Do chatbots work in the roofing industry? We were curious so we dove all in on the statistics, pro’s and con’s, as well as looking for the number one most effective Chatbot for the roofing industry.
A couple questions we’ll answer in this article:
- What is a chatbot?
- What are the pro’s and con’s of chatbots?
- What’s the best tech for Facebook chatbots?
- What’s the best option for building a chatbot for your website with artificial intelligence?
- What’s the best bot for asking a few questions so you can connect the visitor with the right human?
Going above and beyond the call of duty with Chatbots
Construction companies tend to get a bad rap in the area of customer service. It seems like everyone has a horror story of miscommunication with a construction company on pricing, timelines, poor customer service, etc. This has led to a customer base that tends to be more skeptical and vigilant. Our clients in the construction industry pride themselves on going above and beyond with transparency and customer service.
Chatbots could make a big difference in separating a construction or roofing company from its competitors. Not only is it revealing to customers your progressiveness and use of technology, but also your focus on customer service. With that being said, a Chatbot might not be right for everyone.
So what is a Chatbot? It’s a software installed into a website or social media platform that is used to mimic human speech and interact with a person visiting your site. These will pop up (typically in the corner of your screen) and will be used as quick customer service medium by attempting to answer questions the customer may have.
Pro’s and con’s of Chatbots for roofers.
Cons:
- Some people believe that bots are harming the customer service experience. Users may find it frustrating when asking more complicated questions and not getting results or getting different results than requested.
- Some people (mostly in the older age group) are uncomfortable with the idea of communicating with something artificial. Especially if the conversation or responses seem very unnatural, it may quickly turn a customer off.
- Leaving your potential clients and warm leads to the service of a bot can be risky. You may run the risk of losing ideal clients and warm leads if a bot is not configured well.
Pros:
- They are available 24/7. Customers can quickly get, at the very least, basic questions answered almost instantly. There is no waiting on hold for the next available person. Instead, customers can get an interaction and possibly and answer to a questions right away.
- Automation for repetitive works. Having a bot answer basic questions can save hours upon hours of employees time who would usually be spending time answering those repetitive questions. This time saved ultimately saves your company money.
- Recent studies show that more and more people prefer texting over calling. This means you may be losing out on leads because of the fact people are unwilling to pick up the phone and call.
- Collecting customer information. You can have your bot offer special content that requires someone to sign up. You can then add them to an email list for marketing purposes.
What are our suggestions for top 3 Chatbots?
Not every chatbot will be right for you. This technology is extremely powerful, but if you don’t do the work to ask the right questions, and give the right answers ‘Artificial intelligence’ will seem more artificial than you want it to for your company.
And in the world of roofing – being authentic, and feeling personable is absolutely crucial.
That being said, here are our top 3 suggestions for chatbots / chat technology, and why we suggest each one.
ManyChat – for a Facebook Chatbot.
ManyChat can be a very powerful marketing tool. ManyChat will pop up on your website after either a certain amount of time is spent on the page, or after you scroll far enough down the page to activate it. The idea, is that you gift the user a special piece of content or offer that requires them to click to accept it. This will send them over to your Facebook page and will subscribe them to your Facebook messaging app. You now can use this subscribed list for marketing and informational purposes. Facebook Messenger has an insane open rate of 88%, which makes it a marketing tool you can’t ignore.
Roofers could use this by offering a free or discounted estimate, or a downloadable resource, making the user accept and opt in to the app.
Botsify – for AI focused Chatbot.
Botsify is very fun to play around with. The idea is that you give it keywords that people can ask it, and that those questions trigger certain responses from the chat bot. The key would be you really get good at entering the types of responses that people are actually looking for. Include more content in each of the keyword phrases, to keep the answers tighter and more specific to the visitor’s question. This can be embedded in the site for $50 a month.
Podium – for cutting to the chase with personal conversations, basically letting people text you from your website.
I love Podium, because I believe talking with a human is still the absolute best way to get a conversation going, and to the next level – but this won’t be appropriate if you don’t have sales people available at all times of the day.
How To Be Insanely Effective When Using Your Chatbot
We believe chatbots can be extremely useful when used in the right way. A chatbot should be able to answer to most basic and repetitive questions your company receives, all on its own. With that said, you should give the customer an option of talking to a human right away. This could include a list of the most commonly asked questions given directly to the customer to select, while having “Speak to a human” one of those options.
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