Are Personal Chatbot Assistants Worth It?

This post was last updated on January 3, 2022.

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A recent Comm100 study showed that more than 70% of people aged 16-24 believed that quicker responses from a service team could greatly improve their customer experience.

Customer service organizations have been finding ways to make their support more quick, efficient, personalized, and catered to the customer experience. One of the big ways that agencies have tried to improve the customer experience is through chatbots and personal chatbot assistants.

While you’re probably already familiar with chatbots, virtual chatbot assistants, also known as personal chatbot assistants, are making their way into the space and positioning themselves as useful tools designed to boost customer experience, speed, efficiency, employee satisfaction, and more.

Different kinds of chatbots

Generally speaking, chatbots are software that engage with customers in a human-like manner. Chatbots are typically deployed by businesses to engage with customers at any given time of the day, every day of the week.

Personal assistant chatbots, however, blend the role of virtual assistants and chatbots. Virtual assistants help support teams conduct and manage the day-to-day operations of their business, including emailing, scheduling, and organizing meetings, among other uses.

With advancements in machine-learning and AI, our ability to create chatbots that feel more human and can take on more tasks will continue to grow. It’s incumbent on service teams and organizations to take advantage of this technology if they’re going to stay ahead of the competition and provide seamless and personalized support that customers remember.

Virtual assistants vs chatbots

If you’re still wondering whether or not a personal assistant chatbot is worth it, let’s break down some of the major differences between regular chatbots and personal assistant bots.

Chatbots

Traditionally, chatbots are limited to defined, rule-based functions that are built on a decision tree with pre-made script answers. Advancements in AI and machine-learning have led to intellectually independent bots and contextual chatbots that allow bots to learn keywords and responses over time, based on previous interactions. These advanced bots are less dependent on training and will continuously learn how to be more personal and human over time.

Virtual assistants

Virtual assistant chatbots take the same power of contextual bots and combine those functions with natural language understanding and emotional intelligence, which enables them to communicate more effectively and to feel more human. Although virtual assistant chatbots are primarily leveraged for customer engagement, they can also perform several secretary-type tasks, like providing scheduling notifications, organizing meetings, and emailing.

In many ways, virtual assistant chatbots do much of what intelligent chatbots do, but they offer more in the way of functionality and range.

Which bot is best for you?

At this point, it’s fairly simple to discern which kind of bot will best fit your needs.

If you’re looking to improve personalization and productivity, then a personal chatbot assistant is the right bot for you.

If you’re simply looking to improve customer engagement, then an intelligent chat bot is probably the better option. While personal assistant bots can also engage with customers, you may not necessarily need the wide range assistant features that they come with.

Why Gladly has it all

Gladly’s all-in-one solution can help you improve customer experience, delegate tasks, simplify scheduling, and personalize the way you engage with customers.

Take advantage of Gladly’s natively built-in chat support, customer service chat widgets, and proactive chat features that will shorten wait times for customer and bolster overall engagement efficiency.

Take a self-guided product tour today to see if Gladly is right for you.