Chatbots have generated a lot of hype, expectations, and speculation over the past few years. Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech giants now believe that chatbots are the future.
They can fundamentally revolutionize the entire computing experience by changing how services and content are used on the Internet.
Some 60-80% of businesses use chatbots to interact with their customers. Just as a brick-and-mortar store cannot do without a great salesperson with good communication skills, online or e-commerce businesses cannot do without chatbots.
What are chatbots?
Chatbots are computer programs anyone can use to interact, find information or services, or get things done. They are strengthened by natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning.
They are automated and intelligent conversational identities that can significantly simplify tapping menu and dropdown buttons, selecting search buttons, and navigating redundant web pages.
Why do websites need chatbots?
 When you build a website, you’re usually happy that your business can now serve customers 24/7. But even then, your audience may not be as satisfied. Why is that?
Well, with your website, you can promote your business for a whole day. But that doesn’t ensure that your customers will get exemplary service.
So, you need to analyze how efficient your customer service representatives are and how well they respond to your audience’s problems! Such issues make you doubt the quality of your services to your audience.
And this is where the need for chatbots comes in, which will solve all these problems for you.
Why are chatbots so important for web developers?
We live in a globe driven by technology more than anything else. No one has a monopoly in any particular sector. There is healthy competition in every sector. People always come up with new products to stand out and make their mark. There are millions of apps that can use, and most of them have chatbots built into them. With such a variety of applications available, a user needs to scrutinize them before using them to their fullest. Therefore, web developers also felt the need to keep up with the apps and integrate chatbots directly into the website.
The main reason is to provide a better user experience and compete better. And currently, we are at a point where most websites already have chatbots. So if you don’t have chatbots on your website, you’re going to get left behind, and you don’t want that. People want some interaction with the apps and websites they use. Chatbots can be the best way to achieve this.
Let’s look at some points that will convince you that chatbots are the future of web development; that they will be with us on the web for a very long time.
Browsing and navigation will be replaced by conversations
Finding something on a website with hundreds of pages is a mammoth task. Moreover, not all websites are structured similarly. That makes it difficult for non-experts to navigate the site and find what they want. Therefore, the best option is to use a chatbot on the website to improve browsing and navigation.
Everything can be replaced by a bot that helps users with their problems through conversation. It gives users an experience as if they are talking to a salesperson. That is the best choice for eCommerce websites. Customers will feel like they are shopping physically and not online.
The bot will help them find the products they want while shopping. Moreover, they will get a personal feeling when they talk to the bot and will be able to build a relationship with the website. A healthy relationship with customers will ensure that they visit your website regularly and loyally.
Cost efficiency for businesses
The size of the business determines the number of employees it needs to hire. The bigger the company is, the more customers it has. The larger the number of customers, the more employees it needs to provide customer service. So using chatbots eliminates hiring many employees just for customer service.
An employee handles only the cases that require human intervention. The chatbot handles the rest. The chatbot is a one-time investment that is incurred only during its development. On the other hand, employees need to be paid every month. So, chatbots are very cost-effective for businesses.
Time savings for users
Earlier, when there was no concept of chatbots, people had to wait for hours, sometimes even days, to be assigned someone to solve their queries. So their work was stuck at that point until the question was resolved. As a result, a lot of time was wasted.
Now that chatbots provide instant service, this is no longer the case. So, in most cases, it can clear the doubts immediately and resume work. It saves a lot of time and resources for users. Only the cases of crucial importance require humans to handle a human opinion.
Assistant-like experience for users
Everyone likes to have an assistant. People want to have their tasks done by someone else. With chatbots, this can be fulfilled very well. Since the chatbot can help the user with almost any question related to the services offered by the website, they make the user feel like they have an assistant.
The chatbot works according to your preferences. At least, the user can ask any question, and the bot will answer it, which is not necessarily what the user would expect in any case. You don’t have to be afraid of hurting your feelings because robots don’t have feelings. So you can speak in a tone that suits your mood. In a way, you get the perfect assistant without having to pay for it. So you would love it.
Elements that make up the perfect chatbot
The right chatbot usually has specific characteristics, and the most important of them is support. A good and helpful chatbot can be created by equipping it with the skills and information that enable positive customer interactions.
Secondly, chatbots need to be friendly. If the recommendations are always “call us” or “send an email,” that’s neither helpful nor friendly. To be friendly, you need to ensure you don’t use AI-based language for chatbots.
Finally, the language used by chatbots needs to be conversational. So, it would be best if you opted for chatbots that are friendly, conversational, and personable.
Impact on website development
Here you can see how chatbots have impacted web development. Take a look.
- Understanding AI principles and natural language processing:Â It’s high time developers look beyond the usual backend programming languages and learn about NLP and machine learning. This technology involves learning patterns and performing entity recognition, tokenization, speech tagging, normalization, sentiment and intent analysis, and dependency parsing to develop an intelligent website chatbot. Developers should know that their future depends on NLP algorithms.
- Conversation replaces navigation and browsing: The first motive of all web developers is to develop a website that customers can easily navigate. Now, what happens when you replace the navigation elements with a bot?
With bots, customers will have the same experience as when they visit a store, where the bot will guide them to the right product. That will provide customers with a personalized shopping experience in real-time.
- Conversational UI development: Web developers face some real challenges here. From designing a bot that speaks the language to avoiding conventional graphical elements, web developers need to be able to allow users to have a human conversation with the bot.
- Integration with frameworks for best bot development: A bot development framework consists of Bot Connector, Bot Builder SDK, Bot Directory, and Developer Portal. There are Wit.ai, Microsoft Bot Framework, Aspect CXP-NLU, and API.ai.
Chatbots are the future of web development that facilitate in various exclusive ways, including phone interactions, customer support, information gathering, or filing, making eCommerce operations much more straightforward.
Now, almost all brands can benefit from these chatbots that are super easy to implement.
However, responsive web design company experts recommend that web developers opt for a flexible event-based framework built on proven technologies to overcome or surpass the shortcomings usually found in bot development platforms.
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