Best Chatbot Examples on Websites in 2019
Chatbots are being used in many different industries. We have seen enterprises and banks automate their customer support, as well as small businesses use almost free chatbots to generate more leads from their website.
The industry is growing at a growing speed, and expected to reach 1.25 billion in 2025 according to GrandViewResearch, which I estimate is way too low.
As a part of this article, I did research on more than 150+ chatbots on websites and tested 10+ chatbot builders. I will get back to comparing all of them later. I will link back here to the builder comparison article.
All types of businesses are picking up different types of bots. They are using them on Facebook, Whatsapp and many other services. In this article I am focusing on Web based or in-application chatbots.
Startups are raising millions left and right to create chatbots that really work for certain industries. For example Ojo Labs raised $45 million for a real estate chatbot and Lemonade released just five days before writing of this article that they have raised $315 million for a chatbot enabled insurance company. Then is also us, the small but effective team of Serviceform competing in the big market with our $350k in funding.
There is also a dedicated website to follow startup investments into chatbot companies called Botfunded you can also find more examples at botlist.
Finally the early majority is starting to pick up on the trend, and the technology is getting good enough for business. There are large players offering “soft-core” chatbots such as Drift, Intercom and also us at Serviceform.
There are two main types of chatbots, pre-created conversations and chatbots that learn. There is also a third category which is a combination of pre-created chatbots and learning.
We at Serviceform create all three types, but focus on the most valuable use cases for business. In most cases this means pre-created conversations which get triggered from users natural language.
Here are some great examples from all types of industries. We have tried being impartial, and kept three examples from Serviceform (as we do provide chatbots as a service as well), and all others from other providers.
Chatbot examples
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Chatbot example for Real estate companies
Different real estate companies have jumped on different chatbots. At Serviceform for real estate companies we usually use a chatbot that both learns and answers to preset chatbot flows such as booking an appointment, adding to a newsletter etc.
2. Chatbot example for Insurance companies
Insurance companies could get a huge benefit from using bots designed for them, but unfortunately only a few have taken up the challenge. Lemonade is a good example of an use case. We also have a chatbot example use case for insurance companies that we have created at Serviceform.
3. Chatbot example for Banks and financial institutions
Just like insurance companies (which are othen the same company) banks and insurance companies could get huge benefits from introducing a friendly chatbot, instead of talking to their clunky support team.
Imagine replacing those calls where you listen to the music, press 1 then listen to the music again, with a easy to use chatbot, that handles up to 50% of the customer use cases.
These use cases require a lot of training of the bot, but in the end it really can help the customers to succeed. A company called GetJenny based in Helsinki has some great examples of this type of bot.
4. Chatbot example for Catering companies
Catering companies are a bit smaller, and often require a be-spoke touch with their customers. We wouldn’t go as far as to recommend automating their whole flow through chatbots, but increasing leads and newsletter signups is simple and easy. Here is our example for a catering chatbot.
This can easily be used to link to online booking forms, or to actually make the booking or payment through the chatbot as well.
5. Chatbot example for Media and content creation companies
A lot of media companies could use chatbots, but they have been stagnant so far. We have gotten in touch with large media agencies and offered our chatbot for them as a pilot. We wrote about how to use chatbots in media to gain more interactions to content.
A good example of this use case is a chatbot that is inside of your content. We wrote an article about this type of bots and how they increase your engagement to the article by 2-3 times.
6. Chatbot example for universities
University websites are all about information. Chatbots are great in finding that information. At Serviceform we provide a service chat Indexes all of your website content and provides that as the answers from the bot. There are other service providers that do that as well for example Acobot which crawls your website and provides
Universities use chatbots at the moment mostly for student support, and unfortunately are hidden behind portals for access. I know for a fact that at least these three universities use chatbots to help their students the University of Adelaide, University of Canberra and the University of Staffordshire.
We are at the moment talking with the largest university in Finland to create a chatbot for their signup process and student support.
This image is from the University of Canberra chatbot, called Lucy.
7. Chatbot example for E-commerce
Quite a lot of e-commerce providers are starting to pick up chatbots. None of the big ones have gone for one yet though on their websites, but are instead testing on their Facebook channels.
Some could say that buying from a chatbot without going on their website is the future, but I don't buy that. I believe chatbot is a conversion assistant, not the source. Hopefully the technology will prove me wrong.
Alse people are not willing to buy some things online, clothes, shoes, watches, accessories etc, the chatbot can be used to direct them fast into their nearest shop by using location, and assist them with the on-site purchase in a way that a website just won’t be able to.
Personal note / Idea: I hope that the chatbot experience will come unified, from the website, to Facebook to when you arrive to the store. Imagine if you are buying a car, talk to a bot on their website to see where you can see the car, start heading that way and get directions from Google, and notify the store when you arrive to receive a total service. Ps. If you sell a high ticket item, and want to pilot this idea, get in touch!
I tried hard to find an example of an E-commerce website that uses a chatbot. I miserably failed. This means I will take it on myself to find us a customer within the month that would place a chatbot on their website.
8. B2B and SaaS chatbot examples
This one is a broad one, and to be honest it’s there for SEO reasons. However I will do my best to provide a bit of value.
The most common use case for chatbots in B2B is SaaS and other technology companies. There are literally thousands of examples I could give you. You can go to our front page and see ours. Other good examples come often the people selling chatbot software themselves like Drift and Intercom.
What are they using the chatbots for?
Practically the use case is anything that a person can do online. This would mean customer support, sales, lead generation, newsletter signups and so much more.
A few of my favorites on top
Here I will not take any sides, just three of the chatbots that I have talked to recently which did a good job finding me a response.
Medium’s Support chatbot example
One of my favourite support chatbot examples is Medium’s chatbot. Even though it is not the smartest, it does the job to ask you “did you turn it on and off again” and probably reduces a lot of clutter for support. This chatbot is powered by Ada.
