Winston-Salem, NC, Dec. 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inmar, a data-driven technology-enabled services company, today announced a survey finding an untapped opportunity among consumer interaction with chatbots. Consumer interactions with chatbots remain in their infancy, with most individuals (90.1 percent) reporting that they have never interacted with a chatbot. This rings true across males and females at 90.6 percent and 91.2 percent, respectively. However, the survey found that among the consumers that have interacted with chatbot technology there were significant differences in views and interactions with chatbots across gender and age segments.
Over the past several years artificial intelligence and machine learning have transformed chatbot technology, yet many brands have been slow to capitalize on these technological advancements. Brands have an opportunity to change this by getting in front of the age segments that have already proved to be ahead of the curve and do more to entice those in the other demographics that haven’t yet fully embraced chatbot interactions. This presents a great opportunity for brands to build on early successes, understand the nuances across demographics, and improve the customer experience to ultimately stand out amongst the competition.
Unsurprisingly, of those who have interacted with a chatbot, most individuals (37 percent) were looking to contact customer service or had a question about the product. This remains uniform across genders, with 37 percent of men and 39 percent of women indicating this as the reason they decided to interact with a brand’s chatbot. Other less common reasons include reaching out to receive a rebate, free product or recommendation. Among the more notable findings, men aged 18-24 were found to be the most likely age range to purchase a product from within a conversation (30 percent), while women aged 45-54 were the most likely among females (29 percent).
Brands should continue to develop chatbots as a method for customer service but also should look for ways to expand to other purposes to encourage interactions. This includes encouraging chatbot interactions across channels. While individuals are most comfortable communicating with a brand directly through their website, the survey found that they are warming up to alternative channels like Facebook, Instagram and SMS.
The recent survey from Inmar also investigated other trends in chatbot interactions. Highlights include:
- Men aged 35-44 have had the most interaction with chatbots; that same age group is the highest percentage of men that found those interactions to be helpful (31 percent).
- Men and women aged 55-64 were significantly more positive about their interactions with chatbots, with 36 percent finding their interactions with chatbots to be helpful.
- More than one-third of individuals (34 percent) said they would be willing to have multiple conversations with a chatbot if there were to receive rebates, discounts, or free samples. Males (36 percent) are slightly more open to this type of conversation than females (34 percent).
- Among those willing to have multiple conversations for a promotional incentive, women aged 55-64 are the most willing to interact with chatbots (38 percent), while men aged 25-34 were the most willing to interact with chatbots (40 percent).
“Brands have an incredible opportunity to capitalize on a relatively nascent market when it comes to chatbots,” said Greg Kerr, Chief Technology and Product Officer, Inmar. “Chatbots have improved immeasurably over the past few years and human-like chatbot interactions have become possible with new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. These findings demonstrate that brands have enormous potential to implement chatbots for their consumers, learn from early successes, and cater to preferences across gender and age demographics.”
For more information on Inmar’s Gratafy Messaging Platform, please visit https://www.inmar.com/conversational-commerce.
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About Inmar
Commerce Accelerated.™
Inmar helps leading Fortune 500 companies and emerging brands stay relevant and propel growth while providing their consumers with personalized and precision-driven tools to save money, improve health and safety, and more conveniently go about their lives. Inmar’s holistic portfolio of media products enables advertisers to access a variety of intelligent tools, including its influencer media platform, conversational commerce (chat-based media), audience extension and on-site digital media for retail. As a trusted intermediary for over 35 years, Inmar has served retailers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, government and employers as their trusted intermediary and helped them redefine innovation.
For more information about Inmar, please follow Inmar on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook, or call (866) 440-6917. Inmar has unmatched access to billions of consumer and business transactions in real-time.
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holly.pavlika@inmar.com