There are many different chatbot use cases depending on how you want to use them. Chatbots are a great ally to the customer support team, promoters, data collectors, and so much more. If you’re wondering how your company can use these virtual assistants, check out the different use cases by business function and industry.
Chatbot use cases for business
Customers expect chatbots to help them with practical issues, such as getting a quick answer in an emergency or finding a human assistant. Chatbots can do that and so much more.
Let’s take a look at important chatbot use cases for business by function.
Chatbot use cases for customer service and support
- Chatbots are first-tier support. Customers can get instant support from your chatbot, especially when there’s an emergency or if it’s after hours. Chatbots can also process refunds or order cancellations.
- Chatbots answer repetitive and common questions. For example, if your support agents are always getting asked about your pricing plans, it’d be cost-effective to give customers the option to talk to a chatbot instead.
- Chatbots help visitors navigate your site. Chatbots can help with navigation including helping visitors find specific pages, discover information, and receive instructions about tasks (e.g. registration).
- Chatbots can handle monetary transactions. Especially in the banking or finance sector, chatbots can easily help customers pay bills, check their card balances, and more.
Learn more about chatbots in customer support.
Chatbot use cases for customer engagement
Chatbots are fun conversationalists. They can serve as a source of entertaining discussions about the weather, movies, and more. This is a way to engage customers with personalized communication without having to distract a human employee from their duties. Part of this use case is also sending fun promos and getting emails.
Chatbot use cases for customer feedback
Chatbots can collect customer feedback automatically. They can use surveys or communicate with customers to register complaints or wishes, thus helping capture the voice of the customer.
Chatbot use cases for marketing
- Chatbots can make personalized recommendations. AI assistants can analyze a user’s behavior on the site and ping them with personalized recommendations or useful marketing content.
- Chatbots facilitate email collection and marketing campaigns. Bots can subscribe visitors to newsletters, events, and webinars, or hold contests and share promotional material.
- Chatbots provide customers access to information. If a customer can’t find what they’re looking for, chatbots can instantly pull knowledge base articles, FAQs, or other documents for them.
Chatbot use cases for sales
- Chatbots support front-line sales and lead generation. Apart from recommending personalized services, chatbots can engage visitors in conversations (e.g. “I see you’re checking out X. Would you like to know more about it?”). They can also connect visitors to salespeople automatically and help them book demo appointments.
- Chatbots can handle purchases and customer onboarding. A bot can handle instant purchases for retail businesses, like tickets, clothing, etc. or immediately sign up customers for free trials. Chatbots can also serve as additional assistance to customers by helping them use a product and explore options or features.
- Chatbots perform inventory checks and track orders. If a customer wants a specific item, the chatbot can see whether it’s in stock or how long it’ll take to arrive. The bot can also make alternative recommendations should the particular item be unavailable.
Here’s more about sales chatbot use cases.
Chatbot use cases for people management
- Chatbots assist employees in finding information fast. If your employees struggle to navigate your internal documentation or knowledge base, a chatbot can help them find answers quickly. (That’s especially useful if they’ve got customers waiting).
- Chatbots serve as project support. Chatbots can send notifications for various tasks, e.g. a reminder to follow up with a customer or that an action was taken in the CRM.
- Chatbots can serve as HR assistants. For example, chatbots can help employees register time off, retrieve company policies, and find answers to repetitive employment questions.
This list is not exhaustive, as chatbots are becoming more and more versatile and capable via AI (e.g. Natural Language Processing).
Now, let’s see how each of these use cases apply to different industries.
Chatbot use cases by industry
If you’re curious about how companies like yours implement conversational AI, here are the most common chatbot use cases broken down by industry. Skip to your industry if you want to:
(We recently wrote about chatbots in education, too.)
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Chatbot use cases in banking
A banking chatbot can support a bank’s digitization efforts while benefiting employees, saving costs, and helping reduce lines at bank branches.
Here are potential use cases for chatbots in banking:
- Giving answers to basic questions. The chatbot will be answering basic questions from customers, like “when’s my next loan payment due”, “what’s my credit card balance?” or “how much did I charge to my VISA in September?”
- Helping solve issues fast. A chatbot can help customers stuck with a banking service, such as money transfers or retrieving their e-banking password.
- Take up non-complex banking tasks. For example, a chatbot can process payments or simple transactions.
- Providing information on banking products, accounts, and actions. The chatbot can give an overview of bonus points options, online services, available loan types, and more. It can also monitor spend, review account information, and more.
- Generating leads. When users browse a bank’s website, the chatbot can engage them and encourage them to ask questions.
- Capture fraud or hacking concerns quickly. Imagine believing you’ve been hacked or defrauded and having to wait half an hour to tell an agent. Pretty frustrating huh? A chatbot can immediately register these requests and sometimes even take actions (e.g. lock a credit card).
Chatbot use cases in telecom
Chatbots are a good way to help telecom companies deal with high volume of customer issues, triage customer needs, and provide support around the clock.
Here are some common chatbot use cases in telecom companies:
- Handling queries or supporting sales/plan upgrade opportunities. If a customer wants to change their plan for phone, internet, cable, or any other service, they can ask the chatbot for information and even upgrade their plan automatically.
- Collecting and responding to customer feedback. From complaints about signal quality to concerns about data security, a chatbot can record what the customer is saying and offer solutions.
- Directing customers to the right agents for support. If your company has a different department dealing with each type of issue (e.g. accounts and subscriptions, troubleshooting), your chatbot can quickly “diagnose” the type of problem and connect customers to the right team.
- Answering frequently asked questions. Chatbots can answer standard questions such as information about subscription plans, location coverage, setup instructions, terms and conditions of service, and more.
Chatbot use cases in retail
With so much purchasing activity increasingly online, in-store retailers understand that going digital will help them compete with ecommerce businesses. Especially in cases like the COVID-19 pandemic, employing chatbots is a good way to connect to your customers and keep them engaged. For example, companies like furniture retailer Dufresne have brought their showrooms online.
Here are some common chatbot use cases for retail:
- Generating leads. OK, customers have landed on your site to shop for products, but how do you make sure they stay around to make a purchase? That’s where a chatbot can help. It can capture customers’ contact info or keep customers engaged by sending them products or offers.
- Supporting in-store purchases. Imagine, for example, that a customer has their eyes on an item from your store, but wants to compare in-store and online prices, check whether you offer an online discount, or see if the item exists at another store branch in a different color. For all these, they can conveniently chat with your bot.
- Offering instant service. As in every industry, retail can also benefit from a bot’s ability to give instant answers to customers 24/7. From providing product availability to store locations and working hours, a chatbot enables you to answer FAQs on the spot.
Insurance chatbot use cases
Because of the nuances of the insurance industry (e.g. it’s often seen as a “necessary evil”) and the competition from banks and online service providers, insurers need to improve the insurance customer experience. And chatbots can be a big help.
Here are common chatbot use cases in the insurance industry:
- Suggesting policies and services. Chatbots can segment and analyze your audience and identify a list of services that may suit them (e.g. personalized recommendations about insurance types).
- Offering insurance advice. Chatbots can provide advice such as the type of insurance to purchase or investment asset allocation. Some bots can even achieve automated underwriting.
- Automating FAQs and administrative tasks. A chatbot is there 24/7 to answer routine questions from people on various topics like insurance coverage, premiums, documentation, filing claims, billing, or policy renewals.
- Helping people fill in forms and applications. The chatbot can be the first stop for customers who have trouble filling out complex applications.
- Sending important notifications. Customers want relevant, real-time alerts, and chatbots can provide them. This may include mobile alerts about potential fire, smoke or carbon dioxide hazards, or dangerous driving routes.
Ecommerce chatbot use cases
Ecommerce chatbots are a no-brainer – since most purchasing activity happens online. That’s led many ecommerce businesses, like eBay, Nike and Sephora, to deploy chatbots on messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Kik and WeChat.
Here are some common chatbot use cases for ecommerce:
- Facilitating sales and sending offers. Chatbots can offer guidance to your website visitors by offering advice on suitable products, and sending interesting offers and discounts.
- Re-engaging customers with abandoned carts. Chatbots can send reminders to users that their order is unfinished or ask them whether they have an issue that prevents them from buying.
- Offering 24/7 support. When your human support agents are off the clock, your customers keep buying. Chatbot technology can be there for them around the clock.
- Helping with orders and suggestions. Chatbots can check the stock availability of specific products, help customers complete their purchases, track the status of their order and make any changes allowed.
- Conduct consumer research. Your bot can be programmed to collect information on repetitive queries, common trends and what customers prefer regarding products, and more.
Chatbot healthcare use cases
Chatbots are most popular in healthcare compared to other industries. An AI-powered chatbot can save time in an industry where time is often literally a matter of life and death. Clinic or hospital contact centers don’t get overwhelmed with basic queries, and patients can get quick answers about topics that worry them.
Here are common use cases of chatbots in healthcare:
- Providing information on medical subjects. A chatbot can provide timely and accurate information on medical procedures, symptoms of illnesses, processes, health insurance, etc.
- Sharing useful tips. The chatbot can be programmed to share chunks of helpful advice to your patients or their families (e.g. diet to follow before surgery). It can also book examinations for patients.
- Engaging prospects on sites. For example, customers/patients may navigate on sites without knowing whether they can find their answers in an article or book an appointment. A chatbot can quickly understand what they need and guide them.
- Assisting physicians. We all expect our doctors to know everything by heart, but, as all professionals, they often need to retrieve information. Chatbots instantly provide answers on medication, dosages, standards, and more.
- Being full-blown health assistants. Chatbots can do so much more than giving tips, they can often help patients apply simple treatments, remind them to take medicine, and monitor their health.
Chatbot use cases in government
“I just love dealing with government services!” – said no one ever. Bureaucracy has a bad rap all over the globe, and government agencies consistently underperform in customer satisfaction. The importance of customer experience in the public sector is highlighted by the Office of Management and Budget which urged government agencies to focus on customer experience and improve service.
So, one way to provide a better experience and relieve the impact of budget constraints is – you guessed it – chatbots. They can help ease government phone lines and keep them available for the most serious cases.
Here are some common chatbot use cases in government:
- Providing quick access to information and public data. People can use chatbots to search anything from their own records, to new laws, to government papers and public research.
- Collecting complaints. This is a possible use case in other industries, too, but it’s extra important for governments which often have to deal with angry or disappointed citizens.
- Helping with government processes. This includes submitting documents or completing forms, registering for government services, and more.
- Answering queries 24/7. In many countries, government agencies have tight margins for customer support, sometimes being unavailable in the afternoon or evening hours. Chatbots are always on (even on bank holidays), and can handle queries about services, issues, instructions, documents, or tax processes.
HR chatbot use cases
Implementing HR chatbots isn’t very widespread, but it’s gaining traction. This is because many companies realize that their HR department receives lots of repetitive requests or questions from employees that could be easily handled automatically.
Here are some HR chatbot use cases:
- Sharing company information and documentation. For example, an employee can ask your bot “what is the company’s policy on parental leave?” or for the standard confidentiality agreement. The chatbot can also produce salary documentation.
- Supporting HR functions. Several tasks that can be easily automated in functions like recruitment, onboarding, and learning programs can be run by chatbots.
- Answering questions about benefits and perks. Employees can ask about their time off balances, past benefits they took, or an overview of their current benefits.
- Assist with standard actions. This includes updating an employee profile, resetting passwords, and tracking attendance and hours worked.
Chatbots are here to stay
Chatbots have different levels of adoption among different industries. One thing is for sure, though; they’re here to stay and evolve. According to an article in the Verge, Ray Kurzweil, futurist and Director of Engineering at Google, predicts that bots will become steadily smarter:
“If you think you can have a meaningful conversation with a human, you’ll be able to have a meaningful conversation with an AI in 2029.”
The future holds great things for virtual assistants. Implementing them now will give you ample time to test their abilities and integrate them properly into your customer experience strategies.
Want to learn more about how a chatbot can work and how to implement your own? Check out our chatbot solution.