2 minute read
Consumers broadly accepting of Chatbots
How do consumers feel about interacting with brand chatbots?
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The evidence shows that there is broad acceptance of it - so long as the distinction between a bot and a human being is clear.
Media agency Mindshare worked with Goldsmiths College in London to produce a report called “Humanity in the Machine.”
The research found that almost thirds (62%) of consumers aged 18-65 would be willing to communicate with chatbots that represent brands through platforms such as Facebook Messenger.
And when looking at the travel industry in particular, Chatbots are actively welcomed by frequent travellers.
A study cited in Hotel Business at the end of last year found that two-thirds of travellers would find a chatbot either useful or very useful in managing business and work travel arrangements.
In fact, more than a third said they would actually prefer to deal with a chatbot than a human agent, when making their travel plans.
That being said, there is one watch-out, consumers don’t like the idea of Chatbots pretending to be human.
While finding that people were happy to deal with chatbots, the “Humanity in the Machine” report also found that three quarters (75%) wanted clarity that a chatbot really is a chatbot.
Added to that, 60% wouldn’t like it if a chatbot started asking how your day is going (e.g. they want it to be useful) and 48% felt it would be creepy if a chatbot pretended to be a person.
Hence acceptance of chatbots is tempered by the fact that many consumers want their interactions to be largely functional: Tell me what I need to know, or help me.
That point was also reinforced by Caravelo co-founder JoseLuis Vilar, in a talk hosted by ‘itnig’ on “how to develop truly conversational chatbots”, where he said that chatbots can certainly “have a funny and funky personality.”
A good example of this is the Marvie Chatbot Caravelo developed for Scoot, which matches the informal brand tone of voice that the Singapore-based LCC uses.
JoseLuis Vilar also said that Chatbots can have a “human touch”, for example by mimicking the typing mechanism on a chat channel.
However, being accessible is one thing. Pretending to be a person is another thing entirely:
As a result, no matter how accessible or useful travel chatbots are, it should always be clear to the consumer that this is what s/he is ultimately dealing with.
Finally, if you have a chatbot, can you use it to cut down on human channels of communication?
The short answer is no. Chatbots can however help your existing staff work more efficiently, and more to the point they can get to more complex and urgent customer services queries faster.
This is a point made by Caravelo CEO Iñaki Uriz Millan in the next article, where he looks at how a successful customer services function should ideally combine chatbots and a human touch.
