A chatbot can be used for various purposes. But mainly three roles are used: role of digital assistant, role of information provider or role of a general chatbot. It could also be possible that a chatbot has multiple roles.
In this blogpost I will explain all three roles and which one you need for your company.
Table of Contents
Chatbot as digital assistant
With the role of the digital assistant, the chatbot helps the user with doing certain tasks. Mostly, these are repeatable taks, which takes the user a lot of time to do, but the chatbot does this automatically.
Users use these kind of chatbots to improve their productivity and to do things faster. An example of such a chatbot is Me. Me helps you organize your tasks, but it is also possible to set alarms, get weather updates and even get jokes. Knowmail also has an interesting blog post on other chatbots that can boost your workday.
Chatbot as information provider
With the role of information provider, a user asks question to a chatbot and it providers answers to these questions. It is mainly used for obtaining help and information.
This kind of chatbots are really interesting for businesses with customer service. Customers now automatically can get answers to their question whenever they want, without any waiting times. Also, implementing a chatbot can save customer service costs up to 80%!
Sephora is one of the brands that is using a chatbot for their customer service. ChatbotsLife has an article on the 10 best customer support chatbots, with huge brand likes Nike, Wholefoods and Sephora using chatbots for their customer service.
General chatbot
With the role of a general chatbot, a user uses the chatbot to conduct a conversation for entertainment or emotional support. Users think of chatbots as fun and entertaining, and they usually use chatbots whenever they are bored.
Woebot is an example of a general chatbot used for emotional support. Woebot is built by Stanford researchers to help people to deal with their emotional well-being outside the clinic (of for people who don’t have access to a clinic).
Which role do you need for your business?
Which role you need for your business, is really dependent on the goal of the chatbot. Is the goal to save on customer service costs? Then the role of information provider would be better. Do you want to engage customers with your brand? Then the role of general chatbot is better. Also, a chatbot can have multiple roles.
Think of a chatbot that on the one hand helps customer to order online and on the other hand gives information about delivery and warranty. This chatbot uses multiple roles: the role of digital assistant and the role of information provider.
The first thing you need to think about before building your chatbot is what the goal of the chatbot is. The goal of your chatbot determines which role your chatbot will serve.
Conclusion
- A chatbot can serve 3 roles: role of digital assistant, role of information provider and role of general chatbot
- A chatbot can serve multiple roles
- The goal of your chatbot determines the role
Now a question for you, which role do you need for your business? Leave a comment!
