The current state of e-commerce is strong, and digital marketing has created many opportunities for different strategies, all designed to create customers and make existing customers more likely to buy from a particular brand. This means that marketing experts now use a variety of tactics, using the resources available to connect with potential customers and manage relationships with customers through the different channels that are available.

E-commerce has always been about convincing customers to purchase your products or services. Most business process software systems (such as project management software solutions, virtual phone systems, and customer relationship management software solutions) have been designed to accommodate customer engagement platforms to expand the number of available mediums via which customers can contact the business institution.

However, customers prefer to contact businesses through social media messengers because it is more convenient. The demand for immediate replies and access to self-service options have forced companies to automated brand-to-client conversations. The integration of chatbots has solved this to work with social messengers and communicate seamlessly with customers.

What is a Chatbot Platform?

A chatbot platform is a program that is designed to simulate human conversations on a social messenger and perform designated tasks that it has been pre-programmed to carry out. Chatbots can also be integrated to work with e-commerce websites and other customer engagement platforms. This use of chatbots is advantageous in a business as it presents the brand with a chance to serve its customers appropriately.

Despite businesses' best efforts to avoid complaints, customers will still lodge valid complaints. This is because customer service is often generalized and cannot meet every customer's needs. Customer complaints can be detrimental to a business, so it is important to understand the most common causes of complaints. Let's explore them together.

What are the Major Causes of Customer Queries?

Business owners and managers dread customer queries because they are difficult to avoid. However, complaints are inevitable, especially in an e-commerce setting where services are rendered virtually and can easily be delayed or hindered by some unpleasant factors. Since the complaints will compulsorily surface, solutions become the next available option by first identifying the common causes of these problems. We have highlighted a few recurrent reasons for queries in an e-commerce setting from the results of our research, and they are as follows:

1. Delay in Rendering Services and Replying to Messages

Customers are always happy when the brand they patronize is punctual. Punctuality in business incites a wave of reliability which is why when the customer is delayed, they tend to lose trust in the company, and complaints usually follow.

2. Failure to Identify Lapses in the Products and Services you Offer

A company is better off if it has a signature product quality, creating an atmosphere of trust for its customers. In a situation where a brand fails to consistently deliver this standard of products due to a few lapses in the production line, complaints from customers cannot be avoided.

3. Poor Information Distribution

Businesses should always be ready to keep their clients and partners informed of new developments as soon as possible. Delayed or unclear information can result in poor customer satisfaction and, inevitably, complaints.

4. Failure to Meet up With Agreed Standards

Some customers may have decided on conditions or standards of service for a given occasion, particularly in the case of service-based businesses. If the company can no longer meet these conditions, it may result in customer complaints about the business' incompetence.

If you use a chatbot software to build your chatbot, you can eliminate all of the causes stated above. Chatbot platforms offer businesses an opportunity to fine-tune their chatbots to perform their scheduled activities conveniently. The performance of a chatbot in solving queries is limited to the chatbot platform used to program it. Let us not take a look at how a chatbot platform can be used to solve customer queries.

Chatbots can help to resolve communication difficulties and provide a more efficient service in many cases. We have identified the main problems that customers have with communication, and most of them seem to be caused by a lack of clarity or poor customer service.

How to Use a Chatbot Platform to Solve Customer Issues

We have identified that poor communication can easily be solved by using chatbots to handle B2C and B2B communication services. These chatbots are the best tools to be used in fixing customer queries. We can now proceed to discuss the possible ways in which chatbots can be used to solve customer complaints when properly built and managed using a chatbot platform. In this text, we have highlighted eleven ways discussed as follows:

1. Carry out Effective Marketing Strategies

Chatbots can help to carry out more effective marketing; this is because they can help to create and maintain a great image for your company through various methods using available online tools. A company that uses bot builder platforms as part of their digital marketing strategy can reduce the number of customer queries by making it easier for customers to reach them. The chatbot platform can provide a more efficient communication channel for prospects and customers who want to make inquiries.

2. Customer Preferences

Chatbots use the information they learn about customer preferences to serve each customer according to their individual tastes. The platforms that chatbots operate on are designed to learn and adapt to customer preferences using data gathering and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. An automated chatbot can quickly and easily identify a customer's preferences and tailor their service to the customer for a more personalized experience. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction, as they feel that their preferences are being catered to, and queries about preferential service can be easily resolved.

3. Chatbots Eliminate the Delay in Conversation;

Many customer complaints stem from the delay in receiving responses to their inquiries. Customers prefer to receive immediate responses to their messages, as it makes them feel that the company values their business.

4. Chatbots Provide a Medium for Self-service

Some customers prefer to be able to do primary services independently, without help from service agents. Others may prefer immediate attention that cannot be guaranteed by a customer service agent. By using a customer service chatbot, users are exposed to the opportunity of carrying out basic services on their own, by sending recognizable textual commands to the chatbot to perform designated duties. For instance, booking an appointment may seem too minor for a client to have to call the business phone. In such cases, using a chatbot platform and programming it to book free time slots would be more effective.

5. Chatbots Make the Conversation a Lot More Engaging

A chatbot platform can help to diffuse a heated argument by providing calm and precise explanations, unlike humans who may flare up from frustration. Chatbots can provide solutions to almost every possible issue that may have arisen.

6. Chatbots Easily Identify Leads

Depending on how confident a prospect is, digital marketers use different formal communication styles for different opportunities. The chatbot platform helps users identify these leads and uses the best programmed tactics to communicate with them effectively. This leads to proper customer relationship management and, as a result, fewer queries.

7. Chatbots Help Customers Find Products

Customers get frustrated when they have to wait for a response from customer service agents while they are trying to decide which product model or brand to select. Sometimes they ask too many questions and get delayed responses, which stirs up more questions. However, customers now have steady access to answers about products and services using a chatbot platform to communicate with customers.

8. Chatbots Conduct Surveys More Easily

You can increase engagement by programming your chatbot platform to send out survey generation forms at the end of conversations. Personalized messages that include conditions are more likely to generate surveys that are effective.

9. Chatbots are More Effective in End-of-transaction Feedback Generation

You can use transactional messages as a way to communicate with your customers in e-Commerce, digital marketing, and other aspects. These messages can be programmed into a chatbot platform for automatic distribution, and can include appreciatory messages, requests for feedback, and information about details that may not have been stated on the terms page.

10. Chatbots Reduce the Workload for Service Agents

Since chatbots are available to appointment scheduling and answer calls, customer service agents representing a chatbot-enabled e-commerce company usually have less work than normal. This spare time can be channeled into another important business process where their services will be more critical. They will also be supportive in the call center to reduce the wait time for call queueing and fix physical appointments.

11. Chatbots Offer an Overall Better Customer Experience

The quality of customer service is important for maintaining customer loyalty, especially for first-time purchases. Customers who use chatbots are generally satisfied with the service and are less likely to have questions. They are more likely to use the brand again.

Conclusion

US-based product and brand developer Connie Edler once said, "Excellent customer service is the number one job in any company! It is the personality of the company and the reason customers come back. Without customers, there is no company.

Customer satisfaction is important and should be given attention. Chatbots may be very effective in solving customer queries due to their personalized approach but, chatbot platforms usually perform as well as the online chatbot builder used in designing them since they are mostly not scratch-code programs.

The BotUp chatbot builder by 500apps offers a wide range of features to make your chatbot-building journey easier. However, to ensure maximum efficiency and zero queries in the future, it is important to pick the best chatbot builder in the industry. For more information about our products and services, visit the best chatbot software.