Challenge
After revamping the website and productizing their service offering, leaders of a software company had some big questions that needed answering:
To get that information, they decided to try their hand at something which had failed them in the past: a chatbot. The previous experience hadn’t left a good impression on the group. The now dead chatbot had tried to be too much, too all-encompassing, and ended up being a fairly confusing journey for the users. This time had to be different.
However, a chatbot alone was never going to sell the solutions that this company offered. Average customers were spending between five and six figures. The best outcome of a new visitor checking out the site would be for them to fill out a Contact form and become an inbound lead for the sales team. The chatbot had to work with that reality.
Solution
The solution was to simplify. A minimalistic chatbot was created using Tidio to prompt the user with a low-stress message, “Live chat?”
There were several triggers that led to this message appearing for the users:
If the user took action and engaged with the chatbot, they were asked their name. The next step was for the bot to verify if any team members were available. During business hours, certain team members were told to keep their Tidio account open so they would appear online. After the user gave their name, the chatbot would alert all online and available team members that a visitor wanted to chat. Additionally, a Slack message was sent to a specific channel via a Zapier integration so that the progress was transparent to the whole organization. While the team member connected, the visitor was asked to provide a bit more information about what they wanted to discuss.
If no team member was online/available, the chatbot would wait until the user gave more information on what they were interested in. Once provided, the chatbot would inform the visitor that no one was currently available and ask for their email so the team could follow up.
This solution served to shorten the time between interest and engagement with the business development team. Within two weeks of setting it up, several qualified leads came from the chatbot. By asking for more information about their interest, the team was able to better understand visitors’ motivations and whether the new service offering was resonating.
How I Helped
My role in this was end-to-end: from the initial strategy to creating & writing the flows. I knew that the best way to get questions answered for a challenging service offering was to use tools that allowed users quickly connect with real people and get their questions answered. A chatbot served the purpose of providing that ‘low stress’ engagement.
Through writing, real people have the chance to connect at a deeper level than any automated bot flow could ever hope to achieve. Real people need real connections, so my job was to make that happen with as few beeps and bops as possible. I helped the users find answers and gave the company insight into their visitors.
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