B2B eCommerce. Over the past several years, experts have agreed that in the near future, most of the interactions with customers will not be handled by real people. For this purpose, special IT products have been created – chatbots.

Going into the details of the definitions, a chatbot is firmware that is embedded in dialogue platforms to facilitate communication with suppliers and distributors. When it comes to solving routine tasks in which human intervention is not mandatory, chatbots can really make life much easier.

As with any software product, many business owners have a question about whether chatbots are right for their area. Especially if it is a B2B direction.

Yes, they will. Let’s consider in more detail exactly what issues.

How chatbots will make it easier for B2B businesses

According to research, 87,2% of consumers report a neutral or positive chatbot experience. This makes them attractive to businesses in various fields.

Prompt answers to customer questions

Typically, chatbots are used to provide customers with answers to frequently asked questions. It is beneficial to use such programs since it brings advantages both to the entrepreneur himself and to the clients. For those who are building a business, this is an opportunity to save a significant amount of money and not to pay for the labor of call center specialists or another similar unit, but to take care of a tool that will operate in a 24/7 mode and help clients receive important information on issues, that interest them. It is especially important to note how effectively it works with clients located in different time zones with the company from which they order services.

Collection of complaints and their initial processing

Of course, for deeper and more serious work, human participation is necessary. But giving a person a primary reaction to his feedback about the insufficiently high quality of the service, in his opinion, is a very important option. So, chatbots help to collect such reactions and inform customers that their complaint has gone for consideration. Thus, the company shows attentiveness and provides the feedback.

Advertising Alerts

Bots can be used to notify customers when new products are added to the product line. This is important for those who want to take care of preserving their own profit and not lose it due to insufficiently built communication. The function of informing is not the direction where human intellectual labor would be absolutely necessary. On the contrary, here the winner is the one who knows how to quickly notify the target audience about new opportunities. Especially when it comes to seasonal products, promotions, and discounts.

Lead generation

Chatbots are actively used in the field of attracting potential customers. You can set up ads and direct traffic to the bot, which will guide the user through the sales funnel. Your employees will only have to process the received applications and warm clients.

Conversational sales

Where answers to highly specialized or specific questions are not needed, but the factor of prompt service is important, chatbots can quite cope with it. Such programs help provide customers with enough attention in real-time, thereby increasing their loyalty. For example, this could be the sphere of identifying suitable products, offering personalized recommendations, etc.

Thus, there are several promising and integral areas in the B2B industry where chatbots can help reduce the share of human labor involved.

How a high-quality chatbot works

Sometimes, inspired by the potential functionality of chatbots, entrepreneurs go to extremes in the interpretation of their functionality. There are 2 potential mistakes here. The first is to think that chatbots are useless if they cannot completely replace human labor. And this has already been refuted by the above list, which spoke about specific areas of use of chatbots. But an equally critical mistake is to place unjustified and overestimated expectations on these programs.

It is not necessary for clients to think that a real person is supposedly communicating with them in the guise of a chatbot. Such confusion brings nothing but frustration and a sense of deception. Therefore, it is important from the outset to understand the principles on which the chatbot should be used in work. You can use these simple but effective recommendations:

• Improve your chatbot based on customer feedback. To do this, it is worth initially laying in it an option that provides for the collection of feedback. It is important not to be limited to the test version of the program with its shortcomings.
• Make sure that you understand the language. Make the chatbot’s communication with the target audience as natural as possible. At the same time, it is not necessary for the client to think that a real person is communicating with him. Let it be a chatbot but of high quality.
• Be guided by realistic expectations. Take your time to assign too many options to a chatbot before you make sure that it really helps you interact with your customers more effectively.

Well, one more important aspect is not to forget that the correct use of chatbots makes it possible to receive correct and extensive information about the needs, pains, and expectations of your customers. Of course – if you use chatbots correctly.

Benefits of chatbots

If we talk about the basic advantages of chatbots, then they can be characterized by the following positions:

• Ability to use in the direction of attracting customers.
• The function of the interlocutor is performing simple routine tasks in a 24/7 mode.
• Help in getting rid of the so-called “abandoned carts”. It often happens that a customer has “thrown” products into the basket and forgot to place an order when distracted by other needs. In this case, the chatbot will remind you of the shopping cart.
• Assistance in processing payments. Where simple prompts are needed for actions that require a specific algorithm, chatbots can be of great help.

In summary, it is worth noting that the correct use of chatbots makes it possible to increase business productivity and the level of customer satisfaction with the service since they receive timely assistance in response to their request.

Contributed by Leslie Anglesey.

Commbox – a Multifunctional Chatbot Builder for Your eCommerce Business 

Commbox is a leading AI-powered omnichannel customer communication platform that allows you to manage all your communication from one smart interface. Additionally, Commbox allows you to create smart conversational chatbots powered by AI and machine-learning capabilities.

If you’re a B2B eCommerce business, chatbots can be an excellent tool for you!

• Build a chatbot for eCommerce in minutes using Commbox.
• Sell and serve 24/7! – be available for your customers no matter their time zone.
• Expand your customer base and sell on a larger scale.
• Automate repetitive tasks by automatically replying to common queries.
• Quickly respond to customers on every channel while tracking any conversation.
• Improve the customer experience while keeping a unified brand tone and voice.
• Manage all interactions with businesses and sell your products from a smart central inbox with Commbox.
• Get updates directly to your CRM.
• Optimize your sales centers and reduce service costs.

Commbox’s Chatbots: 

• Learn from every interaction with your customers and get smarter over time.
• Communicate with other bots and transfer conversations from one Bot to another according to the flow of the conversation while keeping complete transparency from the customer’s point of view.
• Identify types of conversations (sales, customer service, etc) and route a specific conversation to suitable departments or agents.

5 Reasons to use Commbox Customer Communication Platform  

1. Omnichannel customer communication solution managed from a single interface
2. Build Smart and friendly WhatsApp Chatbots
3. AI and process automation capabilities
4. GDPR security compliance
5. Proven success in enhancing customer communication for companies across sectors

How Commbox’s Chatbots Scale-Up eCommerce Brands 

Commbox’s eCommerce chatbots successfully scaled up sales and customer communication processes for leading brands in various industries such as telecom, finance, retail, healthcare and more.

One astonishing case is Clarks Shoes, an international shoe retailer, that used Commbox to create a unique chatbot named “CAI”.

“CAI” helped Clarks:

• Resolve more than 30% of customer interactions
• Produced a 99% improvement in SLA, reducing response time from 5 days to one hour
• Solve 25% of inquiries using Commbox conversational chatbots