5 Ways Chatbot Technology Boosts Revenue

The number of businesses adopting artificial intelligence has grown tenfold. By 2024 consumer retail spending via chatbots worldwide will reach $142 billion — up from just $2.8 billion in 2019, according to Juniper Research. 

But what exactly is a chatbot? Chatbots utilize conversational AI technology to engage in human-like interactions, and in real time, with customers online and by phone. Chatbots allow businesses to resolve customer service issues 24/7, directly engage leads, and personalize customer communications while keeping overhead costs low.

So how can businesses meaningfully integrate AI solutions to grow revenue? Here are five reasons why investing in chatbot technology can help your organization, regardless of your industry or sector. 

Reason No. 1: Build Customer Loyalty

Good customer service is common sense, but it’s long-term loyalty that presents companies with both a challenge and an opportunity. Now more than ever, customer experience (CX) is paramount to building trust and inspiring fidelity. When customer service, personalization, and responsiveness are combined, customer loyalty follows. 

AI-fueled chatbots create a human connection, or human-like connection, with customers at scale and in a prompt fashion. For those arguing chatbots can’t replace that human connection, that’s partially true. But what they can do is give customers the personal attention they really desire. 

The potential for AI to foster customer loyalty is massive. Sixty-four percent of customers will try new products or services immediately from companies they think have very good CX. Customer service is a tenant of strong CX, and AI-based chat is a powerful tool for streamlining good customer service. AI-based chat enables efficiency in real time by resolving customer service issues or putting them in direct contact with a live person. The AI software gets smarter through this process by learning what creates the best and happiest customer outcomes. 

Not only does a positive customer experience yield 20% higher customer satisfaction, B2B and B2C companies leveraging innovative CX strategies are three times more likely to substantially surpass their business goals. We like those odds. 

Reason No. 2: What You Want, When You Want It

By using AI to power chat-based conversations, businesses can more efficiently understand what the customer is looking for, where they are in their purchase journey, and how they’d like to engage. From there, they can navigate accordingly. 

The benefit of getting the right information in front of the right user — with a channel that the user is excited about engaging with — translates to happier customers and more profitable marketing campaigns.

What does this mean for your business? Well, it means that integrating AI into your organization’s owned- and -operated channels increases your bottom line. From 2020 to 2022, Centerfield chatbots generated nearly $100 million in sales revenue for our clients. 

Reason No. 3: Smooth Handoff

Inefficient customer service is not only frustrating for your shoppers, it leaves potential revenue on the table. If you can engage with customers via an automated chat experience that quickly understands shopping intent, you can create a smooth handoff to purchase via e-commerce, connect with the sales center, or explore other channels. These advancements have boosted total sales and reduced costs while receiving positive feedback from users.

At Centerfield, we’ve found that customer satisfaction actually increases when you introduce a chatbot. This is based on post-chat survey results that found 85% of customers were satisfied with their experience. 

Reason No. 4: Less Is More

Shifting to a self-serve experience not only enhances your customer’s purchasing process and increases sales, it gives hours back to your sales team. By reducing non-sales interactions, chatbots give time back to your sales and marketing teams to allow for bigger-picture thinking.

Simply put, chatbots reduce overhead costs of up to a dollar per interaction and in some cases more, according to CNBC. Think about tentpole retail events like Black Friday and Cyber Week. Last year, for example, AI-powered chat replaced the process of having humans qualify the calls during the entire shopping season — when consumer demand was at an all-time high. In leveraging AI to power chat-based conversations, Centerfield was able to grow the channel by 106% without needing additional sales agents.

Reason No. 5: Makes Experimenting Easy

Experimentation is important for any business. Identifying consumer pain points and creating solutions for your customers allows you to find your niche. Experimenting with inbound marketing tactics, sales strategies, and service offerings allows you to get to know your customers better.

Utilizing AI-powered chat allows for easy experimentation. For example, in a recent experiment for another client, a user experience that included a chatbot drove over 25% more sales than the default variation without chat functionality, delivering hundreds of incremental sales. 

Centerfield has executed more than 10,000 AI-powered chat and digital experiments to further optimize customer omnichannel engagement. We further fine-tune these offerings by engaging with more than 200,000 customers every day across chat, telesales, email, messaging, and online content. 

Want to know how Centerfield’s technology can help your business acquire thousands of new customers? Contact us at marketing@centerfield.com.