Chatbot vs. Human, the age-old question that has been on our minds for centuries. For many years, there are movies and fiction stories about how the robot is going to take over humans.
The battle between chatbots and humans has been going on for centuries. It is natural to wonder who will win in this war of technology.
In the past, people have predicted that robots would take over humans at some point. Technological advancements mean there are now many different types of bots from those designed purely for customer service to autonomous ones
For many years chatbots were just tools to answer basic questions about the company or product that we sell, but recently their ability to understand human language grew exponentially.
Nowadays you can order pizza by talking on Facebook Messenger and if you have an Alexa at home, you can ask Alexa to order anything for you.
Chatbots are becoming smarter as time goes on. The question now is, will they eventually replace humans? It’s a scary thought that robots might take over one day and make it impossible for people to get jobs, but there’s reason to believe the opposite is true. Chatbot technology has made life easier in many ways and we could continue to use these tools alongside humans instead of replacing them.
I understand there is a constant fear of humans might losing out their jobs, and only a selective capitalist or tech giant that hold the control button of AI are going to benefits from this machine learning and Ai technology.
Is it true? Is there a big conspiracy that only big companies can utilise chatbots?
In this blog, we will cover the following topics to get a full picture of the topic Chatbot Vs Human.
- What is a chatbot and how does it work
- Why should I choose the human over the chatbot
- Who is the winner in this battle between Automation and humans
- How can you use a chatbot to your advantage
Let’s dive in:-
Chatbot Vs Human: What is a chatbot, and how does it work better than a human?
First, let’s look at chatbots. The chatbot is a software program that talks to users like humans do through messaging apps and intelligent digital assistants (like Siri or Alexa).
A chatbot can answer questions about the company’s products, suggest other items they may be interested in buying, give updates on orders as they are shipped out.
A chatbot is designed to simulate conversation with humans, usually over the internet. The purpose of these programs typically falls into one of three categories: customer service, marketing and sales.
The advantage of a chatbot is that they are typically faster, more consistent in their responses and cost less. It’s best for answering questions and providing straightforward information. They’re also good at giving status updates on orders, confirming deliveries, and doing other things they’re programmed to do. For example, if you order a pizza from Domino’s Pizza chatbot on Facebook Messenger or via text message (or if you call them) the chatbot.
The chatbot allows businesses to scale faster in efficient methods, which provides sustainability for growth without endless hiring costs for repetitive tasks. With automation in place, companies might be able to cut down 30% of their workforce for the customer service department, a significant cost reduction for a business.
Examples of good chatbot applications are
- Lead generation
- Qualify leads for B2B
- Lead Scoring
- eCommerce abandon cart reminder
- Order delivery status update
- Webinar or event registration
- Ordering Chatbot
- Common FAQ for external or internal
- Hiring chatbot to filter the candidates
- Arrange appointment
Chatbots are perfect for repetitive tasks, which allows humans more time to handle complex issues, which the chatbot lacks now.
The chatbot is designed to offer you a consistent experience. It will not feel emotions or consider your feelings when it interacts with you. The robot will do what it has been programmed for—answer the questions that come its way without empathy or a deep understanding of how you feel.
The truth is that Artificial Intelligence cannot do everything as well as humans, but they have its strengths.
Chatbots are not good at complex tasks, especially those that involve emotions. For example, a chatbot cannot tell you when to watch your favourite TV show or help you find the perfect gift for someone who has everything. They also can’t have any kind of back-and-forth conversation because they rely on keywords for input.
The disadvantage is that people always prefer talking to a human, so there can be a decrease in sales because it’s not as personal or authentic. Also, if someone has an issue with what you did in a previous conversation, it will become difficult for the chatbot to grasp the full picture of the issue.
That is why we come to the next topic: when you should have a human for the conversation. Let’s jump into it.
Chatbot Vs Human, when should I choose the human over the chatbot?
While human, what is our core strength that robots can never replace? We can read body language. We have the ability to understand when people are in need of help or just want someone to talk with and will provide a listening ear. For example, we might notice that the customer is upset because they haven’t received their order yet and offer them extra assistance.
If you are a business, the chatbot is not always better. You should think about all of your customers and what they want before using them. Some people may only talk with humans, so it might hurt your sales if you decide to go this way instead of having both options available.
The other option would be for humans to handle a complex issue like a customer complaint that requires human empathy and understanding to solve the communication crisis.
In a conflict like this, it’s not advisable to let the chatbot handle the communication, as it will accidentally damage the customer relationship. It might annoy the customer if the chatbot cannot give them the right answer when they need it the most.
In our past record, the chatbot is able to sell products under an optimised product chatbot flow with proper testing and setup. This is what we are really good at, and we call it high-converting chatbot. With the combination of chatbot and personal human touch, we can drive traffic to the chatbot and sell products with a value ranging from RM 60 to RM 500+.
For a product of higher value than this amount, we suggest taking the conversation to another format. It can be a webinar, one-on-one meeting session, mini-course, five-day course, WhatsApp conversation, email, or phone call.
A human-like personal touch when dealing with high-ticket items will help increase the trust level and boost the conversion.
So our suggestions for when we should have humans involved:
- Complex customer complaint (chatbot cannot respond)
- High ticket closing conversation (humans can close up higher value items)
- Common questions where the chatbot hasn’t learn to response
Your customer service and sales team will be glad that they no longer need to handle repetitive tasks. They can now work on productive tasks and close more quality clients.
One of the disadvantages of humans in customer service is that they might not be able to handle repetitive tasks. This will leave the service desk with insufficient staff and having to deal with more complex customer issues.
The other disadvantage is that it will be a burden to your sales team. They might have no need to handle repetitive tasks and are able to work on more productive tasks like closing quality customers, but this will take up their time which would otherwise go into new lead acquisition for the company.
If you don’t want them spending too much time on non-productive tasks, we recommend you to have a chatbot. They will take over the repetitive task and you can assign your sales team to more productive tasks like closing quality clients or new lead acquisition for the company.
The human labour cost is going to increase from time to time, and it’s a high operation cost for the companies to scale. There are many reasons for this, but it can be mainly attributed to things like the high value of skilled labour, the high costs associated with training and recruitment, or employee compensation or benefits.
In any case, humans are often much more expensive than machines in terms of time and money. This is why many companies are looking into using artificial intelligence instead of hiring a large number of employees. Many companies see that chatbots can be a great way to save on costs for their business.
Leverage the best of both sides allows your companies to scale faster, better and cheaper, and getting a competitive edge against your competitors.
Next, we will discuss who is the winner in this battle between chatbots and humans?
Who is the winner in this battle between Automation and humans?
Who will win? The answer is not as simple as you may think. Chatbots and humans both have their strengths and weaknesses, but they can exist alongside one another for the benefit of the company.
Humans shouldn’t feel threatened by chatbots because they are cheaper and relieving at the end of the day. Humans should be able to do tasks that require human empathy and understanding like closing high-quality sales, cases with complex complaints, or anything else they prove better suited at than a chatbot will be.
If chatbots and humans can work together, they are able to provide an amazing customer service experience and scale the business faster than before. We are already seeing how we can work together with automation and AI technology in many ways. Here are some of the examples:
Companies like Lemonade use Chatbot to personalised insurance suggestions and file insurance claim faster and more accurate than a human.
And we even see that you can now use Ai to write endless content for you with a simple few clicks. There is even a 7 days challenge to finish writing a book using this amazing software.
Another cool software is Databox, where it can help marketers automatically update all the important metrics and keep track of the record without the need to pull all the data manually from each advertising platform. Save hardworking marketers at least a few hours a month for the repetitive tasks.
If you are running a lot of campaigns, it can be overwhelming to keep track and optimise them. Software like Madgicx and Revealbot can be a great help to speed up the process. It can help to turn off the lower-performing ad campaign and increase the budget for the high-performing ad campaign.
With all the technological advancements, it is unsurprising to see chatbots taking over jobs once reserved for humans. This is because chatbots don’t need things like salaries or benefits-they are a cheap and efficient way for companies to scale their operations without breaking the bank.
Chatbots also have some advantages over humans- they provide faster customer service, never get sick, and can handle even the most complicated customer complaints.
The chatbot can also be used in many different ways like helping marketers with data tracking or providing insurance assistance.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell who will win this battle between artificial intelligence and human labour, but I think the companies that leveraging the best of both sides will be able to scale faster, better and cheaper, and getting a competitive edge against their competitors.
Let’s jump into the next topic on how you can start to implement chatbots for your business.
How can you start to use a chatbot to your advantage?
By now, you have understood that it’s not sensible to rely on humans for repetitive tasks. By tapping on automation, chatbot, and AI, you will stand a chance to win the fierce competition without incurring huge non-productive operation costs.
As society rapidly changes, more and more people are starting to use chatbots to help them complete tasks that they need. The availability of chatbots is increasing every day, and it’s easy to find a service with access to these services. It’s not too hard to get started, either. Chatbot platforms are typically free or low-cost.
You can start having a chatbot in less than 5 minutes using Manychat. All you need to do is sign up for an account with Manychat and connect to your Facebook Page account. At this point, you are ready to create your chatbot. You can use the pre-made templates or edit one of your choices. Once you have decided on the chatbot template, all you need to do is enter the questions that you want to be answered by the chatbot.
The next step is to create links on your website for the chatbot button and start optimizing it with different topics and updates regularly.
It’s always better to start now to get the early adopter advantages. You can use chatbots for your business in many different ways. Here are some examples:
- Start small by setting up a chatbot on your website as the chat widget
- Implement 3 common questions in your chatbot
- Observe and keep track of the outcome
- Keep improving & automate the process
- Involve humans when there is a moment when your chatbot cannot handle the inquiries
- Adopt automation at your companies by learning automation & chatbot
I understand it’s not an easy journey, as it requires upskilling your team with new knowledge and skills. It’s especially hard for people who have been working with repetitive tasks for their whole lives to learn something new.
By starting small, with small learning cycles, we can let the team adapt slowly to the changes. Most importantly, you, as the company leader, must lead the team to these new changes. You will need to lead by example, learning, applying, and enforcing automation, and then only your people will follow.
To stay ahead of the competition, this change is inevitable.
Conclusion:
I’m not sure if there will ever be a time when robots can do all human tasks. Up until now, plenty of research has concluded that chatbots are only good at answering simple questions about products and services.
In the future, we might witness AI giving personalisation suggestions just like humans. Until then, it’s important for us to take action now so that we won’t lose out to the competition.
This article has introduced the idea of how chatbots and humans can work together to offer a better customer experience. You can use chatbots for your business in many different ways, so it’s important to start now before your competitors do! The future is uncertain, but we know one thing- if humans want to stay on top, they need to keep up with technology (learn automation & chatbots) or risk being replaced by robots.
If there are any questions left unanswered about why companies should use chatbots or how they can start using them in the right way, please feel free to ask me via email at: marketing@thecrunch.io
