Airkit vs. Chatbots: What’s the Difference?

You’ve heard the joke that people’s attention spans are starting to resemble those of goldfish. This may not be a bad thing. We’re all adapting to a fast-paced, digital world. We have to be savvy with how we spend time.

Businesses understand this attitude. That’s why so many customer-focused teams use chatbots. As a customer, if you’ve been feeling like you’re seeing more two-way chat options embedded in websites, you’re right! Consider that the chatbot market size is projected to grow from $2.6 billion in 2019 to a whopping $9.4 billion by 2024.

Chatbots are a great CX tool for speeding up customer conversations and automating simple interactions. Airkit is also a CX tool that makes customer engagement faster and smoother, so what’s the difference?

Chatbots: The Good and the Problematic

To understand the distinction between a platform like Airkit and a chatbot on a website, we first need to take a closer look at the benefits and limitations of chat.

Here are the pros.

Automation:  Chatbots ease the workload for contact center agents, as this tech can resolve routine questions. Saving time means agents can focus on higher-value tasks.

24/7 Availability: Customers don’t operate on a business schedule. Sometimes they need help in the evenings or on weekends. Chatbots never take time off.

Simple Self-Service: Chatbots direct customers to the right information and can start simple processes like refunds. Customers are more satisfied when they are able to help themselves immediately.

On the other hand, this tool isn’t perfect. Here are some shortcomings.

Rigidity: Chatbots work on a specific script, offering customers pre-programmed answers. If the customer in question has a unique problem, the chatbot can fall short.

They can be siloed: It’s not easy to integrate a chatbot into a company’s existing customer journey and brand. As a result, this part of the customer experience can become siloed and produce impersonal customer interactions.

Limited Functionality: In some cases, this tech may collect information and start customer processes, but chatbots are essentially limited for customer problem-solving.

Airkit: Connecting the Whole Journey

While a chatbot is a single type of digital customer experience, Airkit is a low-code platform where teams can build endless customer experiences and apps. The days of waiting for engineering resources are over, as customer-facing teams can develop with clicks, not code.

However, this doesn’t mean our tool is completely separate from a chatbot. The focus is on taking customers on comprehensive, seamless journeys that solve problems. Remember that end customers juggle work and family and may only be available after normal business hours. This reality leads to many interruptions and even device switches.

Airkit ties all of those steps together, across communications channels, devices, and different times. An existing chatbot can keep answering questions while also initiating more complex journeys, sending account updates, and delivering links to self-contained experiences.

Airkit and a chatbot make a great team, with digital customer apps expanding the limited functionality of chat. The end result is an on-brand, omnichannel customer experience.

See Airkit in Action

To experience Airkit as a customer would, try our free, interactive demos right now.