AI chatbots programmed into your PWA can increase conversions. Is PWA your regular android or iOS app? No, they are not. Native apps built for your smartphone, android, or iOS are great because they offer consistent performance and are highly optimized for the platform. These apps communicate with a server to receive data, much like web apps. One great functionality, however, sets them apart from web applications. That is their ability to work offline. Depending on how well a native app is designed, a part or some parts of it would continue to work in the absence of the Internet. Web app developers did not have an answer to this convenience until progressive web apps (PWAs) came into prominence.
How PWAs differ?
We will get round to managing a chatbot service on a PWA in just a while. But let first see what sets PWAs apart from regular web apps. PWAs are web apps too, but they use other elements such as service workers and manifests and are based on a design philosophy that is referred to as progressive enhancement. Progressive enhancement aims to provide baseline content to as many users as possible while providing the best possible content only to users of modern browsers. PWAs provide a vast array of benefits to the end-user: they are installable, progressively enhanced, linkable, discoverable, highly engaging, very responsive, and secure. Just to give you an idea of the strength of PWAs. BMW’s PWA-AMP deployment has sped up their pages by 300%.
All of these characteristics matter to the product manager and the marketers. PWAs already lead to greater engagement and conversions than ordinary web apps, thanks to their lightness, responsiveness, and speed. Nobody wants to look at a spinning wheel all day. Do you know what would enhance the user experience further? Having someone human to talk to within the app when they are lost! And to give you an idea of how important it is, 85% of U.S. customers say they would pay 5% to 25% more to ensure a superior customer experience. What’s the answer? An AI chatbot service.
AI Chatbots on PWAs are the need of the hour
This is a grave statistic, but small businesses that are still looking to scale cannot have so many people in customer care talking and chatting with the customers. How do we get around this? By using AI chatbots. Chatbots (or AI chatbots) are intelligent bots programmed to have accurate and human-like conversations with your customers and support them. The AI models used in chatbots can be regularly trained to make them more intelligent and probably even capable of making decisions independently. They can perform sentiment analysis and take proper next steps based on their insights from conversations with the customer. A chatbot helps boost engagement and funnel conversion rates while also providing much-needed support. They are fast, and are not hindered by emotions, and not susceptible to err like humans.
Creating a PWA
But before we integrate the chatbot service, we must create a PWA. Since a PWA uses a more straightforward language HTML, CSS, or Javascript, it can work in any standards-compliant browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. We can use the Ionic framework available on both MacOS and Windows to create the PWA. More info on how that is done is available here.
Now that the PWA is created, how do we ensure that it is PWA-compliant? For this, we can use PWA audits. The Lighthouse utility from Google can help us run a PWA audit to see if the PWA we created is working fine. At this stage, the app has performed well on other characteristics, such as SEO and best practices, but is not up to the mark when it comes to performance. Due to these reasons, the Lighthouse tool does not classify it as a PWA. the solution? We must rebuild the app with performance in mind, as shown here. When we do so and then run the Lighthouse utility, the version is now raised up to the mark. Perform the following steps, run and then deploy to Firebase as shown here.
Programming a chatbot for your PWA
So you have already taken the PWA route, now comes the question of integrating the chatbot service into the PWA to improve funnel conversions. Or do you program a chatbot into the app itself rather than using an external service? Let us look at both options. Option 1 is more streamlined, and there is a lesser risk of errors in conception and tone detection when it comes to an understanding of what the customer is trying to say. It is straightforward because it uses a third-party service such as Amazon’s Lex chatbot. This is a better choice because Amazon has access to vast amounts of data in multiple languages making natural language processing much less arduous and correspondingly lesser response time on each question. Also, developing a chatbot internally, possibly in Python, is time-consuming and may not still be on par with Amazon’s Lex offering.
You can find more details on building a chatbot here if you decide to build your chatbot. Remember, though, that these are instructions for creating a basic chatbot. To create one that can respond sensibly to customer queries, you need to approach a solution provider, such as Ecosmob. Ecosmob can not only develop a chatbot service but also integrate it and customize it to suit your app.
Read our another blog on Enhancing Human Resources functions through Chatbots
Optimizing your chatbot for conversions
A chatbot is designed to improve engagement with existing customers, but it is also helpful to capture the leads, and is much more capable than just a lead-gen form. A chatbot (or conversion bot) can guide customers into the sales funnel. Now that there is already a chatbot, how best to optimize the chatbot in your app to ensure that conversions are improved? Here are five ways to drive a conversion bot:
1. Integrating pay-per-click advertising
Pay-per-click ads on any platform such as Google can be used to redirect users to the conversion bot in the PWA. The conversion bot can then ask relevant questions and gather information from customer responses to create a better profile for each customer. Lead-gen forms on landing pages do not help us get to such detail.
2. Implementing lead magnets
A conversion bot can replace a traditional lead magnet like a pop-up on a webpage that offers a resource in exchange for customer information. A conversion bot can provide a relevant resource that can help the customer when they are figuring out how to use a feature. This will help earn the customer’s trust, but the customer will also be willing to provide further information without hesitation. Once the customer’s email address is captured, it gives your small business a cheaper, cost-effective, and convenient means of reaching the customer.
3. Enriching conversations with media
Adding images and videos to your conversion bot scripts will help increase conversions. This is because visual elements are processed 600,000 times faster than text. Your conversion bot’s script is apt to your industry, and the visual elements are not overly-used.
4. Use specific methods to make conversations contextual
You can use some techniques in your conversion bot to make it seem truly intelligent and to better understand the customer’s requirements.
A. App triggers:
You can add triggers based on app usage that uses how many features a customer has explored or how many times he has used a particular feature. You can direct the customer to less-used features on the app that may help accomplish the task he is trying to do a lot faster.
B. Location-based conversations:
If the customer is in a new location, you can pick the most suitable script that is most suitable for that location and use of cultural sensibilities prevalent in the region. For instance, they use merci to address the customer when they are in France or namaste in India. The prices mentioned and time formats will also change in offers made.
C. New customers:
If the customer is new or returning after a long break, you can perform an on boarding on your app with the help of the bot if the customer would like to have one. The bot will ask questions to gauge the customer’s general understanding of the app and then take steps to educate the customer and remedy that. The focus can shift from the bot to specific app sections as a particular feature is being discussed.
D. Leaving customers:
Customers who have expressed exit intent and are leaving the app could be guided to an offer to begin with. On refusing that, a conversion bot can intervene to determine what exactly is the reason why the customer has not purchased the app as yet. Once the reason is determined, the bot can suggest suitable steps to overcome the barrier to purchase.
5. Test sections of the app by using chatbots
Chatbots are the perfect way to judge if you meet the customer’s needs or expectations. You can use a script within the chatbot that asks the customer feedback on how a particular feature is working—For instance, location services or ride discovery in an app such as Uber. Once you know a feature performs well, you could highlight it to potential customers. This will also help you understand if newly rolled out features are engaging enough for old and new customers.
Learn with our blog about the 10 Ways How AI chatbots Are Revolutionizing Digital Communication
Advantages of using AI chatbots in your PWA
Chatbot software offers several advantages over traditional lead-gen forms or human agents. They work well to reduce the call load in scenarios where human agents are in a customer care center.
1. Available 24×7
An AI chatbot is available 24×7 to interact with your customers
2. Reduced response time
The response time of a chatbot is significantly less. It can run through several scripts and respond to several thousand queries in several languages in as little time as possible.
3. Consistent communication
An AI chatbot provides consistent communication regarding what services you offer customers and your company’s policies. This is helpful because it keeps you out of legal issues, mismatched expectations, and lack of customer satisfaction.
4. Multilingual support
Not everyone using your PWA is fluent in the language the app is designed for. An AI chatbot proves very useful to help users who do not speak that language. A chatbot can provide translations on the fly, providing a consistent experience for every customer.
5. Omnichannel support
The chatbot on your PWA will be able to start the conversation with a query made on another social media channel, a company page on Facebook or Instagram, for instance, by the customer. This will allow customer conversations to flow seamlessly across the different channels and give the customer a better experience.
6. Personalization
AI Chatbots can personalize conversations they have with customers. Based on recent browsing, conversation, and transaction histories with a customer, a chatbot can personalize the discussions by providing content or help that will lead to a purchase and help the customer.
Is there a conversation you had with a chatbot (or conversion bot) that changed how you think about them? In retrospect, did you find chatbots helpful on your PWA? Remember, the PWA app that was created and the chatbot that was developed were both for understanding only and not for support. You would need a more specifically trained chatbot for your scenario to derive the most outstanding business benefit from it, an impact on ROI.
If you are looking for customized chatbot development services, than call on +91-7778842856 (INDIA) / +1-303-997-3139 (USA) or write to sales@ecosmob.com
