3 Reasons You Should be Using Chatbots in IT Service

Chatbots and IT service are a match made in help desk heaven. Forget chat! They can directly fix users' problems. Learn why you should be using them now.

Since the first chatbot ELIZA was created over 50 years ago at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the technology slowly evolved and finally exploded onto the market, particularly the customer service industry. While early chatbots were focused on creating the most human-like experience possible, companies soon realized the true value of a chatbot lies in its ability to answer frequently asked questions that don't actually require a human and yet make up a huge amount of human agents' time. After this realization, chatbots became more and more common on company websites, social media and now even as voicebots such as Amazon’s Alexa.

While this way of using chatbots for external customer service can certainly add value to the customer experience, another option that can be equally impactful is the use of chatbots for internal IT service. Here are three reasons why your IT service should be using chatbots now.

Read more about Chatbots in our Whitepaper "Next Generation Chatbots":

1. Most IT Requests are Repetitive

Most IT tickets are repetitive common requests – e.g. “How do I reset my password?”, “How do I connect to the network printer?”. These are ideal requests for a chatbot because they are low-complexity, have clear answers and concrete step-by-step processes to solve them that can be modeled by a decision tree

If the user specifies "printer problem", the chatbot asks if he wants to fix a paper jam, has difficulties setting up a new printer, or the printout is unclean. Depending on the answer, e.g. "Bad printing", the most common topics (print is cut off, printout has black stripes, etc.) are suggested. Until the problem has been limited so far that the appropriate solution document can be printed. If the chatbot should not know how to proceed, it offers the possibility to contact a service agent or to open a ticket directly. In both cases, the information already collected by the chatbot is passed on so that the user does not have to describe his problem again.

Instead going through the same process over and over, your IT staff can work on more difficult tasks. Using a chatbot here will both deflect tickets and greatly increase productivity. Furthermore, these requests are not only repetitive in your company, but in almost every company across every imaginable industry. A user at a large retail company in the US may face the same difficulties connecting to a printer as a worker at tech company in Japan. That also means bots can quickly be created from ready-made "templates" which include issues like this already, saving setup time.

2. IT Chatbots Can Actually Fix Problems

Chatbots in customer service are typically placed on websites or social media channels. Chatbots in IT service, on the other hand, can be deployed directly on users' desktop or mobile devices. This offers one key advantage: the chatbot can carry out the actions necessary to solve a problem directly versus only finding and providing answers. So, when a user wants to know how to install a driver for his new printer, instead of providing a long manual on how to install it, an IT chatbot can install the drivers automatically. This way, the scripted installation is always performed correctly and non-technical users are saved the headaches and potential for errors.

3. Chatbots are up to date 24x7

If a chatbot is integrated in your IT infrastructure, it can be a simple channel for users to create service requests, receive feedback on the current status of their open tickets or even their next hardware order. Instead of only providing the answers to FAQs, an IT service chatbot can answer and directly solve problems for users 24/7 on any device. Additionally, by connecting them to your knowledge base, you can ensure they always have both the latest support information and access to 100% of your help materials.

Chatbots for IT service can both answer questions and perform fixes, deflect tickets and increase help desk productivity. That saves your help desk agents time and your users who are more productive due to faster resolutions. Why aren't you using them today?

Read more about Chatbots in our Whitepaper "Next Generation Chatbots":