In this blog, Rianna Enahoro, Account Executive at Huble Digital, explains how using chatbots on your website is key for improving the user experience of your website.
The way we consume content has evolved significantly. The internet and instant messaging platforms have enabled us to access the information we want and when we want it. As a result, we now expect answers to be delivered immediately.
These expectations apply to every online channel and your website is no exception. If your website fails to quickly deliver the right information to visitors, friction will be added to the customer journey and those visitors will simply find another resource.
One way to remedy this problem is to use a chatbot on your website. By using a chatbot, you can engage website visitors as they arrive and provide them with the content they need to solve their problems.
In this blog, we'll discuss the benefits of chatbots and how you can use them to improve the user experience.
The importance of user experience for a website in 2020
User experience (UX), focuses on the end user’s overall experience, including their perceptions, emotions and responses to a company’s product, system, or service. This is defined by criteria including: ease of use, accessibility, and convenience. (Source: HubSpot)
A good user experience is important because it can help increase conversion rates – it has a direct influence on whether or not a prospect completes an action, e.g. purchasing a product, submitting a form or abandoning the site.
Also, according to Think with Google, 79% of users who don’t find what they are looking for on a website, will simply go to another, and websites with poor UX can have poor SEO rankings.
Now that UX has been covered – what’s a chatbot?
A chatbot is a computer program used to interact with customers. It is programmed to reply to questions and communicate with customers via text or speech.
So, how do chatbots help with UX?
A quick route to finding a solution
One of the main benefits of chatbots is that they enable prospects to quickly and easily find solutions to their problems. For instance, a chatbot can direct users to the right information pages based on the user’s answer or question. This offers website visitors and customers a quick and effective alternative to waiting for a salesperson to respond to their email (which is often limited to business hours). Research by Salesforce found that 69% of consumers prefer to use chatbots because they deliver quick answers to simple questions.
Chatbots also offer convenience for the user (a key element of UX) by reducing the number of steps involved in the user journey. For example, users can complete actions like booking tickets without having to crawl through the business’ website and face potential issues and frustrations in completing their task.
Improve the customer onboarding experience
Many companies offer products or services that can be complex to use and users may require further information to troubleshoot properly.
But with chatbots, whenever a user has difficulty using your product or service, they can communicate with your chatbot in real time to solve the problem. HubSpot’s chatbot, for instance, directs users to educational articles related to the problem the user has raised. For more complex problems, users are directed to a HubSpot team member who can look at their problem in more detail.
However, chatbots are not just used to solve problems; they can keep users engaged and informed. For instance, a chatbot can suggest related products on the site (again saving the user time and providing value) or send them time-based offers and discount codes which encourages users to go through the checkout process. This is significant given that the global average shopping cart abandonment rate for ecommerce was 69.57% in 2019 (Source: Statista).
Offering personalisation
Chatbots can be configured to interact with users in a friendly and casual way. By asking simple questions about their preferences or budget, chatbots can recommend products and services for users to choose from. This saves the user time as they don’t have to search through product pages endlessly. Chatbots can also be configured to engage with users as soon as they arrive on your website, they could send a welcome message and ask them what they would like to achieve, for example.
Chatbots can analyse the behaviour of a website visitor e.g. the pages they have viewed as well as any contact records stored in the CRM. This can be used to personalise the user experience and provide more accurate answers. UX is all about creating an individualised experience relevant to the user’s needs.
And a chatbot can help with that.
A website with a chatbot and good UX will be able to guide visitors through the buyer’s journey, delivering the right content and support when they need it. This not only increases the likelihood of users achieving their goals, it also helps you to achieve yours.
Learn more about the value of personalisation for your website in our blog. - Why you should use website personalisation.
Maybe it’s time to add a chatbot to your website?
Chatbots are extremely useful for a website in terms of lead generation, engagement and education: they can immediately provide visitors with answers to their questions in a simple and personalised way.
Remember, it takes only 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website, an opinion which will determine whether they will stay or leave. (Source: Sweor). This exemplifies the importance of user experience – and chatbots can make them positive by meeting your prospects' individual needs and reducing the time they spend looking for answers.
Want to maximise the value and performance of your current website? Your prospects meet your website before they meet you, so this is the chance to impress them. Discover how the new HubSpot CMS Hub can help you grow your business and nurture leads by watching our on-demand webinar with Luke Summerfield, Go-to Market Lead at HubSpot: CMS Hub for CMOs.
