Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform business operations, across domains, in the next few years. Nearly 56% of global firms have adopted AI within one or more functions, with the trend rapidly growing. Moreover, the demand for digitization and automation has risen steadily during the pandemic, with post-COVID growth set to rise as well.
With nearly two-thirds of companies increasing their investment in AI over the next few years, multiple use-cases are being implemented across industries.
McKinsey
For sectors such as travel, hospitality, and retail, AI chatbots are leading the way for sales efficiencies. Other industries, such as B2B, manufacturing, and engineering, leverage AI for workflow automation.
AI Chatbot and its Importance
AI chatbots offer multi-faceted benefits to companies looking to automate sales, customer communication, onboarding, and compliance functions. Both internal and external AI-powered chatbots are extensively used to solve key enterprise problems by improving efficiency, productivity, and transparency.
In today’s high-tech world, chatbots are extensively used for empowering teams to boost sales through automated engagement. Close to 46% of global firms implement AI-based chatbot solutions, with around 28% believing AI makes their sales force more effective.
Chatbots are a preliminary way to expand sales operations, giving new opportunities to teams to deliver real-time promotions and offerings. Sales bots also allow enterprises to engage with customers at scale while delivering a truly omnichannel outreach experience to every buyer.
While implementing AI chatbots is key, understanding what features are relevant to sales organizations. This will help refine your focus on what benefits an AI-driven chatbot can offer to improve performance.
Best Key Features of AI Chatbot to Win More Sales
AI chatbots provide a holistic customer engagement solution to enterprises aiming to centralize and expand their sales initiatives. These key AI chatbot features will help your enterprise win more sales and extend the capabilities of your sales teams.
1. Automated Smart Routing
It is important to route the occurring customer conversations smartly to the right sales agents that can provide personalized information across AI-based chatbot integrations.
With complete customer profiling, smart routing is a critical feature that AI-powered chatbots provide customers. As a result, sales teams have access to highly qualified leads and can answer questions directly via chat or phone calls.
2. Information Management for Agent Empowerment
Real-time sales promotion insights during conversations can be delivered with the right set of conversational inputs and automated rules. With customer insights generated at scale, instant promotions, discounts, or codes, can be shared with buyers within seconds.
Key tasks relevant to the sales process, such as scheduling, prospecting, reminders, and follow-ups can also be automated for better sales outcomes.
Read More: Best AI Chatbot Features to Deliver Expectational Customer Service
3. Strong NLP Engine and ML Capabilities
Chatbot AIs have a strong NLP engine and machine learning base that allow them to understand customer conversations with deeper context. It can understand different contexts across languages while simultaneously offering the right solutions for sales queries.
This automatically improves chat conversion rates for sales promotions, as the messages are context-rich and offer targeted solutions.
4. Multiple Inbound Contact Methods via Chatbot
Enterprises need to be able to automate and scale up multi-platform engagement. It enables an omnichannel experience to customers. AI-based chatbot solutions provide firms with the necessary infrastructure to facilitate conversations across app, web and chat interfaces. By providing users with an engaging experience, they can boost sales across categories.
5. Streamlined Onboarding Process
Enterprises rapidly understand the benefit of optimizing onboarding to reduce friction during the pre-sales process. For example, while qualified leads may be shared with agents for closure, the onboarding process can be initiated via chatbots. In addition, the contextual AI bot can acquire customer profile information that can aid in KYC processes for industries such as insurance, finance, banking, automotive, etc.
Read More: Types of Chatbot and Which Should You Choose?
6. Automated Upselling and Cross-selling Opportunities
AI-based chatbot solutions are adept at providing strategic upselling opportunities to customers. Based on the information shared, the contextual conversation, and the customer’s inquiries, the right promotion can be offered at the right time. This significantly boosts last-mile sales opportunities, especially when promoting cross-selling products and services.
7. Consumer Behavioural Insights via Calling Analytics
All AI chatbots should be equipped with a vital feature, caller analytics. The right analytics solution can transform how sales operations are performed, but it can also provide a new metric for sales team performance.
For example, businesses can effortlessly track consumer interest, response, and retention through conversational analysis. Then, it is used to provide feedback on product development, feature introductions, etc.
Read More: How does Technology Affect the Future of Customer Service and Support?
8. Ease of API Integration for Chatbots
Making API integration streamlined is a must-have feature that all chatbots should offer. A zero-code or low-code environment for API integration, with graphical and easy to use interfaces, can make chatbot development easy for all firms.
In addition, by giving companies complete flexibility in the design process, they can create highly impactful chatbots that focus on specific sales goals. This can drastically improve sales results as they can expand the scope of chatbot AIs for customized results.
Conclusion
AI-powered chatbots are driving the future of the sales domain, providing better opportunities to sales teams to reach customers at scale. They strengthen customer focus, capture valuable behavioural insights, and offer agile sales opportunities that other technologies can’t. These top AI chatbot features empower sales teams, giving them the right tools to engage with customers with greater efficiency.
Unlocking the power of AI-powered chatbots is easy with Ameyo’s conversational AI solution. Learn more about our complete offering at – Ameyo.