New Survey Suggests: 8 Out of 10 People Have Used a Chatbot, and Two-Thirds Would Rather Use a Chatbot Than Browse a Website

“The State of Chatbots in Marketing” report by Botco.ai sheds light on how chatbots multiply marketing ROI and streamline the customer journey

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More than 8 out of 10 people—82%—have used a chatbot before, and the vast majority of them—70%—say that chatbots typically answer all or most of their questions satisfactorily. That’s according to a new study published by Botco.ai (www.botco.ai), a leading HIPAA-compliant conversational marketing platform. Titled “The State of Chatbots in Marketing 2022” and based on surveys with 1,000 consumers and 250 marketing professionals, the report sheds light on consumer attitudes and preferences towards chatbots as well as how businesses use chatbots today to enhance the customer experience and engage them throughout the customer journey. 

Key findings from the report include: 

• Chatbots simplify the web: If a company has a chatbot on its website, nearly two-thirds of people (64%) indicated that they are more likely to ask the chatbot for answers to basic questions than browse the site to try to find the answer(s) themselves

• Chatbots help in a number of ways: Approximately 18% of consumers use chatbots to find business hours, while 17% are interested in learning more about product information, and 16% are looking to find a nearby business location; other use cases include making a customer service request (16%), requesting technical support (12%), requesting a quote (11%), and asking for personalized recommendations (9%)

• Effective across several industries: Consumers say that they are willing to use chatbots on websites from companies across a variety of industries, though they are most likely to use a chatbot on a retail or e-commerce website. Retail was followed by service businesses, banking and financial services, healthcare, and education, respectively

• A ubiquitous marketing tool: 93% of the marketing professionals surveyed said their companies currently use chatbots to interact with prospects and customers; 87% of companies that don’t currently utilize chatbots expect to do so in the future, with 50% of them expected to do so in the next year or sooner

• Enhancing the customer journey: 98% of marketing professionals confirmed that chatbots have improved the customer journey overall for customers and prospects, as well as increased lead conversions for their companies; the most noted benefit was increased sales conversions, followed by more qualified leads, decreased customer-support requests, a more positive customer experience, and increased brand affinity, respectively.

“Chatbots have become ubiquitous on today’s Internet, not just because they simplify the information gathering process and help consumers get their questions answered more easily, but because consumers have come to trust and rely on them, as these survey results show,” said Rebecca Clyde, CEO of Botco.ai. “And as marketing professionals learn more about the ways in which chatbots can support customers and prospects at all stages of the buying cycle, they’re able to integrate the technology into more parts of their marketing strategy. At Botco.ai we set out to increase the return of marketing investments in SEO, Social, ad buys, email drip campaigns and more, and now we can measure the increased ROI in the results being delivered.”

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