The Pros and Cons of Chatbots

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Chatbots use AI technology (artificial intelligence) to automate repetitive tasks and they can be incredibly useful when used correctly. We will be discussing the pros and cons of chatbots to help you decide whether a chatbot will be a good tool to utilize for your practice.

What is a Chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer program that mimics human conversation to “speak” with your patients. An example of a chatbot is a messaging system that looks like a text conversation. Patients can use this to ask questions about your services and the AI computer program will respond, like texting with another person. This can be helpful because users will be able to quickly receive answers, even if your office is closed, but there are some limitations.

Pros

Faster Customer Service

When you have a chatbot on your website, patients will no longer have to call your office and wait for a response. Even if they do call the office and someone immediately picks up, they may have to refer to you, the leading physician, for the right answer. This saves you time and gives your patients a great customer service experience, which makes everyone happy. Happy patients mean an increased likelihood that those patients will keep coming back!

Less Labor Costs

Chatbots take the place of a paid employee and allow you to indirectly reach out to patients after hours. You don’t have to worry about hiring another company to manage phones at all times because the chatbot will do it for you.

Multifunctional

Chatbots can be used for a variety of purposes: customer service, advertising, lead generation, and more! Instead of having to answer the same questions multiple times, a FAQ chatbot can store all those answers for you in an easily accessible place. Chatbots can also be used to respond to messages on Instagram and Facebook which builds a connection between you and your patients.

At DLM, our conversational AI, IRIS, lets you respond to patients from your website via text message. This allows for a more personal response.

Cons

Limited Responses

Since chatbots are programmed machines, they don’t have all the answers. They might not be able to answer complex questions with multiple parts or give patients the exact answer they were looking for, which can be frustrating.

Costs

Although chatbots keep the labor costs down, chatbots can get expensive as they get more complex. The more they can do, like answering those complex questions, the pricier they will be.

Only Suitable for Big Businesses

Since chatbots can get expensive, they might not be worth it if your practice is small or newly developing. It’s important to consider how many patients or potential patients you will be reaching with the chatbot to determine whether it will help.

Automated Services with DLM

At Digital Limelight Media, our job is to make yours a little easier and help you develop a marketing strategy that runs smoothly. Chatbots are just one great example of automated services we utilize, and these can save time and money while helping your marketing campaign run effectively. If you’re uncertain about whether you should invest in a website, give us a call at 616-222-3735 and one of our marketing specialists would be happy to talk over your marketing plan with you.