Scripted Chatbots Vs. NLP Based Chatbots

If a recent Gartner report is to be believed, the millennial generation is more likely to communicate more with bots than their spouses by 2020. We should not be surprised because by now almost all of us have fairly acknowledged how chatbot technology has gradually offered ingress into seamless marketing and customer experience. While some business set-ups are using it to simplify the task of their marketing and support team, some are making remarkable headway by leveraging the power of custom chatbot platforms to boost sales.Although chatbot technology dates back to 1950s, it is still a new concept for many. Irrespective of their sizes, many enterprises are eager to scratch beyond the surface and explore more about the type of chatbots they can benefit from. Here we shall discuss scripted and NLP based chatbots to dispense a better understanding of the two so that you can decide which one to utilize for your business.

Scripted chatbots

1

Scripted or structured chatbots operates just the way you append hardcoded questions with answers. This means scripted chatbots will have a pre-defined knowledge base and technical capabilities that can aptly respond only to specific instructions. In that case, the queries must be aligned with the language programmed in the bot.For instance, if the user asks, 'What are the benefits of this software?' the bot will readily answer all of the benefits with a link that redirects to more information. However, if the users ask a more personalized question such as, 'What should I do tomorrow?' the bot will come with a standard 'I’m sorry I don’t understand your question..' response. You can make the bot more knowledgeable but that might not be a surefire solution in the long run. These bots are often used on Messaging platforms for marketing or standard customer support as the users are not expected to interact a lot with the bot. These can be used to gather feedback, generate leads, conduct surveys, or provide automated newsletters.

NLP based chatbots

2

These AI-powered chatbots are programmed to be much more dynamic and intelligent than scripted chatbots. Natural Language Processing or NLP based chatbot platforms are designed to be machine-learning bots that will understand the requirements of the user even if their queries are not-so-specific. These chatbots will have the capability to understand anything you ask and sometimes might even propound responses in a tongue in cheek way.More and more businesses are gradually recognizing the need for NLP based chatbots and how it can transform task automation and customer servicing by adding a human connect to it. You don’t need to rack your brains to feed your chatbot with scripted default responses and make a promising headway towards a more seamless communication system with NLP based chatbots. So in case, the user asks, 'What should I do tomorrow?', the chatbot will ‘understand’ and come up with a standard response that will make sense. This not only aids in capturing relevant information about the user but also ferret out sentiment analysis.Although NLP based chatbots are still under formative assessment and turing tests, it is progressively hitting the spotlight with days to come.Thinking of considering NLP based chatbot platforms to rev up your marketing automation services? Explore the possibilities here.