Mobile app vc chatbot

Most of the time, users spend only five favorite applications and one of them is  messenger.

Sooner or later, all B2C companies come to the decision to increase communication with the client. And at this moment, the question may arise: “What to choose: a mobile application or a chatbot?”. To answer this question, you need to compare both products.

Mobile apps

• Interface. The mobile application is convenient, thoughtful and functional.

• Development period. The mobile application is developed within 3-6 months.

• Development cost. Much higher than chatbots.

• Privacy Policy. By installing the mobile application, the client meets the privacy policy. Chatbots do not provide such agreements.

• Trust level. Before installing the mobile app  the client can study the reviews, evaluate the visual design and rating.

• Personalization. The mobile application generates personal offers and saves the activity history.

• Uniqueness and flexibility. Settings (visual design, sections, security levels, history) provide ease and comfort of use, taking into account the individual requirements and specifics of the business and its audience.

• Device support. Mobile apps may not be supported on new or older devices, or will generate errors.

• Relevance. The ability to update and refine applications allows you to maintain its relevance and relevance. Refinement of external design, architecture, addition of new services and functions allows us to keep up with the times and take into account the opinion of users.

Chatbots

• Development time: from 1 week.

• Development cost. Much lower than mobile apps.

• Installation. The chatbot does not require installation, you can simply add it to the messenger and use it right away.

• Updates. The bot does not need to be constantly updated, unlike applications.

• Free place. Bots do not take up phone memory and desktop space.

• Templates. There are services where you can create a chatbot from a template in 1 day by paying for a subscription.

• Natural interaction. Adding a bot, like adding a new acquaintance, to your contact list is a simple and natural step. This can be a very important benefit for small businesses - people won't download a separate small business app, but can add their chatbots. For large companies, “communication” with a chatbot allows a person to feel contact with the brand, creates a sense of dialogue.

Differences between a mobile app and a chatbot

A chatbot and a mobile app complement each other perfectly, performing different functions and reaching different audiences.

Miscellaneous functionality

Bots cannot always provide all the functionality that an application provides.

1. In the application of a famous taxi you can immediately see if there are free cars nearby. Chatbot of the same taxi will not show this.

2. In the application of a radio station, you can listen to the music of this station and watch the program schedule at the same time, you can minimize the application and check your mail, etc. There is no such freedom in a chatbot.

3. It is natural for the support team to use chat. A chatbot can answer many questions, removing the burden from employees, and almost imperceptibly connect a live operator to the conversation, if necessary.

Different interface

The chatbot interface is more intuitive and understandable to the user than the graphical interface of the application.

The interface of chatbots is universal and they are all similar.

You can just tell the bot what you need, and in the application you will have to set filters and search by category.

The mobile application allows you to create your own unique design.

In addition, with the help of a graphical application interface, some things can still be done faster.

Activity History

In the chatbot, you can go back and see the history of messages and choices made. For example, you can view products that you have viewed but not added to your wishlist.

In the mobile application, you can view history, messages, visits, purchases, applied promotions, accrued bonuses, and in general everything that you have ever done.

Findings

Both a chatbot and an app can be useless with poor design or inconsiderate testing.

When the hype around chatbots began, a huge number of them were created, neglecting this rule. Therefore, some of the new bots were unable to cope with their tasks, and disappointed users.

But low-quality mobile applications disappoint the user no less.

If, when ordering an application, the question arises whether to make it on iOS, Android, or cross-platform, then when developing a chat bot, you will have to choose between Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, Slack, Skype, Kik, Line (and these are just key messengers) or also, make it cross-platform.

Of course, there are criteria by which you can determine what is more suitable for your business. Most of all, this is influenced by the geography of the target audience, the scope of business, the size and age of the business, the features of business processes and the company's infrastructure, the customer experience and the competitive environment.

You can connect  Natural Language Processing  to the chatbot - natural language processing. It is natural language processing that is the most intriguing moment in chatbots and their most significant difference from applications.

There are two poles: 1) the user himself types the necessary words in the input line, 2) The bot restricts the user by providing a choice of several buttons.

It is with chat bots of the first type that there is a big risk that the client, having asked a question, will receive the answer “I don’t understand yours”. In addition, connecting natural language processing can significantly increase the cost of development.

The ideal option would be to combine both solutions.

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For example, a banking chatbot immediately asks a person what they are interested in, instead of giving out a menu with two dozen options. And then he already offers options on buttons regarding this situation.

Search in the chat bot of an online store can also be implemented using NLP. As a rule, a chatbot with a good  NLP  gives a person a pleasant feeling of communication and personal contact with the brand.

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TOTAL

First of all, you should understand that both the application and the chatbot are not interchangeable products, but complement each other!

You should not divide a mobile application and a chatbot into “good” and “bad”. They have one goal - to enhance the interaction between business and customer!

• If you are a young company and currently there is no budget for developing a unique application, first create a chatbot. It will provide you with a presence on mobile devices and help you solve many other problems.

• If you are a large company, start by developing an application with a bot function and then make a chat bot in the messenger. This will help you reach a large audience and ensure your presence in different channels of communication with customers.

The best solution for a company is to make both products and let the customer choose what is more convenient for him and how he wants to communicate with the company.

If you are ready to take your business to a new, more advanced level using the most advanced solutions, leave a request at  office@loycult.com or call +7 (495) 12-88-901, +7 ( 3412) 901-907, we'll be happy to help.