Interactive chatbots are computer programs that B2B businesses have been steadily adopting. They can converse with humans over the internet using artificial intelligence (AI) and its natural language processing (NLP) component to understand customer questions and automate responses.
Chatbots are one of the most significant innovations of the last decade, and they are becoming indispensable for every business that deals with customers; 85% of smartphone users prefer text-based support to phone calls.
On average, a human agent handles only 17 customer support interactions daily, but businesses can save 2.5 billion hours by using chatbots as their customer service medium.
In addition to saving a human’s time, chatbots also offer a range of other advantages for customer service, such as reducing costs, increasing efficiency, improving customer experience and loyalty, and collecting and analysing data.
So here is a guide to implementing an interactive chatbot experience for enhanced lead generation in a competitive B2B world.
Why are chatbots essential for a B2B company?
According to experts at Outgrow, a whopping 58% of B2B businesses have now implemented an interactive chatbot into their marketing and selling strategy.
After seeing a 30% reduction in business costs and a 55% increase in lead generation since introducing AI language bots, it’s clear that chatbots have a shining future in the B2B industry.
The average B2B buying process now takes anywhere from 6 weeks to a year, rendering the process much longer than a B2C purchase. In order to keep consumers interested for large portions of time on a lengthy purchase journey, chatbots can offer unlimited support and experience personalisation on the journey to a B2B partnership.
Kenny Tripura, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Edkent Media, said:
“Chatbots can be a powerful tool for B2B startups looking to improve their lead qualification process and increase efficiency.”
“By leveraging the benefits of chatbots, such as handling a large volume of inquiries and gathering important information about leads, businesses can streamline their processes and free up time for more high-value tasks.”
With this in mind, let’s look at the benefits that chatbots bring to a B2B environment.
1. Handling large volumes of inquiries
It’s no secret that the amount of traffic online is growing rapidly. Businesses must be equipped to deal with this growth; today’s B2B companies experience high volumes of lead enquiries every week.
This is especially essential for B2B startups that have fewer resources and staff power to answer each inquiry individually.
Chatbots enhance the initial stages of the lead qualification process, ensuring that every consumer can communicate with the business quickly and efficiently.
Better still, with a chatbot in tow to handle the initial stages of a consumer inquiry, this frees up time for sales teams to focus on higher-value tasks, such as closing a sale or building stronger relationships with returning clients.
2. Improving lead qualification
Interactive chatbots can also improve the success of your lead qualification. As well as answering a large volume of inquiries, chatbots can boost the quality of the leads generated.
With the ability to gather information on potential leads during all stages of communication, chatbots can then personalise their experience for the customer at hand.
Kenny Tripura said:
“Another advantage of chatbots is that you can program them to gather important information about a potential lead, such as their industry, budget, authority, need, timeline, problem and company size.”
“This can help companies tailor their sales pitch and ensure they are only reaching out to leads that are a good fit for their products or services.”
Better still, chatbots can route B2B leads more efficiently, too. Based on the information gathered during the initial communication, chatbots are experts at referring leads to the best service department (or even agent) for a streamlined closing process.
3. Boosting brand reputation
Chatbots can also connect with potential leads over several platforms, opening up the company to more success by being in numerous places at once.
For example, a B2B brand may have a website-bound chatbot and one that engages with prospective consumers on pages like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. This increases the brand’s reach and strengthens its reputation.
Better still, with the ability to connect with customers over a multitude of platforms, companies with an interactive chatbot experience will not leave their potential leads waiting for a response.
This is massively important for B2B brands aiming to boost their reputation. Chatbots ensure that leads are served 24/7; this keeps a business’s reputation in check by providing instant access to communication and support around the clock.
4. Strengthening customer retention
To retain customers effectively, B2B brands must work on their personalisation. When deploying a more advanced chatbot, companies can ensure that every user receives a tailored experience based on their needs.
High-quality support is a number one priority for brands that want to boost retention, with a whopping 80% of consumers claiming that they prefer to stay loyal to a business that provides them with a tailored customer experience.
Could chatbots take your lead engagement one step further?
Chatbots have become the newest craze within the B2B sector. Powered by artificial intelligence, they enhance customer service with ease, supplying a business with the ability to have 24/7 communication with leads from across the globe.
According to Gartner:
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a mainstream customer experience investment in the next couple of years”.
In fact, experts suggest that 47% of business owners plan to integrate chatbots into their lead generation strategy in 2023, while another 40% plan to deploy virtual assistants in the coming years.
Chatbots aid consumers in answering common support-based questions and encourage long-term personalised partnerships with a company. They’re a great addition to any B2B or B2C strategy, especially in the wake of increasing online traffic.
How can interactive chatbots enhance B2B consumer engagement?
Chatbots are a trending topic regarding customer engagement, as they can engage customers by holding intelligent conversations and solving issues.
Here are some ways that interactive chatbots can enhance lead engagement:
1. Increased personalisation
Personalisations such as using the customer’s name or greeting them can give the customer a sense of being cared for; it adds a personal touch to their query. Customers are more engaged if they feel connected with the bot.
According to CEO of rSTAR Technologies, Danny Asnani, consumers expect personalised experiences on all their devices:
“AI chatbots create connected experiences across SMS, voice, IVR, web and mobile. These self-service capabilities are no longer a nice-to-have; they are expected.”
“They allow us to engage with customers in many innovative ways, whether it’s for simple FAQs or complex transactions like activating your service. AI chatbots enhance the customer experience, leading to brand loyalty and retention.”
2. 24/7 communication
Chatbots never take breaks or days off! They can provide instant customer support at any time. This increases customer satisfaction and engagement by providing them with quick solutions to their problems and not limiting them to certain contact times.
Serrah Linares, CEO of Change Healthcare, told us:
“Who wants to fill out a Contact Us form and wait hours or days for a response? Chatbots have allowed us to answer questions and guide our customers and partners in real-time.”
“The result is happier customers in addition to greater efficiency for both of us.”
3. Enhanced engagement
Chatbots can handle multiple customer conversations simultaneously, increasing efficiency and reducing customer wait times. Customers will be more engaged if they haven’t waited long to get through to support.
Better still, chatbots can use various methods to keep customers hooked during an interaction. This keeps customers on your web pages for longer.
For example, chatbots can send your customers images, videos and audio related to your products or services. Visual representations are enjoyable to look at, easy to understand and more engaging.
As chatbots interact with customers and solve issues, they also gather B2B data on customer interactions and behaviours. This data can provide valuable insights so businesses can continue improving their customer engagement strategies.
How to build a B2B chatbot experience
If you’re ready to create your own website, it’s important to optimise it for a B2B audience. This includes creating a user-friendly interface for prospective leads and implementing an easily accessible support system for loyal customers.
Introducing an interactive chatbot can improve your website’s user experience and boost your chances of generating qualified leads.
Our contacts at Intellimize said:
“We’re living in the era of customer experience. With more options than ever before, buyers are increasingly making purchase decisions based on the customer experience over other key factors like price.”
“To be competitive, B2B businesses must be able to engage with potential customers when they want and how they want. And adding a robust chatbot marketing strategy to your website can help you do just that.”
However, chatbots must be programmed to help and interact with customers; pointless and unhelpful conversations will result in unhappy customers who are unlikely to engage in a B2B partnership.
You can make the chatbot experience more interactive by using a credible chatbot development company - and following these tips:
- Train the bot to talk like a friend and understand the customer’s mood.
- The bot should offer a welcoming beginning to the conversation, such as saying “Hello” or asking the customer how they are. When the conversation ends, the bot can wish the customer a good day or ask if they need help with anything else.
- The bot should use personal touches, such as the customer’s name, to come across as less formal.
- The bot must have specific information to correctly answer the customer’s question and offer better customer service. Program it to ask for details if they don’t understand the query.
- The bot should use emojis and GIFs to give the chat a friendly touch. However, their over-usage can hinder the seriousness of the conversation; use them with sound judgement.
The future of B2B chatbots
Chatbots are changing how B2B businesses understand and communicate with customers.
Speaking on The Search Engine Journal Show, Dr Michelle Zhou - co-founder and CEO of Juji and inventor of IBM Watson Personality Insights - said:
“In the next couple of years, every website must be powered with a chatbot or conversational AI because that just gives you much more visibility, much more relation-building opportunity with your customers.”
In addition to customer service, chatbots will be used in other areas, such as marketing, data collection, human resources and operations.
Incorporating chatbots into a multi-channel marketing strategy can provide significant benefits. We advise using them alongside emails and social media to create an experience that delights customers while strengthening your brand’s credibility.
In 2023, the income generated by the chatbot sector is around $137.6 million, but this is continuing to rise, with the industry expecting to generate $454.8 million in sales by 2027.
(Image Source: Adam Connell)
Also, by 2027, chatbots are expected to be the primary customer support option for a quarter of all companies.
It’s no secret that chatbots have become a fundamental tool within the B2B marketing industry. As AI technology gets smarter, business leaders can look forward to a future of hyper-automated lead generation that aims to save resources while boosting overall revenue.
