3 Ways to Build Consumer Trust in Chatbots 

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

Society and commerce are approaching the point where AI and automation are necessary to meet the rising customer service needs and expectations of those accustomed to an Amazon-level customer journey. Here are three ways to build consumer trust in chatbots, writes, Abinash Tripathy, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Helpshift.

As technology advances, consumers are interacting with AI more often, including via chatbots.

This tech is an obvious win for companies that introduce it correctly — AI-enabled chatbotsOpens a new window can greatly improve the customer experience, help anticipate the customer’s needs and better inform human counterparts of the best way to help customers. One study found 90% of businesses reported faster complaint resolutionOpens a new window  with the use of chatbots, and a separate report shows more than half of businesses think the technology can provide a large ROI with minimal effort. Coupled with future AI advancements, which promise to make these systems smarter, faster and more natural for consumers to interact with, chatbots are poised to further revolutionize the way we interact with customers. 

Learn More: AI: The Magic Ingredient for Customer Experience in 2020Opens a new window

But Not Everyone Is Sold on AI’s Trustworthiness.

In fact, 18% of consumers believe AI poses an existential threat to humanity. And 53% believe it has the ability to be good but still has some inherent risks. This apprehension isn’t completely unfounded. Some ugly mishaps and unfortunate episodes have caused skepticism among consumers about AI, including reports of faulty facial recognition technologyOpens a new window  and off-the-rails chatbot experiments.

But society and commerce are approaching the point where AI and automation are necessary to meet the rising customer service needs and expectations of those accustomed to an Amazon-level customer journey. Making sure this technology can thrive all comes down to building trust and learning from past mishaps to apply AI-powered tools in a way that brings customers closer, instead of driving them further away. 

Chatbots’ Rocky History

The early stages of automation in customer serviceOpens a new window were less than ideal, and poorly built chatbots dominated the forefront of the customer service landscape for the first few years. 

Driven by hype around the potential of bot technology, brands started with a far-fetched vision of how they wanted a bot to function: as a fully conversational digital assistant that can interact with customers just like a human agent. But the technology simply wasn’t capable of delivering that kind of experience, and as it hit stumbling blocks, early consumer trust in the technology waned. As brands created bots that could not hold a coherent conversation, keeping customers locked in frustration loops, dissatisfaction grew. 

As we begin a new decade, innovative brands are beginning to unlock the real power of chatbots, deploying them in smart ways that provide the most benefit. These brands view chatbots as a piece of the customer service journey, not an end-to-end solution, and they are reaping the benefits of a more streamlined experience with more efficient use of human assistance. 

Winning Over Customers With Chatbots

Now that the formula for chatbot success exists, brands must focus their efforts on deploying chatbots in a way that builds trust with customers. Whether developing a system of your own or adopting a solution from a vendor, keep these best practices in mind: 

  • Find the right role for AI: Often, interactions that frustrate consumers are the result of introducing chatbots just to jump on the AI bandwagon. Your goal should be the opposite. Invest in the time, effort and resources required to develop chatbots that will solve more problems than they create. For example, instead of attempting to introduce an advanced AI application that fully replaces human interaction, instead allow chatbots to quickly address the most frequently asked questions from customers. The quickest path to building customer trust is for chatbots to give fast, accurate answers, even if it means a human needs to step in for more complex interactions. 
  • AI doesn’t always have to dazzle customers to make a difference: Often, AI’s true strength lies in knocking out the behind-the-scenes processes customers don’t see — tasks like understanding customers’ messages and forwarding their issues to the right teams. This might mean focusing less on having the most human sounding chatbot, and instead developing systems that help humans anticipate customers’ needs. A customer’s trust in your company is strengthened when they feel like you’re one step ahead in getting them the answers they need. 
  • Make the path to a human clear. Choice is essential in the customer experience. Even when customer support was mostly telephone-based, brands knew a human should be on the other end of the line when “0” is pressed. The same should apply with chatbot interactions, no matter how smart they may be. Given that not everyone trusts their interactions with chatbots will be helpful, and that 86% of consumers think there should be an easy way to escalate their issue to a humanOpens a new window , it is critical that any chatbot interaction provides an easy, simple way to transfer the conversation to a real person. Companies that provide customers the choice between a chatbot and a human interaction are far more likely to build the trust necessary for chatbots to be accepted in the long term.
     

Learn More: Sorry Robots: Humans Crave Humans in Online InteractionsOpens a new window

Forging Trust Between Humans and AI

Thanks to its cost and efficiency savings, businesses will need to embrace AI to keep up with their competitors. In the meantime, it’s in your brand’s best interest to start earning customer trust in your applications of AI. When it comes to chatbots specifically, focusing on realistic processes rather than impressive human-like conversation sets up customer service interactions for success and customer loyalty. 

Abinash Tripathy
Abinash Tripathy

Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Helpshift

Abinash Tripathy is  Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Helpshift, the customer support platform for mobile. Abinash is utilizing his 20 years of experience with technology and CRM to re-imagine CRM for the post-PC era. Prior to founding Helpshift, Abinash created and ran a number of early and growth stage companies where he was responsible for conceptualizing and delivering the world’s first IP-based Voicemail/Unified communications, Mobile Photo Messaging (in Japan) and MMS products to the market. He started his career at Oracle where he wrote the first in-house CRM solution.
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