Self help can be a life saver.
As they say, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime!
We expect to see more and more websites utilizing self help widgets, absolutely, no doubt, as many visitors actually prefer to help themselves.
There are a handful of help widgets out there.
The good ones are expensive, yet quite useful.
Typically, they appear as a Help tab or button on a website.
Clicking on the tab or button reveals a field where the website visitor can enter keywords to search against the website’s knowledge base.
The search often yields very helpful help docs, avoiding the need for the visitor to submit a help ticket, and thus reducing the burden on your support reps – which is the whole point!
Allowing for self help is, and will remain, a key component to customer service going forward.
With that said, there are a couple of things holding back the self help widget.
The first problem is that not everyone feels comfortable trying to come up with keywords to search.
It is much more natural to just type exactly what you are looking for in a conversational manner, maybe even in the form of a question.
Some of the better (even more expensive) self-help widgets actually do accept questions and extract keywords to search against your knowledge base.
This makes for a much more natural experience, and increases utilization of the help widget.
The second problem plaguing existing self help widgets is that they are often ignored.
They blend into your site and become wallflowers just like your help doc links and FAQ page!
This second problem can be really annoying especially if you’ve dedicated significant time building a solid knowledge base with a long list of FAQs, from which very few end up actually benefiting.
The third problem with existing self help widgets is that their search results are often generic and not tied to the particular URL page that the visitor is actually on.
For example, if the visitor is on a pricing page, any suggested answers to questions posed by the visitor (even if the question is not focused on pricing) should take into account what the visitor has been viewing.
The fourth, and perhaps most serious, problem with existing self help widgets is that they are not opportunistic.
When a visitor actually notices and uses the self help widget (notwithstanding the second problem), this often is a sign that the visitor is engaged and interested.
After answering the question posed, this would be an ideal time to engage further, ask qualifying questions, offer a discount, right?
Self help widgets don’t leverage the real interest expressed by your visitor – they don’t take the conversation in a different direction or offer anything beyond what was initially queried.
Simply put, these widgets answer questions, and that’s it. Take it or leave it!
The solution to the above? Combine the powerful forces of a sales chatbot with a support chatbot!
Gobot started out as a pure sales bot.
It engages visitors in conversation and it features all sorts of ways to get noticed, appearing just before cursor window exit, upon user scroll, etc.
It occurred to us at Gobot that these skills are exactly what’s missing from help tools on the market.
Existing help widgets may be decent at providing answers when provided the opportunity – but they are often not given the opportunity!
And not to get too cheesy, but we all know that opportunity only dances with those already on the dance floor, and not with wallflowers.
So we added to Gobot’s sales bot functionality an amazing support functionality tied to a knowledge base for your articles and your FAQs.
Gobot doesn’t simply answer your visitor’s questions.
It also proactively engages your visitors and seeks out questions, analyzes answers provided, and returns useful help content, addressing their questions by intelligently pulling Q&A content from your Gobot knowledge base.
Check out this sample Gobot engagement:
-Visitor is browsing your electronics store page, and she is on a page focused on a Pioneer surround sound system.
-After 10 seconds on page, Gobot appears and volunteers:
Gobot: “This Pioneer system is our top seller. Any questions? Yes/No”
Visitor: chooses “Yes”
Gobot: “OK, please type your question below.”
Visitor: “How many speakers does this system support?”
Gobot: “Thanks for your question. I think the articles below address your inquiry.
- Pioneer 222 speakers
- Pioneer 222 setup
- Pioneer 222 troubleshooting
Visitor chooses #1, which answers his questions.
Gobot: “Message us on FB Messenger if you want to discuss live.”
Gobot: “Just to let you know, the Pioneer 222 is also compatible with wireless speakers”
Gobot: “Enter your email below and you will receive a 10% discount on this system if you buy today.”
Gobot: “Enter your email here”
So, the above bot is special in a couple of ways (if I do say so myself!).
First, it proactively probes as to open questions and only presents itself after the visitor has spent sufficient time on the site’s page(s) to signal real interest.
Second, the answers it returns to the visitor are specific to the URL the visitor is on.
The bot did not return pricing articles about any system other than the one featured on the page the visitor was on.
Third, the articles suggested by the bot are pulled from the website owner’s Gobot knowledge base and can be read directly from within the bot itself, or, with the click of a button, in a separate page containing the entire knowledge base.
Fourth, the visitor’s question is semantically analyzed and only the most relevant knowledge base articles are returned as suggested reading.
Fifth, and perhaps most differentiating, the bot engages the visitor beyond just answering his question by offering additional information and ultimately attempted to convert by offering a timely special deal.
Very compelling, if you ask me.
Use Gobot to teach a man to fish, and watch your engagement and conversions soar!
By integrating its sales capabilities with smart Q&A functionality and a slick knowledge base, Gobot has truly ushered in a self help revolution.
Help us help your customers help themselves!
