success.

Here's what's changed and why you should try again or even expand your current chatbot implementation.

Customers expect to interact with businesses on multiple channels: websites are great, sure, but social media and messaging apps are where potential customers mostly spend their time nowadays.

And people looking to buy anything hate having to click on links and change to a web browser in order to find what they're looking for.

So Instagram DM and Facebook Messenger chatbots get to them where it's comfortable and, once they're integrated into your ecosystem, let's say, synched with your email service provider, you'll see the actual improvement that comes with providing consistent and personalized customer service across the board.

For example, a user starts the journey inside the chatbot, but continues with email, i.e: your chatbot collects their email address, sends it to your email marketing software and triggers a welcome sequence:

Use Customer Feedback to Improve

We already know that chatbots can gather your customer's insightful feedback more quickly than you can say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," but what should you do with all that yummy customer data once it has been gathered?

The moment has come, my friend, to get your hands dirty and start fiddling with your chatbot like a mad scientist.

Add new features, vary the responses, experiment with different consumer engagement strategies, and, if you're feeling really witty, throw in a couple of puns.

Don't stop there, though! Start segmenting your audience and developing a personalized experience with customized solutions or services for each and all customer types if you're serious about upping your chatbot game.

Using your chatbot is similar to playing Mad Libs, except instead of making funny stories, you're making unique experiences that will make your customer base feel like they've struck it rich.

Now go ahead, add that information back into your chatbot, give it a makeover, and watch as your customers become completely enamored with your company.

Empower Your Customer Support Team

We frequently discuss how chatbots free up your human agents from tedious tasks so, when a trickier problem occurs, they can handle it, but what about when they collaborate side by side?

In reality, these clever little bots could become your support team's new best buddy! They can quickly retrieve consumer information, providing your team with all the juicy specifics on previous encounters and purchases. 

Thanks to their incredibly advanced brains, chatbots can also assist your customer support personnel in making customized recommendations that will make consumers feel like royalty, but also facilitate them stepping in to only handle the more complex situations:

Chatbots not only make the support procedure as smooth as a baby's bottom, but they also assist customer care personnel to answer questions, identify your customer's pain points along with providing personalized service that will leave your clients smiling from ear to ear.

So, goodbye to the days of endlessly looking through client data, and hello to the future of customer assistance with chatbots at your side.

They're the ultimate wingman for your support team, and they're always ready to lend a hand (or a byte).

Conclusion: How chatbots are changing eCommerce forever

Chatbots are unquestionably the future of providing excellently individualized consumer experiences.

In eCommerce, most companies offer support of some kind, but only those willing to take it further, may truly wow their clients by utilizing consumer data, delivering customized recommendations, offering help through a variety of channels, and putting the client's needs first.

We now understand that the vast majority of consumers have become accustomed to being treated like individuals by the brands they support.

Thus you must embrace the power of cutting-edge technology if you want to stay ahead of the competition, provide convenience and prevent falling behind.

Believe us when we say that depending on antiquated practices is a one-way ticket to the land of lost clients.

As chatbots continue to evolve and improve, they will become a key part of customer experience management and we should expect to see more and more companies in the eCommerce space jump on board to create really out-of-this-world experiences.

So, are you prepared to embark with us on this interstellar journey? Or would you like to remain in your solitary nook of the universe?

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube if you share our enthusiasm for chatbots (and let's face it, who wouldn't?)

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