No matter the industry, chatbots are becoming an essential tool. More than 1.4 billion people and more than 60% of Millenials already use chatbots and that number is rising.
In fact, you may be using a chatbot without even knowing it—Siri, Alexa, and Google Home are simply advanced, entertainment and personal assistance-oriented chatbots.
There are a number of ways chatbots can serve all industries, including:
- Providing 24-hour service without requiring the presence of 24-hour staff.
- Offering answers faster than it takes a customer to reach your business by phone or email.
- Allowing customer support professionals to focus their time on more complex questions because chatbots are capable of answering 80% of standard questions.
Below, we’ll look at the utilization of chatbots in a number of industries—some you may not expect. Learn how you can capitalize on the use of chatbots in your industry below.
#1 Manufacturing Chatbot
Chatbots are being implemented in warehouses to allow managers to update their supply status and order new supplies on command. Additionally, they can keep warehouse managers informed about delivery schedules and fulfillment, where traditionally this process would involve long hold times on the phone.
These bots can also inform sales associates and even customers about the manufacturing and supply process—easily informing them when more products will be available.
More innovative chatbots are beginning to play a role in controlling manufacturing plant environmental conditions, tracking equipment metrics, and informing the proper professionals of malfunctioning devices. These chatbots can be accessed by any approved professional at any time so that all necessary employees are kept informed about machine functionality.
Writing your first chatbot script? Get free tips and templates here.
#2 Healthcare Chatbot
Physician billing hours are expensive but medical facilities have to balance cost with ensuring patients have valuable one-on-one time with their doctor. Using chatbots in the medical field can help. From scheduling appointments to answering simple, repeatable questions, chatbots can provide important services and information to patients without eating up precious time, or overbilling patients.
Chatbots in the healthcare industry can:
- Conduct post-surgery interviews.
- Offer tips and information about medicine.
- Track and moderate medication side effects.
- Offer mental health screenings.
- Track weight.
- Send prescription refill reminders.
Mental health chatbots such as Woebot and Replika can also help users learn therapy exercises, stress management, and coping skills—as well as provide tools in calming anxiety and thinking positively. These are especially useful for patients who may still have anxiety about speaking with a human therapist.
What type of chatbot should your brand use? Learn more now.
#3 Hospitality Chatbot
In hotels, chatbots can do more than simply make or cancel reservations — they can inform consumers about room availability, answer frequently asked questions about rules and amenities, and even offer guest promotions quickly and easily without distracting front-of-house staff. They can also be used to build customer profiles, so that hospitality businesses can be informed and aware of customer preferences before they arrive and offer personalized recommendations for area attractions and restaurants.
The real estate industry uses chatbots more frequently than any other industry—the ability for these small businesses to answer customer questions around the clock in a timely fashion is critical when it comes to making a sale, or renting a unit.
It’s easier than you think to implement a chatbot. See how to get started.
#4 Entertainment Chatbot
The entertainment industry drastically benefits from the use of chatbots. Not only is the chatbot a new format for gaming and storytelling, but live entertainment organizations can utilize automated agents to help with flooded customer service calls and requests for tickets on the day of an event or the day tickets go on sale.
Chatbots can help entertainment companies offer consumers useful insights such as:
- Ticket sales without human interaction (especially for events with heavy traffic)
- Easy access to content
- Notifications of events or updates
- Personalized event recommendations
Chatbots can help inform customers about event postponements, cancellations, or updates (for instance, if a musical act has to drop out of an event or is replaced by another act).
Many entertainment companies work around the clock as well (such as online casinos) and the application of AI chatbots can help answer customer questions 24/7.
Looking for more examples of chatbots? We’ve got you covered.
#5 Public Service / Community Chatbot
Community public service is not exactly synonymous with convenience, however, chatbots can help change that.
Community chatbots can manage government correspondence with journalists, elaborate on press releases, and even help answer vital citizen questions.
Other government services that these bots can provide include:
- Emergency information
- Document searches
- Road and other community updates
- School information
- Correspondence from local government officials
Wondering what type of chatbot would work best for your brand? Read this: 6 Types of Chatbots to Help Improve User Experience and Leads
#6 Consumer Goods Chatbot
You can look no further than Alexa and Google Home to see how beneficial chatbots are to the consumer goods industries. Not only are they trendy, quippy, and useful — but they allow users to quickly manage their cart without difficulty.
The pictured example from Dominos shows how an AI powered chatbot can streamline consumer purchases.
E-commerce businesses spend approximately $1.3 trillion answering customer service questions per year—with the application of AI chatbots, that cost could be reduced by about 30%. Chatbots are expected to save about 2.5 billion customer service hours annually by 2023, and around 80% of e-commerce customer service interactions are expected to be handled by chatbots by the end of this year.
Additional e-commerce chatbot services include:
- Aid in purchase decision making
- Product suggestions
- Cart abandonment recovery
- Personalization quizzes
- Coupons
- Transactional messages (for upsales)
- Unboxing experiences and other user-generated content
Ready to try your first chatbot? Use this
Free CRM with chatbot builder now.
#7 B2B Chatbot
Chatbots are a new direction of focus for most industries, but they are often underutilized in B2B environments where there’s a heavy focus on interpersonal sales. However, the presence of a 24-hour AI to answer simple questions and log requests can go a long way for any B2B marketing team.
A chatbot allows potential clients to interact with you without pressure and at their own speed; they can access information and acquire answers to simple questions at any time of the day. It can also help filter your inquiries down to the most qualified leads so you’re able to reach out to those contacts at any time of day.
#8 Education Chatbot
Chatbots can provide easy answers to questions on educational websites, as well as access to free checklists, study guides, and e-books. These bots can also be connected to knowledge databases and allow users to access a wealth of information about a number of topics.
Chatbots can also offer customized, non-graded quizzes to track student progress and alert teachers which students may need more attention — similar to a chat with a human teacher, but on a more frequent basis (and the opportunity is given to teachers with large numbers of students).
As you can see, there are a number of ways chatbots can be applied in innovative ways to almost any area of business, commerce, and education.
Building Your First Chatbot?
If you are looking to build your first chatbot you need to consider where it will live and how you will use it. Hubspot's Free CRM comes with an easy-to-use chatbot builder that can get you started on the right foot. If you're looking for more chatbot AI tools, take a look at our list here.
Want to learn more about writing your first chatbot?
Get a free template and step-by-step instructions now.
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