A chatbot is a piece of software that allows customers to engage with your business and perform basic tasks or access certain information without the need for a human agent to interact with them. This allows your customers to connect and interact with your business after hours or when they are not able to reach you through other means (i.e. phone support).
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of using chatbots in Salesforce and use cases. Then, we’ll give an overview of Salesforce chatbots solutions, both in Salesforce with Einstein Bots, as well as native apps available on AppExchange.
3 Benefits of Using Chatbots with Salesforce:
Any business of any size in any industry can benefit from some form of business automation, particularly a functionality that provides direct value to their customers – like a chatbot. Not only do chatbots give your customers access to your business 24 hours a day, but they are also able to receive immediate responses to some basic questions around the clock.
1. A Human Is Not Always Required
Not every query requires your business to dedicate resources to servicing your customers. Just like a knowledge base or FAQ library in Service Cloud and exposed in a Customer Experience Site using Experience Cloud can provide information to customers and prospects whenever they need it, a chatbot can make it easier to flesh out their queries and surface the right answers.
Chatbots can be used to increase the deflection rate of customer support instances (the rate at which a customer avoids having to talk with a human resource about a specific issue). The use of chatbots in your business could mean an increase in deflection rate of between 60 and 80%!
2. Cost Savings and Productivity Boost
Using chatbots in your business means that your internal resources are able to focus on more intense, less menial tasks which results in a significant decrease in personnel costs in your service team. If your business sees a chatbot as an extra and unnecessary cost then you should consider the cost of a human resource to do what a chatbot can.
The return on investment of ‘employing’ a chatbot to free up your teams to do more demanding work will make the investment seem far more palatable. Your internal performance will see a significant boost as well, as your team is dedicated to core problems and able to provide higher quality service when a human IS required. Everyone is time-poor, and team members across the globe always have more tasks than they do time.
Salesforce themselves suggests that in order to scale up your business at a lower resource cost, you should consider using artificial intelligence-driven chatbots. Delegating some of the repetitive tasks to a chatbot and allowing for escalation to a human resource where required will allow your human team members to shine, and do more work that excites them (which increases morale and staff retention too).
3. Customers Notice Innovative Businesses
If a customer is comparing two businesses that offer similar services or products, but one of the options requires you to wait for a human to be available and the other allows for innovative self-service using a chatbot, the customer will notice the difference in service availability which will dramatically sway their opinion.
The use of chatbots in service-based businesses increased by almost 66% since 2018 – customers demand more from the businesses they work with than ever before.
Why Should You Consider a Salesforce Native Chatbot?
If you are starting to consider that a chatbot may be something your business is looking to invest in, you may now be asking yourself just how to do so! There are a number of ways that you can do this, but it is recommended that you do so within your central source of truth: Salesforce.
The reason for this is that you can leverage customer data, product data, and knowledge data, that your chatbot can surface to customers when they engage. You can also create records and trigger automations within Salesforce using your chatbot, which makes it far more productive and aligns it deeper with your business goals.
Salesforce does offer their own chatbot functionality called Einstein Bots. Although a powerful, native, out-of-the-box tool built by the same in-house development team as the rest of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Bots can get expensive quickly. As a result, they may not be the best option for all businesses. Einstein Bots require a Digital Engagement license, and each license provides only 25 bot conversations. An alternative to Einstein Bots are the native solutions provided by third-party developers on the AppExchange (more on that later).
For example, your customer may ask your Salesforce chatbot for pricing information about a specific product or service that your business offers. The response can be lifted straight from Salesforce data (which will always be up to date) and sent directly to your customer.
Another scenario is where a customer may be asking for a demo to be booked to see a product in action. The chatbot can immediately check availability and make a booking through your booking system, which is also native to Salesforce – your customer does not even have to leave the chat to make the appointment!
3 Valuable Chatbot Use Cases:
If you are still not yet convinced that a chatbot is a valuable investment for your business, or are trying to gather a bit more of an understanding of how some value can be added through chatbot functionality, look no further! Below are a few examples of ways that some businesses have used chatbots to automate business functionality and engage their customers in a whole new way.
You will notice throughout that the customer is immediately recognised by the chatbot and addressed by name. This is because the chatbot has recognised the phone number that the customer is texting from and addresses them using the first name recorded on the corresponding contact record.
The examples below are using an SMS text messaging channel within the chatbots created in the ValueText app. However, you can also create similar chatbots by using the WhatsApp channel or other apps.
1. Appointment Booking Request, Confirmation, and Rescheduling
Business Requirement: The business wants to allow customers to request an appointment booking whenever they like, by engaging with a chatbot. The chatbot should offer the customer the ability to select a day and time frame that suits them best, and reschedule the booking if they have to do so following a reminder notification.
Chatbot Solution: Your business offers a number to text when customers would like to make a booking. The phone number is linked to a chatbot solution that is built within Salesforce. When the customer sends a message in, a series of prompts are sent by the chatbot that follow a script. The customer then responds inline and is able to book their appointment.
The customer is later sent a SMS text message reminder of their upcoming appointment booking and given the opportunity to reschedule. The chatbot is able to support this need as well.
2. Allow Customers to Raise Cases (Deflection)
Business Requirement: As part of their service agreements, customers have the option to raise support Cases around the clock through SMS. This needs to create a Case inside of the Salesforce CRM and add the Case to the correct queue, based on the type of Case they are creating.
Chatbot Solution: Customers can simply send a text message to the business chatbot number with the keyword ‘Support’. This will begin a conversation between the customer and the chatbot, allowing them to provide important case information to the chatbot without the need for a human to be involved.
The chatbot creates a Case record within Salesforce and it is routed to the correct queue based on the type value – this is done using standard Case assignment rules within Salesforce. Below is a screenshot of the resultant Case record within Salesforce.
3. Automated Lead Qualification
Business Requirement: Potential new customers are going to be attending a seminar, and they need an easy way to reach out to the business and ask for more information.
Chatbot Solution: The seminar audience are told to text the word ‘Interested’ to a phone number to learn more about what they had seen at the seminar. This keyword triggers the chatbot to collect information about the prospect and create a new Lead record inside Salesforce. Notice that the chatbot only asks for the email address, and that is because it has already collected the phone number by the prospect initiating an SMS text messaging conversation.
It is worth noting that the keyword triggers a chatbot path specific to this seminar – just by using the word ‘Interested’, the chatbot knows exactly what Campaign this Lead should be related to, which event they have just attended, and which Email Template to send to the new Lead record upon creation. This functionality can be used to simplify the messaging exchange to reduce human error and abandonment (loss of interest due to the complexity).
A new Lead record is created within Salesforce based on the information captured by the chatbot, and assigned to the member of the sales team that ran the seminar.
AppExchange Solutions – Chatbots in Salesforce
There are a number of AppExchange solutions that have chatbot functionality that taps into Salesforce data. These solutions offer chatbots through a number of channels including SMS text messaging, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger.
There are a number of factors your business needs to consider when selecting the right tool for you:
- Ease of use
- Affordability
- Channels supported
- Level of customer support provided (both response speed and quality of support)
Here are some examples of Salesforce chatbot apps that your business can consider:
ValueText
ValueText supports a number of complex features including chatbots and automations across multiple messaging channels (SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram). Chatbots in ValueText can even handle Case management or multiple records for you automatically.
With a handy Converse Inbox view, your agents will be able to easily manage all your conversations through different folders just like in your email inbox. ValueText also supports one-to-one conversations or bulk messages, powerful Dynamic Templates, message scheduling, and more.
ValueText is quick and easy to set up and the pricing starts at just $5 per user per month.
Mogli
Mogli allows your business to send messages natively in Salesforce through multiple channels: SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp, either immediately or scheduled.
Inbound chatbots are supported out-of-the-box within the Mogli package too!
Mogli’s pricing model is slightly different from the other apps listed in this article, with the price being for the entire Org.
SMS Magic
SMS Magic supports messaging across multiple channels (e.g. SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger). SMS Magic offers chatbot functionality using its Auto Response functionality. For more powerful functionality, you can also connect SMS Magic to Pardot, Marketo, or Marketing Cloud Journey Builder.
The app starts at $7 per user per month for its basic plan.
360 SMS
WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS, MMS, WeChat, and Viber are all supported channels of 360 SMS.
As with some more of the more expensive plans, you have the ability to implement multi-channel messaging with advanced automation features directly into your Salesforce org. Chatbots are also offered by 360 SMS, as well as voice channels through CTI and ringless voicemail.
Summary
The value of employing a chatbot is something that you will need to assess carefully within your business. However, considering the human resource time savings alone, it is a good investment.
The AppExchange solutions listed above all offer some form of trial or method of testing; your next best step will likely be to install one of the tools and test it out! See if a chatbot in Salesforce can help your business.