The different types of chatbots

The Different Types of Chat Bots

When you hear the word bot, what comes to mind at that moment? You might think about how bad bots are. Interestingly, if you do a Google search on “What are bots?”, the keyword will give rise to 50% negative results. People are usually more aware of the “bad bots”, the type of bots that are usually used to do something unlawful.

However, the reality is that there are so many bots out there that are created to serve different purposes. So, you can’t define bots by merely identifying them as the “bad” one or the “good” one.

There are also chatbots, a type of bot that can help you in human-to-human interaction in chats. The thing is, if you want to differentiate between bots, then you can separate them from the technology and the purpose they bring.

Human-Like Bot This bot can interact with end users like a real human. This type of bot is regarded as a highly intelligent one as they are able to be aware of users’ needs and can handle conversations with ease. There is even a chatbot that can recognize images, speech and emotion, capable of self-learning, and surprisingly has an ability to express emotion.

In an example nearer to us, Vira, the Bank Central Asia (BCA) chatbots that assists you in you banking, is a fine example of a human-like bot. It can even be accessed in popular platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Line, and Kaskus. It is easy to interact with as you only need to “add” the BCA’s account on your contact and instantly gain any information about BCA that you require. Indisputably, Vira can reach customers more effectively, efficiently, and can keep them satisfied.

The obvious benefit of using this high-end technology is that this can save you time and money. By using chatbots, you can cut the cost of human resources. Just imagine, if your company runs travel services or an online retail shop, you’ll always receive hundreds, if not thousands, of questions regarding your company’s services or products. This is highly demanding but with chatbots, you can minimize the cost to hire assistants and can help the customers at the same time.

To top it off, it can make things more simple to use and understandable, regardless of the age and background of your customer. Therefore, it can widen your range of customers, from children to the elderly. The key factor lies in the User Interface (UI); the more user-friendlier your UI is, the better.

Also read: "Is Your Business Ready to Face Digital Disruption?"

Even though there are great benefits by using human-like chatbots, there are some disadvantages. The most obvious impact is that if we replace humans with bots, then it can cause some unemployment. Surely, it will be a big issue in developing country with a massive amount of citizens. Moreover, if there is a law in that particular country that obligates companies (especially in a welfare-state) to employ a certain number of people, then it will induce trouble for companies that have failed to do so.

At first glance, it can be considered as an advantage by replacing human with bots, but on the other hand it can conjure a disaster. The other negative effect of humanlike bot is, although it may seem unreal, when the technology can outsmart human beings, then these bots can be hard to deal with, especially the ones with self-learning ability. If we talk about business, then this unforeseen factor is already a threat.

This type of chatbot is suitable for simple businesses that requires small amounts of people to operate, such as the case of Sale Stock, the burgeoning Indonesian fashion portal case. The human-like chatbots can fill that hole while maintaining the efficiency of the company. Not only that, if you run a business where your customer base speaks English.

Then human-like chatbots are the best answer, since it can be more fluent than a normal person. Especially if the bot is installed with slangs, dialects, and variations across cultures. Another example is HDFC Bank in India, one of the largest private sector banks. Once they launched their high-tech chatbot, the company’s transaction growth jumped to 160%. It can even understand a mix of Hindi and English, just what India needs.

Autoresponder type chat bots This type is typically used in customer service. They can send messages via messaging platforms and can decide whether it can solve the problem by itself. Or redirect the query to a human being if it can’t do anything about the problem. It might not be able to execute complex tasks as the human-like chatbot.

But it still can perform well when encountering a simple frequently-asked question.

For example, in the retail industry, this chatbot can manage questions on products in-stock, refund policy and information on discounts.

This type of bot is suitable for huge amount of users such as Facebook messenger, that has millions of users. Another example is the use of the autoresponder chatbots in Law Guide Singapore. Where we are seeing law firms particularly begin to develop chatbots to help them attend to customers.

However, as high-end as it is, it still cannot be compared with the human brain.

When it comes to legal advice and social logic. Thus, if you insist on installing human-like bots in this sort of business, then you’ll end up losing your customers.

You can also look at the case of Kiwari’s. They have developed an online transaction service named KiPay. Understandably, there are many frequently asked questions or tasks that can be done without humans. So, instead of investing in human resources, you can replace them with this kind of bot. But of course, you still have to prepare human assistance in case the questions or tasks are too hard for the bot. At the very least, it can serve people better than by putting them on hold on the phone while waiting for a consultant to speak to.

Qiscus With all that has been mentioned above, if you want to enhance your business. Then it is important to apply chatbots right from the start (for startups). If your company is an old-bloomer, than chatbots are not too late for you. If you are afraid to choose the right partner, don’t worry, you can get a free consultation from us by contacting us at www.qiscus.com or e-mail contact.us@qiscus.com. You’ll find out that there are many different ways to automate processes in your business via chats.