You’ve probably already heard of a chatbot – and if you spend any time online – you’ve also probably used one. They usually appear in the lower-right corner of your computer screen while browsing online.

What is a Chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer program that interacts with human users via a chat interface. A chatbot can either be powered by rules using if/then statements or artificial intelligence or a mix of both.

For example, Dominos Pizza has a Chatbot named Dom – Domino’s ordering assistant bot.

This chatbot mostly relies on multiple-choice menus and basic input to help customers but it’s extremely user-friendly and serves its purpose of helping users place online orders effectively and easily.

7 Ways a Chatbot Can Help Boost Conversions on Your WordPress Website

Chatbots can serve a ton of different purposes on a website. Here are 7 of the most valuable:

1. Collect Leads

The most important goal for many websites is collecting information your sales team can use to contact new prospects. Chatbots are perfect for this purpose.

2. Qualify and Prioritize Leads

Collecting quality leads is challenging but what’s even harder is evaluating and prioritizing the leads. Chatbots can simplify this process by identifying high quality leads. A user lands on your website and the chatbot asks the user to choose from a variety of options about why they are there – 1) looking for information 2) just browsing 3) ready to make a purchase decision.

3. Put Visitors in Touch With Your Team

Many people think that chatbots are designed to replace human support staff but that’s not the case at all. In fact, one of the best roles a chatbot can play on a website is a connection between your customers and your staff. Many chatbots start with a question asking whether the visitor would like to speak directly with a sales analyst. If they need to speak to billing instead, the lines aren’t clogged and visitors are able to get directly and reliably in touch with human support staff.

4. Increase Newsletter Subscriptions

Because they are automated chatbots can save you a lot of time and effort when it comes to building your list of email subscribers. The key is to use chat as a lead capture opportunity. Occasionally a lead will need more incentive to provide their email address. One effective way to get an email address out of a visitor is to offer a special discount in return.

For example, the chatbot could be set up to recognize when a user is shopping on an eCommerce page. The chatbot can then be used to offer a discount off their purchase. To get the coupon code, the visitor would need to provide their email address and then you can send a one-time promotional code directly to their email.

5. Direct Visitors to Helpful Resources

If you’ve already created lots of content on your website, you can make the most of this content by training a chatbot to direct visitors straight to the resources that are relevant to their interests and questions.

6. Personalize the Browsing experience

A chatbot can make the browsing experience personalized by utilizing a landing page sized chatbot that immediately interacts with website visitors.

7. Reduce Your Employees’ Workloads

Many of the chatbot capabilities on this list are typically handled by customer service teams. By integrating a chatbot, you can eliminate these tasks from your employees’ workloads and help them focus on more meaningful activities.