Have you ever tried talking with a chatbot? Did it get stuck midway? Was the bot unable to answer your questions? Couldn’t carry the conversation anymore? Was spewing out unreasonable or unrelated responses?
Well, you aren’t the only one!
Everyone discusses the future of chatbots. The tech has been lifted high and centre as this year’s most prominent E-commerce and marketing element. It’s smart. It’s strategic. It’s efficient. And, it offers automation as a bankable option with numerous possibilities to enhance consumer interaction.
And yet, here we are, on a random thread, discussing chatbots for millennials, wondering what the point of giving this coming-of-age generation so much consideration in the design is.
Well, let’s start with that.
The Millennial Habits and the Role Automation Plays in It
As per a Gartner research result, by 2020, 85% of consumer-business engagements will include zero human intervention. Right now, around 60% of millennials have used a chatbot at some point, and 70% of them called it a positive experience.
The point- millennials prefer the screen to people, as long as the outcome is within reason.
A brand as influential as Pizza Hut lets people place orders via a chatbot. Starbucks, another cream-of-the-crop organisation is considering chatbot integration to enhance consumer engagement.
It proves that the preference is being noticed. The reason- in response to the millennial expectations, chatbots have some very agreeable things to offer. These include instant gratification, connection, convenience, a sense of control, and technological integration.
And, Millennials Aren’t Just the Next Gen of Customers, but Also of the Workforce
A Dell Future Workforce Study predicts the millennial workforce as one that will be more mobile and heavily reliant on digital technologies. And, by 2025, they’ll make up around 75% of the workforce, says a Brookings Report.
This data indicates an upcoming shift in workplace attitudes, trends, needs, and desires. The workflow, as opposed to the currently presiding strict and static pattern, will be more intelligent, continually evolving, and very agile.
For an enterprise wanting to maintain its competitive advantage, it’d have to embrace mobility, adapt to the technology, and redefine workplace goals. Think HR bots, and IT help desk bots, communication streamlining, etc. This, as per Dell, is a business-critical opportunity that must not be overlooked.
What’s the Upside- Millennials Flock Where They Can Relate
Germany’s Federal Employment Agency launched a Whatsapp campaign which used influencers as well as chatbots in an attempt to connect to the youth. They used multiple logic flows that helped the bot engage the users in sharing information about what made them unique.
Their value proposition- career opportunities tailored to meet the individual’s needs, as analysed and determined by the context of the conversation.
Millennials enjoy experiences. That applies to their interactions with all businesses, where the purpose could be availing their services or considering working for them.
If you consider their share in the workforce of near future, as well as their growing and evolving preferences as a consumer, you will find that chatbot automation is a massive opportunity to reel the millennials in.
Time to reconsider that design, I’d say!
