Dynamic growth, time and money saved, outlandish health claims, chatbots had it all in 2018. We take a look at the latest numbers that will help drive bot adoption and growing use of AI in 2019.

The stats are the stars

Most businesses won’t make a decision without an army of stats behind it, and while there are lots of general predictions about chatbot growth like, “Some 25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology by 2020, up from less than two percent in 2017, according to Gartner.” Business leaders really need more solid information than that.

We’ve been talking to a number of big names with chatbots, and while many won’t commit to figures the majority cite impressive growth in use of their bots from customers and growing value overall to the business. Based on that, many see a positive return on investment which encourages further investment for new features.

One company that was happy to speak was insurance giant Zurich where the Zara chatbot has made a dramatic impression:

• Net Promoter Score +82 since going live, initially as a pilot back in February 2018.
• Zara services 20% of Personal Lines Home and Motor customers who report claims on a monthly basis.
• All claims or queries made through Zara are responded to within 3 working hours.
• Expanded Zara into Zurich’s broker community, with Civil Service Insurance Society and others pointing their customers to Zara to support their own digital strategies and ensuring a unified digital customer journey
• Zara provides a 24/7/365 internally resourced claims reporting provision; removing complexity with outsourced providers (who are still there, should our customers require human intervention for complex claims).
• Introduced image submissions during summer, and coming early January 2019 will allow customers to send video evidence of losses or damage.
• Adding early claims notifications to a select preview audience for surge/weather events, providing risk guidance and support pre-loss.

Vodafone is another company happy to talk about the success of its bots. Talking to Marketing Week, (registration required) they highlight “TOBi came about after Vodafone realised a significant number of potential SIM-only customers were dropping out during the check-out process. It helps address the problem, taking customers through the process of selecting a SIM-only plan, answering queries and suggesting suitable products and offers along the way.”

“It was developed with several different conversations to pre-empt possible questions and pain points, each of which was tested across a variety of users and refined at each step of the process. It has helped Vodafone reduce the time it takes to check out by more than 47% and in some cases as much as 60%, down from 15 to 20 minutes to check out via the website. It has also more than doubled the conversion rate from basket to checkout in comparison to the website in the initial month of the checkout going live.”

Adidas is a global brand using chatbots to engage with a hugely diverse audience. Adi Bot was launched helping customers generally, with a presentation highlighting that 33% of conversations purely handled by the bot, with a 78% reduction in the length of chat. Within the first three weeks of launch, 55% of those early conversations reached a successful conclusion with strong customer satisfaction, with efforts ongoing to improve that score.

Focusing on a specific segment with the giant business, Adidas Women UK’s chatbot helps provide information for gym goers and makes sure that courses are accessible and full. The bot had over 2,000 initial sign-ups, with 80% of users becoming regular visitors, helping the gym boost retention by 60% after the first week.

Back in insurance-land, nib reports one year on, its chatbot, nibby, has handled more than 21,500 member interactions, with a 70 per cent success rate, saving 535 hours of consultant handling time.

It has been so successful, US health insurance provider NIB has seen great success with bot nibby, which has now expanded across the group’s operation. A year into its life, nibby was responsible for over 21,500 interactions, with a 70% success rate that saved consultants some 535 hours.

Hard data like this and evidence of continued investment in their bots shows how companies in the customer service, insurance, sports, travel, entertainment and transport markets are among those making a big success of their bots.

With huge growth in chatbots in 2018, there are plenty of fine new examples to hold up as how to do them right. Other examples include: Ted Baker’s Facebook Messenger bot SeeMore launched in September and early results show a 24% increase in e-commerce sales, as part of a tool that offers sales and advice through Messenger. Customers can see the latest ranges and buy from the bot, with Seemore asking a set of questions to find something of interest for customers, along with order tracking.