This article has been contributed by Abhinav Jain, CEO & Co-founder, Almonds Ai.
Last Diwali, I found myself standing in a crowded market, surrounded by vibrant colors, the smell of sweets in the air, and the endless buzz of people. Everywhere I looked, people were bargaining, buying gifts, and preparing for the big festival. It got me thinking about how much things have changed in the world of shopping—especially during Diwali.
Diwali is more than just a festival in India—it’s a time for family, lights, traditions, and, yes, a lot of shopping. A few years ago, most of us would head to the markets, sift through stores, and hunt for the best deals. But today, things are different. Much of that excitement has moved online, and brands are now competing digitally for attention. It’s no longer just about offering discounts or festive deals; it’s about creating meaningful, personalized experiences for customers.
And this is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has stepped in, completely transforming the way brands engage with shoppers during festive seasons like Diwali. AI isn’t just a buzzword anymore—it’s actively shaping the way businesses interact with their customers, helping them connect in deeper, smarter ways.
So, as we head into Diwali 2024, simply offering discounts isn’t enough. People want more personalized, meaningful experiences, and this is where technology—especially AIcomes in and changes the game.
In this article, we shall look at a few effective marketing ideas to boost sales during Diwali in 2024.
Personalization at Scale with AI
Think about it—when you walk into your favorite store, what makes it feel special? It’s when someone greets you by name or recommends a product based on what you’ve bought before. That personalized experience is what AI now allows businesses to recreate at scale.
Why It Works: AI lets you take customer data—like past purchases or even browsing behavior—and turn it into super-targeted recommendations. It’s like offering each customer their own custom Diwali catalog. Whether it’s festive home décor or clothes, AI can help you send them offers that feel tailor-made.
Example: Amazon uses AI for real-time product recommendations based on user behavior. During Diwali 2023, Amazon India leveraged AI to show personalized deals to customers based on their previous festive purchases, whether it was home décor, electronics, or apparel. This led to higher engagement and conversions, as customers felt like the offers were handpicked for them.
Personalized Chatbots for Instant Support
We’ve all been there, trying to find that perfect Diwali gift online but getting stuck because of a delivery question or confusion about product details. You’re in a hurry, and waiting hours for an email response is frustrating. That’s where AI-powered chatbots come in.
Why It Works: During high-traffic times like Diwali, your team can get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of customer queries. AI chatbots can handle a ton of queries simultaneously and instantly, whether it’s about delivery timelines, return policies, or even recommending a product.
Example:H&M introduced an AI chatbot on their website to assist customers in selecting outfits based on their preferences. During festive seasons like Diwali, this bot has been particularly useful in helping customers find the right party wear quickly. The chatbot even recommends accessories that go with the outfit, increasing the likelihood of upselling.
We all get bombarded with Diwali promotional emails, right? But have you noticed how some just grab your attention more than others? That’s often because they’re localized. AI is now helping brands take email marketing to a whole new level, making each email feel like it’s meant just for you and around you.
Why It Works: AI can analyze past behaviors. locations and preferences to send the most relevant offers to everyone. It figures out when your customers are most likely to open emails and what types of content they engage with most.
Example: Zivame, an online lingerie brand, uses AI-driven hyperlocal email marketing to send personalized festive offers. During Diwali, they segmented their audience based on shopping habits and sent out targeted offers that resulted in a 20% increase in their click-through rate compared to generic email blasts.
AI-Powered Loyalty Programs to Increase Retention
It’s no secret that keeping customers is just as important as getting new ones, and Diwali is the perfect time to reward your loyal customers. But what if you could do it in a way that’s completely personalized, in real-time?
Why It Works: AI-driven loyalty programs allow brands to offer custom rewards based on each customer’s actions. They also enable real-time offers that feel timely and relevant, keeping customers coming back long after the festival is over.
Example:Starbucks has a highly successful AI-driven loyalty program. During Diwali, they offer special discounts on festive drinks and merchandise, but only to their loyalty program members. They also use AI to send personalized drink recommendations based on past purchases.
Super targeted Festive Ads
Let’s talk about digital ads. We’ve all seen them, and some feel like they’re speaking directly to us, while others? Not so much. The magic lies in hyper-targeting, and AI is making it easier than ever to serve the right ad to the right person at the right time.
Why It Works: AI-powered ad platforms analyze tons of data—what your customers are browsing, their past purchases, and even their online behavior—so you can target your Diwali ads with laser precision.
Example:Myntra, one of India’s biggest fashion e-commerce platforms, used AI-powered hyper-targeted ads to promote their Diwali sale in 2023. They analyzed browsing behavior and demographics to show relevant ads, like festive sarees or home décor, to specific segments of users. This strategy resulted in a significant boost in both engagement and sales.
Interactive AI-Driven Experiences to Boost Engagement
People love engaging with brands in fun, interactive ways, especially during festive seasons. AI lets you create those memorable, interactive experiences that keep customers engaged and entertained while nudging them toward a purchase.
Why It Works: AI-powered tools like AR filters or virtual try-ons make shopping more interactive and exciting. Plus, it’s a great way to add a little extra joy to the Diwali shopping experience.
Example:Lenskart uses an AI-powered virtual try-on feature for glasses. During the Diwali season, they promoted this feature heavily, allowing users to “try on” festive frames virtually before making a purchase. The feature led to higher engagement rates and a noticeable increase in conversions during the festive period.
AI is Shaping the Future of Diwali Marketing
AI is no longer just a buzzword; it’s changing how brands engage with customers during major festivals like Diwali. From personalized recommendations to real-time customer support and interactive shopping experiences, AI is helping brands deliver smarter, more meaningful marketing.
The brands that leverage AI during Diwali 2024 will not only boost their sales but also build stronger, more lasting relationships with their customers. In the end, it’s all about making the shopping experience as festive and personalized as the festival itself.
Final Thoughts
Diwali is a time of joy, excitement, and celebration. As marketers, it’s up to us to create that same festive spirit in the way we connect with our customers. AI offers us the tools to do that—whether through personalization, instant customer support, or interactive experiences. So, as we gear up for Diwali 2024, let’s embrace the power of AI to create marketing strategies that are not only effective but also meaningful.
On 18 September 2024, in New Delhi, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based Trademark Search Technology and IP Saarthi Chatbot were unveiled to the public by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry.
The search technology would enable faster clearance of trademark applications in a manner that is both more efficient and accurate, according to Goyal, who made this statement during the inaugural event. In addition to this, he expressed the expectation that the platform would be able to resolve trademark-related problems and said that the incorporation of official languages into the updated editions would establish this search module as a standard in the entire world. Speaking about the debut of the search module and the IP chatbot, the Minister mentioned that the quality of patent disposals will also increase.
He also mentioned that the government is trying to combine technologies based on artificial intelligence and machine learning to expedite the clearance of designs. Furthermore, the Minister emphasized that artificial intelligence tools that are controlled by the government should be compatible with devices that have all user interfaces and a variety of technological equipment to facilitate speedier adoption.
Elaborating on the benefits of AI-powered IP Chatbot, Rashmi Kulkarni, Co-founder & Director of IndoAI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. stated, “The AI-powered IP Chatbot introduced by Piyush Goyal offers several tangible benefits, particularly in simplifying the intellectual property (IP) management process. One of the key advantages is its ability to provide real-time assistance for common IP-related inquiries, helping users—especially startups, small businesses, and first-time applicants—navigate the often complex legal and administrative procedures of IP registration.”
“By offering 24/7 access to information, the chatbot eliminates the need for individuals to rely on human assistance during working hours, which can result in faster resolutions to queries and significantly reduce waiting times. The chatbot can guide users through trademark registration, patent filings, or copyright issues, thus enhancing the overall user experience,” she added further.
Adding further on that note, Dipal Dutta, CEO & Founder- RedoQ opined, “In India, a business or an individual had to wait two to three years after making a patent application to get a product registered. Such a long patenting period was detrimental to the businesses as it delayed the products’ entry into the market. Hopefully, the newly launched AI-powered trademark search module will expedite the process allowing the companies to register the products quickly. The new tool could be very handy, especially for startups and emerging businesses who do not always have large capital to sustain through the ideation phase.”
“The integration of the IP Saarthi Chatbot is also a practical solution for assistance with the IP registration system. The chatbot will help users, particularly those new to the process, understand the steps involved and avoid common pitfalls,” he explained further.
Steps Taken by the Government to Encourage Innovations
According to Goyal, the process of women submitting patent applications has undergone a significant alteration over the past ten years. According to the Minister, the decision to decrease the costs that are collected for patents by 80% for startups, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), women entrepreneurs, individuals, and academic institutions was made in order to promote innovators.
The Trade Connect e-Platform, the Jan Sunwai Portal, the ECGC’s new online service portal alongside a revamped in-house SMILE-ERP system, BHASKAR – the one-stop shop for everything a startup needs, and the Trademark Search technology today are the five technology-based services that were launched in a single week.
Deepak Syal, Director, GreyB Services stated, “Just as UPI took complex banking functions and put them in the hands of everyday people, this tool by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has simplified the intricate and often confusing world of IP law, making it accessible to everyone. When you take something as powerful as intellectual property—fueling innovation and creativity—and make it as easy to navigate as sending a text, you spark a revolution. This AI tool has simplified a system historically locked behind layers of bureaucracy and legalese. Now, both the solo entrepreneur running a startup in a Tier III city and the employee of a large organization in Bangalore can gain clarity on how to manage their ideas.”
“Like most legal matters, obtaining a trademark has always been complex and expensive. It needs time, money, and legal expertise. But now, technology offers a positive change. AI promises to make securing trademarks easier and faster,” opined Mahesh Maan, Data Scientist, GreyB Services
Goal of DPIIT
With the introduction of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)-based Trademark Search technology, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry intends to transform intellectual property management.
Key Features of New Technology
Advanced AI and ML algorithms for precise trademark identification
Streamlined search processes for domestic and international businesses
Enhanced protection capabilities for trademarks
This significant technological advancement demonstrates India’s commitment to developing an intellectual property environment that is strong, efficient, and user-friendly. This serves as a monument to the efforts that the government has made to streamline intellectual property procedures, which will be of advantage to inventors and policymakers on a worldwide scale.
Chatbots are a useful and convenient tool for businesses and organizations to communicate with their customers or users. They allow for efficient and immediate responses to inquiries and can even handle tasks and transactions automatically. Chatbots have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their ability to provide quick and efficient customer service, assist with tasks, and improve overall user experience.
Smart companies are integrating intelligent and interactive chatbots into their inbound marketing strategies. The artificial intelligence of interactive chatbots is revolutionizing the customer service experience. With interactive chatbots, companies can give quick responses to their customers. By adding a chatbot to your website or on Facebook, you can provide information to customers whenever they need it.
Chatbot marketing can be daunting, but with the help of chatbot platform tools, building and deploying a chatbot on your website and messaging applications are now quick and simple. In this blog, we will introduce some of the top AI chatbot tools available and discuss their key features, pricing, and limitations. Whether you’re a small business owner looking to improve customer service or a huge enterprise seeking to supercharge your marketing, there is a tool on this list for you.
Chatbots are, essentially, intelligent programs that are capable of having conversations with humans. They can help to steer your online prospects through the sales funnel with ease, right from initial discussions to final conversions. You can find these interactive chatbots in apps, online messaging platforms, and on websites.
Chatbots are created using a series of if-then statements programmed into a chatbot builder. It is not necessary to be a coding expert to build even the most complex chatbots.
How do Chatbot works?
Chatbots work by using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to understand and respond to user input. They are programmed with a set of rules and responses that allow them to understand and respond to specific keywords or phrases.
How chatbot works
When a user interacts with a chatbot, the bot will first analyze the user’s input to determine the intent behind the message. It will then match the intent with a predefined set of rules and responses, and provide a suitable response to the user. Whenever you customize a chatbot, there is a proper flow you build which is much similar to A/B testing.
The chatbot also uses machine learning to learn from user interactions and improve its understanding of language over time. It also accesses external data sources to provide more accurate responses to users.
10 Most Popular AI Chatbot Saas Tools
Here is a list of the most popular AI chatbot programs for your website and other platforms:
Chatfuel
Rating
4.3/5
Best for
Chatbot Platform for Messenger
Pricing Model
Per Feature
Free
Free Trial and Free Version
Chatfuel – Chatbot Platform for Facebook
Chatfuel was founded in 2015 to make bot-building easy for anyone. Today, it is the leading platform for building bots on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and websites. In fact, it is one of the most popular chatbot software brands around the globe. Chatfuel enables businesses to boost sales, craft personalized marketing campaigns, and automate customer support. Chatfuel’s clients range from small and medium businesses to the world’s most recognizable brands. Some of its largest customers include Adidas, TechCrunch, T-Mobile, LEGO, Golden State Warriors, and many others.
Features:
It is powered by artificial intelligence (AI), which allows you to automatically provide the answers to the most commonly asked questions by your customers.
You can hand over the conversation to a human agent in case your online bot isn’t able to answer the question appropriately.
It ensures that you never miss a chat with your customers and you can continue to provide them with the support they need.
In case you don’t have the time to create your online chatbot using Chatfuel’s software solution, their agency can help you create it too.
Pros:
Free templates
Free plan is available
Video tutorials are available
Integration with zapier, calendly, and stripe
Captures feedback
Analytics
Customizable chat widget
Cons:
Mobile app is not available
Poor documentation
Pricing:
This popular intelligent AI chatbot platform has a Trial Plan which is FREE for companies that are just starting. If you’re looking for advanced features, then their paid plans i.e. Entrepreneur, Startup, Small Business plan might be more suitable for you. Look at the pricing details of each plan below:
ChatBot helps you to create stunning chatbots with a drag-and-drop interface or apply a template and customize it as needed. You can design smooth conversational experiences to build better relationships with your customers and grow your business. With easy one-click integration, ChatBot can be used on various platforms and channels such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, LiveChat, WordPress, and more. This is also a useful tool for sending automated replies that will motivate people to talk and engage.
Features:
Delight your customers with intuitive menus, clickable elements, images, GIFs, and much more.
Segment users, validate answers, and organize data behind the scenes.
Customize the look and feel to match your brand style and website design.
Flexibly connect with third-party apps using webhooks and a fully open API.
Connect with more people across channels and platforms. Integrate with apps you use and love.
Keep chats natural with AI context management – chatbots will stay on topic and go with the flow of the conversation.
ChatBot Demo
Pros:
14-day free trial
Ready-to-use templates
Visual editor
Wide range of integration
Huge learning resources
Customizable chat widget
Reports and analytics
Cons:
Free plan is not available
Mobile app is available
Pricing:
ChatBot provides you with four pricing options – Starter, Team, Business, and Enterprise. Look at the pricing details of each plan below.
Plan
Pricing
Starter
$52/month billed annually or $65 month-to-month
Team
$142/month billed annually or $169 month-to-month
Business
$424/month billed annually or $499 month-to-month
Enterprise
Custom plans
IntelliTicks
Rating
4.6/5
Best for
AI-Powered Live Chat platform
Pricing Model
Per User
Free
Free Trial and Free Plan
IntelliTicks – AI-Powered Chatbot Saas Tools
Intelliticks is a powerful chatbot that offers businesses unparalleled insights into customer behavior. It has the ability to provide personalized recommendations to customers based on their individual preferences. It offers a wide range of analytics tools that allow businesses to track customer engagement over time. This includes detailed reports on customer behavior, as well as real-time analytics that provide a snapshot of customer engagement at any given moment.
Features:
Talk to your website visitors 24×7 even when your agents are sleeping.
Monitor automated chats and overtake if needed or if it is a HOT lead.
Let AI answer repeated queries from prospects.
Lead Prioritization by identifying who is a hot, warm, or cold lead in the live traffic.
Peek into the lead’s mind.
Easy to understand lead insights.
Integrate with your CRM – Get all your Leads & Conversation data directly in your favorite tools.
Analyze & Optimize – Get a detailed report on what converts visitors to leads.
Pros:
Free plan is available
Community support
Free trial plan on paid plan
Pre-built templates
Easy integration with CRM and zapier
Documentation and help center
Mobile app is available
Cons:
Limited customization
Multi-language support is not available
Pricing:
IntelliTicks has one Free Forever plan and three pricing options with advanced features including– Starter, Standard, and Plus. Look at the pricing details of each plan below.
Plan
Pricing
Free
$0 free forever
Starter
$20 per month, billed yearly or $25 per month, billed monthly
Standard
$80 per month, billed yearly or $99 per month, billed monthly
Plus
$240 per month, billed yearly or $299 per month, billed monthly
Zendesk Chat is a live chat platform that lets businesses provide real-time customer support across web, mobile, and messaging channels. Zendesk Chat includes live chat, conversation history, quantitative visitor tracking, analytics, and real-time data analysis. Reduce customer wait times by using skills-based routing to bring the right agent to the customer and allow chatbots to tackle common questions immediately. Use proactive triggers to rescue lost customers and increase conversions on your website. Automatically create tickets from each chat interaction by enabling chat with its help desk solution today.
Zendesk Chat can be integrated into any content management system, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Wix, and more. Zendesk Chat allows you to generate tickets automatically from every conversation.
Features:
Anticipate customer questions and offer help when—and where—they need it most with chat support.
Send targeted and behavior-based messages to customers.
Use pre-chat forms to ask visitors for their contact information before starting a chat, or offline forms to ensure customers can contact you even while you’re away.
Use chat ratings to gather feedback and continue to improve your performance.
Share any file with your customer—a screenshot, a product guide, even an animated GIF—and solve problems faster.
Integrate AI-powered bots into Chat using API.
Introduction to Zendesk Chat (for beginners)
Pros:
Free trial is available
Flow builder
Widget customization
Mobile app is available
Huge integration option
Advanced analytics and reporting
Community forum
Learning resources
Cons:
Same color code for all chats
Quite expensive
Pricing:
Zendesk chat offers a Free plan and three pricing plans including – Team, Professional, and Enterprise. Look at the pricing details of each plan below.
Plan
Annual Subscription
Monthly Subscription
Lite
$0
$0
Team
$14 per agent per month
$19 per agent per month
Professional
$29 per agent per month
$35 per agent per month
Enterprise
$59 per agent per month
$70 per agent per month
Botsify
Rating
4.4/5
Best For
AI-Enabled Live Chat Software
Pricing Model
Per Feature
Free
Book a Demo & Get a Free Trial
Botsify – Chatbot Saas Tools
Botsify is an AI-powered live chat system for businesses, allowing them to provide excellent customer service and boost sales. It supports text, audio, video, AR, and VR on all major messaging platforms. Botsify is a popular online AI chatbot platform that helps you create intelligent chatbots for your website as well as popular messaging channels like Facebook Messenger and Slack, without having to spend your time and effort in coding. The drag-and-drop interface makes it simple to design templates for your chatbot. Apple and Shazam are among the many big companies that use Botsify to create their chatbots.
Features:
Has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop UI.
Powered by AI and machine learning.
It allows you to seamlessly transfer the conversation from a bot to a human agent in situations where the bot might not be suitably equipped to help the customer.
Introduces conversation forms using which you can collect information about your leads through chatbot conversations.
Botsify offers multiple plugins to help you integrate it with your RSS Feed, Google Sheets, Shopify store, or Google search.
Pros:
100+ integration option
Multi-language support
14-day free trial is available
Chatbot builder
Lead Generation Conversational Forms
Omnichannel platform
Cons:
Free plan is not available
Poor support
Pricing:
Botsify offers three pricing plans including – “Do it yourself” plan, the “Done for you” plan, and the “Custom” plan. Look at the pricing details of each plan below.
ManyChat is a robust communication tool that helps businesses to automate conversations with customers.
It is a valuable tool for customer service, sales, and marketing. With its automation capabilities, targeted messaging, lead capture, e-commerce integration, and tracking features, it can be used for a variety of purposes. Its omnichannel nature will help to connect this tool with popular social media sites and e-commerce platforms.
Features:
Respond to buyers instantly on their phones, show them the products that fit them best, and get them to buy—all inside of Facebook Messenger or on your website.
Guide product selection and complete sales transactions, all within Messenger.
Connect with Shopify and recover lost sales.
Leverage social media conversations and customer responses to promote products and send coupons.
Use the E-commerce dashboard, which automatically pulls metrics from Shopify, to understand what converts best, and track earnings, average revenue, purchases per buyer, and unique buyers.
Intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
Pros:
Free plan is available
Integration with Hubspot, MailChimp, Shopify, and more
Easy to use
Video tutorials are available
Flow builder
Provide free training
Cons:
Lack of better documentation
Poor customer support
Pricing:
ManyChat offers two plans – Free and Pro Plan. Look at the pricing details of the Pro plan below.
Plan
Pricing
Free
$0 per month
Pro
$15 per month
Tawk.to
Rating
4.6/5
Best For
Free Live Chat Tool
Free
Completely Free
Tawk.to – Chatbot Saas Tools
Tawk.to is a free live chat app that lets you monitor and chat with visitors on your website or from a free customizable page. More than 250000 companies use this chatbot tool to provide real-time support and service to their customers. Tawk.to is the most popular chat tool in the world and holds an impressive 98% customer satisfaction rating. Keep in contact with customers through live chat, track incidents with a built-in ticketing system, and put together an easy-to-use help center – all at no cost. Never lose another lead or sale again, with Tawk.to you can monitor and chat with your website visitors when they need it most.
How to install and get started with Live Chat App Tawk.to
Features:
Real-Time Monitoring
Native Mobile Apps
Automated Triggers
Customizable Widgets
Ticketing Built-in
Remove Branding
Canned Shortcuts
100+ Integrations
Pros:
Knowledge base is available
45+ language supported
Detailed analytic and reporting
Easy to set up
Free forever
Mobile app is available
User-friendly interface
Cons:
Notifications are inconsistent
Pricing:
The Tawk.to app iscompletely free.
Freshchat
Rating
4.4/5
Best For
AI-Powered Live Chat Software
Pricing Model
Flat Rate
Free
Free Trial and Free Version
Freshchat Analytics
Freshchat is the customer engagement tool offered by one of the most popular helpdesk service providers. Bringing together artificial and human intelligence across messaging channels, this is a powerful chatbot that is already used by more than 50,000 businesses worldwide. Businesses are leveraging the power of this chatbot to streamline their workflow and provide satisfactory customer experience. It empowers businesses to easily access customer information and provide personalized support, regardless of the channel or device being used.
Features offered by Freshchat
Chatbot is easy to build without any prior knowledge of coding.
Customers can resolve their issues on their own by leveraging the chatbot AI.
Pre-built templates are available to fast-forward the process of powerful bot creation.
You can customize the appearance and behavior of the chat widgets to match your brand and website.
Mobile-first approach makes it easy for businesses to connect with customers on the go.
It seamlessly integrates with a wide range of business tools, such as CRM systems, help desks, and e-commerce platforms.
Detailed analytics on customer engagement, such as conversation history, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Pros:
21-day free trial
Mobile app is available to chat with customers anywhere, anytime
User-friendly interface
Excellent customer support
Multilingual support in 54 languages
Easy integration
Email and push notifications
Cons:
Extra features at additional cost
Slow response time
Pricing:
Freshchat offers one Free plan and three pricing plans including – the “Growth” plan, the “Pro” plan, and the “Enterprise” plan. Look at the pricing details of each plan below.
Plan
Annual Plan Price
Monthly Plan Price
Growth
₹999/agent/month, billed annually
₹1199/agent/month, billed monthly
Pro
₹2799/agent/month, billed annually
₹3399/agent/month, billed monthly
Enterprise
₹4999/agent/month, billed annually
₹5999/agent/month, billed monthly
Intercom
Rating
4.5/5
Best For
Custom Chatbot for for Quick Responses
Pricing Model
Per Feature
Free
Free Trial
Intercom – Best Chatbot Software
Intercom is a customer communication platform that allows businesses to connect with their customers through various channels, including email, live chat, and social media. It is developed and maintained by Intercom Inc, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2011. More than 25,000 businesses are using this tool to manage and support customers. Hostinger, one of the most reputed hosting providers uses this tool to serve its customers.
Features offered by Intercom
Businesses can create personalized, automated messages that are triggered by specific events or customer behaviors.
Its live chat and messaging feature allow businesses to connect with customers in real-time.
Lead generation tools help businesses to capture lead information from their website, such as name and email address, and automatically add them to their contact list.
It helps to gather valuable insights about their customers’ experiences and preferences.
It seamlessly integrates with a wide range of popular tools, such as Salesforce, Slack, and Mailchimp. This allows businesses to streamline their workflow.
Easy to customize the bot that asks the right questions at the right place.
Help Center articles that help the customers with repetitive questions and significantly reduce the workload from your employee.
Pros:
Free trial for small businesses
Interactive interface
Mobile app is available
Wide range of integration options
Huge Learning resources are available
Account-based marketing
Good customer support
Cons:
Price is not disclosed for the business plan
Initial setup is complex
Pricing:
Intercom offers custom pricing plans, you can contact the vendor for details.
Tidio
Rating
4.8/5
Best For
Easiest To Use in Chatbots software
Pricing Model
Flat Rate
Free
Free Trial and Free Version
Tidio – Easy-to-Use Chatbot Software
Tidio is a powerful communication tool that offers you a comprehensive and easy-to-use solution for connecting with your customers and audience. It seamlessly integrates with a wide range of popular platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, and Magento. You can easily connect with your customers and audience via live chat, email, or messenger, without leaving the platform. It provides you with detailed insights into your customer behavior and preferences. These insights will help you to improve your marketing and sales strategies.
Features offered by Tidio
Chat widget that allows businesses to connect with their customers and audience in real-time.
Automated responses to common customer queries that reduce response time and improve efficiency.
Easy to customize the appearance of the live chat widget to match the brand identity.
chatbot builder to create custom chatbots to assist customers with their queries.
You can create and send email campaigns to your target audience directly from the Tidio platform.
It supports multiple languages which makes it an ideal choice for businesses with a global audience.
Advanced AI that recommends the products to users based on their interaction.
Smart ticketing system to solve the customer’s query quickly.
Pros:
Easy installation
Free plan is available
Customer Satisfaction Management
Robust analytics
Easy customization
Blog post to learn
Mobile app is available
Cons:
Limited integration feature
100 unique visitors are limited in the free plan
Pricing:
Tidio offers one Free plan and three pricing plans including – the “Communicator” plan, the “Chatbots” plan, and the “Tidio+” plan. Look at the pricing details of each plan below.
Plan
Annual Plan Price
Monthly Plan Price
Communicator
15.83 USD per month
19 USD per month
Chatbots
32.50 USD per month
39 USD per month
Tidio+
240.83 USD per month
289 USD per month
Conclusion
Interactive chatbots can help you engage with your customers in a better and more personalized way. You can broadcast your offers and other marketing messages easily. They can also help you provide quick and efficient customer service. The best part is you can deploy interactive chatbots on websites, apps, as well as other social media platforms.
The software solutions mentioned above are some of the top AI chatbot platforms in the business. So, choose the one you like the best to build your own interactive chatbot.
A chatbot is computer software used to automatically generate messages to the queries of customers in a messaging app. As customers want 24/7/365 service, so it is an advanced way of communicating with humans via machine.
What are some popular Chatbots in 2023?
Some of the popular Chatbots tools in 2023 are as follows:-
Chatfuel
Chatbot
IntelliTicks
Zendesk Chat
Botsify
ManyChat
Tawk.to
Which are the best free Chatbot tools?
The best free chatbot tools are as follows:-
Chatfuel
ManyChat
Botsify
MobileMonkey
Flow XO
Pandorabots
Aivo
DialogFlow
Is Chatbot an AI tool?
Yes, chatbots are often powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and are able to mimic human conversation and perform tasks automatically.
What are the benefits of Chatbots for Customers?
The benefits of Chatbots for Customers are as follows:-
Chatbot provides 24/7/365 service.
The customer receives an instant reply to their queries.
Customers can take a screenshot of the message whenever they want in order to claim if they won’t avail of the service.
Users have the flexibility to choose the language in which they want to initiate the conversation.
What are the benefits of Chatbots for Companies?
The benefits of Chatbots for companies are as follows:-
Chatbots boost sales because of their instant and 24/7/365 service.
A chatbot is considered a way to reach out to new customers because of its active presence.
It helps the companies in saving the cost that is required to maintain customer service. Though the installation of a chatbot requires an investment cost, it is less compared to a customer service salary.
Chatbot increases operational efficiency as it reacts faster to the customers’ inquiries on behalf of the company.
Can chatbot tools handle multiple languages?
Many chatbot tools offer support for multiple languages, including Dialogflow, Botpress, and Pandorabots. However, it’s important to check the specific language capabilities of the tool you’re considering to make sure it meets your needs.
Can chatbot tools integrate with other tools and services?
Many chatbot tools offer integrations with other tools and services, such as CRM systems, marketing platforms, and payment processors. It’s worth checking the available integrations of the chatbot tool you’re considering to see if it meets your needs.
In order to flourish in your industry, you have to build your communication skills as strong as possible, which will result in generating more leads and constructing effective marketing.
As is the case, communication is considered the most promising key for directing a business and increasing your customer base. We know person-to-person selling has been a prevalent method of marketing in the olden days.
But, in some or another way, marketers are propelled to change their strategy to e-commerce in the case of dealing with customers electronically without the need of in-person conversation.
However, the adoption of online-based life is not well-accepted in some cases, whereby few small-scale businesses still lack in reaching out their products & services electronically. That’s why live chat service software has been introduced to e-commerce, which enables your business and your potential customers to chat in real-time.
One of the nifty tools to augment your leads will be easily done by using ‘Live chat software in your business by connecting with potential customers.
Furthermore, developing Live chat services in your e-commerce would benefit timely response to the customer, eliminate language barriers, increase accessibility and conversion, and gain insights into customer behavior. The list of top 19 Live chat software available for an e-commerce website is given below:
LiveAgent is one of the leading cloud-based solutions for live chat and help desk software. LiveAgent allows the one-place integration for live chat, email, and social media handles. The customer can set up email ticketing, live chat along with video chat, and time tracking call center all easily by the use of LiveAgent.
Key Features
Automatic chat translation facility.
Call back scheduling with the feature of call recording.
Visitor tracking and live chat tracking on Google Analytics.
Agent ranking for better control over team and user interface.
Multi-channel communication with data import and export facility.
Pros
The software is much simpler to use and implicate irrespective of the team size.
Features can be customized and tailored as per the users need.
Cons
Mobile app integration can be improved.
LiveChat
Name
LiveChat
Founded
2002
Rating
4.4
Free Trial Period
14 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $20/month
Website
www.livechat.com
LiveChat
LiveChat is considered the best tool for every ilk of e-businesses from engaging with customers through real-time chatbots. This software is designed for e-commerce stores, where providing customer services through phone calls and email are time-consuming process plus takes a slow responsive effect from both sides.
That’s why Livechat has been launched in 2002 with an aim to bestow a chatbot platform, live customer support, and help desk platform for e-commerce.. It is integrated with popular CRM software like Hubspot, Mailchimp, and google analytics. This integration serves in filling up the customer’s required details automatically.
Key Features
Allows the facility of targeted messages.
Provides better security encryption and data storage.
Is made from 200+ integrations for easy workflow.
Capture leads and makes buying easy.
Automation is included.
Pros
Provides excellent analytics and reporting setup.
Has a very easy and simple-to-use user interface.
Cons
The software can be quite costly for small business owners.
Intercom allows the live chat platform that can help the clients to convert their visitors into customers. It is a specialized platform for offering business chats with over 600 million users on several companies.
Intercom is a private company founded in 2011 by Karen Peacock. Moreover, it was noticed that over twenty-five thousand companies used Intercom to communicate with their prospects.
Key Features
Automation is included.
Chat histories are saved, which creates ease for visitors and agents too.
Intercom emails can be used as templates directly.
Helps in the later stages of business, since it has other major functions other than Live chat.
Proactive support.
Pros
Intercom allows the easy integration of different apps on its system.
Provides easy access for chat customization.
Cons
Has a non-flexible pricing model.
ChatBot
Name
ChatBot
Founded
2017
Rating
4.7
Free Trial Period
14 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $52/month
Website
www.chatbot.com
ChatBot Home Page
ChatBot comes with an easy installation method. It is easy to personalize and use because of the drag-and-drop feature. ChatBot also comes with ready-to-use templates that are very easy to use.
Templates make it easy to design a work pattern and highlight focus areas. Templates such as lead generation, e-commerce bot templates, restaurant templates, offline form templates, universal templates, etc. are available for use on ChatBot.
Key Features
Chatbots can be built without the required knowledge of coding.
Creates customer user list.
Multiple flows at the same time.
Chatbot Testing Tools.
Customizable chat Widget.
Pros
Chatbots can easily be integrated with multiple platforms like Amazon, social media sites, Microsoft, etc.
Provides good customer service.
Cons
Has a competitive pricing when compared to other software with similar services.
Sendinblue software is originally known for its popular email-marketing services but recently another feature of live chat support has been added on its site.
One can set up a chat box through their account of Sendinblue software and attach it to the required website. Sendinblue serves as both, a live chat solution and a toolkit for a complete marketing package.
Key Features
Communication through Email, SMS, and inbox.
Provides multichannel marketing.
Email Marketing.
SMS marketing.
Marketing Automation.
Pros
The login process is much simple and also doesn’t require any credit card information.
It is a versatile platform that is beneficial for all sizes of businesses.
Cons
A number of features provided by Sendinblue are too big. Hence, it might seem complicated during the initial use.
Chaport
Name
Chaport
Founded
2014
Rating
4.7
Free Trial Period
A Free Plan and 14 Days Free Trial on Purchased Plans
Pricing
Paid plans start from $19/month
Website
www.chaport.com
Chaport
Chaport software mainly supports WordPress. They offer free forever plans with unlimited chat history, notifications, registrations, etc. Apart from free plans, they have premium and membership plans.
This provides an edge and various other features such as typing insights, visitor notes, saved replies that can be forwarded, and auto-invitations.
In free plans, only five operators can work at a time but with a premium plan, this exceeds. This could be a great platform for small and young websites because of its free plans.
Key Features
Operator Productivity.
Captures Visitor’s Information.
Provides reports such as basic reports, google analytics, On-demand reports, etc.
General features such as chat history, SSL encryption, GDPR compliance, etc.
Pros
Comes with a free plan for users that one can try before purchasing the premium version.
It facilitates easy synchronization between multiple devices.
Cons
Chaport is not compatible with chatbots.
Olark
Name
Olark
Founded
2008
Rating
4.3
Free Trial Period
14 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $29/month
Website
www.olark.com
Olark
Olark has simple, functional live chat features to help with higher sales, more leads, and better services. It helps in applying live chat insights and leveraging customer input to optimize provided products and services.
Key Features
Organizes customer data.
Offline Messages.
Customs pre-chat forms.
Real-Time Engagement.
Reporting.
Pros
Provides easy access to the client’s approximate locations.
It allows the user to create their own path for customization in order to have a quick response.
Cons
A few features are still missing from it as compared to its competitors.
ProProfs Chat
Name
ProProfs Chat
Founded
2007
Rating
4.5
Free Trial Period
15 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $29.99/month
Website
www.proprofschat.com
ProProfs Chat
ProProfs provides a complete personalization of live chat solutions as per the approaching requirements of a brand. It also integrates the live chat solution as per the graphics of the brand and its logo.
The perk of considering ProProfs Chat is their 24/7 tech support and the availability of ready-made templates which make it easier to use and implement changes.
Key Features
Chat Automation is provided.
Design live chat that suits the brand.
100+ Settings and Integrations.
Reports and Analytics.
Pros
ProProfs chat has an interconnected network through which operators can contact other operators when in need.
It is compatible with multiple devices like Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhones and Android.
Cons
A few features have glitched in them.
Zendesk
Name
Zendesk
Founded
2007
Rating
4.0
Free Trial Period
30 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $49/month
Website
www.zendesk.com
Zendesk
Zendesk is a cloud-based technical support management system that provides customized capabilities to create online communities, knowledge bases, and customer care portals.
It offers a wide range of services for large to small-scale businesses, government, media, and many more. Zendesk platform allows easy integration of all customer interactions into a single screen for better understanding.
Key Features
Stays connected on any channel.
Manage all your customer conversations from one place.
Reach out in real time with proactive engagement.
Enable 24/7 support with automation.
Adds Customization according to Brand.
Pros
It is a combination of help desk software and CRM software.
Can support a large number of clients.
Cons
For new users, learning Zendesk might take some additional period of time.
Zoho Desk
Name
Zoho Desk
Founded
1996
Rating
4.0
Free Trial Period
15 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $16/month
Website
www.zoho.com
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk enables businesses to inbuilt a live chat widget that pops up as soon as a user opens the webpage. Zoho Desk is highly recommended due to its different features such as receiving customer experience ratings within the chat window along with canned responses. It also enables chat widgets for each of the available brands.
Key Features
Multi-Channel Communication.
Third-Party Integrations.
Feedback Management, both positive and negative.
Performance Metrics along with Proactive chat.
Pros
It is a feature-rich platform.
Provides easy integration with Zoho services in order to increase workflow ability.
Cons
Does not have a desktop application to use.
Tidio
Name
Tidio
Founded
2013
Rating
4.0
Free Trial Period
30 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $15.83/month
Website
www.tidio.com
Tidio
Tidio is a live chat software that connects your potential customers in minutes and turns them into leads by solving timely queries and rendering customer services effectively. Tidio is one of the top-most used live chat apps on the Shopify store with the highest ratings.
Tidio automatically qualifies leads and gathers visitors’ emails and phone numbers regarding the sales team. Yet, Tidio is considered to have limited native integrations, and its analytics are counted as basic.
Key Features
Measures Users’ time on the page.
Has a Sales monitoring dashboard.
Gives Welcome message plus information about discounts.
Third-party Integration.
Automation.
Pros
Allows easy communication between customers and the company in real-time frame with the addition of needed widgets.
Has a collection of chatbots for customers to select and customize as per their website.
Cons
It does not allow users to manage their client chats by Whatsapp, Instagram, or Twitter.
ChatSupport
Name
ChatSupport
Founded
2018
Rating
4.3
Free Trial Period
30 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $19/month
Website
www.chatsupport.co
ChatSupport Home Page
ChatSupport works by allowing the addition of a chat prompt to the needed website page. The addition of chat prompt on a website is done in a way relevant to the page they are added on.
Key Features include lead capture, even when offline, to gather essential visitor details. It personalizes the chat widget to match the brand. It also has a feedback survey form prepared for its customers.
Key Features
24/7 lead capture.
Uses a simple way to gather visitors’ information.
Live Visitors Queue.
The dashboard organizes the overview into leads, visitors, and customers.
Pros
Provides one month of free services to the clients.
Allows the easy response to multiple visitors at the same time.
Cons
Few of the features can be unlocked only after purchasing paid plans.
Effects of Live Chat option on Visitors
Comm100 Live Chat
Name
Comm100
Founded
2009
Rating
4.2
Free Trial Period
15 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $29/month
Website
www.comm100.com
Comm100
Comm100 was launched in 2009 under the business model of SaaS (Software as a Service). Comm100 promotes businesses to easily communicate with their website visitors on time to avail better customer satisfaction. The features fall into three verticals: web chat window, operator console, and control panel.
Key Features
Online Chat.
Web Traffic Monitoring.
Auto Chat Invitation Rules.
Reports and Analysis.
Pros
The platform is easy to use with an excellent user interface.
It is a feature-rich platform.
Cons
The platform somewhere lacks providing customization options for the agent console.
Gorgias
Name
Gorgias
Founded
2015
Rating
4.6
Free Trial Period
7 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $10/month
Website
www.gorgias.com
Gorgias
Gorgias was founded by Alex Plugaru in 2016 with the aim to develop top-notch customer service and building multi-channel helpdesk software. Gorgias is an all-in-one customer service, that renders all kinds of tools that would help in generating leads for e-commerce stores, which enable merchants to manage all their supports and features from one place.
Key Features
Creation of automated response.
Faster response.
Switch from chats to other channels.
Set individual agent.
Customize replies.
Pros
Has excellent customer service support.
Allows seamless integration with multiple e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.
Cons
The software is more suitable for medium size businesses only.
DelightChat
Name
DelightChat
Founded
2020
Rating
4.4
Free Trial Period
14 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $49/month
Website
www.delightchat.io
DelightChat
Delight Chat is an Indian-based software, that was launched by Preetam and Sankalp in 2020, with the intent to help out customers through an easy communication system.
As this idea strike out their mind when they both worked in the e-commerce industry in which both of them couldn’t tackle customers’ problems, and found it difficult to contact and clear out each customer’s problems personally. That’s where they planned to start to build omnichannel customer services for D2C e-commerce businesses.
Key Features
Edit to activate the live chat.
Set Live Chat availability for your store.
Setup Business hours.
Track potential customers on the LiveChat dashboard.
Pros
Has a feature of automation and a self-service widget to help in reducing repetitive queries.
Provides the facility of connecting unlimited users with Shopify.
Cons
The platform is easily integrated with Shopify only. Other platforms are not yet made available.
Tawk.to
Name
Tawk.to
Founded
2012
Rating
5
Free Trial Period
Unlimited
Pricing
Free
Website
www.tawk.to
Tawk.to
Tawk.to is one of the best software that is suitable for all e-commerce, which renders customer service at a free cost. From small-scale to large-scale e-commerce can sign up for free and enjoy various features of Tawk.to.
Key Features
One-minute setup.
Chat in real-time setup.
Track your chatbot progress.
Respond quickly with shortcuts.
Pros
It is a completely free platform with no hidden prices.
It allows the users with essential tools to implement the tasks in a better way.
Cons
The platform can be quite tricky for first-time users.
JivoChat
Name
JivoChat
Founded
2012
Rating
4.8
Free Trial Period
14 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $19/month
Website
www.jivochat.com
JivoChat
JivoChat is one of the coolest software that enables live chats with customers. It allows easy communication with users from all over the world via chat, phone calls, email, Facebook, and many more.
Key Features
Get detailed visitor information.
Set up automatic triggers.
Monitor visitors in real-time.
Receive quality of service reviews.
Offer offline contact form.
Pros
Enables multi-language support for the client and visitors.
Allows easy integration for Chatbots.
Cons
A few features can still be added.
FreshChat
Name
FreshChat
Founded
2010
Rating
4.4
Free Trial Period
21 Days
Pricing
Paid plans start from $15/month
Website
www.freshworks.com
FreshChat
FreshChat has over fifty thousand users around the world, giving access to all channels including emails, in-app chats, WhatsApp, and iMessage. Freshchat is a modern messaging platform that enables live chat solutions on websites a cost-effective prices.
Key Features
Access all messages in one click.
Customer services are provided instantly.
Affordable problem solver for all users’ queries.
Helps in keeping track of the team’s performances.
Pros
It can be easily used by non-technical people too.
Enables the users to take the help of an omnichannel facility.
Cons
Enables integrations with a limited number of users only.
Chatra is a useful, simple-to-use chat engine for websites that enables your consumers to reach you even though you’re not online or partake in live chat with you so you can assist them in making purchases and responding to their inquiries instantly.
Key Features
Conversations history is up-to-date.
Group chats.
Intelligent chat distribution.
Unlimited Chat review.
No typos or nameless users’ contact.
Pros
Offers a free plan for an unlimited time period.
Enables easy integration with Google Analytics, Slack, etc.
Cons
Does not provide a ticketing system like its competitors.
Conclusion
Live chat solutions in e-commerce provide a better user experience and are one of the essential components of e-commerce marketing. Many firms have already taken use of live chat applications to improve their service.
For the same purpose, many direct-to-use live chat applications are available in the market to take help. The above-given list contains the top 19 live chat applications for e-commerce businesses.
FAQs
What is the best live chat software for a website?
Some of the best live chat software for websites are Tidio, LiveChat, Intercom, LiveAgent, etc.
Is live chat a CRM?
CRM is known to store customer data. Live chat works in integration with a CRM in order to have better customer management. Live chat and CRM are two different tools used in coordination.
What is live chat e-commerce?
Live chat e-commerce is basically a chat window that appears on the e-commerce site that enables the visitors to have a direct conversation with the brand.
What is the best chat plugin?
Some of the best chat plugins are Zendesk, Olark, Pure Chat, Formilla, etc.
Have you come across the new user-friendly conversational app, Landbot, which is considered to be the best chatbot for business in order to drive customers. In other words, Landbot is the best tool for a business to have no-coding conversations with customers at every stage of their journey.
Moreover, Landbot generating leads to the business that ultimately improves Conversion rate by interfacing your landing pages, establishing workflows as well as creating affiliate relationships between Business and Customers without coding.
Landbot is a natural evolution of chatbot, connecting customers in real-time by deploying conversations on Whatsapp, Web, or messenger, with its ingenious custom design in a single interface.
Landbot is a for-profit organization, founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, that aids as a navigation tool to customers through building interactive texting. This helps a business to generate leads as well as sales turnover by optimizing Landbot.
Landbot is an evolution of chatbot, which helps your business to generate leads by building a no-coding solution conversation as it guides the user throughout the customer journey. It decimates the confusion of customers on the question ‘What to do next?’, as Landbot plays as a navigation/chatbot tool.
Optimizing Landbot on your website will make your targeted customer take Call to Action (CTA), Click-to-call, or instantaneous responses that eventually end up in the sales funnel. Landbot is known for various no-coding formats such as Landing pages, site embed pop-ups, and website widgets.
How Does Landbot Work?
Create your Landbot account
Pre-build your chatbot by launching your product, and deploying templates that entice visitors to come in. Furthermore, captivating leads to your business by navigating them to take action forthwith.
Create your own Business workflow
Business exists to accomplish something, so set your goals in an instructive way. For instance, the most innovative and simple way to entice visitors to your website is ‘Build brick templates’ as it shows the whereabouts of your business in a single interface.
Conversion process builds personality
Marketing strategy plays a vital role during the conversion part, as visitors get interested only if the other side’s conversation sounds compulsive, so use emojis and Gifs.
Interlink Your LandBot with Google Analytics
Setting Google Analytics largely helps to track your insights.
Create a Landing page
By adding code, your landing page is all set and ready for a conversation to generate leads.
It is a lead generation landing page that is familiar and well-tested. Lead generation landing pages are pages that collect personal information and establish the first point of contact between businesses and potential customers. It features a copy, form fields, and a call to action.
Conversational Landing Page
It is a new kind of lead generation landing page that features a chatbox for conveying the copy, collecting data, and starting a conversation.
Landbot Review
Landbot is the best chatbot out there with an intuitive interface, a preview option to test the chatbot in the interface itself, and a great customer support system if you ever get stuck while trying to make a good chatbot.
Landbot provides the ultimate need of businesses, an ultimate highly engaging chatbot that guides its potential customers in a certain way. Landbot stands out among its competitors because of its Whatsapp integration feature as this isn’t offered by many other chatbot software companies.
And the fact that a company doesn’t need to spend months coding to create a chatbot is an attractive advantage. The no-code required to create a chatbot offered by Landbot has made chatbot cheap and easy to build. Thus making Landbot the perfect option for chatbots.
If you are a Business concern looking for a chatbot that creates high engagement with your potential customers but also is cheap and makes building a chatbot easy, you should definitely go for Landbot. And the Whatsapp integration feature is undoubtedly a welcoming aspect since Whatsapp is used by almost everyone worldwide and is a favourable form of communication.
FAQs
What is Landbot?
Landbot is a chatbot software for websites. It helps in making websites more engaging through highly interactive chatbots. It is considered to be the most intuitive no-code chatbox builder.
What are the types of landing pages on Landbot?
There are two types of landing pages on Landbot: Static landing Page and conversational landing page
What are the subscription offers of Landbot?
Landbot offers four main plans and a Whatsapp add-on feature with two main plans.
Sandbox: This plan is free.
Starter: This plan is offered €30 per month.
Professional: The professional plan is offered at €80 per month.
Business: The business plan has custom pricing.
Whatsapp Add-On for Pro and Business Plans: It is offered at €70 per month.
This article is contributed by Sumit Gupta, Founder – Whizard API (Whatsapp Business Solutions).
The meager mention of social media marketing rings the bell of the names of our preferred apps. However, in this era of instant messaging, what often goes unnoticed is that WhatsApp can be an equally beneficial marketing platform. As per Statista, with a global monthly user base of 2 billion, WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging apps outranking Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat. This is one of the major reasons why WhatsApp marketing is gradually gaining prominence amongst businesses as an innovative route to reach their customers!
WhatsApp Marketing: The new fad
Customers across age groups prefer chatting over voice calls especially for connecting with businesses and their query resolution. According to a joint study conducted by Nielsen with a leading conversation media marketing platform, young Indian customers specifically prefer chatting over audio and video calling. Half of the respondents (50%) surveyed shared that chatting over messaging apps is easy and fun to communicate. As per Outgrow’s survey, 69% of consumers at the global level prefer chatbots because they provide quick and simple responses to their queries. 56% of users prefer chatbots for query resolution rather than calling customer support.
As per industry estimates, the engagement rate of WhatsApp is over 70% and an open rate of approximately 97-99%. These stats are indicative of the fact that WhatsApp is the most widely used and preferred messaging platform amongst customers. They trust brands with chat apps and chatbots all the more and would be inclined towards purchasing from the brands that reach them via chats. Businesses are thus considering WhatsApp Marketing via the assistance of WhatsApp chatbots as the new-age marketing strategy for promoting their offerings as well as for seamless and effective communication with their customer base.
Benefits of WhatsApp Marketing for businesses
Tapping customers across geographies
Whatsapp Marketing for Tapping Customers Across Geographies
The concept of WhatsApp Marketing works with a chat marketing principle and a customer-centric strategy. It helps businesses to scale their venture and have a robust digital presence thereby empowering them to connect seamlessly with their customers spread across urban as well as rural areas. To ensure this, they are adopting multilingual WhatsApp chatbots that enable ease of communication and allow businesses to reach linguistically and culturally diverse target audiences effectively.
Customer-centric approach
For businesses, ‘the customer is the king’. WhatsApp Marketing works with a customer-centric approach and helps businesses take decisions and operate keeping their preferences, demands, and behaviors into consideration. Contrary to the notion that WhatsApp Marketing is intrusive, it is in fact one of the best permission-based marketing channels where customers possess the power to share the contact number or refuse the offer!
Personalized experiences
The messaging app provides a plethora of opportunities for the personalization of messaging experiences. The WhatsApp chatbots offer personalized experiences to the customers by capturing data and offering smooth automated conversations. This ensures that the customers are satisfied, happy and engaged. This also allows businesses to expand their customer reach and enjoy a competitive edge in the market.
Fostering valuable relationships with customers
Leveraging the power of WhatsApp chatbots, WhatsApp Marketing helps build deeper connections with the customer base. The valuable connections with the customers eventually help reduce operational costs for businesses since customer retention is perceived to be financially feasible as compared to acquisition.
A diverse set of features
The app comes with a diverse set of features. WhatsApp broadcast and group allowing businesses to share a variety of content including brochures, catalogs, and videos to 256 people at once, status sharing along with audio and video calling; all of these features can be leveraged to reach out to the existing customer base as well as tap the potential customers. WhatsApp Business API’s integration with chatbots is also being used for facilitating effective customer interaction with their automation, speech recognition, and image recognition features.
The bots manage multiple customer queries in real-time and allow live interaction experiences to the customers helping in instant resolution of their queries. They allow seamless online payments as well by facilitating integrations with third-party payment gateways.
The transition from notification-based to conversation-based model
WhatsApp will soon be transitioning from a notification-based model to a conversation-based pricing model and will also be introducing new features. These innovations will further help in fostering meaningful conversations between businesses and customers.
On the whole, it would be appropriate to say that WhatsApp Marketing allows businesses to offer superior customer experiences. This further paves the way for customer satisfaction and loyalty. Once the customers are engaged and happy, they tend to stick around for long. This customer satisfaction and retention eventually carve the path for greater conversions and boosted sales.
Businesses, in order to have a competitive edge, need to adopt new-age marketing strategies. WhatsApp is popular amongst the customers and is preferred for communication with brands and query resolution. With the right tools in place, the marketing capabilities of the most popular instant messaging app can be enhanced significantly. Due to the growing prominence of the messaging app, WhatsApp Marketing is thus emerging to be the ideal solution for businesses to connect and engage with their customers!
The internet has empowered customer expectations and the boom in the service industry has to bring new tech-based applications to meet them. Conversational AI is a cost-efficient solution for all businesses to enhance customer service. For all businesses, from small-to-medium businesses to large enterprises, it reduces the staffing cost in the customer service department and improves customer satisfaction. AI-based solutions better understand the customers and offer relevant content that’s tailored to their personality. It helps in customized marketing to drive conversion.
Verloop.io is a Conversational AI platform to automate customer support. Here are the insights into the idea behind starting Verloop.ai and the growth strategy they have adopted for making it successful.
The insights are shared by Mr. Gaurav Singh, CEO & Founder, Verloop.io.
Why did you decide to go with the idea of chatbot?
At Verloop.io, we wanted to answer the fundamental question companies were asking at that time – how they could increase their profitability by providing better customer support. We realized that customer support as a category had been underserved by technology. While there were various tools available for marketing and sales, this segment was not getting the attention it deserved. Additionally, the technology developed for Customer Support till that time was mostly internal-facing/ process optimization – ticketing, QA sampling, etc. None of them enabled brands to build delightful customer experiences. We strongly believed that we could add value to the partner brands and help them offer a superlative experience to their customers.
Seven Years, How has been the journey so far? One big challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?
It has been an interesting journey for us so far to become the world’s leading customer support automation platform that enables businesses to deliver delightful support experiences to their customers across channels. During this time, we helped brands to effortlessly, and accurately scale up their customer support in a secure manner. More than 5,000 brands globally, including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Nykaa, Decathlon, Dar Al Arkan, Fetchr, DSP Mutual Fund, Rentomojo, and Scripbox are using our platform. Currently, our messaging layer can handle over 100k concurrent connections and can process over 4.3 million messages per second. We started our journey with just handful of employees and today our team has over 110 members.
One big challenge that we faced when we were starting out was that at that time, the awareness around Conversational AI enabling customer support teams was very limited. Most brands were unaware of Conversational AI and perceived it as a simple FAQ answering chatbots. Therefore, we had to build awareness and show them the value that we offered so that they understand the difference between Conversational AI and a simple FAQ or IVR bot.
How did you go about finding your first customer and product-market fit?
Like they say, finding our first customer is the most challenging. More than customers these also become your design partners and give critical feedback to shape the product in a way that the market does respond to. On our journey, we were blessed to have some great brands that gave us multiple inputs and validated our product features that helped us achieve PMF.
What are the different channels you use to generate leads? Please share any one growth hack which gives the most ROI?
We have a multichannel marketing campaign running that ensures we are able to have multiple touchpoints in our potential user’s journey. We run campaigns right from the top of the funnel (awareness) to the bottom of the funnel and even post-acquisition.
One growth hacks is to identify who truly is your audience is when it comes to generating leads.
Approaching enterprise clients, SMEs, and startups, requires a whole different strategy. Could you please share some tips for the same?
As you have mentioned, these are very different customers, and the buying process also differs. We have different playbooks across Product, Marketing & Sales for these. Our enterprise playbook is heavily relationship and outbound dependent while for the SME and startups is focused more on the inbound side.
What are a few KPIs you track for the company? How do you measure the performance of your bots?
Conversational AI Chatbots
For different brands, there are different KPIs that we follow. With Verloop.io, brands are able to answer data-driven queries without interfacing with customer support. It also enables human agents to access all information from a single platform. By doing this, businesses are not only able to resolve a larger number of queries but also increase agent efficiency through historical and contextual customer information.
Brands that have adopted Verloop.io have experienced a 2x jump in their Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT) and a 5x increase in the agent effectiveness within 3-6 months. There was also a significant drop in calls as automation deflected a lot of queries. This has resulted in annualized cost savings of more than $1 billion across our clients.
Could you please share some metrics on growth numbers and revenue metrics?
In 2020, Verloop.io leapfrogged to become one of the biggest chat automation processors in India. Continuing on the growth journey in 2021, we have increased our customer base by 5X this year. We have gained from experiences and continue to enable businesses to deliver delightful support experiences to their customers in multiple languages. At the same time, we offer an omnichannel approach so all our partners can offer a unified customer experience to their customers.
In terms of volumes, Verloop.io is now powering more than a million conversations on a daily basis across various platforms. During the course of this year, we have also set up offices in UAE, Singapore, and South Africa to be closer to our clientele while we make our solution available for customers worldwide.
How do you make decisions on partnership?
When we look for partnership, we look at two things. One is how well the partner is respected and trusted by its customers and secondly is there a true value being created when Verloop.io and the partner join hands. This has helped us in screening out the noise and focussing on the partners we believe can unlock tremendous value in terms of growth and reach not only for Verloop.io but for the end customer as well.
What’s your strategy to hire the right candidate?
As an organization, we believe that if you hire the right set of folks and treat them right, they will take care of your business/customers. While we are super focused on the skills we need to hire for, we look for the right fitment in terms of our values and our working culture.
Being a funded company, what would you advise the founders who are looking to raise funds?
I believe in the initial days itself the founders should have a clear idea of who they will be targeting. Another approach that I recommend to fellow founders is that rather than looking at pleasing all, they should focus on their product and how they can better it. This is essential, especially in the initial days. Instead of obsessing over the competition, or what competitors are doing, they should focus on the value add that they can bring to the table. Rather than spending time chasing VC, founders should invest it in increasing their top lines. If the foundation of the start-up is solid then there will have no dearth of people wanting to invest in it.
What are a few new areas where conversational AI tools will be used? Do you think, Is it possible to completely replace customer support with conversational AI?
Conversational AI makes perfect business sense for all B2C companies. At Verloop.io we have been focusing on industries where there are large volumes of pre-sales and post-sales support required. This typically includes retail businesses, e-Commerce, banking, financial, insurance, edTech, food-tech, travel, and logistics amongst many others.
In the last 10 years, there have been significant improvements in the natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning technologies that has given new amplitude to simulate human conversation and dialogues. To delight the customer, achieve excellent Net Promoter Scores and reduce their customer service cost, businesses too are investing heavily in innovating ideas.
With the prevalence of chatbots and customers becoming more amenable to talking to bots, voice-based bots are becoming the new mainstream. As advancements in NLP continue, chatbots will only get smarter and have more human-like interactions.
More than replacing, Conversational AI chatbots are designed to work in conjunction with the existing systems. The chatbots enable the system to get more efficient by handling a greater number of queries in a reduced time and cost. The focus here is to ensure that only escalations are passed on to human executives.
What’s your opinion about the Indian SaaS market in 2022?
The SaaS business is booming in India. A report by McKinsey and SaasBoomi has predicted that this industry will be worth $1 trillion by 2030 and India’s share to double by that time.
In my opinion, the Indian SaaS market is just starting up. With the recent funding(s), acquisitions, and listing, SaaS is now entering the growth phase in India. While typically India SaaS has sold to clientele outside India, this year will see a lot of Indian businesses engaging with Indian SaaS products. These are driven by SaaS organizations investing in better product leadership, great customer experience, and the advantage of being at the cutting edge of technology.
Artificial intelligence is the capability of computers or technology controlled by computers to perform a duty that is mostly done by humans. AI is used in different innovative ways by the banking sector and other finance organizations by utilizing time properly and making sure that there is an increase in revenue and decrease in cost. It helps in providing better and fast services by efficient and improved performance through AI applications in financial institutions.
Artificial intelligence helps financial organizations to know more about the customer through the data based on the experience of customer behaviour. It is mostly used in the banking sector, investment sector, insurance sector, and other financial institutions.
The banking sector has been one of the sectors which have gained the most benefit from AI in the finance field, It has benefited investment by automated data and other applications and also helped insurance by providing an Anti-fraud system, data related to customers and risk management.
AI makes it easy to interact with the customers and provides them services like mobile banking, smart wallet, and providing AI applications for customer support and lending decision-making advice on their savings and expenses.
Anti-Fraud System
It helps to prevent fraud, as AI is all about studying and reviewing data and the growth of financial institutes. Fraud investigator works efficiently to detect fraud and take corrective measures to take precautions at right time.
Credit rating
Ai helps get all the data related to a persons credit reliability by examining the person’s data. It helps to know whether the debtor data should be increased or not and what should be the amount that has to be credited to him.
Risk Management
It helps to detect theft and take effective measures against it. It helps to improve data quality. It helps to know about credit risk by the system which gives warning whenever there is a risk.
Customer service
It makes it easy to provide service to the customers through different AI tools that are used for customers so that customers are satisfied. It helps in making interaction with customers easy as for every financial organization it is important to have good relations with customers.
Saving and loan management-
It helps to know about the saving and expenses done by customers’ behaviour on their spending pattern and loan borrowing. AI helps in debt management using the data collected properly for the repayment.
A customer who has borrowed money can also use AI technology like apps provided by the bank or any other financial institute as it helps to keep track of the history and analyze data related to the loan provided.
AI helps to know about loan applicants’ behaviour and makes it easier for banks and apps of a financial institute to know whether the loan applicant is eligible or not for the loan.
Can AI Give You a Competetive Edge Over Your Non-AI Competitors?
It helps to know the customer wants through the data that is based on the current information provided and helps to get a competitive advantage over competitors mostly in the organization. It helps to know customers’ wants by studying customer behaviour.
All companies need to install all types of technology and artificial intelligence. As our country is heading towards being more digital and sophisticated, companies need to use artificial technology and advanced technologies. If a company fails to accept the dynamic technologies it will not be able to survive and therefore, it will lose its existence.
As everything is done through artificial intelligence it makes the company increase its ability to coordinate its activities regionally, nationally, and globally. Artificial intelligence assists the company to reach all the customers, but if a company does not have artificial intelligence they will be slow in doing their work, they might face loss.
If a company does not meet the needs of the customer its competitors will stifle its development, and if a company is not advanced or updated the customers will also be apathetic-towards its service.
Nowadays those companies who provide online services are the ones who are still surviving and earning a good amount and profit from those who do not provide online services. So, the company should ensure that every service they provide is online too. For example, people who are physically challenged, elderly people who cannot go physically to the service centre, but know about artificial intelligence and technologies can prefer AI-based companies to those who are not so advanced about AI.
A company with advanced AI and technology gets its work done more effectively and productively than the competitors who do not employ dynamic AI and technology.
Advantages of AI in Finance
It works faster and helps to make better decisions quicker by improving the quality of data.
AI helps to plan a useful and helpful way that is beneficial for a finance company and also for its customers.
AI helps to prevent fraud by its tools and efficiency to keep away from financial crimes. It helps by keeping track of previous fraud transactions so that they can be used to prevent getting frauded.
It helps to eliminate the mistakes that humans make and give better solutions that give more accurate data faster.
Disadvantages of AI in Finance
It has a very high maintenance cost depending on the use.
AI also creates risks of unemployment as everything is done through AI which leads to less use of human creativity. But it cannot replace a human even if machines performance is productive and faster than humans as when there are complicated tasks when a piece of expert advice is required this work can only be done by employees.
It can sometimes be dangerous to let AI have full control as sometimes there are some errors due to which there can be a problem in data and sometimes it can be difficult to detect it.
As there is more and more use of technologies or we can say AI it leads to a decrease in the use of human creativity.
Artificial Intelligence is very helpful in the field of finance as it provides different innovative services, saves time, keeps away from fraud, etc. It also helps to get a competitive advantage over the competitors as the customers prefer advanced and updated companies.
AI have different uses like anti-fraud system, credit rating, risk management, etc. AI is very helpful to both the finance company and the customers even if there are some disadvantages we can find solutions to make improvements.
FAQ
How AI will transform the future of finance?
AI will improve fraud detection, predict cash flow and can provide high-quality services to the customers.
How does AI help in banking and finance?
AI features such as chatbots, fraud detection systems, and digital payments are actively used in the finance industry.
How will AI affect financial services?
With the help of AI, you can get an edge over your competitors as it provides advanced security, more informed decisions, and reduces risk.
When someone goes to a website to look for information, they have two options. One is to pick up the phone and speak with a customer service representative to get answers to their questions, and the other is to use the online chat facility. The majority of individuals favor the second route since it is quick, simple, and hassle-free.
But have you ever thought about where this help comes from? That is the person on the other side of the table who has all of the answers to all of the questions and concerns? Well, it’s not a human, but a chatbot, as most of you are probably aware.
Chatbots are becoming more and more popular every day. They’re a godsend for businesses that offer chat services on their websites. Furthermore, as new AI (artificial intelligence) technologies emerge, chatbots have grown more efficient and advantageous to organizations.
Bots are proving their mettle once again with the latest features, such as language processing skills, built-in algorithms to assist learning from patterns to enhance their knowledge, and so on.
Bots are computer programs that execute tasks that would otherwise be performed by people. They collect data and use the information to make the interface more instinctive and intelligent, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).
Chatbots are computer programs that simulate human dialogue. They respond to the queries of the users. Every command is met with a positive response.
They might be either utility bots or informational bots. Users can get important information from information bots, while utility bots accept commands and reply.
How do Chatbots work?
Natural language processing, or NLP, is the technology used by chatbots. It is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science concerned with the interaction between humans and computers.
Three classification methods are used by chatbots to function.
Matching patterns
Bots utilize pattern matching to classify texts and provide appropriate responses for consumers. The pattern’s standard structure is AIML or Artificial Intelligence Markup Language.
Neural networks (Artificial Intelligence)
With the help of weighted connections created through multiple iterations during data training, neural networks make it easier to determine output from input. Every sentence is split down into different worlds, and each word is finally used as an input for neural networks.
Algorithms reduce the size of classifiers and provide more manageable structures. The reductionist approach is the name given to this method. In a nutshell, it boils down to reducing the problem to a simple answer.
Algorithm
Algorithms reduce the size of classifiers and provide more manageable structures. The reductionist approach is the name given to this method. In a nutshell, it boils down to reducing the problem to a simple answer.
Chatbots have risen to prominence in recent years as a result of their capacity to streamline a variety of marketing procedures. By offering fast solutions to clients’ questions, these clever automated messengers speed up the process of certifying sales leads.
According to a Harvard Business Review study, organizations that do not respond to leads in five minutes or less risk losing them forever, emphasizing the necessity of giving prompt responses to your clients.
Chatbots are still a relatively new concept, and their enormous potential is sometimes missed. B2B enterprises account for 58 percent of all websites with a chatbot.
Given that chatbots were previously utilized significantly more frequently by B2C enterprises, this is a fascinating finding. Because of this rising usage, there are several significant advantages to using a chatbot in your B2B organization. Continue reading to discover more about the causes for the recent development in the chatbot market, as well as how B2B companies are beginning to see the value that chatbots can bring to their online presence.
The Struggle for Convenience
Let’s face it, no one wants to sit around for hours on end waiting for a response to a query. As technology advances and clients migrate to more convenient customer assistance options, customer care phone lines are slowly becoming obsolete.
Chatbots have begun to appear on a variety of social media sites, including Facebook Messenger. Customers will be able to have faster and more seamless customer service encounters as a result of this. They may gently go on social media and get a solution to their question in a matter of seconds.
These bots are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although most customer support representatives are not. It might be unpleasant for a consumer to wait for a customer support representative to come online and reply after regular business hours, especially if the question is urgent.
Keeping consumers waiting can result in them leaving their company elsewhere, resulting in a significant loss of revenue. As a result, users and organizations alike have found chatbot availability to be one of the most tempting features.
Consistency is essential
Customer service consistency is an aim for almost every B2B company. When two consumers ask the identical question of a customer care professional, they should always get the same answer. This establishes client trust and ensures that customers are never misled.
When it comes to human customer service representative, you can give them all the same training, but their responses will always be slightly different. That’s understandable; after all, they’re humans, not robots, and it’s human nature to make mistakes now and then. At the end of the day, it’s an ineffective system for businesses to use, which is where chatbots come in.
Technology is becoming more intelligent
Eliza – Worlds First Chatbot
In 1966, an MIT professor created the world’s first chatbot. Although this bot could only answer simple questions, it was a significant technological advancement. Over 50 years of research and development have gone into making chatbots the extraordinarily intelligent computers that they are today.
In many circumstances, it’s difficult to determine whether you’re interacting with a chatbot or a real person, and technical advancements will only make it more difficult. These sophisticated computers are programmed to recognize keywords and respond accordingly.
These systems have progressed over years of engineering to the point where they can precisely mimic the human brain’s speaking patterns and mental processes. These chats are nearly comparable to those with real customer service personnel due to their human-like language and ability to pick up keywords.
The Budget-Friendly Alternative
Every company wants to save money wherever it can, thus cost is a major consideration in the assimilation of chatbots. You should anticipate paying somewhere between $500 and $2500 for your chatbot, depending on its sophistication.
Chatbots may have a high initial cost, but their ongoing costs are quite low, making them significantly less expensive than hiring an entire staff of customer support professionals.
Chatbots may cut operational costs by up to 30%, according to Chatbots Magazine, so it’s easy to see why so many B2B companies are making the move.
The advantages that chatbots may give for your B2B company are unrivaled. Chatbots can be a very fantastic tool for you and your business if you are ready to make the initial investment. Chatbots may help enterprises streamline procedures and build long-term relationships with website visitors, thus their popularity is only going to expand.
FAQ
Which platform is best for chatbot?
Lobster by EBI.AI, Chatfuel, MobileMonkey, Aivo, ItsAlive, Imperson, and Pandorabots are some of the top chatbot platforms.
What are the two types of chatbots available?
There are two types of chatbots, rule-based and AI chatbots.
How are chatbots used in business?
Chatbots improve customer service by being available 24/7 and replying to queries in no time.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Haptik.
There are more than 3 billion people in the world who use messaging or digital voice interfaces on a daily basis. However, less than 1% use these mediums to communicate with businesses and brands. It is only a matter of time for this to change – enterprises will implement the infrastructure to enable these channels.
Haptik is born out of the belief that conversational AI will have the same paradigm shift, and the company is a global team of 200+ believers waiting to make it happen.
Haptik is an artificial intelligence company powering conversational assistants for brands to transform customer experiences. The company develops technology to enable enterprises to build conversational AI systems that allow users to converse with applications and electronic devices in free-format, natural language, using speech or text.
Haptik also has an automated conversational testing platform that enables real-time improvements to the AI. Haptik AI is a developer of conversational AI platforms intended to automate critical business processes.
The company’s platform has a live agent tool for a bot to human handover and analytics dashboard to check chat level metrics and insights into what a customer really needs from business, enabling users to chat with experts for any query related to any company, product or service via text messages.
Haptik – Logo and its Meaning
The Haptik logo has hand that is very colorful, and the multiple colors serve a purpose – to symbolize how the app could help users with a wide range of tasks. Taken together, the hand and the colors were meant to say “I’m here to help, and I can help with a lot of things”.
Haptik’s company logo
The bright colors, in addition to being pleasing to the eye, were also meant to symbolize positivity and optimism – reflecting our confidence in the ability of the Haptik app to accomplish the many tasks that it would be asked to perform.
Haptik – Founder and History
Haptik was founded by Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, both University of Illinois engineering alumni in August 2013.
Founders of Haptik
Vaish recalls, “Swapan and I were working in San Francisco when the mobile app industry was taking off. One of the categories of apps that we saw take off significantly was messaging. We noticed people using messaging apps more than any other type of app, and the addiction to the interface was crazy. We figured there is something here to build on, and potentially a platform to support conversations everywhere beyond simply peer to peer chat. That’s when Haptik was born”.
In March 2014, the company launched its first product, the Haptik app which is a chat-based personal assistant for Android and iOS platforms in India.
Over time this evolved into full-blown conversational commerce app with over 2 million downloads with 15 million app installs. The company launched Life Insurance chat-bot for HDFC Life and a Baap Bot for Father’s Day.
Haptik – Mission
Haptik’s mission statement says, “To build artificial intelligence products that enable the paradigm shift of interaction from clicks to conversations.“
Haptik – Recent News
Reliance Jio said that it has bought a majority stake in Haptik, a startup that develops ‘conversational’ platforms and virtual assistants, in a deal worth $100 million overall. The transaction will see Jio will take an 87 percent stake in the company, with the remaining shares left for Haptik’s founding team and staff. The deal includes 230 crore ($33 million) to buy out existing backers and an investment of 470 crore ($67 million).
Haptik announced that it has acqui-hired Convrg, a Los Angeles-based startup that develops chatbots, to serve customers in North America. According to Aakrit Vaish this move is part of Haptik’s broader strategy to both expand its technology expertise and team and business overseas.
Haptik built the world’s largest WhatsApp chatbot for COVID-19. This was the official helpline for the Government of India which was utilized by over 21 million users across the country. The MyGov Corona Helpdesk was engineered to fight rumors, educate the masses and bring a sense of calm to the pandemic situation. Haptik built the Helpdesk ground-up using official data shared by the Government.
Kotak Life partnered with Haptik to develop an AI-driven conversational assistant called KAYA which provides 24X7 assistance to consumers.
In March 2018, the company partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide Al-enabled conversational solutions to customers in India.
Haptik has entered into a strategic partnership with Y Combinator-backed Leena AI to provide enterprises for all types of bot solutions.
Haptik’s repertoire of chatbot customers in India includes Samsung, Future Group, KFC, Dream11, Sharekhan, Edelweiss, Tokio, Club Mahindra and IIFL among others. Haptik has also built assistants for TOI, Samsung, Ziman and Akancha Against Harassment, an online Cyber Safety Initiative.
Haptik is one of the world’s largest conversational AI platforms. In October 2017, The Times of India app incorporated Haptik’s virtual personal assistant service with Sprite as the exclusive brand partner. Samsung was the second partner who uses Haptik to power its ‘My Assistant’ service that is pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge in India.
Haptik built a scalable Support Bot for Dream11 which helped the online handle 8x their volume without a large support staff during IPL 2018.
Haptik – Business Model
Haptik has always been in the leading position when it came to the chatbot business. They were one of the very first enterprises to come up with the idea and have a huge advantage of the experience factor when compared to its competitors. They have had lots and lots of experimentations done on the concept and have almost perfected the art.
One of their biggest strong points is indeed the upper hand in technology. The in-depth knowledge in Machine Learning and NLP has also aided the company to be one step ahead of the competitors. They were one of the very first firms to reap the benefits of the chatbot industry by foreseeing the growing liking of the people to interface and personal assistance.
They also concentrated on being a B2B(business-to-business) model, which proved more effective for the team. The biggest advantage of Haptik is that they provide customized services to the customers. There is no one model for all kind of a concept that works there. This has also led to the team to stand out from the rest.
Haptik – Revenue and Growth
From a rather unsuccessful launch of its beta phase called Batman to becoming the nation’s biggest AI-based personal assistance platform, Haptik has indeed come a very long way. They have over one million downloads in Play Store and are the highest-rated mobile application in India.
The organization handles over 50 million conversation yearly and has a clean history when it comes to customer churns. This is no ordinary feat and the team has indeed worked very hard to reach where they are today.
More and more people seek the assistance of chatbots to solve their daily problems and help in easier decision making. The company is now looking forward to expanding there scope across the globe and are absolutely confident that they will be able to see the same magnitude of results they could see in India.
Mumbai-based conversational AI assistant Haptik has attained 105% of its revenue target in the first quarter of financial year 2020 despite the pandemic and the reduced cash flow from the travel tech sector which suffered huge losses due to the travel restrictions.
Haptik – Funding and Investors
Haptik has raised a total of $12.2M in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Apr 5, 2016 from a Series B round. Haptik is funded by 3 investors. Times Internet and Vivek Kumar are the most recent investors.
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Apr 5, 2016
Series B
$11.2M
Times Internet
Sep 16, 2014
Series A
$1M
Kalaari Capital
Haptik – Acquisitions
Haptik has acquired 2 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Buzzo.ai on Sep 24, 2019.
Acquiree Name
Date
Amount
About Acquiree
Buzzo.ai
Sep 24, 2019
–
Buzzo.ai is a customizable Artificial Intelligence software for retail, e-commerce, travel.
CONVRG
Jul 23, 2019
–
Speakeasy™ by Convrg is AI-powered software that voice-enables your ecommerce website or mobile app, allowing consumers to shop by voice.
Haptik – Awards and Recognitions
Haptik won ‘AI for Good Award’ for the year 2018 at the 4th Annual Canadian Fintech and AI awards. Haptik’s client list includes Fortune 500 names such as Coca-Cola, Samsung, KFC, Tata Group and Mahindra Group, among others.
The company launched in the year 2013 was awarded for its 24×7 bot which benefits its users in fields of cyber safety and harassment. Haptik developed a bot named Akancha Against Harassment or AHH bot, authorized by Akancha Srivastava, a prominent cyber safety pundit and founder of the Akancha Against Harassment (AAH) vision. The bot enhances and educates people about cyber safety in a captivating and conversational procedure. The technology gives a comprehensive information on the absolute process and more users pursuing help and safety against cyber harassment.
Haptik – Competitors
The top competitors in Haptik’s competitive set are Floatbot, Vernacular, Yellow Messenger, SendBird, Niki, and Askarvi.
Haptik – Challenges Faced
Vaish says “Being at the forefront of an industry which is still evolving means that there is no predefined playbook which can be followed to assure results. At Haptik, on an everyday basis, we try out various different experiments some of which succeed while some of them don’t”.
The company faces challenges on all aspects of engineering starting from scaling, research in machine learning, product and design. They perform research in-house and work closely with academia and other institutes to be able to find the best solutions to advance the chatbot and machine learning space.
Having said that, it cannot be denied that chatbot space is growing by leaps and bounds, with traditional slow moving businesses automating their procedures and using chatbot to become more efficient. The founders of Haptik believe that with the growth of AI technology, bots will be able to understand regular human speech in both text and voice.
“Vernacular language support is another interesting field that is currently open to innovation. We can also expect to see chatbots on various other platforms apart from websites and messengers. Chatbots will become more prevalent and be a part of everyday life for everyone who owns a smartphone!”, Vaish added.
Haptik’s team is looking forward to expand further into newer and bigger markets. Haptik has a few clients in the US with IoT, chatbot, and voice assistance market growing extensively in India. A Hansa Cequity Customer Experience Trends Report suggests that the chatbot market will touch $2.3 billion by the end of 2020 from its current $700 million.
“We invested in Haptik back in 2016 based on the early signs of messaging as a paradigm for user interactions. Over the last year, we have seen tremendous adoption in enterprises adopting it as a platform to communicate with their users, with successful results. We are really bullish on what’s to come from team Haptik in the next few months, and are prepared to back them all the way to making this a large global technology company from India.” said Aakrit, founder of Haptik.
Haptik – FAQs
What does Haptik do?
Haptik is an artificial intelligence company powering conversational assistants for brands to transform customer experiences. Haptik develops technology to enable enterprises to build conversational AI systems that allow users to converse with applications and electronic devices in free-format, natural language, using speech or text.
Which company owns Haptik?
The Reliance Industries owns Haptik.
Who founded Haptik?
Haptik was founded by Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, in August 2013.
Pratyusha Srivastava
