Online stores increasingly use chatbots, but do not measure their effectiveness

E-commerce stores are more and more willing to use a chatbot to automate customer service. At the same time, almost all of them agree that they are not reliably measuring its effectiveness.

The Growing Popularity of Chatbots

Text bots that automate chat customer service are a trend in the industry that is gradually gaining in importance. Almost half (46%) of the surveyed online stores claim that their team of consultants is insufficient to respond to all requests. The way to deal with the increased workload at Customer Service is to use a text bot to handle inquiries and notifications.

27% of online stores already use a chatbot to support customer service processes both on their website and on Facebook Messenger. Another 39% plan to implement a chatbot in the future. However, the main challenge is to measure its effectiveness and tracking of essential chatbot metrics.

The Problem with Resolution Rate

It turns out that 39% of online stores do not measure their chatbot’s effectiveness at all. And over half (51%) only know how many cases the chatbot has handled, without transferring the conversation to a consultant. They remain unaware of how many cases were handled correctly.

The results of the study should be a rude awakening for the chatbot industry. If they are to become the main channel of customer service, it is time to begin reliably measuring their effectiveness. And a reliable method cannot be based on the incorrect assumption that „automated chats” are all those that have not been transferred to consultants. Only the „manual” evaluation of a statistically significant sample of conversations shows how effective a chatbot really is. All our chatbots working, for example, at LPP, IKEA, 4F, Displate, or Diverse, are checked by a person who reads a sample of the conversations and evaluates their effect– Łukasz Lewandowski, CEO PerfectBot (K2 Group).

Reasons for the Increase in Chatbot Popularity

Among the companies that have decided to “hire” a chatbot to help consultants, or plan to do so soon, there is a belief that the automation of customer support will save them the time needed to contact the customer (69% of responses) and the ability to handle cases practically around the clock (64%).

It is also important that customer service costs do not increase linearly with the increase in sales (34% of responses), and that consultants are able to deal only with difficult cases in customer service, and not all matters that go to the customer service office (35%).

I am pleased with the approach of online store owners regarding the role played by chatbots: fast 24/7 customer service, and difficult topics are handled by consultants. This is a good direction, because this is what automation is for, to make customers’ lives easier and lower the costs of sellers.
– Karol Bancerz, Publisher at CCNEWS.pl.