What is an acquisition chatbot?

Acquisition chatbots streamline the customer acquisition process by automating initial interactions, providing timely information, and capturing leads. They can enhance the user experience and improve conversion rates by delivering personalised and immediate responses to potential customers' inquiries across multiple channels.

For example, marketing may use an acquisition chatbot to start a conversation with new visitors, and sales could use these chatbots to share product suggestions with existing customers. Either way, it’s crucial acquisition chatbots offer customers value beyond a transactional relationship.

How does an acquisition chatbot work?

Acquisition chatbots can be built as scripted chatbots, the simplest type of chatbot that answers customer queries by following set rules, or AI chatbots, which combine Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand user intent and respond appropriately. With an AI chatbot, acquisition chatbots often work as follows:

1. Engagement: Acquisition chatbots - often deployed on websites, social media platforms, or messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and more - engage with potential customers by initiating conversations with visitors or responding to inquiries, aiming to capture their attention and interest.

2. Qualification: AI chatbots use NLP and ML algorithms to understand user input and qualify leads. They can ask questions to determine a user's needs, preferences, and buying intent.

3. Product or Service Promotion: Once a user's needs are identified, the chatbot can provide information about products or services that match those needs, including details, benefits, pricing, quotes and more.

4. Lead Generation: Acquisition chatbots often collect contact information from interested users, such as email addresses or phone numbers. This information is used for follow-up communication and lead nurturing.

5. Appointment Scheduling: In some cases, acquisition chatbots may integrate with scheduling systems, allowing users to book appointments, demos, or consultations with sales representatives or service providers.

6. Automated Sales Funnel: The chatbot can guide users through a sales funnel, offering personalised recommendations and addressing objections or concerns. It can also handle common sales objections and provide relevant responses.

7. Analytics and Insights: Acquisition chatbots generate valuable data and insights on user interactions. This data can help businesses refine their marketing and sales strategies and improve the chatbot's effectiveness.

What are the benefits of an acquisition chatbot?

With the flow of acquisition chatbots in mind, they offer several benefits to organisations seeking to acquire new customers or cost-effectively upsell existing ones. Some of the key advantages include:

• New Business Sales: Chatbots can deliver immediate responses to user inquiries, reducing wait times, speeding up new business sales and preventing potential customers from losing interest or moving on to competitors.

• Lead Generation: Acquisition chatbots can proactively collect contact information and lead-qualifying data, allowing businesses to build a database of potential customers for future marketing efforts.

• Lead Nurturing: Beyond initial lead capture, chatbots can be programmed to nurture leads over time through automated follow-up messages, content distribution, and personalised recommendations.

• Reduce Acquisition Costs: Chatbots can handle multiple conversations simultaneously, allowing businesses to engage with many potential customers without hiring additional staff.

• Increase ARPU: Chatbots can quickly navigate users through sales funnels, answer FAQs, and assist with everyday tasks, streamlining customer acquisition and allowing sales to concentrate on more complex deals.

• Measure ROI: Chatbots generate valuable data and insights on user interactions, which can inform marketing and sales strategies and help businesses improve their chatbot's performance over time.

To get started with acquisition chatbots, you can build them with CM.com's Conversational AI Cloud. Our team is available to provide the support you need to streamline customer acquisition and lead generation.