Are you convinced that a chatbot would be perfect for your company, but maybe your team isn’t yet? So you first have to get your team excited about the new technology before you can introduce a chatbot for your customers and potential customers? Then read the following article and learn a simple trick to get your entire team excited about chatbots!

Why are many employees negative about chatbots?

The results of my Chatbot Study 2020 DACH have once again shown that one of the most common reasons why not every company has a chatbot yet is the lack of knowledge among employees(see here). Many employees don’t even know what a chatbot actually is, what it can be used for and where it shouldn’t be used.

Many people still think that a chatbot is the little annoying chat window on the website, although a chatbot is usually much more than that. A chatbot can be a real help and, when used correctly, it brings a lot of added value.

To reduce ignorance, it often helps to first introduce a chatbot internally before developing a chatbot for customers or potential customers.

When does an internal chatbot make sense?

If you have the feeling that your team colleagues still need to “get used to” chatbots, it can be helpful to first introduce a chatbot as a digital assistant for your employees.
The employees then perceive the bot as useful support and are later motivated to use the chatbot with their own customers or partners. They then become internal influencers, so to speak.

Where can chatbots be integrated in the company?

1. to answer common IT questions

Questions about IT and computer programs are not uncommon in most companies. What’s more, most questions about software and hardware are always the same and can therefore be ideally answered automatically by a chatbot. You can introduce a chatbot that answers the most frequently asked questions about computers, smartphones, software, hardware, etc. Your employees can ask their questions directly via chat and receive prompt digital support. If you use Microsoft Teams and Slack in your company, you can integrate the bot directly here.

2. to release the vacation

In many companies, vacations or other absences must first be approved internally or at least the supervisor must be informed. The absences must then be entered in your own and usually also in the team calendars. These tasks can be completed quickly and easily by a chatbot. Your colleagues write a message to the chatbot with their vacation wish. Based on the stored data, the bot knows which other employees need to approve this vacation request and which colleagues need to be informed about the absence. The chatbot sends everyone involved a message for approval and a calendar entry and your colleague doesn’t have to worry about anything else. The chatbot thus becomes a digital helper when it comes to the vacations and this creates positive emotions for most employees. This type of chatbot requires an interface to your calendar.

3. to record working time

In many companies, especially in corporations or agencies, working hours must be recorded precisely. This is a tedious process for many employees, especially when a job description has to be attached to every time worked. A chatbot supports you and your colleagues with time recording. It will remind you if you have forgotten to enter your hours yourself. It warns you when a customer project has almost used up all the budgeted hours and you can ask it at any time how much overtime you have. The main idea of the chatbot as an alternative to the time tracking tool is that you can write your hours worked flexibly to the chatbot via a chat window, which then records the data and enters it independently in the appropriate time management tool. An interface to a time tracking tool is required for this type of chatbot. Ideally, the chatbot can be accessed directly via an existing messenger in your company, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.

4. to answer the most frequently asked questions on the intranet

The intranet is the central source of information for most companies. It often contains so much information that employees have to search for a long time for an answer to their question and this leads to dissatisfaction. Many of these questions come up again and again, just like the IT questions. They are therefore ideally suited for a chatbot. All you need is a list of the most frequently asked questions from your colleagues and the appropriate answers. You can then integrate these into a chatbot tool and make this bot available to your team colleagues. I always recommend limiting the chatbot thematically at first and gradually expanding it.

Fancy more?

Listen to the following 2 podcast episodes for a few more helpful tips on how others have inspired their organization with chatbots:

Florian Schrodt: He introduced chatbots for recruiting at VBZ. In the podcast, he explains how he skillfully got his entire team excited about the project.

Sylvie Pflitsch from Bosch regularly introduces new bots. Find out how she goes about it.

Of course, we can also discuss your individual use case. Just send me an e-mail with your request and I will get back to you as soon as possible.