How to Humanize Your Live Chat and Chatbots with a Hybrid Approach

Chatbots are becoming an increasingly popular customer service option, but they are not without their detractors. Some people find them impersonal and prefer the human touch of a live chat agent. Others find chatbots to be more efficient and convenient.

You've probably been there before yourself - wasting time arguing with a bot when all you really want is to talk to a human. Over-reliance on a bot can risk driving customers away in frustration when they can't get the help they need when trying to utilize your web app or WhatsApp customer service.

That's why a hybrid approach - combining AI Chatbots with live chat agents - is often seen as a good solution for providing excellent customer service.

Transforming the Way Your Business Communicates

Using a hybrid approach, businesses can provide the best of both worlds to their customers. Your AI Chatbots can handle simple tasks, freeing up live chat agents to handle more complex ones while also being able to switch to a human agent at any time.

This provides more efficient use of resources and ensures that customers always have the option to speak to a human if they need to. It also humanizes the Chatbots, making them seem more like an extension of your live chat team rather than a separate entity.

Here are some benefits of using a hybrid approach to customer service:

• Improved Customer Service: By using a hybrid approach, businesses can provide their customers with the best possible customer service experience by combining the convenience of chatbots with just a little bit of human touch by live chat agents.
  
  
• Increased Efficiency: Chatbots can still handle your simple and repetitive tasks, freeing up live chat agents to handle more complex tasks. Everything from FAQs to payment-related issues can be handled by chatbots, resulting in a more efficient customer service solution.
  Additionally, your human agents will be more available to focus on tasks that require more attention, such as upselling or cross-selling products and services, as well as providing a more personalized web or WhatsApp customer service experience.

• Cost-Effective: Chatbots are less expensive to operate than live chat agents and becasue they can operate 24/7, businesses can save money while still providing an excellent customer service experience.
  Remember, AI is constantly improving, so chatbots are only going to get better and more efficient over time. Getting in on them now will also give your business a competitive edge and allow you to provide a superior customer service experience even while the technology is in its infancy.

Humanizing Your Chatbot Customer Service With a Rule-Based Bot

You don't have to wait for the AI Chatbot to get smarter. You can begin humanizing your WhatsApp customer service arsenal today by just giving your chatbots a few extra touches.

• Customization: You can give your Chatbot a personality by customizing it to match your brand voice and tone. A customized chatbot will make your business more relatable and approachable for potential customers as well as easier to empathize with and understand. A chatbot builder tool can help make this process smooth and painless.
  
  
• Test and Test Again: Put your Chatbots through as many scenarios as possible to make sure they are up to scratch before you unleash them on your customers. That way you can ensure that they are able to handle all types of customer inquiries (even the angry ones) and provide accurate answers. Gauge what they can and can't do so you have a better idea of how to use them most effectively.
  
  
• Give it a Name and a Face: People by nature are more likely to trust something that looks like them and has a name. Chatbots are no different. By giving your Chatbot a name and a face, you can help customers remember it and feel more comfortable using it as their first point of contact for customer service inquiries.
  
  
• Improving the Bot: Your Chatbots are never going to be perfect, but that's okay! As technology advances, so will your Chatbots. Be sure to keep an eye out for new ways to improve and humanize your Chatbots so you can offer an even better customer service experience.
  
  
• Make it Easier for Customers: Sometimes your Chatbot won't be able to answer a customer's question or solve their problem. When this happens, it should be easy for the customer to get in touch with a human agent. The most important thing you can do is be upfront with your customers about the capabilities of your Chatbot. This way they know what to expect and won't get frustrated if the Chatbot isn't able to help them.
  A simple call to action that says "Talk to a human" or "Get in touch with us" can go a long way in Chatbot customer service.

• Implement a Seamless Hand-Off System: Your agents' time is valuable, so it’s important to make sure that when a Chatbot hands off a customer to a human agent, it's done as seamlessly as possible.
  This means having a system in place that Chatbots can use to quickly and easily transfer customers to the right human agent. Integrating your bot with your CRM means that your agent can see all previous communications and relevant information so they can pick up where the Chatbot left off.

• Adding Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP is a branch of AI that Chatbots use to understand human language. The better the Chatbot's NLP, the more accurate it will be in understanding customer inquiries. For example, an NLP Chatbot could easily understand a customer's question about returns and exchange policy or a question about the Chatbot itself.
  Also, an NLP Chatbot is more likely to be able to understand customer inquiries in multiple languages, which is a huge benefit if you have international customers.

Overall, custom Chatbots are a great way to improve your customer service experience and save money, but they aren't quite ready to replace human agents just yet...But that's okay. Solid configuration and adding a human touch can go a long way to making AI Chatbots feel more personal, engaging and most importantly, helpful for your customers.

If you're looking for a Chatbot solution that makes it easy to humanize your AI Chatbot customer service solution, be sure to check out the Unifonic Chatbot Builder.