Are Chatbots App an Effective Tool for Entrepreneurs?

According to research from Juniper Research, the deployment of chatbots will rise by 689% in 2020. But are they effective tools for entrepreneurs?

At first glance, the answer is an unequivocal yes. Chatbots can be a great time-saving device and can provide valuable information for your business. However, when you dig just a little deeper, you’ll see that chatbots only offer an incomplete service and sometimes not even saving time at all.

For those who aren’t familiar with what a chatbot is, it’s essentially an automated service that you can interact with via messaging apps or websites. They are designed to simulate conversations with actual humans which makes them seem more trustworthy than a computer.

Chatbots are capable of answering questions and directing users to the information they need so it can save them time from having to conduct research on your website or elsewhere.

 

Chatbots have been around for a long time. However, they have only recently become popular with entrepreneurs because of how widely adopted messaging apps are. With Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant, and WhatsApp, companies have been using chatbots to provide information about their products and services.

“But what about entrepreneurs?”, you may ask. The answer is that they can be incredibly effective for businesses that are more established and looking to broaden their customer base. Businesses in the technology sector particularly find this tool useful (and employ it frequently) because their products are highly technical.

Opening a dialogue with these consumers via chatbots means they don't even have to be available 24/7 to respond to questions about their products and services. Although this does limit their potential customer base, it does make it easier for them to reach new people and broaden their customer base as a result.

 

Conclusion

As you can see, chatbots do save businesses time when they are looking to increase their marketing efforts. The amount of time they save entrepreneurs depends on what sort of product or service the business sells. Businesses that sell software or physical products can save themselves time by not having to write emails to customers in order to respond to their questions.