Solving the Challenge of Meaningful Communication Through Chatbots

By Ton Dobbe – Chief Inspiration Officer, Value Inspiration

Every week I interview entrepreneurs and experts from around the world to share their big idea about new forms of value creation and the potential we can unlock when technology augments the unique strengths of people to deliver remarkable impact.

The growing mismatch in communication

I got inspired by the big idea behind Botco.ai; hence I invited co-founder and CEO Rebecca Clyde to my podcast. We explore the effects of the growing mismatch in what customers have come to expect, and what businesses are able to provide when it comes to the way we communicate. We also discuss the journey Rebecca went through from idea to driving remarkable results – and the lessons she learned along the way.

The thing that triggered me most from my interview with Rebecca
‘As we moved into the on-demand economy […] and unfortunately businesses have struggled to keep up with the on-demand experience that customers expect today.’

Why did this trigger me? What’s the bigger value here? 

The whole notion of the digital transformation initiatives we’re investing so passionately in is driven by the vision to make it easier for our customers to do business with us. So the question is: What’s going wrong here? 

“Only 9% of customers report resolving their issues completely via self-service” reported Gartner, Inc. “Many companies create more channels for customer service, but this creates complex customer resolution journeys, as customers switch frequently between channels.

The idea behind providing customers with more channels in order to give them what they ‘want’ and in an attempt to offer more choice in their service experience sounds like a great idea, but In fact, it has unintentionally made things worse for customers”

If we don’t meet the on-demand experience our customers expect, the only thing that happens is that we create more friction, rather than less. That results into the opposite of why we are doing this in the first place: Eroding trust, and consequently, less business. 

Are we thinking things through thoroughly enough? Or are we introducing technology for the sake of technology? Why do we believe that, by introducing a chat function to our website, we’ve solved the problem to be 24/7 accessible? We’re forgetting something essential here: The art of being more relevant, not just more reachable. It’s this thinking that I found remarkable about Botco AIs approach.

What’s the more significant question/opportunity that raises?

Being relevant is not about technology, it’s about context and meaningful interaction. It’s about speaking ‘the same language’, ‘getting’ what’s being asked, and being able to respond with a concrete and credible answer. The moment this is missing, customers disconnect. That’s not only true for the chat functions we build, it’s in everything we do – irrespective if we use technology or our human experts: in marketing, in sales, and yes, in customer support. 

So this raises a far bigger question: What if we’d use our digital transformation effort to take the relevance of our organizations to the next level? And what if we’d enrich our digital transformation requirements with ‘relevance’ as a knock-out criteria? Imagine how this would help to meet the needs our customers actually have when they engage with us.  Imagine what this would do to the advantage you’ll gain in your category, what trust this would build and how this would help you turn customers into advocates. Imagine how this would boost the performance of your own organization as a consequence.

Listen to the big idea behind Botco.ai and why it has the potential to transform the impact you can have on your customers by introducing chatbots that communicate in a relevant and meaningful way.