Why Your Business Needs an Omnichannel Chatbot

What is an omnichannel chatbot?

An omnichannel chatbot is a tool — usually powered by artificial intelligence — that helps your business communicate with customers across different channels — like email, your website, social media, and messaging apps — all within one platform. 

An omnichannel chatbot can answer customers’ questions, guide users, and offer support instantly — doesn’t matter when or where the customer is reaching out. For marketers, instead of using separate tools for each platform, an omnichannel chatbot unites everything in one place. Thanks to omnichannel marketing automation, these solutions help to build stronger relationships with customers, support consistent messaging, and allow for fast response times.

Key features that define an omnichannel chatbot

So, what are some of the features that all omnichannel chatbots share?

• Multi-channel availability. One omnichannel chatbot can talk to your customers on every platform — be it your website, email, or messaging apps. This means that you don’t need a separate tool for each platform, and customers can reach you wherever they choose.
• Conversation memory. Omnichannel chatbots store the entire conversation with a customer, even if they switch to a different platform. In addition to this, your team can see the whole conversation in one dashboard without the need to switch between apps.
• Round-the-clock support. Chatbots can answer common questions 24/7, even when your team is offline. This helps customers get support as quickly as possible.
• Consistent voice. The chatbot keeps your brand’s tone of voice and messaging the same across all channels. 
• Self-improvement. Most omnichannel chatbots use AI, meaning they can learn from conversations and get better over time. This means fewer mistakes and more helpful replies as time goes on.

The role of omnichannel chatbots in modern business

These days, customers don’t just message businesses in one place. They might reach out via your website, send you a DM on social media, or write an email. This means that businesses have to manage several channels all at once, which can get pretty time-consuming and overwhelming! This is where chatbots come in.

It’s no surprise, then, that more and more businesses are turning to these tools — according to a survey from Tidio, most small and medium businesses are either using chatbots already or planning to do so in the future. Plus, with visual chatbot builders, making one is easier than ever. This figure shows that chatbots are not a fad or a short-term trend – they’re becoming a core feature of how businesses interact and deliver customer support. According to the same research, a whopping 1.5 million users had at least one conversation with a chatbot in 2024.

Why your business needs an omnichannel chatbot

Have we convinced you to start using an omnichannel chatbot yet? If not, let’s examine a few benefits they can bring to your business:

• Cost reduction. Imagine having to answer questions from customers across multiple platforms all day long — it can get pretty time-consuming and expensive, especially as your business grows. Omnichannel chatbots take care of repetitive tasks, such as tracking orders, updating customer info, or other simple queries. This means that your human team can focus on more important or complex issues while keeping your customer support costs low. This gives an opportunity to scale without spending a fortune or overworking your team.
• Smart, cross-platform chats. We’ve covered this one already — omnichannel chatbots are capable of keeping the conversation smooth, regardless of which platform your customer chooses.
• Consistency. A steady tone and quick replies on every platform make your brand feel more reliable, helping you build long-term trust with your customers.

How omnichannel chatbots improve customer experience

Now let’s examine the benefits of using omnichannel chatbots from the point of view of customers: 

• Instant, 24/7 support. As you already know, omnichannel chatbots give customers answers anytime, day or night, on any platform. This is a huge benefit for late-night shoppers or customers on the other end of the globe.
• Personalized messaging. Omnichannel chatbots can recognize returning customers, giving them tailored responses based on past actions. Referenced data can include questions they’ve asked before or whether they’ve bought anything. These chatbots can also initiate conversations with customers — for example, to remind them of items abandoned in the shopping cart, to offer a personalized discount, or to follow up after support chats. 

• Cross-platform transition. Imagine a customer starts a chat with your business on Instagram and follows up via email. Omnichannel chatbots can keep the conversation going without starting from scratch which saves the customer’s time.

Here’s an example of how an omnichannel chatbot brought conversions and customer satisfaction and made the support team’s work easier, as shared by Luca Dal Zotto, Co-founder of Rent a Mac:

How do omnichannel chatbots work?

So, how does the magic of omnichannel chatbots actually happen? Let’s have a quick look at what goes on behind the scenes.

Employing natural language processing (NLP)

What is NLP, you ask? Natural language processing is a subfield of artificial intelligence that uses rule-based or machine learning and deep learning to help chatbots understand the way people talk in real life and answer them back. Apart from chatbots, this technology powers voice assistants, search engines, and more. 

NLP is what helps chatbots understand what people are really saying — even if it’s unclear or full of typos. This includes slang and spelling mistakes, as well as different ways of phrasing the same thing. An example of this would be a customer asking “ Where’s my order?” and “Hey, has my package shipped yet?” while the chatbot understands that these questions mean the same thing. Thanks to NLP, chatbots don’t just look for keywords but try to figure out the intent of the message and respond more naturally. Here’s an example of what this could look like.

The fact that this tech is powered by AI means that the chatbot is able to improve itself over time as it learns from real interactions.

Interacting with the customers

The process begins when the customer reaches out to your business, whether it’s on your website, email, or a social media platform. The chatbot instantly picks up the query, analyzes it, figures out what the individual wants, and responds with the most helpful answer. If the chatbot deems the query too difficult, it can hand it over to a human agent while preserving the context, as everything stays in the same conversation thread. Chatbots also remember past interactions, meaning return customers don’t need to keep repeating themselves.

Managing conversations across various channels

As you already know, omnichannel chatbots are able to interact with customers on all platforms, brought together in a single dashboard. For your support and marketing teams, this means that they can see the full conversation history with each customer in one place. This makes life easier for everyone — no repeating information, no losing track of requests, and no bouncing between tools.

Here’s how it works. When a customer sends a message through one of the channels — be it email, WhatsApp, social media, or your website — the bot pulls it up to the dashboard via API (Application Programming Interface) integrations. From there, the system links each message to a single customer profile, which is how you can see the full conversation history in one place. From there, AI can automatically assign labels to the topic of conversation (for example, returns, tracking, product inquiry, etc.), route it to the right customer service team, prioritize more urgent requests, or even suggest replies.

Here’s an example of what this dashboard may look like:

Handling escalations and handoffs

If the chatbot can’t solve an issue, it knows when to take a step back and hand it over to a real person. This usually happens in one of two ways: 

1. The bot reaches a point where it’s no longer sure how to help, and it gives the user the option of speaking to a customer service agent. For example, it might ask something like “Would you like me to connect you with a human agent?” 
2. The bot hands things over automatically when it definitely can’t help any further — for example, when the customer keeps asking the same question, and the bot can’t understand it anyway. Alternatively, it can be taught to recognize certain phrases, such as “urgent,” “talk to a person,” or “cancel my subscription.” In these cases, the bot immediately connects the user to a human, no need to ask first.

When this happens, none of the context is lost and the customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves. The customer service rep can see the full chat history, so they can jump in right away.

Real-life omnichannel chatbot workflow example

Even now, you might be thinking “But how does it all work in practice?” We have an extensive answer to your question thanks to Sheraz Ali, the founder of HARO Links Builder:

On the customer side, the omnichannel chatbot helps with smaller, simpler issues and can redirect the conversation to a customer support representative when it’s needed. This brought measurable results improving the response time and customer satisfaction and helping the business save money.

Best practices for implementing an omnichannel chatbot

Now you know the theory of omnichannel chatbots, time to learn how to get started with one. In this section, we’ll walk you through some of the best practices of using a chatbot.

Design a user-friendly and effective chatbot

You don’t need to be a tech pro to design a chatbot for your business. The best chatbot platforms allow you to build one in a drag-and-drop editor.

When you’re designing your chatbot, keep your customers at the forefront of your mind. Focus on making it easy to use and helpful. Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

• Clear, logical flows. The conversation shouldn’t feel confusing or repetitive to the customer — design it to feel smooth and intuitive.

• On-brand tone. The voice of your chatbot should correspond to that of your business, whether that’s casual, formal, or playful.

• Easy exits. Allow users to reach human customer service agents easily if they need to.

• Helpful options. Use menu buttons or quick replies to guide users so that they don’t have to waste their time typing.

Integrate your chatbot with existing business systems

Get even more out of your chatbot by integrating it with business systems you’re already using — be it CRM or your e-commerce solution. This will allow your bot to access customer info, as well as update orders, check stock, or create support tickets automatically.

Integrations also make personalization easier — this includes addressing customers by name, suggesting products based on past purchases, or recognizing their preferred delivery method. They say that knowledge is power, and it’s definitely true for omnichannel chatbots — the more info they have, the better they function.

Ensure data privacy and security

When your chatbot handles customer data, you need to make sure you’re keeping it safe. Check whether the platform you’re using complies with data protection laws like GDPR, and that it uses encryption to protect information. You may be slapped with a hefty fine if you mishandle customer data!

Most chatbot builders will allow you to add a message asking the user to consent to data collection and storage. 

In addition to this, ensure that you’re being transparent with your customers about the data you’re collecting and why.

Continuously monitor and improve chatbot performance

Installing an omnichannel chatbot is just the beginning — it needs regular maintenance to stay sharp. You should keep an eye on chatbot analytics which many chatbot platforms display on their dashboards.

There are a few key metrics to keep track of: response time, resolution rate, unsubscribe rate, and how often users ask to speak to a human. Many platforms offer built-in reporting tools that can help you understand your chatbot’s performance and identify areas of improvement. In addition to this, you can also perform A/B testing (also known as split testing) to improve conversation flows.

Future of omnichannel chatbots

We’re no fortune tellers, so take this with a grain of salt! However, we believe that if current trends are anything to go by, omnichannel chatbots are only going to get smarter and smarter. Let’s take a look at where things could go next. 

AI and machine learning shaping the future of chatbots

Machine learning and AI are the brains behind omnichannel chatbots — this technology helps them learn from each interaction. The more conversations the chatbots have, the better they become, learning to understand the intricacies of human speech (like slang, mistakes, or emotional messages). They can also learn to predict what the customer may want before they even ask for it based on their previous behavior or the way they phrase a question. 

These developments mean that over time chatbots may become more like real assistants across different industries, rather than just robots on the internet. They’ll be able to personalize conversations by understanding the customer’s preferences, behavior, and even emotions, as emotional AI evolves. They’ll be able to handle tasks from start to finish without any human input, while some others will support video and audio formats. We’ll also see chatbots being used in more specialized areas such as agriculture, logistics, and healthcare. 

Emerging trends and innovations in chatbot technology

Thanks to recent advancements in artificial intelligence, chatbots are becoming better at understanding human language and tone, as well as learning from past conversations. We’re witnessing the emergence of voice-detected chatbots, multilingual capabilities, and emotion detection. 

There’s also integration with other AI tech, including product recommendation tools or customer sentiment analysis (basically, software that interprets how a customer feels). This helps omnichannel chatbots make thought-out recommendations and flag issues as they arise.

Conclusion

We hope you found this introduction to omnichannel chatbots useful! There’s much to learn about these tools, but we hope we inspired you to get started with a chatbot of your own. Let’s summarize everything we explored:

• Omnichannel chatbots are AI tools that help businesses communicate with customers across different channels via one platform.
• For businesses, chatbots entail increased efficiency and lower costs, a consistent tone and smart, cross-platform chats.
• Customers can benefit from chatbots because they can get support round the clock and personalized assistance.
• You can design your own omnichannel chatbot online without any coding knowledge. Integrate it with your business tools and don’t forget to track its performance with bot analytics.
• Since omnichannel chatbots are AI-based, their “skills” are expected to improve over time.