In today’s digital age, chatbots have become a popular tool for businesses to deliver efficient, personalized, and round-the-clock customer service. By leveraging chatbots’ conversational abilities, businesses can enhance customer experiences, increase engagement, and improve customer support. In this article, we will introduce you to some of the best customer service chatbots available in the market that can help take your business to the next level. So, let’s dive in and discover the top chatbots for providing the best customer service!
Table of Contents
What are customer service chatbots?
Customer service chatbots are automated software programs designed to interact with customers in a conversational manner. These chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to simulate human conversation and provide customer support. They can be integrated on websites, mobile apps, messaging platforms, and other digital channels to provide quick and efficient assistance to customers. Consider the best chatbots for customer service can help your business to reduce response times, improve customer satisfaction, and handle a large volume of inquiries and requests 24/7.
Why should all businesses have customer service chatbots?
All businesses should have the best customer service chatbots for the following reasons:
Always available: Customer service chatbots are available 24/7 and can provide instant support to customers. This helps businesses to provide a better customer experience and increase customer satisfaction.
Cost-effective: Customer service chatbots can handle a large volume of inquiries and requests without the need for human resources. This reduces the cost of customer support and allows businesses to allocate resources elsewhere.
Consistent: Customer service chatbots provide consistent support to customers as they follow predefined rules and respond in a uniform manner. This helps businesses maintain a high standard of customer service.
Time-saving: Customer service chatbots can handle routine inquiries and requests quickly, freeing up time for human agents to focus on more complex tasks that require empathy and critical thinking skills.
Scalable: Customer service chatbots can be scaled up or down based on the volume of inquiries and requests. This provides businesses with the flexibility to manage their customer support operations efficiently.
What can you use customer service chatbots for?
Before getting to know the best customer service chatbots, you need to know about the purpose of using customer service chatbot in your business. In general, customer service chatbots can be used for various tasks, from answering simple questions to providing more advanced support. They can help businesses provide seamless customer experiences, reduce workload and costs, and improve customer satisfaction. Businesses can use best customer service chatbots for many different purposes, such as:
Answering FAQs: Customer service chatbots can be programmed to provide answers to frequently asked questions, such as business hours, product information, and pricing. This helps customers get quick answers to their queries.
Order tracking: Customer service chatbots can provide order tracking information to customers, such as order status and shipment tracking numbers. This helps customers keep track of their orders and reduces the workload of customer support teams.
Appointment scheduling: Customer service chatbots can help customers book appointments, such as scheduling a meeting with a sales representative or booking a service appointment.
Technical support: Customer service chatbots can provide technical support to customers, such as troubleshooting issues with software or hardware. This can help customers solve their problems quickly.
Feedback collection: Customer service chatbots can help businesses collect feedback from customers, such as product feedback, customer satisfaction surveys, or net promoter score (NPS) surveys. This helps businesses to gather insights and improve their products and services.
11 best customer service chatbots by pros and cons
Swifty
Swifty is one of the best customer service chatbots that is designed to assist businesses with providing efficient customer support. In addition, Swifty is extremely simple to set up and takes less than two minutes to complete. Here are some of the pros and cons of using Swifty:
Pros
Cons
Easy to use: Swifty is easy to implement into a website or mobile app, and customers can quickly get started with using the chatbot.
Fast and efficient: Swifty can handle a high volume of customer inquiries at once, reducing the response time for customers.
Customizable: Swifty can be customized to fit the specific needs of a business, including changing the appearance and the types of questions it can answer.
Cost-effective: Swifty can help businesses save on staffing costs by automating simple customer service tasks.
Limited capability: Swifty may not be able to handle more complex customer inquiries or problems, such as technical issues or complex problems with products.
Lack of personalization: While Swifty can provide personalized responses based on customer inquiries, it may not be able to offer the same level of personalization as a human customer service representative.
Inability to provide empathy: Swifty may not be able to provide empathy to customers who are experiencing frustration or other problems.
Initial development costs: The initial development costs to implement Swifty may be too high for some businesses.
MobileMonkey
MobileMonkey is a chatbot platform that enables web chat, live chat, SMS and Facebook Messenger bots, as well as omnichannel marketing. The platform is unique among other best customer service chatbots in that it provides solutions that are appropriate for both small business and enterprise-level clients, as well as marketing and customer support teams.
Pros
Cons
A comprehensive set of chatbot tools and automation.
Advanced support options are available through a mobile chat app.
Very simple to use for such a powerful platform.
Workflows and a chatbot builder.
Works across many channels (SMS, online chat, Messenger) and consolidates all discussions into a single inbox.
All options include an unlimited number of contacts and leads.
A sizable user base.
Because of new functionality, the user interface is frequently updated.
ItsAlive
ItsAlive is a chatbot development platform that allows you to quickly create chatbots and services. The platform employs “recipe” workflows and has a few other characteristics that set it apart from other chatbot platforms in the list of best customer service chatbots.
Pros
Cons
You can rapidly establish a discussion once you grasp the recipe workflow.
You can utilize the persistent menu option to build a menu that is always displayed to the user. This can be useful if the user wishes to return to a specific point in the bot or accidentally clicks and goes down the wrong conversational path.
The Unanswered Questions tab displays all of the questions that the bot was unable to answer.
A strong user interface that is simple to utilize.
A bird’s-eye view of your bots is one of the features that Visual Builder lacks but many other platforms offer.
Not being able to test your bots outside of Facebook Messenger.
Quite a few use cases are restricted due to the product’s almost exclusive focus on Facebook Messenger apps.
You must negotiate the price of the Enterprise plan in order to unlock the entire feature set.
Tidio
Tidio is a diverse features platform from the list of best customer service chatbots that provides businesses with multiple features to enhance their customer support services. Here are some of the pros and cons of Tidio:
Pros
Cons
Easy to use: Tidio is simple and user-friendly, making it easy to implement and manage a customer service chatbot.
Multichannel accessibility: Tidio can be accessed through multiple channels, including chat widgets, email, and Facebook Messenger.
Customizable: Tidio provides customizable chatbots, allowing businesses to modify the appearance of the widget and the types of questions it can answer.
Integrations: Tidio can integrate with various third-party apps and platforms, such as WordPress, Shopify, and Facebook.
Data analytics: Tidio provides detailed data analytics on chatbot usage, customer behavior, and customer interactions.
Affordable pricing: Tidio provides affordable pricing options, making it accessible for small and medium-sized businesses.
Limited capability: Tidio may not be able to handle more advanced customer inquiries or technical issues.
Language barriers: Tidio may not be able to respond in a customer’s native language, which can be a limitation for businesses with customers who speak multiple languages.
Lack of personalization: While Tidio provides some level of personalization, it may not offer the same level of personalization as human customer service representatives.
Security considerations: Tidio takes standard security measures, but businesses should carefully evaluate the platform’s security features to ensure protection of customer data.
Botsify
Among the best customer service chatbots, Botsify is a platform that allows businesses to develop chatbots without needing to code for Messenger, Slack, or a website. Botsify provides fully managed plans for larger businesses, and its technology is versatile enough to accommodate enterprise level clients.
Pros
Cons
Fast and simple bot setup
Fundamentals of machine learning
Simple analytics integrations facilitate the use of website data with chatbots
Advanced answers need dynamic API-based responses that are hardcoded.
Depending on the quantity of members, the price
Several contacts in the pricing scheme, but it quickly rises to $300/mo.
Just during the 14-day trial and with a single chatbot is the chat capture option free.
No features for multichannel marketing (Facebook Messenger only)
ManyChat
Manychat is a customer service chatbot platform that allows businesses to build, manage and optimize chatbots on Facebook Messenger, SMS and other channels. Overall, Manychat is an effective chatbot platform that provides businesses with a range of advanced features to enhance their customer support services. Just like other in the list of best customer service chatbots, despite some limitations, Manychat is an intuitive, affordable, and customizable solution for businesses looking to improve their customer support services.
Pros
Cons
Easy to use: Manychat provides an intuitive drag and drop interface that makes it easy to create and manage chatbots.
Multichannel accessibility: Manychat allows businesses to integrate with multiple messaging channels, including Facebook Messenger, SMS, and WhatsApp.
Customizable: Manychat allows businesses to customize their chatbots with a range of options, including buttons, quick replies, and integrations.
Advanced features: Manychat provides businesses with advanced features, such as conditional logic, A/B testing, and audience segmentation, that can help to improve the effectiveness of chatbots.
Integrations: Manychat integrates with many third-party apps, tools, and platforms, such as Zapier, Shopify, and WordPress.
Affordable pricing: Manychat provides affordable pricing options, making it accessible for small and medium-sized businesses.
Limited capabilities: Manychat may not be able to handle more complex customer inquiries or problems.
Technical issues: Manychat may experience technical issues or downtime, which can negatively impact customer support services.
Lack of personalization: While Manychat provides some level of personalization, it may not offer the same level of personalization as human customer service representatives.
Limited customer support: Manychat provides limited customer support, with customers mainly relying on online documentation and community forums for support.
DialogFlow
DialogFlow is a Google bot-building platform that allows people to interact with your product in new ways by creating compelling voice and text-based conversational interfaces. If you have the means to develop on their framework, it is one of the most powerful platforms on the market when it comes to the best customer service chatbots.
Pros
Cons
Natural language processing at its most advanced (NLP).
There are numerous marketing outlets to select from.
Google Assistant-friendly.
Machine learning capabilities that are exceptional
Without the ability to code, usage is limited.
There are only a few languages accessible.
Because of the emphasis on NLP, DialogFlow takes longer to set up and train than competing platforms.
There is no option for broadcasting (message blasting).
TARS
TARS is an AI-powered platform considered in the best customer service chatbots list that allows businesses to create, launch, and manage chatbots with advanced features. Overall, TARS is an intuitive and customizable solution for businesses seeking an AI-powered customer service chatbot. However, businesses should carefully evaluate their specific needs and budget before investing in TARS.
Pros
Cons
Easy to use: TARS provides an intuitive and easy-to-use platform that makes it easy to create and manage chatbots.
Advanced features: TARS provides businesses with advanced features such as conditional logic, integrations, and data analytics to help improve the effectiveness of chatbots.
Customizable: TARS allows businesses to customize their chatbots with a range of options, including branding and design.
Multichannel accessibility: TARS allows businesses to integrate chatbots with multiple messaging channels, including Facebook Messenger and SMS.
Integrations: TARS integrates with many third-party apps, tools, and platforms, such as Zapier, Google Sheets, and Mailchimp.
Technical issues: TARS may experience technical issues or downtime, which can negatively impact customer support services.
Limited capabilities: TARS may not be able to handle more complex customer inquiries or technical issues.
Lack of personalization: While TARS provides some level of personalization, it may not offer the same level of personalization as human customer service representatives.
Cost: TARS is relatively expensive compared to other chatbot platforms available in the market.
Engati
Engati is one of the best customer service chatbots that provides full customer service, automated sales and marketing, and intelligent human resource management.
Pros
Cons
Platform is code-free and works with Slack, KiK, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and other platforms.
Powerful JSON Rest API integration framework with lots of out-of-the-box connectors.
Omnichannel refers to the ability to create a single bot and deploy it across more than 14 channels, such as web chat, mobile devices, and social media.
To benefit from live chat, the automatic FAQ builder, voice conversations, and data retention, you must upgrade to the Enterprise level pricing.
Not like the other best customer service chatbots, Engati’s starting out is challenging, and there aren’t many tutorials or resources available to assist.
SmartLoop
SmartLoop is a popular platform in the list of best customer service chatbots provided by the Pinterest social media platform. It allows businesses to create, launch, and manage chatbots to automate customer support for their Pinterest accounts.
Pros
Cons
Automated messaging: SmartLoop provides businesses with an automated messaging feature, allowing chatbots to respond to customer inquiries quickly.
Customizable: SmartLoop allows businesses to customize their chatbots with a range of options, including messaging templates, response frequency, and timing.
Multichannel accessibility: SmartLoop allows businesses to integrate their chatbots with Pinterest messaging, Facebook Messenger, and email.
Simple setup: SmartLoop provides a simple setup process, with chatbots ready to go with minimal configuration needed.
Automatic follow-up: SmartLoop provides a follow-up feature that can automatically message customers who have not responded in a set time frame.
Limited functionality: SmartLoop is limited to Pinterest accounts and Pinterest messaging, meaning it may not be suitable for businesses seeking chatbot support on other channels.
Limited integrations: SmartLoop only integrates with a small number of third-party tools, such as Google Analytics and Hootsuite.
Lack of personalization: While SmartLoop provides customers with automated messaging, it may not offer the same level of personalization as human customer service representatives.
Limited capabilities: SmartLoop’s capabilities may be limited to handling simple customer inquiries and may not be suitable for more advanced customer support needs.
Kayako
Kayako’s live chat software is the most effective way to give real-time customer service support that effortlessly engages visitors and converts prospects into leads every business can pull in the list of the best customer service chatbots.
Pros
Cons
Native assistance desk integration
Agent routing for live chat
Several integrations
Tracking and analysis of customer activity
Utilizes specialized reporting languages, such as SQL, which requires you to learn
Very few integration possibilities
A great deal of intricacy not present on other platforms
In conclusion, customer service chatbots have revolutionized the way businesses interact with their customers, offering instant support and improving the overall customer service experience. This article has reviewed 11 of the best customer service chatbot platforms, outlining their pros and cons to help businesses evaluate which one would be the best fit for them. While each platform has its advantages and limitations, it’s important to carefully consider your business demands and budget before making a decision on the best customer service chatbot.
I have over 15 years experience in software development and IT systems.
I have been working in Telecom industry for 12 years with many big systems: Billing, Customer Management, Sales Management, Customer Profile Management, Omni-channel with Chat Bot, Smart IVR with Text to speech, Event management and Suggestion Management.
