What do you think you need more than anything else to attract more of your ideal clients?
Many people will say, "better information to show me how to do what works."
Others will say, "more motivation and drive to implement what I already know."
Another common answer is, "more time to fit marketing activities into my schedule."
And lots of people will say, "I need better goals and more clarity about what I want to achieve."
In writing this ezine/blog for the past 20 years I've talked about the importance of all of those.
But I'm finally understanding a factor that is much more important: good habits.
Over the past year, I've been a big advocate of the writings of James Clear. He writes a blog about success and habits. And he just came out with his first book, Atomic Habits, which is fantastic.
Even though James isn't a marketing expert, I'm convinced he's right when he says that the ultimate determinant of success is building positive habits.
This idea is simple but true: Self-employed professionals who establish regular marketing habits have a much better chance of succeeding than those who don't.
And the crazy thing is that the four items - information, motivation, time, and goals - I mentioned above don't actually make a huge difference.
Information. These days, we have access to more information about marketing than ever before in history. And much of it is free and instantly available through a Google or YouTube search.
The problem is that most of us have not established a regular habit of studying what we need to know to become better marketers. The information is useless unless we become proficient at implementing it.
And even if we pay good money for courses and programs, much of it goes to waste. I just learned recently online that 97% of people who buy a course online never complete it.
Motivation. If we measured motivation by intention, we are all motivated. Don't we all want and need to grow our businesses? But we keep getting distracted and don't follow through on our intentions. Again, the issue is poor habits.
Time. If only we had more of it. But unsuccessful marketers have just as much of it as the most successful ones. The key is that they dedicate more time to implementing regular marketing habits.
Goals. Nothing wrong with goals except that they are only a starting point for success. And they can get us stuck in the future, instead of doing what needs to be done today - the routine marketing habits that we perform every day or week.
"A habit or system beats a goal every time." - James Clear
The research is in and the conclusion is clear.
Establishing positive and consistent marketing habits have a bigger impact on marketing success than anything else.
We may have great information, high motivation, lots of time, and clear goals, but unless marketing activities are performed regularly and habitually, the chances of success are slim to none.
The question you should be asking is, "How do I start establishing better marketing habits?"
James's Atomic Habits goes to great lengths to share a multitude of ways to become an expert habit practitioner. So I highly suggest you get his book. It could be the most valuable 'marketing' book you'll ever read.
But let me also give you my perspective on what it takes to establish new marketing habits.
The C - SPAT Model
This is a model I came up with for one of my marketing programs.
Coaching or Context. A coach declares the game, how it is played and how to win at it. And this creates the context in which you play the game. It helps if you have an outside source that can hold you accountable to play by the rules necessary to succeed.
This principle is why when you're working with a coach or in a program that you suddenly find it's easier to take action and form positive habits. The context of the game helps shape your behaviors.
Notice that all professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants go through rigorous training in the form of a professional school and internship. And in this context, professional habits and protocols are established.
As independent professionals, we'd all prefer to do things on our own, charting our own direction. That's nice, except that it doesn't always work very well, does it?
Study. A big part of the game is study and learning the body of knowledge necessary to perform effectively. Again, the information required to be an effective marketer is readily available, but you need some assistance in sorting the wheat from the chaff and studying what is most useful.
Planning. All successful marketing needs a plan. The alternative is implementing random marketing activities with little structure and direction. So it's not how much you know, but how you put what you know into action.
Action. Success doesn't come from being busy or doing a lot of things, but in doing the right things at the right time. This is where establishing regular marketing habits comes in.
To some, it might be writing an article once or twice a week. For others, it may mean setting up more meetings with networking contacts. Or it could be booking regular speaking engagements.
The secret to making this work is to leverage the first three steps of the model - Coaching, Study, and Planning, into marketing Actions that you perform as consistently as possible.
Tracking. What gets measured gets done. And when we fail to measure, habits don't tend to stick. When we measure and track habits, the chances increase dramatically that they are performed consistently.
It can take some time to establish positive habits. You know that's happened when you don't even have to think about it anymore; you just sit down and write that article every Monday or make five calls to prospects every week.
And when you're in action like this, you create a feedback loop, learning what works the best and what doesn't. This enables you to fine-tune and adjust over time until your marketing habits become more established.
So, stop putting so much attention on searching for the "perfect" marketing strategy, getting motivated, finding more time, and setting goals.
Instead, use the C - SPAT approach to establishing positive marketing habits.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10105413
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Friday, 15 November 2019
Thursday, 14 November 2019
The Five Pillars of Marketing Success
Does the following give a pretty good picture of your current marketing activity?
You have a website but you're not really satisfied with it. You go to networking events once in awhile. If someone asks you to give a talk, you're happy to do it. You post on Facebook and/or LinkedIn semi-regularly. When you find the time, you send an article to those on your relatively small email list. You occasionally set up meetings with colleagues to explore opportunities.
Now there's nothing wrong with any of those marketing activities. And usually, they will result in landing some new clients.
But this is not the approach that works to get a steady, predictable stream of new clients.
Please don't tune me out here, thinking, "Well, I really can't do more than this. I'm already stretched thin. If you give me too much to do I'll get overwhelmed."
I agree. It's not that you need to do more marketing, it's that you need to shift your marketing paradigm from one of "Randomness" to one that is "Focused."
Random marketing is just that; it's all over the place. You do a little bit here and a little bit there on an inconsistent basis. You are trying to keep your face, name, and message in front of your prospective clients but the results are unpredictable.
The Random marketing paradigm is not very effective because it doesn't gain a lot of momentum. You don't do enough of one marketing activity to grab the attention of your prospective clients and move them to take action.
The Focused Marketing Paradigm is very different. It's based on repeatedly communicating very directly to your target market with a very definite end in mind. It gets the attention of your prospective clients and they ultimately take action.
The Focused Marketing Paradigm has Five Pillars
Understand and implement these five pillars and I promise you'll see a shift in your marketing results.
Pillar One: Focused Goals
A Random goal is saying something like, "I'd like to attract a few more clients to my business." Not very compelling is it?
A Focused goal is much more specific. "My goal is to land 3 new clients in the high-tech plastics business in the Houston area with an average project size of $30,000 each by the end of the year."
The more detail, depth, and specificity about the goal, the better. You've really thought through what you want to achieve and also have confidence that you could deliver if you did reach your goal. It's so real to you that you can taste it.
What is the Focused Goal for your marketing?
Pillar Two: Focused Program or Service
Random programs or services are generalized consulting, coaching or training programs. "I offer management consulting and training to corporations." Kind of vague, right? But this is what I hear all the time.
A Focused Program or Service is more tangible. "I offer the high-tech plastics industry Management Acceleration Programs for emerging leaders in the industry."
In my business, I've always offered programs: The Marketing Mastery Program, the Marketing Action Group, and the More Clients Club. And each program has very specific parameters, deliverables, and objectives. It sure makes intangible services easier to market and sell.
What is the Focused Program or Service you're offering?
Pillar Three: Focused Target Market
In the above example, the target was the "high-tech plastics industry." But it's more common to hear things like, "I work with large companies who want to increase productivity." This is too general and it makes it hard for clients to know if you understand them and can help them.
A Focused target market is where you are absolutely clear what kinds of people or companies can most benefit from your expertise. And then you articulate that clearly.
I worked with a financial planning company last year that targeted middle class families in the Buffalo New York area. Guess who they attracted to their practice? When people read about who they worked with on their website, they said, "That's Us!" and called them.
Who exactly is your Focused Target Market?
Pillar Four: Focused Message and Value Proposition
A Random message or value proposition tends to be too general and can be hard to pin down. It avoids making a promise that is meaningful to the prospective client.
Messages such as, "We offer the best service in the industry," or "Smart insights into great management," are meaningless to your prospective clients. The value is not immediately obvious.
A Focused message or value proposition zeros in on exactly what your clients get and what it means to them. I admit that this can be the marketing pillar that is hardest to pin down. Ultimately you have to test a number of different things.
For the re-launch of the More Clients Club, my current value proposition is: "Everything Self-Employed Professionals Need in One Place to Attract More Clients." And now, of course, I'm bending over backward to deliver on that promise.
And a marketing message or value proposition is much more than a sound bite. Your message must permeate every aspect of your marketing, from your website to the emails you send out. Your prospects need to be constantly reminded of the value you offer.
What is your Focused Message or Value Proposition?
Pillar Five: Focused Marketing Strategy
A Random marketing strategy is much like the collection of marketing activities I outlined at the top of the article. You're just all over the place, throwing something at the wall, hoping it will stick, with no organized system or plan.
A Focused marketing strategy is more like a putting on a theatrical production. You have the script, the actors, rehearsals, and opening night, all executed on a strict timeline.
Two examples:
For my Marketing Mastery Program, I held a series of introductory teleconferences, invited those interested to apply for the program, interviewed each applicant, and then converted 50% into participants. Over a 6-week period, I filled my business for a full year - four years in a row.
A career coach in one of my programs recently filled her practice in three months with a focused campaign of personalized emails designed to get appointments with her ideal clients. Then she converted a large percentage into paying clients.
That's the power of a focused marketing strategy.
You need to identify the right marketing strategy for your business, but even more important is the way you organize and implement the strategy.
Developing a focused strategy is the most complex and challenging of the Five Pillars. You can't just put together something haphazardly and hope you get the equivalent of a professional Shakespearian production.
What is your Focused Marketing Strategy?
If you work to build a focused plan with these five solid pillars, your marketing will work better and faster, attracting more of your ideal clients, usually at a higher rate.
I recommend you work on one pillar at a time. Write them out and fine-tune them until you feel confident and excited about them. Yes, you will need to do some research and study to make sure your plan is viable. But this is certainly better than spinning your wheels with a random strategy that is going nowhere.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10106361
You have a website but you're not really satisfied with it. You go to networking events once in awhile. If someone asks you to give a talk, you're happy to do it. You post on Facebook and/or LinkedIn semi-regularly. When you find the time, you send an article to those on your relatively small email list. You occasionally set up meetings with colleagues to explore opportunities.
Now there's nothing wrong with any of those marketing activities. And usually, they will result in landing some new clients.
But this is not the approach that works to get a steady, predictable stream of new clients.
Please don't tune me out here, thinking, "Well, I really can't do more than this. I'm already stretched thin. If you give me too much to do I'll get overwhelmed."
I agree. It's not that you need to do more marketing, it's that you need to shift your marketing paradigm from one of "Randomness" to one that is "Focused."
Random marketing is just that; it's all over the place. You do a little bit here and a little bit there on an inconsistent basis. You are trying to keep your face, name, and message in front of your prospective clients but the results are unpredictable.
The Random marketing paradigm is not very effective because it doesn't gain a lot of momentum. You don't do enough of one marketing activity to grab the attention of your prospective clients and move them to take action.
The Focused Marketing Paradigm is very different. It's based on repeatedly communicating very directly to your target market with a very definite end in mind. It gets the attention of your prospective clients and they ultimately take action.
The Focused Marketing Paradigm has Five Pillars
Understand and implement these five pillars and I promise you'll see a shift in your marketing results.
Pillar One: Focused Goals
A Random goal is saying something like, "I'd like to attract a few more clients to my business." Not very compelling is it?
A Focused goal is much more specific. "My goal is to land 3 new clients in the high-tech plastics business in the Houston area with an average project size of $30,000 each by the end of the year."
The more detail, depth, and specificity about the goal, the better. You've really thought through what you want to achieve and also have confidence that you could deliver if you did reach your goal. It's so real to you that you can taste it.
What is the Focused Goal for your marketing?
Pillar Two: Focused Program or Service
Random programs or services are generalized consulting, coaching or training programs. "I offer management consulting and training to corporations." Kind of vague, right? But this is what I hear all the time.
A Focused Program or Service is more tangible. "I offer the high-tech plastics industry Management Acceleration Programs for emerging leaders in the industry."
In my business, I've always offered programs: The Marketing Mastery Program, the Marketing Action Group, and the More Clients Club. And each program has very specific parameters, deliverables, and objectives. It sure makes intangible services easier to market and sell.
What is the Focused Program or Service you're offering?
Pillar Three: Focused Target Market
In the above example, the target was the "high-tech plastics industry." But it's more common to hear things like, "I work with large companies who want to increase productivity." This is too general and it makes it hard for clients to know if you understand them and can help them.
A Focused target market is where you are absolutely clear what kinds of people or companies can most benefit from your expertise. And then you articulate that clearly.
I worked with a financial planning company last year that targeted middle class families in the Buffalo New York area. Guess who they attracted to their practice? When people read about who they worked with on their website, they said, "That's Us!" and called them.
Who exactly is your Focused Target Market?
Pillar Four: Focused Message and Value Proposition
A Random message or value proposition tends to be too general and can be hard to pin down. It avoids making a promise that is meaningful to the prospective client.
Messages such as, "We offer the best service in the industry," or "Smart insights into great management," are meaningless to your prospective clients. The value is not immediately obvious.
A Focused message or value proposition zeros in on exactly what your clients get and what it means to them. I admit that this can be the marketing pillar that is hardest to pin down. Ultimately you have to test a number of different things.
For the re-launch of the More Clients Club, my current value proposition is: "Everything Self-Employed Professionals Need in One Place to Attract More Clients." And now, of course, I'm bending over backward to deliver on that promise.
And a marketing message or value proposition is much more than a sound bite. Your message must permeate every aspect of your marketing, from your website to the emails you send out. Your prospects need to be constantly reminded of the value you offer.
What is your Focused Message or Value Proposition?
Pillar Five: Focused Marketing Strategy
A Random marketing strategy is much like the collection of marketing activities I outlined at the top of the article. You're just all over the place, throwing something at the wall, hoping it will stick, with no organized system or plan.
A Focused marketing strategy is more like a putting on a theatrical production. You have the script, the actors, rehearsals, and opening night, all executed on a strict timeline.
Two examples:
For my Marketing Mastery Program, I held a series of introductory teleconferences, invited those interested to apply for the program, interviewed each applicant, and then converted 50% into participants. Over a 6-week period, I filled my business for a full year - four years in a row.
A career coach in one of my programs recently filled her practice in three months with a focused campaign of personalized emails designed to get appointments with her ideal clients. Then she converted a large percentage into paying clients.
That's the power of a focused marketing strategy.
You need to identify the right marketing strategy for your business, but even more important is the way you organize and implement the strategy.
Developing a focused strategy is the most complex and challenging of the Five Pillars. You can't just put together something haphazardly and hope you get the equivalent of a professional Shakespearian production.
What is your Focused Marketing Strategy?
If you work to build a focused plan with these five solid pillars, your marketing will work better and faster, attracting more of your ideal clients, usually at a higher rate.
I recommend you work on one pillar at a time. Write them out and fine-tune them until you feel confident and excited about them. Yes, you will need to do some research and study to make sure your plan is viable. But this is certainly better than spinning your wheels with a random strategy that is going nowhere.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10106361
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Monday, 11 November 2019
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
How to Increase Willpower, Become More Self-Disciplined and Be Successful
One of the tenets of personal development is to bring about a behavior change. If you want to develop yourself, you need to change your behavior to some degree.
It is not necessarily overhauling yourself, but it's still a change.
The whole reason of self-improvement is to improve upon what you are. Some of things are not working for you, because the necessary behavior is absent.
Or you just want to improve upon things. And you need new skills to achieve this improvement. Behavior change could also mean learning new skills.
When you learn new skill and actually apply new skills, the behavior change has taken place With this change, you exploit the benefits of the new skills.
So how does one change behavior? At the root of changing behavior is our capacity of self-discipline. This is also called self-control or willpower.
You can have all the knowledge in the world. But if you don't have the self-discipline to incorporate that knowledge in your behavior, the knowledge is of no use.
For example, you know that you are not supposed to do certain things. But if you do those things anyway, what is the point of the knowledge?
Personal development experts will tell you this: you have to set goals, divide tasks into sub tasks, prioritize tasks, write journals and have a positive attitude in spite of setbacks.
But if you don't have self-discipline to put all this advice into action, you won't succeed! And it may lead you to blame that expert advice doesn't work.
What is self-discipline though? It's the eternal conflict between the dual self. We always have a self who is conscious about long-term goals. He gets and remembers what is the right thing to do for us.
Then we have the other self which is impulsive and indulgent. This other self is always getting distracted towards the guilty pleasures that we should not explore. This other self is the one which blocks us from taking the initiative that we really should take.
The impulsive self is wanting a sweet treat, be lazy and just watch TV. While the better self is aware that those are bad things. And one should really be eating healthy in general, exercising and focusing on making that phone call and writing that journal.
At the deepest level, the impulsive self is a primitive self, who is impulsive, craving and desires things. The better self, is our analytical self. This is the neo-cortex in action. This is the recent part of our brain which engages in complex functions. This part of the brain has big picture, it weighs different options and knows what is right versus wrong.
Who doesn't want success, good relationships, health and well-being? Who doesn't want to be happy? And all of these can be achieved through proper self-discipline.
The fundamental reasons, most people don't succeed even after reading books, taking courses and attending seminars, is the failure to exercise self-discipline and giving into the impulsive self.
The root of all personal problems lies the failure of self-discipline. The fundamental reason people are not able to achieve success is because of them not able to keep up self-discipline.
Self-discipline is the biggest human strength.
You may wonder, if it's possible to increase self-discipline.
And the answer is a resounding YES.
One can definitely increase the levels of willpower he or she possesses.
Willpower is a limited resource. In other words self-discipline will deplete. Right after exercising self-discipline, your willpower will deplete and if you later have to exercise your willpower, you don't do that well.
Yet if you practice self-discipline over and over, it improves. This may sound counterintuitive. We just said that using willpower depletes it, but on the other hand we are saying that using it over and over, improves it.
The best analogy to understand this is that of muscle. Right after use, muscle is fatigued and painful. But if you keep exercising repeatedly, your muscle strength and tone improves.
If you intentionally practice self-discipline again and again, you'll build it up You will increase the level of self-discipline.
What are the ways to improve willpower?
Last decade of research in human psychology has revealed many ways in which one can improve the willpower or the self-discipline. A Stanford psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, identifies following four methods of improving the willpower.
Get enough sleep.
One of the most common ways to improve willpower is through more sleep.
Lack of sleep actually prevents us from operating at most willpower capacity. If we are sleep deprived, our prefrontal cortex doesn't activate enough, which means our restraining mind is not in action and we easily give in to the impulses.
It is important to get a good night's sleep. For most people 7 hours is what is required. If you haven't slept 7 hours and even if you don't feel sleepy, your cortex is still not working full capacity. Hence its very important to sleep 7 hours.
Meditation is one of the tools that can be effectively used to help with the increasing amount of sleep you can have.
Forgive yourself.
We are usually critical of ourselves. Especially when we have a setback, we tend to criticize us.
Scientists found that for reasons we don't fully understand yet, when we criticize ourselves or when we are harsh on ourselves for setbacks, we tend to repeat such setbacks or the indulgent behavior.
On the other hand when you forgive yourself for the setbacks, it seems to have an effect of preventing future relapses.
So learn to forgive yourself for setbacks along your journey.
Be mindful of distracting urges.
One of the most important tool for boosting self-discipline is the awareness of your urges and impulses.
If you can cultivate the mindful awareness of the distracting impulses, it becomes easier not to succumb.
When you're struck with a distracting impulse or craving that will spoil your goal, you have to become mindful of that impulse.
We feel different types of impulses. You may feel like procrastinating and you won't start reading the book. Or you may feel like delaying that important class registration. If your goal is to lose weight, you may feel the impulse to indulge in high calorie food.
Here is what you do.
Notice the feeling that you're experiencing. Observe the thought that is going through your mind. Notice the impulse. Observe the itch.
Become aware of the impulse. Feel the impulse, what is it? What is the feeling? Where is the feeling? Is it in certain part of the body?
Attend to this inner experience. Acknowledge the experience and then accept it. Don't try to run away from the experience. Face it head on and then accept it.
Once accepted, take a deep breath and pause. Give your body a chance to slow down and plan.
Once you have intimately observed the inner experience, bring your attention to your goal. Think of action that will help you achieve your goal.
This in essence is being mindful of your urge or impulse, then accepting it and moving on to what is the right thing to do.
This may be easier to do for food impulses. It is harder to be aware of your habit to put off things. But you can get better through practice.
Visualize the roadblocks.
Generally people believe that you've to imagine success to become a success. Run of the mill self-help gurus will tell you that you've to imagine success to achieve success and not failure.
But exhaustive research proves that, just imagining the success is not enough. Yes imagining success is a good idea. But a better idea is to regularly imagine failure! You may think that will prime you for failure, but that's what doesn't happen in practice.
One scientific study compared two groups of people. One group just visualized the end goals. They visualized achieving the end goal.
Another group visualized the end goal along with the process of going through the journey to achieve success. The visualized ups and down of the process, they visualized the incremental improvement and progress that they were making along the journey.
The group that visualized the journey as well, was twice more likely to achieve the actual results.
So the journey towards achieving the goal is more important than the goal itself.
What is that you are going to inevitably face along the journey? Lots of setbacks. And for a faint heart the setbacks will demoralize him and make him abandon his goal. There won't be just one setback, there will be plenty of them.
Failure is inevitable. And visualizing the failure prepares you for failure. After having repeatedly visualized failure along with the progress, when you're actually struck by the failure, it's no more a shock. You are already ready for it.
So everyday visualize the journey and visualize a failure.
Make friends with your future self.
We don't normally think a lot about what would happen to us in future. We don't visualize our future self. Apparently our perception of our future self could be very influential when it comes to willpower.
If you think of future self as being totally different from your current self, in other words if you completely dissociate your current self from your future self, the future self becomes like a stranger and you wouldn't care much about future self.
In such cases you don't bother to take care of future self as for all practical purposes future self is a stranger for you.
Different people have different perceptions about their future self. Some think of them more like their present self. Many think of their future self as very different.
The ability to disconnect from the long-term consequences of your choices primes you to be more impulsive. Even in the cases where choices are not relevant to future consequences.
In such cases, you become less attuned to your future concerns and plans. In reality we know that we need to take care of our future self. We need to save for retirement and we should take care of our future by taking care of our future self.
The key is how we can associate more with our future self? One interesting tool, researchers used effectively, is letter writing. Write a letter from your future self to your present self.
Or you can write to your current self, note down about who you are and what is going on in your life. Chronicle your current struggles. Then reply from your future self to current self.
The idea is to connect with your future self through correspondence. It is better to be optimistic in the letter that you write to future self than being completely pessimistic.
The purpose of this exercise is not to view this process as if you are fixing things for your future self. It is more about being able to feel that the future self is real and it is going to be you.
It's not so much that it's going to be same person that you are now.
Even if you start imagining doing mundane stuff in the future. Like driving to work, or going to shop or talking with friends or doing chores in the household. Imagine vividly what it's going to feel like many years down the line.
Here is the Summary.
Self-discipline is the biggest human strength.
One of the biggest reason, people fail is due to lack of self-discipline.
Willpower can be increased.
Sleep well.
Practice forgiving yourself.
Cultivate mindfulness of your impulses and distractions.
Visualize the roadblocks and failures.
Practice connecting with your future self.
Hopefully you will be able to use all these techniques to increase your self-discipline.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7494813
It is not necessarily overhauling yourself, but it's still a change.
The whole reason of self-improvement is to improve upon what you are. Some of things are not working for you, because the necessary behavior is absent.
Or you just want to improve upon things. And you need new skills to achieve this improvement. Behavior change could also mean learning new skills.
When you learn new skill and actually apply new skills, the behavior change has taken place With this change, you exploit the benefits of the new skills.
So how does one change behavior? At the root of changing behavior is our capacity of self-discipline. This is also called self-control or willpower.
You can have all the knowledge in the world. But if you don't have the self-discipline to incorporate that knowledge in your behavior, the knowledge is of no use.
For example, you know that you are not supposed to do certain things. But if you do those things anyway, what is the point of the knowledge?
Personal development experts will tell you this: you have to set goals, divide tasks into sub tasks, prioritize tasks, write journals and have a positive attitude in spite of setbacks.
But if you don't have self-discipline to put all this advice into action, you won't succeed! And it may lead you to blame that expert advice doesn't work.
What is self-discipline though? It's the eternal conflict between the dual self. We always have a self who is conscious about long-term goals. He gets and remembers what is the right thing to do for us.
Then we have the other self which is impulsive and indulgent. This other self is always getting distracted towards the guilty pleasures that we should not explore. This other self is the one which blocks us from taking the initiative that we really should take.
The impulsive self is wanting a sweet treat, be lazy and just watch TV. While the better self is aware that those are bad things. And one should really be eating healthy in general, exercising and focusing on making that phone call and writing that journal.
At the deepest level, the impulsive self is a primitive self, who is impulsive, craving and desires things. The better self, is our analytical self. This is the neo-cortex in action. This is the recent part of our brain which engages in complex functions. This part of the brain has big picture, it weighs different options and knows what is right versus wrong.
Who doesn't want success, good relationships, health and well-being? Who doesn't want to be happy? And all of these can be achieved through proper self-discipline.
The fundamental reasons, most people don't succeed even after reading books, taking courses and attending seminars, is the failure to exercise self-discipline and giving into the impulsive self.
The root of all personal problems lies the failure of self-discipline. The fundamental reason people are not able to achieve success is because of them not able to keep up self-discipline.
Self-discipline is the biggest human strength.
You may wonder, if it's possible to increase self-discipline.
And the answer is a resounding YES.
One can definitely increase the levels of willpower he or she possesses.
Willpower is a limited resource. In other words self-discipline will deplete. Right after exercising self-discipline, your willpower will deplete and if you later have to exercise your willpower, you don't do that well.
Yet if you practice self-discipline over and over, it improves. This may sound counterintuitive. We just said that using willpower depletes it, but on the other hand we are saying that using it over and over, improves it.
The best analogy to understand this is that of muscle. Right after use, muscle is fatigued and painful. But if you keep exercising repeatedly, your muscle strength and tone improves.
If you intentionally practice self-discipline again and again, you'll build it up You will increase the level of self-discipline.
What are the ways to improve willpower?
Last decade of research in human psychology has revealed many ways in which one can improve the willpower or the self-discipline. A Stanford psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, identifies following four methods of improving the willpower.
Get enough sleep.
One of the most common ways to improve willpower is through more sleep.
Lack of sleep actually prevents us from operating at most willpower capacity. If we are sleep deprived, our prefrontal cortex doesn't activate enough, which means our restraining mind is not in action and we easily give in to the impulses.
It is important to get a good night's sleep. For most people 7 hours is what is required. If you haven't slept 7 hours and even if you don't feel sleepy, your cortex is still not working full capacity. Hence its very important to sleep 7 hours.
Meditation is one of the tools that can be effectively used to help with the increasing amount of sleep you can have.
Forgive yourself.
We are usually critical of ourselves. Especially when we have a setback, we tend to criticize us.
Scientists found that for reasons we don't fully understand yet, when we criticize ourselves or when we are harsh on ourselves for setbacks, we tend to repeat such setbacks or the indulgent behavior.
On the other hand when you forgive yourself for the setbacks, it seems to have an effect of preventing future relapses.
So learn to forgive yourself for setbacks along your journey.
Be mindful of distracting urges.
One of the most important tool for boosting self-discipline is the awareness of your urges and impulses.
If you can cultivate the mindful awareness of the distracting impulses, it becomes easier not to succumb.
When you're struck with a distracting impulse or craving that will spoil your goal, you have to become mindful of that impulse.
We feel different types of impulses. You may feel like procrastinating and you won't start reading the book. Or you may feel like delaying that important class registration. If your goal is to lose weight, you may feel the impulse to indulge in high calorie food.
Here is what you do.
Notice the feeling that you're experiencing. Observe the thought that is going through your mind. Notice the impulse. Observe the itch.
Become aware of the impulse. Feel the impulse, what is it? What is the feeling? Where is the feeling? Is it in certain part of the body?
Attend to this inner experience. Acknowledge the experience and then accept it. Don't try to run away from the experience. Face it head on and then accept it.
Once accepted, take a deep breath and pause. Give your body a chance to slow down and plan.
Once you have intimately observed the inner experience, bring your attention to your goal. Think of action that will help you achieve your goal.
This in essence is being mindful of your urge or impulse, then accepting it and moving on to what is the right thing to do.
This may be easier to do for food impulses. It is harder to be aware of your habit to put off things. But you can get better through practice.
Visualize the roadblocks.
Generally people believe that you've to imagine success to become a success. Run of the mill self-help gurus will tell you that you've to imagine success to achieve success and not failure.
But exhaustive research proves that, just imagining the success is not enough. Yes imagining success is a good idea. But a better idea is to regularly imagine failure! You may think that will prime you for failure, but that's what doesn't happen in practice.
One scientific study compared two groups of people. One group just visualized the end goals. They visualized achieving the end goal.
Another group visualized the end goal along with the process of going through the journey to achieve success. The visualized ups and down of the process, they visualized the incremental improvement and progress that they were making along the journey.
The group that visualized the journey as well, was twice more likely to achieve the actual results.
So the journey towards achieving the goal is more important than the goal itself.
What is that you are going to inevitably face along the journey? Lots of setbacks. And for a faint heart the setbacks will demoralize him and make him abandon his goal. There won't be just one setback, there will be plenty of them.
Failure is inevitable. And visualizing the failure prepares you for failure. After having repeatedly visualized failure along with the progress, when you're actually struck by the failure, it's no more a shock. You are already ready for it.
So everyday visualize the journey and visualize a failure.
Make friends with your future self.
We don't normally think a lot about what would happen to us in future. We don't visualize our future self. Apparently our perception of our future self could be very influential when it comes to willpower.
If you think of future self as being totally different from your current self, in other words if you completely dissociate your current self from your future self, the future self becomes like a stranger and you wouldn't care much about future self.
In such cases you don't bother to take care of future self as for all practical purposes future self is a stranger for you.
Different people have different perceptions about their future self. Some think of them more like their present self. Many think of their future self as very different.
The ability to disconnect from the long-term consequences of your choices primes you to be more impulsive. Even in the cases where choices are not relevant to future consequences.
In such cases, you become less attuned to your future concerns and plans. In reality we know that we need to take care of our future self. We need to save for retirement and we should take care of our future by taking care of our future self.
The key is how we can associate more with our future self? One interesting tool, researchers used effectively, is letter writing. Write a letter from your future self to your present self.
Or you can write to your current self, note down about who you are and what is going on in your life. Chronicle your current struggles. Then reply from your future self to current self.
The idea is to connect with your future self through correspondence. It is better to be optimistic in the letter that you write to future self than being completely pessimistic.
The purpose of this exercise is not to view this process as if you are fixing things for your future self. It is more about being able to feel that the future self is real and it is going to be you.
It's not so much that it's going to be same person that you are now.
Even if you start imagining doing mundane stuff in the future. Like driving to work, or going to shop or talking with friends or doing chores in the household. Imagine vividly what it's going to feel like many years down the line.
Here is the Summary.
Self-discipline is the biggest human strength.
One of the biggest reason, people fail is due to lack of self-discipline.
Willpower can be increased.
Sleep well.
Practice forgiving yourself.
Cultivate mindfulness of your impulses and distractions.
Visualize the roadblocks and failures.
Practice connecting with your future self.
Hopefully you will be able to use all these techniques to increase your self-discipline.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7494813
Thursday, 17 October 2019
Friday, 4 October 2019
Friday, 13 September 2019
Chatbots- A Blend of Increased Personalization Minus Robotic
Did you notice?
Some websites you land on greeting you with "Hello"? Most probably this has caught your eyes. This greet popping out through a little box in the corner is known as a chatbot.
Technically if I have to define chatbots then-
They bear the capacity to caricature human behavior of writing or speaking to go through the motions of a conversation or communication carried with a real person. Therefore they are also known as 'Conversational Agents.'
Do I need a chatbot?
Well, I will try to perk up your ears a bit by answering it as 'yes.'
Consider this scenario:
A consumer pays heed to your product. But before buying a particular product, a lot of questions are raised by the consumer to be sure about the decision of buying. By using a chatbot, these raised queries are answered immediately thus clearing their doubts and aiding them in jumping to the decision of making a purchase.
So what can you conclude with this?
Chatbots not only pop-out and greet your customers but also keep them engaged and satisfied which in turn escalates your conversions.
Customer Satisfaction? Sounds weird? Obviously No.
As Michael LeBoeuf quoted, "A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all," your business escalation completely depends on what your customer gets out of it.
Customers are impatient. They search for immediate solutions to their queries. With the advancement of technology, customers desire to be served 24/7 irrespective of their location.
Don't you believe me?
As per research, customers have the intention to pay more for a lighting speed customer service. Further, it is mentioned that customers who get solutions within five minutes or less were interested in paying almost $20 more for the same service.
This is the reason why brands have opted for a tailored chatbot for their business websites, blogs, applications, and software for speedy and quality-based customer support. Since it saves a lot of time, it becomes an advantage for any customer-centric organization. It is a bot and therefore, it will be faster than humans and will select, organize, and present the content faster with precision.
But how it would be creating a bond with the customers?
David Weinberger quoted, "Personalization is the automatic tailoring of sites and messages to the individuals viewing them so that we can feel somewhere there is a piece of software that love us for who we are."
I will simplify the cause of this quote.
Imagine you have an online store. If you were the customer who is searching for a product what would be handy for you? Browsing through various products and pages or simply they are brought to you straight?
Here the role of the bot comes into the picture with the touch of personalization.
The bots can interact with the customers to figure out about their requirements and provide them various options meeting their essentials. In other words, the customer experiences a personal touch as if he/she has owned a personal shopper.
Thus to conclude this, personalization creates a bond between the customer and the brand. And chatbot contributes to the bond between the consumer and the technology where Artificial Intelligence plays a key role. With such a personalization service, chatbots have a different persona which appears to be real.
If I need to state the benefits, in short, I would pen down the following points:
Aids in finding solutions
24/7 Availability
The talent of personification
It is fast and is ahead in terms of accuracy
Therefore companies providing quality chatbot development services always focus on personalization as it is the direct key to the customer satisfaction.
Have you worked on your to-dos as you are thinking to opt for a chatbot development?.
Communicative
Ability to solve the problems
Realistic
Precision
In good spirits, while answering the customers
Curious in learning about the needs of the customers
The solutions are relevant to the queries
Clear Cut and Crisp
Here are a few more points on how you can make your chatbot less robotic and more personalized:
Strategizing the UX to make it user-friendly
As mentioned earlier, we belong to an era where we desire the solutions on the go. For instance, you are in search of a restaurant nearby. Just command your device and restaurants matching your criteria is displayed.
Lost? Command verbally and your exact location is located.
Need a reminder? Your bot will do the work for you.
Want to remind others? Just write @(Person/team to be reminded) for the meeting at 2 pm.
A managed and well-organized bot life isn't it?
A Semblance for your Bot
Since the world of imagination is boundless, each of us has a different perspective towards the digital language. Each brand ties its goal around two important factors: User-satisfaction and Reputation. If you have visited any website of high-technology, they artistically use the exact character to serve as a typical example of their brand. Their chatbots initiate the communication with a tone of pertaining. For instance: "How may I help you?" and so on.
Thus I have shortlisted a few important check-list while creating a user-friendly interface:
Learn about Your User
The first thing that you need to research is what kind of conversation would attract your users. Whether a formal greet would do or an informal one would keep the user more engaged. Keep in mind the users' requirements and the queries they may raise regarding the same. You need to work upon the possible FAQs.
In short, create the bot's personality relevant to the users' needs.
One such example is Google. We all are aware that Google is a search engine. It provides a wide range of information. Therefore the interface of the bots resembles the same persona.
The Bot's Persona Should be a Clone of the Personality of your Brand
While building a bot, you have to wear the cap of the consumer and thus need to thoroughly study the psychology of the user. The aim of building a chatbot is only for the users. The usage of chatbots is by the users and then it is benefitted to the users. With the technical revolution, the connection between the humans and the automated program hasn't made a lot of lines but if we could break through this ṭedious situation of creating a fantastic program then we might be in a position to build more connections.
24/7 Availability is all that is needed!
Your customer satisfaction is decided upon the availability of your chatbot for addressing the queries of your customers instantly with accuracy and relevancy.
The Blend of Tone and Content is your Game Changer
If you ask me, I would love to talk with someone who has a calm, friendly, and helpful tone to address my speech. Therefore it is mandatory from the users' point of view that his problems or queries are resolved in a courteous manner with high priority.
For instance you may think to have the following set of confab conversation:
Power Tips:
Greet your customer. This is an ideal start to the conversation.
Avoid asking close-ended questions as the user might find reasons to skip them.
A desirable opening:
Hello!
How have you been doing?
Reply By the customer: Hey!
Change the Tone as if you are concerned about their visit
Do you need any help?
Reply By the customer: I am looking for a bell sleeve t-shirt within the range of $400. Can u help me find it?
Change the tone as you are happy to help the customer
Happy to help you!
Reply By the customer:Thanks!
Change the tone as if you are happy to resolve the query
Here are the best deals on bell sleeve t-shirts within the range of $400.
Reply By the customer:Oh, thank you so much!
I Think I can go with it.
By the Bot
I think you have got the right deals.
Wrapping Up!
The chatbot is a revolutionary technology and blending it with AI makes it deadly. Therefore, the companies offering Chatbot Development Services are trying hands on it with innovations. It has a wide scope in the field of customer service thus optimizing the customer experience worldwide. Chatbots are making interaction convenient for the users.
Article Source: https://www.articlecube.com/chatbots-blend-increased-personalization-minus-robotic
Some websites you land on greeting you with "Hello"? Most probably this has caught your eyes. This greet popping out through a little box in the corner is known as a chatbot.
Technically if I have to define chatbots then-
They bear the capacity to caricature human behavior of writing or speaking to go through the motions of a conversation or communication carried with a real person. Therefore they are also known as 'Conversational Agents.'
Do I need a chatbot?
Well, I will try to perk up your ears a bit by answering it as 'yes.'
Consider this scenario:
A consumer pays heed to your product. But before buying a particular product, a lot of questions are raised by the consumer to be sure about the decision of buying. By using a chatbot, these raised queries are answered immediately thus clearing their doubts and aiding them in jumping to the decision of making a purchase.
So what can you conclude with this?
Chatbots not only pop-out and greet your customers but also keep them engaged and satisfied which in turn escalates your conversions.
Customer Satisfaction? Sounds weird? Obviously No.
As Michael LeBoeuf quoted, "A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all," your business escalation completely depends on what your customer gets out of it.
Customers are impatient. They search for immediate solutions to their queries. With the advancement of technology, customers desire to be served 24/7 irrespective of their location.
Don't you believe me?
As per research, customers have the intention to pay more for a lighting speed customer service. Further, it is mentioned that customers who get solutions within five minutes or less were interested in paying almost $20 more for the same service.
This is the reason why brands have opted for a tailored chatbot for their business websites, blogs, applications, and software for speedy and quality-based customer support. Since it saves a lot of time, it becomes an advantage for any customer-centric organization. It is a bot and therefore, it will be faster than humans and will select, organize, and present the content faster with precision.
But how it would be creating a bond with the customers?
David Weinberger quoted, "Personalization is the automatic tailoring of sites and messages to the individuals viewing them so that we can feel somewhere there is a piece of software that love us for who we are."
I will simplify the cause of this quote.
Imagine you have an online store. If you were the customer who is searching for a product what would be handy for you? Browsing through various products and pages or simply they are brought to you straight?
Here the role of the bot comes into the picture with the touch of personalization.
The bots can interact with the customers to figure out about their requirements and provide them various options meeting their essentials. In other words, the customer experiences a personal touch as if he/she has owned a personal shopper.
Thus to conclude this, personalization creates a bond between the customer and the brand. And chatbot contributes to the bond between the consumer and the technology where Artificial Intelligence plays a key role. With such a personalization service, chatbots have a different persona which appears to be real.
If I need to state the benefits, in short, I would pen down the following points:
Aids in finding solutions
24/7 Availability
The talent of personification
It is fast and is ahead in terms of accuracy
Therefore companies providing quality chatbot development services always focus on personalization as it is the direct key to the customer satisfaction.
Have you worked on your to-dos as you are thinking to opt for a chatbot development?.
Communicative
Ability to solve the problems
Realistic
Precision
In good spirits, while answering the customers
Curious in learning about the needs of the customers
The solutions are relevant to the queries
Clear Cut and Crisp
Here are a few more points on how you can make your chatbot less robotic and more personalized:
Strategizing the UX to make it user-friendly
As mentioned earlier, we belong to an era where we desire the solutions on the go. For instance, you are in search of a restaurant nearby. Just command your device and restaurants matching your criteria is displayed.
Lost? Command verbally and your exact location is located.
Need a reminder? Your bot will do the work for you.
Want to remind others? Just write @(Person/team to be reminded) for the meeting at 2 pm.
A managed and well-organized bot life isn't it?
A Semblance for your Bot
Since the world of imagination is boundless, each of us has a different perspective towards the digital language. Each brand ties its goal around two important factors: User-satisfaction and Reputation. If you have visited any website of high-technology, they artistically use the exact character to serve as a typical example of their brand. Their chatbots initiate the communication with a tone of pertaining. For instance: "How may I help you?" and so on.
Thus I have shortlisted a few important check-list while creating a user-friendly interface:
Learn about Your User
The first thing that you need to research is what kind of conversation would attract your users. Whether a formal greet would do or an informal one would keep the user more engaged. Keep in mind the users' requirements and the queries they may raise regarding the same. You need to work upon the possible FAQs.
In short, create the bot's personality relevant to the users' needs.
One such example is Google. We all are aware that Google is a search engine. It provides a wide range of information. Therefore the interface of the bots resembles the same persona.
The Bot's Persona Should be a Clone of the Personality of your Brand
While building a bot, you have to wear the cap of the consumer and thus need to thoroughly study the psychology of the user. The aim of building a chatbot is only for the users. The usage of chatbots is by the users and then it is benefitted to the users. With the technical revolution, the connection between the humans and the automated program hasn't made a lot of lines but if we could break through this ṭedious situation of creating a fantastic program then we might be in a position to build more connections.
24/7 Availability is all that is needed!
Your customer satisfaction is decided upon the availability of your chatbot for addressing the queries of your customers instantly with accuracy and relevancy.
The Blend of Tone and Content is your Game Changer
If you ask me, I would love to talk with someone who has a calm, friendly, and helpful tone to address my speech. Therefore it is mandatory from the users' point of view that his problems or queries are resolved in a courteous manner with high priority.
For instance you may think to have the following set of confab conversation:
Power Tips:
Greet your customer. This is an ideal start to the conversation.
Avoid asking close-ended questions as the user might find reasons to skip them.
A desirable opening:
Hello!
How have you been doing?
Reply By the customer: Hey!
Change the Tone as if you are concerned about their visit
Do you need any help?
Reply By the customer: I am looking for a bell sleeve t-shirt within the range of $400. Can u help me find it?
Change the tone as you are happy to help the customer
Happy to help you!
Reply By the customer:Thanks!
Change the tone as if you are happy to resolve the query
Here are the best deals on bell sleeve t-shirts within the range of $400.
Reply By the customer:Oh, thank you so much!
I Think I can go with it.
By the Bot
I think you have got the right deals.
Wrapping Up!
The chatbot is a revolutionary technology and blending it with AI makes it deadly. Therefore, the companies offering Chatbot Development Services are trying hands on it with innovations. It has a wide scope in the field of customer service thus optimizing the customer experience worldwide. Chatbots are making interaction convenient for the users.
Article Source: https://www.articlecube.com/chatbots-blend-increased-personalization-minus-robotic
Sunday, 8 September 2019
Saturday, 7 September 2019
Friday, 6 September 2019
Artificial Intelligence Chatbot: Your Virtual Help Desk That Can Satisfy Customer Queries Instantly
The word Artificial intelligence chatbot has been around for some time but is gaining recognition and popularity very recently. It is actually an advanced automated chat system that has a knowledge of almost thousands words or even more and integrates memories as well as emotions. It even has in built sentence structure capacity. Now, how does it help consumers or businesses? Most online customers are very impatient and always seem to be in a hurry while putting forward their queries or demands to organizations and online businesses. It has been observed that most of the time they need immediate answers from the online support system and in fact prefer getting it within a day or sometimes even within a few hours.
The artificial intelligence chatbot has a virtual help desk that helps the concerned company to provide answers immediately; that too 24X7. Customers can chat with this system anytime and from any location of the world and get instant replies. No need to wait for a live support person to answer because at times human beings do need a break; might be very busy and customers have to stay on hold or might not have immediate answers to a particular question. However, there is no such thing with the computer generated automated chat system. No matter what type of business you have and whether your company is providing services or product; an automated chat will help turn almost all your visitors into future customers very quickly because of the prompt response. These are actually virtual help desks that smart and intelligent enough to find out the likings of consumers and help them navigate and find the right product or services, answer their queries is the best possible way and meet their urgent requirements.
An artificial intelligence chatbot has helped numerous organizations to get more business, increase sales and also make necessary improvements. If you are running a business then resorting to such a system can immensely help you to upgrade your services and make your present as well as future customers really satisfied. This live chat system or virtual help desk is very flexible and can fit in any of the existing system properly. Later on, an executive who takes care of the automated chat system will easily understand the changes that are needed for a specific customer.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5811326
The artificial intelligence chatbot has a virtual help desk that helps the concerned company to provide answers immediately; that too 24X7. Customers can chat with this system anytime and from any location of the world and get instant replies. No need to wait for a live support person to answer because at times human beings do need a break; might be very busy and customers have to stay on hold or might not have immediate answers to a particular question. However, there is no such thing with the computer generated automated chat system. No matter what type of business you have and whether your company is providing services or product; an automated chat will help turn almost all your visitors into future customers very quickly because of the prompt response. These are actually virtual help desks that smart and intelligent enough to find out the likings of consumers and help them navigate and find the right product or services, answer their queries is the best possible way and meet their urgent requirements.
An artificial intelligence chatbot has helped numerous organizations to get more business, increase sales and also make necessary improvements. If you are running a business then resorting to such a system can immensely help you to upgrade your services and make your present as well as future customers really satisfied. This live chat system or virtual help desk is very flexible and can fit in any of the existing system properly. Later on, an executive who takes care of the automated chat system will easily understand the changes that are needed for a specific customer.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5811326
Thursday, 5 September 2019
Should Your Small Business Use ECommerce Chatbots?
Conversation is a core part of the buying process, whether you're asking the wine clerk what red she recommends or messaging a store owner on Facebook to see if they sell gift cards.
I'm sure you've visited a website and had a chat box pop up, asking if you needed help or offering to start a conversation. Chances are, the "person" with whom you're speaking isn't human.
A chatbot allows business owners to provide responses and solutions - and even generate leads and sales - 24/7 through automated customer service live chat. According to IBM, up to 80% of routine customer service questions could be answered by a chatbot.
There are two types of chatbots:
1. Those that rely on rules and can only accept/respond in limited ways.
2. Those that use artificial intelligence to employ sophisticated algorithms to accept/respond.
One of the areas we'll see this tech more and more in is healthcare. While nothing will replace a professional - especially in an emergency - it's convenient and fast to ask a bot a simple question about a cold or what medications interact with breastfeeding.
Here's an example: Florence is a popular online personal health assistant. "She" has become focused on two main features: health tracking and medication reminders. All users have to do is start a chat with her in Facebook Messenger, Kik or Skype and she'll jump in.
Now, let's take a look at three pros of conversational commerce:
1. Fast responses, multiple options. You're able to answer queries ultra-fast and this type of interaction is possible on a wide range of platforms including Facebook Messenger, SMS, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple Business Chat and WeChat.
2. Money, money, money. You don't need to work late responding to questions and you don't need to pay employees to respond to every interaction. If you want to sell through your bot people can purchase your product or service anytime, anywhere.
3. You automatically gather data. eCommerce chatbots collect data so you can offer a more personalized experience each time someone communicates with your brand. And, you gain lots of valuable insight on your users' needs, pain points and buying habits.
Caption: Domino's uses a wide variety of tools to allow pizza lovers to rapidly order, pay and track their food.
Let's balance that out with three cons:
1. They can't replace humans. Especially in the medical and legal fields, there's a concern that patients may use these technologies instead of seeking professional help. Also, you shouldn't use conversational commerce as your only form of customer service. Your clients should be able to connect with a live person, at least during your regular business hours.
2. Misunderstandings can happen. The problem is with natural language understanding, which is the ability to determine intent. Bots aren't as skilled at understanding us as our fellow humans are - at least not yet. Customers will get frustrated with eCommerce chatbots that don't work well and will take their business to a competitor.
3. They're not right for every situation. It's true that many companies can benefit from this ever-changing technology, but don't try and force it. If your services are too complex to map out in AI chat or require thorough consultations, a chatbot probably won't help lead-qualifying efforts or sales.
Chatbots are far from perfect, and while they'll certainly advance going forward, you don't want to alienate customers now. By understanding the pros and cons, you can ensure you're making the best chat-choice for your business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10075504
I'm sure you've visited a website and had a chat box pop up, asking if you needed help or offering to start a conversation. Chances are, the "person" with whom you're speaking isn't human.
A chatbot allows business owners to provide responses and solutions - and even generate leads and sales - 24/7 through automated customer service live chat. According to IBM, up to 80% of routine customer service questions could be answered by a chatbot.
There are two types of chatbots:
1. Those that rely on rules and can only accept/respond in limited ways.
2. Those that use artificial intelligence to employ sophisticated algorithms to accept/respond.
One of the areas we'll see this tech more and more in is healthcare. While nothing will replace a professional - especially in an emergency - it's convenient and fast to ask a bot a simple question about a cold or what medications interact with breastfeeding.
Here's an example: Florence is a popular online personal health assistant. "She" has become focused on two main features: health tracking and medication reminders. All users have to do is start a chat with her in Facebook Messenger, Kik or Skype and she'll jump in.
Now, let's take a look at three pros of conversational commerce:
1. Fast responses, multiple options. You're able to answer queries ultra-fast and this type of interaction is possible on a wide range of platforms including Facebook Messenger, SMS, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple Business Chat and WeChat.
2. Money, money, money. You don't need to work late responding to questions and you don't need to pay employees to respond to every interaction. If you want to sell through your bot people can purchase your product or service anytime, anywhere.
3. You automatically gather data. eCommerce chatbots collect data so you can offer a more personalized experience each time someone communicates with your brand. And, you gain lots of valuable insight on your users' needs, pain points and buying habits.
Caption: Domino's uses a wide variety of tools to allow pizza lovers to rapidly order, pay and track their food.
Let's balance that out with three cons:
1. They can't replace humans. Especially in the medical and legal fields, there's a concern that patients may use these technologies instead of seeking professional help. Also, you shouldn't use conversational commerce as your only form of customer service. Your clients should be able to connect with a live person, at least during your regular business hours.
2. Misunderstandings can happen. The problem is with natural language understanding, which is the ability to determine intent. Bots aren't as skilled at understanding us as our fellow humans are - at least not yet. Customers will get frustrated with eCommerce chatbots that don't work well and will take their business to a competitor.
3. They're not right for every situation. It's true that many companies can benefit from this ever-changing technology, but don't try and force it. If your services are too complex to map out in AI chat or require thorough consultations, a chatbot probably won't help lead-qualifying efforts or sales.
Chatbots are far from perfect, and while they'll certainly advance going forward, you don't want to alienate customers now. By understanding the pros and cons, you can ensure you're making the best chat-choice for your business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10075504
End Customer Frustration With Chatbots
Businesses that put chatbots instead of human customer service representatives in front of their customers have a good reason for doing so.
Although nothing beats the human touch, so to speak, a chatbot is more than capable of giving every customer what they want-a direct answer to their question.
If you've been running an online store for quite some time, you would know for a fact that you can never teach a customer to be patient.
They get frustrated every time their call is placed on hold for too long or their question is not answered immediately.
Still, the fact remains that they keep you in business, so you have to make sure that their issues are resolved fast.
Your customer support team don't work round the clock, but even then your customers expect immediate answers to their queries or concerns.
What do customers think of a bot?
More than 50% of online shoppers in the UK are considering using a chatbot.
They have no qualms about relying on this artificial intelligence (A.I) powered application to understand a brand better, especially if a bot can answer their questions accurately.
Close to 40% of them even said they will gladly use A.I., if it were available on a website, to buy clothes; think eBay ShopBot.
From their standpoint, there is not much difference between talking to a chatbot and a real person-if anything, it's going to improve their online experience.
However, buyers of high-value products like jewellery and cars see a big difference between a human customer service rep and a bot that simulates human conversation.
This group of cautious shoppers prefer to have someone walk them through their journey and answer their questions in detail.
Three reasons why you need a chatbot
Because they recognise and react to human speech, chatbots come in very handy in the day-to-day operations of a business.
They are programmed to analyse customer data, hence an excellent tool for addressing frequently asked questions on your site, which in turn could increase your sales.
Hiring and training new employees to be in your company's frontliner will cost you more than it does making a chatbot.
This is not to say you shouldn't hire people anymore; nothing can replace the human empathy.
We're all for skilled individuals, but combining their talents with A.I. is a smart way to advance your business.
Whether you're an online start-up company or a seasoned eCommerce entrepreneur, the list below explains how using a chatbot can benefit your business.
#1 Chatbots work 24/7.
#2 They can respond quickly to simple questions.
#3 You can program a chatbot to forward a difficult question from a customer to yourself, or to your members of staff, in a timely manner.
Chatbots are, no doubt, among the latest communication tools that you should take advantage of for your eCommerce business.
Fusing their efficiency with your customer support's interpersonal skills is surely going to make your customers happy, which is tantamount to higher sales.
Are you considering a chatbot support system for your website?
Online sellers don't be left behind. Multichannel marketing is the quickest route to reach your customers. UnderstandingE offers tutorials on Magento, M2E Pro, Magmi and other eCommerce tools that allow you to sell and earn more on Amazon, eBay and your own website.
See you there!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9713334
Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Tiny Agents of Success: Chatbots
Chatbots are gaining popularity in all the sectors of Service Industry. A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversations, they are powered by Artificial Intelligence.
Organizations are adopting chatbots to provide customer support and work as knowledge assistants and business advisors. The insurance industry and chatbots go hand in hand. Insurance chatbots are helping the organizations to simplify communication processes and sell products and services. Millennials want everything instant and simple, and that's exactly what a bot for insurance does.
Insurance chatbots provide a simple platform to access information related to insurance and reach the millennial through the medium they are most accustomed to. Nowadays, insurance products are complex and have many variations. Insurance policies are often customized according to an individual's requirements, chatbots eliminate human involvement and fasten the process. Chatbots reduce the manpower in call centers, which helps the organization to cut down on overhead expenses.
Insurance organizations can deploy chatbots for several functions, some of them are:
• Marketing: Chatbots can be used to launch new campaigns to support new products, and services. Chatbots basically help insurers to market their brand.
• Information Assistance: Chatbots can be used pre-sales agents as they can educate customers on insurance products and services.
• Simple Claim Process: Insurance chatbots can help a customer to register the first notice of loss, schedule the survey appointment for the field adjuster, offer loss prevention recommendations, arrange emergency assistance during accidents, and offer pre and post disaster help.
• Customer Support: Insurance chatbots are an ideal customer support, as they offer 24X7 availability and an easy to use user interface. They can engage in natural conversations as they are more like humans.
They offer solutions to customer queries and help customers to choose the products and tailor them to their specific needs. They also remind customers about premium payments that are due and renewals. With the advent of Chatbots, an increase in human-machine interactions can be seen. Since these interactions are in a simple conversational language, Chatbots have made a drastic change in the customer service domain.
Insurance chatbots improve employee productivity as chatbots let them focus on more complex and important activities. Chatbots are helping organisations to achieve maximised customer experience and make the interactions more personalised. Chatbots offer quick and relevant access to information.
The way chatbots are transforming Insurance Industry, it is certain that chatbots are here to stay. To scale your insurance business, deploy an Insurance chatbot today. Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/9705357
Organizations are adopting chatbots to provide customer support and work as knowledge assistants and business advisors. The insurance industry and chatbots go hand in hand. Insurance chatbots are helping the organizations to simplify communication processes and sell products and services. Millennials want everything instant and simple, and that's exactly what a bot for insurance does.
Insurance chatbots provide a simple platform to access information related to insurance and reach the millennial through the medium they are most accustomed to. Nowadays, insurance products are complex and have many variations. Insurance policies are often customized according to an individual's requirements, chatbots eliminate human involvement and fasten the process. Chatbots reduce the manpower in call centers, which helps the organization to cut down on overhead expenses.
Insurance organizations can deploy chatbots for several functions, some of them are:
• Marketing: Chatbots can be used to launch new campaigns to support new products, and services. Chatbots basically help insurers to market their brand.
• Information Assistance: Chatbots can be used pre-sales agents as they can educate customers on insurance products and services.
• Simple Claim Process: Insurance chatbots can help a customer to register the first notice of loss, schedule the survey appointment for the field adjuster, offer loss prevention recommendations, arrange emergency assistance during accidents, and offer pre and post disaster help.
• Customer Support: Insurance chatbots are an ideal customer support, as they offer 24X7 availability and an easy to use user interface. They can engage in natural conversations as they are more like humans.
They offer solutions to customer queries and help customers to choose the products and tailor them to their specific needs. They also remind customers about premium payments that are due and renewals. With the advent of Chatbots, an increase in human-machine interactions can be seen. Since these interactions are in a simple conversational language, Chatbots have made a drastic change in the customer service domain.
Insurance chatbots improve employee productivity as chatbots let them focus on more complex and important activities. Chatbots are helping organisations to achieve maximised customer experience and make the interactions more personalised. Chatbots offer quick and relevant access to information.
The way chatbots are transforming Insurance Industry, it is certain that chatbots are here to stay. To scale your insurance business, deploy an Insurance chatbot today. Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/9705357
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