Why should you actually use a chatbot? In this article, I will show you the advantages of chatbots. You will learn what added value you will benefit from when you introduce a digital assistant.

Advantages of chatbots

Chatbots, which strictly speaking are also just software, have several advantages over other software applications, mainly due to their intuitive use.

The following is a list of the strongest advantages:

• Easy to use
• Transporting personalities and emotions
• Building a relationship
• 24/7 availability
• Combination of media

1. ease of use

Users of chatbots communicate with a bot in a completely natural way. Simply through written or spoken language.
You don’t need to learn a complex application structure or code commands to use chatbots. Simply speaking or writing is enough.
Chatbots are incredibly easy to use and anyone can actually “join in”. This means that the entry barriers for chatbots are very low and you can even reach users with chatbots who are otherwise not very tech-savvy or perhaps even have a certain fear of technologies such as computers or smartphones.
In other words, almost everyone can use WhatsApp these days. Communicating with a chatbot is nothing different and therefore very intuitive and simple for most people.
I keep seeing people who are almost “afraid” of computers and who immediately become defensive when new software is introduced. However, this is different with chatbots. Nobody needs to be “afraid” of using it. On the contrary, those who are otherwise reluctant to use a computer are happy to communicate with a chatbot.

2. transportation of personalities and emotions

It’s hard to believe, but more and more chatbot users are saying “thank you” to a chatbot. And even more bot users say goodbye to the chatbot when they have finished the conversation. They do this even though they know full well that they are communicating with the chatbot and talking to a robot, i.e. a piece of software. At the same time, none of these users would think of saying goodbye to their laptop or thanking their e-mail program when it has sent a message.
Most chatbots manage to arouse emotions in users and in many cases this leads to empathy or expressions such as “thank you” or “see you soon”.
Depending on the concept, chatbots can therefore embody a certain personality and thus adapt to their users, the goals of the company and the purpose or context of the chatbot.
A chatbot can, for example, talk its users into changing a certain routine, such as drinking too much alcohol. Or it can motivate them to make a conversion, such as a purchase or newsletter registration.
The fact that chatbots can have their own personality and thus evoke certain emotions in users means that marketers in particular like to use chatbots to supplement or support their marketing messages. Marketing campaigns are successful when they arouse emotions in users and remain in their memories. This has been attempted for decades with imagery, videos and marketing slogans. Chatbots are another very efficient method of arousing the desired emotions in the target group and staying in their minds.
The “Tinkerbelle” agency from Berlin is a very good example of the transportation of emotions. Your chatbot makes almost every website visitor laugh. Try it out here.

3. building a relationship

As mentioned above, in most cases chatbots embody a certain personality. This helps users build a relationship with the chatbot and can lead to a stronger bond with your brand. Bots can engage in storytelling and thus bind the user to them.
Many users are also helped by the fact that they remain anonymous when communicating with a chatbot. That sounds controversial: on the one hand, users are building a relationship, but at the same time they want to remain anonymous.
This is somewhat comparable to the confessional that many people know from old church stories. Back then, it was very important for people to talk about their issues with a person or get rid of them, but they didn’t want to be recognized under any circumstances.
When it comes to financial, sexual and health issues, many people don’t want to be recognized at first, but they still seek out the conversation. A chatbot can be exactly the right conversation partner here thanks to its characteristics.
A simple example is the “MyDrinkControl” bot from Berner Gesundheit. You can chat with him here.

4. 24/7 availability

Chatbots never sleep. This is regulated by definition – a chatbot is software and it does not need sleep breaks.
Chatbots can be reached at any time of day, even if the companies offering the bot or their employees are no longer at work. By using chatbots, companies can offer their target group a communication channel to your company at any time. In most cases, this is not as detailed or personal as a real employee, but users can still get answers to the most frequently asked questions or place their requests here.
There are chatbots that have already increased customer satisfaction by 70% just by the fact that users can now find answers to the most important questions at any time.
Thanks to instant messengers like WhatsApp, people today are used to always receiving an answer immediately. Most chat users get nervous when they haven’t heard from their friends on WhatsApp after two hours. The same requirements are now being placed on companies. With chatbots, companies have the opportunity to meet these requirements, at least to a limited extent. For many users, it is enough if they can “submit” their request to the chatbot and then receive the message “Thank you, someone will take care of your case”.
If a company operates internationally, it is usually even more difficult to offer round-the-clock customer service for all target groups. This is no longer a problem with chatbots. And depending on the region, the chatbot can then always switch to the corresponding national language.
There are also chatbots or hybrid chatbots that combine man and machine. Here, simple questions are handled directly by the bot and as soon as complex issues arise, the chatbot transfers the conversation to a human or asks the user for contact details so that a human employee can then contact the user again. In this way, no customer inquiries are lost and companies ensure that their target group always has an alternative option to traditional e-mail to place their requests.
Sympany health insurance from Switzerland provides an example of a hybrid chat.

5. combination of media

Chatbots enable communication via text or voice. Chatbots can also process other media such as images or videos. Providers can also integrate music, videos or images into the conversation with a chatbot. Especially when companies want to show or even “demonstrate” something to their users, it makes sense to use images and videos. How-to videos are often used here. When it comes to presenting products, it is essential that suitable product images are also included. Imagine you want to explain to your target group what the handbag you are selling looks like. For this you need pictures.
Sometimes it can even be helpful to use tables or buttons for clarity. Tables help to present certain constructs more clearly. Buttons help the user to answer by providing suggestions for possible answers.
When chatbots are used in marketing or storytelling, the message often only really comes to life when images or videos are inserted, giving users an even more precise idea of your brand or offer.
Of course, it also works the other way round. Chatbots can also “record” images, videos or other file formats. A user can send a picture to the chatbot, which can often even interpret it using image processing technologies. Or users send the bot documents such as letters of application, letters of resignation etc. and the bot can forward these to a human employee for further processing.
At this point, it should be mentioned that the image and text processing tools that can be integrated into chatbots are usually so advanced that chatbots can recognize images and can also extract important information from texts, such as name or invoice amount. This means that the files sent by the user can be processed easily.
The following illustration shows a chatbot that has integrated images, buttons, emoticons and text.

The advantages that chatbots offer are enormous.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking, as is often the case, that chatbots learn automatically and on their own. The technology of chatbots is not yet so advanced that they can learn on their own or are automatically intelligent.
Sentences such as “chatbots learn on their own” websites, for example, are therefore incorrect or at least still incorrect at the current state of technology. They need to understand that the advantages of chatbots lie much more in intuitive use than in intelligence. Only if you understand these advantages properly will you be able to achieve added value and positive user guidance with chatbots.

Disadvantages of chatbots

Are you now wondering whether chatbots also have disadvantages?
Of course, the little bots are not miracle cures or all-rounders. At the current state of technology, they can usually only be used for limited areas of application and there is rarely one bot that covers everything completely. But I think the biggest disadvantage of chatbots is that they often raise the wrong expectations among users and then lead to disillusionment and disappointment. However, we can only change this if the people who publish a chatbot set the right expectations from the outset.

And to ensure that you develop a successful chatbot that sets users’ expectations correctly from the outset and exploits all the benefits of chatbots, I recommend that you think carefully about the concept of the bot. You can use my chatbot canvas, which you can find here.

Or write me a message, of course. You can find my contact details here.