Chatbot Blog | Amy

Everything you need to know about a small business chatbot

Written by Amy Team | Nov 1, 2021 9:07:06 PM

In an increasingly competitive global economy, providing excellent customer service can be a key factor to set your business apart from the competition. According to Business Insider, 66% of consumers say they have already made a choice to support a company that delivers great customer service. Not only that, users are willing to pay 17% more to do business with firms with great reputations when it comes to customer service. This indicates that focusing on customer service can actually improve your business revenue.

That's why small business experts like you should invest in customer service to ensure that they deliver memorable experiences. However, many small businesses can't afford a dedicated customer service team or even have the time to train additional staff to answer their phones and customer inquiries. 

At the end of the day, this means small business experts often have to pick up the slack when it comes to customer support. Between the phone calls, email inquiries, and basic FAQs, you may find that you're constantly running empty and in need of a solution. Even if you have a team to handle your customer service needs, the chances are they can't always offer the 24/7 support customers expect. The problem is, that your business's growth depends on its ability to attract and retain customers.

If you're finding yourself in a customer service rut, a chatbot for small businesses might be your best solution. We'll walk you through why and how. 

What is a small business chatbot? 

Chatbots for small businesses open up new and exciting opportunities for operational efficiency and customer engagement. They can often handle entire customer conversations without the need for any human assistance and address user queries promptly and consistently. 

Since small business owners like you juggle a lot of roles, having your customer service automated saves both time and resources - while enhancing customer satisfaction and retention. In addition to improving customer support, chatbots can also help you convert more leads into sales by reducing response times and automating various business processes to ultimately increase productivity. 

Technology and content have made chatbots a powerful tool for businesses, large and small. Organizations that have already embraced chatbots for small businesses have a competitive advantage over those that are yet to implement the technology. Here are some of the benefits you can get from a small business chatbot built with your specific needs in mind: 

Easy setup

A chatbot opens up a wide world of opportunities for your small business. It can help you with everything from responding to customer queries to improving lead generation. But first, you need to set up your chatbot.  

One of the best parts about chatbots built just for small businesses is that they are extremely easy to set up, even for not-so-tech-savvy users. As a small business expert, you'll be able to get your new chatbot up and running in no time. You don't even need to get an IT expert to help you set up the chatbot solution. You can do this by simply copying and pasting a code to integrate the chatbot to your company’s website or leverage your favorite CMS tools like Wix, WordPress, Hubspot, and many more.

Moreover, you must have content built out for you and your business needs. This means they can tailor the chatbot's content as little or as much as they need

24/7 Support

Today, instant gratification is one of the few ways you can keep your customers engaged. No one wants to wait until business hours to get answers or assistance. You never know when a customer (prospective or existing) might need your help. That's where a chatbot for small businesses comes in. Studies indicate that 51% of customers want businesses to be available 24/7, these expectations are set by business giants thus making it a challenge for small businesses to cater to the changing needs of consumers. Chatbots are available 24/7, making 24/7 customer service possible for small businesses. 

Many customers may browse your website late at night or even in another time zone. Chatbots for small businesses ensure your customers’ needs are met, no matter what time of day, and can answer up to 80% of customer inquiries. Your chatbot is always on and ready to serve at any time of the day, even when your support team is unavailable. Being able to engage customers at their preferred time will improve satisfaction and loyalty to your brand. 

Reduced costs

As a small business, you may not have the resources to hire a customer service executive to optimize your customer experience. A chatbot can help you economize customer support tasks without compromising the quality of service. 

You'll find that a chatbot for small businesses can help you save a significant amount of money on customer support. That's because a chatbot helps you automate most customer support tasks without the help of a live agent. You don't need to hire more live customer service representatives, which saves your business salaries and hours spent on training a new employee. 

If you have a small team and handle multiple functions, a chatbot will reduce the need to respond to customers manually, which will in turn let you get the time back in your day to focus on your product and improve your operations. 

Increased customer retention

Customer satisfaction and customer retention go hand in hand. While customers expect fast responses to queries, they might not always get instant responses from your business. The result is a frustrated customer and greater churn. In fact, data shows that businesses are losing up to 75% of their customers when they have to wait for more than a few minutes for a response.  

By deploying a chatbot to help you provide instant support, you can increase customer satisfaction and keep your customers around for longer. Your brand can use a chatbot for small businesses to meet customer expectations and improve their experience, which will help your customers establish a connection with your business and stay loyal to your brand. 

Improve your small business over time

When you deploy a chatbot, you'll have real-time insights into each customer interaction and determine what content resonates with them the most. With these insights, it's easier to improve your business and eliminate bottlenecks that stand in the way of effective customer service. A chatbot can also help you elevate customer engagement and experience to the next level and ultimately improve your business. 

For instance, by leveraging a chatbot for small businesses, you can drive engagement based on user personas while ensuring the engagement is more interactive. Unlike human customer service reps, chatbots deliver consistent answers, which helps you avoid providing irrelevant information to customers. When customers know they can always count on you to provide the information they need, they'll keep coming back. 

more resources and better-equipped customer service and marketing teams. 

Helps Visitors to Navigate Your Site 

Customers, especially new ones, appreciate the proper support and guidance when navigating your website.  Regardless of how navigable your site is, or how many content guides it has, visitors may still feel lost to find the information they need on their own.

Deploying a chatbot for small businesses helps visitors navigate your website, easing the onboarding process. Here's how chatbots streamline the onboarding process: 

  • By asking questions and collecting answers, chatbots can show website visitors the route to take and help them find what they want. 
  • By helping visitors find the information they're looking for, chatbots ease the decision-making process for customers.
  • By understanding each customer's preferences and journey, a chatbot can help you create a refined user experience the more information you collect with each interaction.

Highlights discounts or seasonal specials 

The beauty of using chatbots is that they leave no stone unturned when interacting with customers. Human customer service staff can forget to highlight your seasonal specials, and discounts, but with a chatbot, you can consistently update your business's news on a weekly or seasonal basis. 

Meet Amy, the small business chatbot with human superpowers 

Amy is the first chatbot built for small businesses, by a small business. Unlike other customer service chatbots, Amy grows with you and is constantly improving to ensure you and your customers have the easiest experience from end to end.

Amy hopes to empower small business experts to run their daily operations while saving time and money. The chatbot is not cold, composed of seemingly pre-canned responses that drive customers away and make them feel as if they aren’t a priority. Amy is warm, colorful, and happy to help, with the enthusiasm to get to know the ins and outs of your business, with a people-first attitude. Don't think of  Amy as just another chatbot, but a reimagined experience to delight your customers and save time and headache along the way

Want to learn more about Amy? Stay up-to-date with the latest news at amy.us.