Pros and Cons of Using Chatbots on Your Website

Pros and Cons of Using Chatbots on Your Website

If you have been on almost any website in the last year or so then you have seen a Chabot. That little icon in the corner of a website and pops up and says, “Do you have a question? I’m here to help.” They seem great, and you can get a fast answer, but are they really all positives?

The pros and cons of using chatbots on your website are worth taking a look at when you are thinking about using one of these programs on your business website.

There are three pros and two cons that we are going to focus on in this post. This will, hopefully, give you some information to help you make a decision about chatbots and your business.

What is a Chatbot

Chatbots are handy software programs that are specifically designed to hold conversations with human beings. They answer very specific questions about products, the company, pricing, and anything else they have been programmed to answer.

They are so good at what they do that you may not know that there isn’t an actual human being on the other side of the conversation. However, if you ask a question they can’t answer, then you will have to wait to talk to a human.

Pros of Chatbots

There are some really amazing things that chatbots can do for your business. The pros that they have are nothing to scoff at and can be a game-changer for a growing website or company. The top three pros, in our opinion, are the following.

• Cheap Labor: If your business is growing quickly but you can’t hire anyone or don’t want to because it would hurt your bottom line more than you would like at this point in time, a chatbot may be the way to go. Because you don’t have to pay the computer program an hourly rate to answer customer questions, it can really keep costs down.
  
  
• Fast Answers: Chatbots are very fast in their responses because that is how they are programmed. Instead of customers waiting for an email or sitting on hold, many times, a chatbot can give a rapid-fire answer that will satisfy the customer and save them time.
  
  
• Multiple Uses: Because this is a programmable software, it can be used across several areas of your business. Customer service is the top use that we have seen on the internet, but they have also been used for advertising as well as helping with ordering and frequently asked questions.
  
  

Cons of Chatbots

As with many things in life, if there are pros, then there are also cons. These cons should be considered carefully along with the pros so you can make an informed decision for your business.

• Limited Answers: Using a chatbot is amazing for very specific questions and answers, but because it is a computer program, the answers are limited. With limited answers come the frustration customers feel when going around in circles with a computer that is confused by the question asked.
  
  
• Not All Businesses Can Use Them: If you happen to have a business that is more complex, then it would not be practical to use a chatbot. The amount of time and effort that it would take to program even the most basic responses for a complicated business would be a daunting and almost impossible task. In cases like that, it makes more sense to hire people to answer the questions, deal with orders, and advertising.
  
  

Complex Systems Are Expensive

There are chatbot systems that could solve the two cons that we previously listed. However, these systems are incredibly expensive. Using a costly chatbot would defeat the purpose of using them to lower labor costs.

It is important for business owners to really know what they need and what would be helpful for their particular business. What is suitable for some is not always good for others.