The constant innovations in the online world provide a great deal of convenience. Nowadays everyone has less time and is extremely busy, so a way to save time is certainly something people need.
An important part of every business is service towards customers. Simply answering all incoming messages every day takes a great deal of time. A solution for this is the chatbot. Curious what a chatbot has to offer your business? Read on to find out.
What are chatbots?
A chatbot is essentially software that you can set up to carry out certain tasks. You can use a chatbot to support website visitors and give answers when they have questions. You can also use a chatbot on social media platforms.
Chatbots have been around for a while, but they are becoming increasingly intelligent and effective. The need for marketing automation is rising, which means more and more chatbots are being used.
The advantages and disadvantages of a chatbot
As mentioned earlier, more and more businesses need marketing automation. A chatbot can be used for this. But what exactly are the advantages and disadvantages of a chatbot?
Advantages
- Visitors can ask questions 24/7.
- The response time is fast.
- You gain insight into the behaviour of your visitors.
- A chatbot is constantly learning.
- Takes work off the hands of employees.
Disadvantages
Besides the many advantages a chatbot offers, there are also some disadvantages to consider before deploying a chatbot.
- Bots learn quickly, but cannot always recognise a word if it contains a spelling mistake.
- Customers expect service from a person while they are actually speaking with a chatbot, which means the service can be perceived as less good.
- It costs money to implement and maintain a chatbot.
How do you build a chatbot?
We have covered the advantages and disadvantages of a chatbot, and perhaps you are now also interested in deploying a chatbot for your business. But how do you actually build a chatbot?
There are several ways to build a chatbot. You can build a custom build chatbot with a framework, or use a platform where you can build a chatbot, such as HubSpot. The options differ greatly from each other in cost, time and difficulty.
Custom build chatbot
A custom build chatbot is often deployed at an organisation of 500 to 1000 employees. These businesses generally have the budgets and resources, such as developers, to build and also maintain a chatbot.
Building a chatbot with a tool
For somewhat smaller businesses, a custom build chatbot is an unfeasible task. Fortunately, there are several platforms for building a chatbot.
HubSpot also has a free tool for building a chatbot.
With HubSpot's chatbot software, you can easily create bots that help you qualify leads, book meetings and answer frequently asked questions. This gives the team more time to focus on important conversations.
No experience yet with creating a chatbot? Thanks to HubSpot's ready-made bot templates, you can easily create one.
You choose a template based on your goal. You can then use the editor to adjust the conversation so it fits your business. You can also create one yourself without a template.
Interested in a chatbot or in its possibilities? We would be happy to help!
