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What is chatbot ROI and how do you work ...

What is chatbot ROI and how do you work it out?

Trending and new

3 min read

11th Dec 2020

Natalie Smithson
AI enthusiast | Tea addict | Focused on using AI assistants to win the working week

What is chatbot ROI?

Chatbot ROI (Return on Investment) measures how efficient and effective your AI chatbot is compared to the resources and costs it took you to launch it. Understanding and maximising chatbot ROI helps you evaluate the full impact of AI chatbot interactions on your overall business performance.

By improving chatbot ROI, your teams can optimise operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve your customer satisfaction score, and drive revenue growth through the benefits of using an AI-powered chatbot.

How to calculate your chatbot ROI?

Calculating chatbot ROI involves comparing the benefits your AI chatbot gives (like improved efficiency and reduced customer service costs) against the total investment in developing and maintaining it, and it’s usually expressed as a percentage: Net return on investment / cost of investment x 100 = % ROI.

Make sure your calculation for investment in support agents includes training, equipment and recruitment costs for the people you hire, rather than only the salary.

To make it easy, you can most calculate your chatbot ROI using our handy savings calculator:

Calculate your savings

Calculate the cost savings that will be achieved by adding an AI assistant to your website

ÂŁ0.00
Monthly savings
0%
Return on investment (ROI)
0 hours
Equivalent saved resource
0 /month
Total calls, emails & live chats
0 /month
Total calls, emails & live chats
0
25,000+

Move the slider above to match your total customer service load per month (including calls, emails and live chats).
To calculate accurate savings for your business, put your real figures in the boxes below to replace these benchmarks.

your current average cost per enquiry (calls, emails, and live chats)
of enquiries you wish to be handled by your AI assistant (without the need for a call, email or live chat)
your average hourly rate for customer service rep / agent (including costs such as training, equipment, recruitment)

Significance of your chatbot ROI result

You can use the chatbot ROI calculation to justify investments, identify areas for improvement, and make sure your AI chatbot strategy sits in line with your most important customer service goals. Also use chatbot ROI to show the tangible value of AI chatbots to stakeholders within your organisation (use our FREE cheat sheet if you need help to get buy-in).

A high chatbot ROI signifies your customer service teams are effectively using AI chatbots to drive meaningful outcomes for customers, to optimise your resources and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Through focusing on chatbot ROI, your teams can stay competitive in the evolving world of customer service automation.

Achievable chatbot ROI

A good chatbot ROI benchmark will be dependent on the industry you work in and the size of your organisation, but it’s also arguably still early days for the use of the most advanced AI assistants. It’s only since the arrival of large language models (LLMs) in 2022 AI chatbots have been transformed entirely in their capability ― so substantially and so quickly, organisations are having to quickly learn how to implement LLMs safely to protect their customers and their brands.

Organisations from all industries, like Legal & General Insurance, Klarna, VOXI, and Stena Line ferries who have one of the oldest AI assistants around, might have been showing others the way, but benchmarks for common use are still being established.

533% chatbot ROI

When London’s Barking & Dagenham Council launched their AI assistant, it was to help with an overwhelming number of enquiries about missed bins. In the first six months, they saved £48,000 on 10,000 calls they might otherwise have missed (since AI assistants work around the clock), expanded their AI-driven support to five more departments at no extra cost, and hit a chatbot ROI of 533%. To top it all off, customer satisfaction rose sharply by 67%.

“The AI assistant is transforming the way our customers access information. We believe we can enjoy better customer relationships by allowing customers to contact us via the channel of their choice. Our next focus is to allow our customers to complete end-to-end journeys via the AI assistant.” ~ Dwain Nicely, DX & Digital Manager for Barking & Dagenham Council

Things to consider for your own chatbot ROI

  • Check the average ROI for all the AI chatbot platforms you’re considering using. (Ours is 533%.)
  • Using an AI assistant to answer customer queries at around 5p per enquiry (compared to an average of around ÂŁ5 for each phone call) means you’ll absolutely make a financial saving as soon as your launch an AI assistant.
  • Diving into advanced AI these days is totally affordable, especially when you factor in free tech trials and the opportunity to only pay for what you use, so you equally won’t have to worry about breaking the bank when you choose the right AI assistant platform.
  • Now AI assistant platforms are so easy to use, you won’t need to factor in hiring an expert tech team to build you a chatbot in-house or for AI experts to manage it for you, any member of your team can manage your AI assistant with just a half hour each week.
  • Launching an AI assistant now is easy. On our platform you can get one set up in just 10 minutes using only your website URL.

All of this means your ROI is likely to be incredibly high, which explains why Grand View Research says the “global chatbot market size is expected to reach USD 27,297.2 million by 2030” and why Clutch found business leaders everywhere are “excited, optimistic, and motivated,” by AI.

Launch an AI assistant today

You can get started with just your website URL and your AI assistant is ready in less than 10 minutes!

Increase your chatbot ROI

FAQs

What role does scalability play in determining chatbot ROI?

Scalability in the context of chatbot ROI refers to the chatbot’s ability to handle increasing volumes of interactions effectively without a proportional increase in costs. Higher scalability can lead to improved efficiency and reduce costs, resulting in a higher ROI for your AI chatbot investment.

How does customer engagement impact chatbot ROI?

Customer engagement measures the level of interactions people have with your AI chatbot. A more engaging chatbot can lead to an increased customer satisfaction score, improved brand perception, and potentially higher conversion rates.

What are the implications of integrating chatbots with other systems on chatbot ROI?

Integrating chatbots with existing systems and platforms such as CRM software like HubSpot or support ticket systems like Jira can enhance your chatbot’s capabilities. This integration can lead to improved data insights, personalised customer experiences, and smoother processes, ultimately contributing to a higher chatbot ROI through increased operational efficiency.

How can proactive chatbot strategies influence chatbot ROI?

Proactive chatbot strategies involve initiating conversations with customers based on predetermined triggers or customer behaviour patterns. By being proactive in addressing customer needs and providing relevant information or assistance, AI chatbots can improve customer engagement, reduce your average response time, and also reduce customer churn. Implementing proactive chatbot strategies can positively impact chatbot ROI by driving customer retention, loyalty, and overall business growth.