Rushing into chatbots as an engagement solution does more harm than good

45% of consumers classify chatbots as "annoying" and 78% of consumers say they are impersonal and don't add value.

I recently discussed the dangers of rushing into chatbots and how the only way this technology can add value is if organisations truly understood their customer needs first.

The by-product of rushing into chatbots is now being seen in research completed by Acquia. The results are not good.

They key message here is, there is no silver bullet to getting chatbot experiences right.

So what do organisations need to do in developing meaningful chatbot experiences?? Below is a quick summary to help articulate what the framework needs to look like....

Step 1: Develop a greater sense of empathy by actually speaking and interacting with customers! Listen! One effective method is offering true live chat.

Step 2: Analyse those conversations that lead to value (from the customer's perspective).

Step 3: Identify trends in these value driven conversations.

Step 4: Translate these conversations to chatbots and then measure its performance in the automated environment.

Step 5: Slowly introduce more automated conversations.

Developing meaningful automated conversations with your target consumer requires a deep understanding of his/her needs, pain points and how to resolve each.

Imagine having a call center team who doesn't listen to incoming calls and responds with irrelevant messages.

This is what chatbots (in general) are delivering today.