What Is NLP for Chatbots and How Can You Use It?

Live chat support has become an essential tool for each business in 2021. Email and phone support no longer cut it for customers, so they have been falling in popularity. In turn, NLP for chatbots has been on the rise.

The question is, why is that so?

It takes extensive resources to hire live chat agents to be available 24/7/365.

So, what happens when you are on a budget?

Here’s precisely where chatbots kick in.

A chatbot can be especially useful to you and your customers. Better yet, it comes at an affordable price.

Back in the day, chatbots generated too “computerized” responses. In other words, they lacked human touch, which was incredibly frustrating for many.

However, with the inclusion of NLP in chatbots, we today face a new reality.

What is NLP (Natural Language Processing)?

NLP or Natural Language Processing refers to the automatic manipulation of natural language by software.

It’s a technology that combines informatics, mathematical linguistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

In the simplest terms, an NLP helps your chatbot better understand human language and generate proper responses.

NLP covers both NLU (Natural Language Understanding) and NLG (Natural Language Generation).

The Concept Of NLU

Human language, including text and speech, is highly ambiguous, ever-changing, and evolving.

So, it’s pretty clear why it would be challenging for a machine to understand what we are saying.

Developers have been working on NLP for over half a century, and there are still some issues left to overcome.

Either way, NLU helps computer algorithms understand human language and convert it into logical forms.

The Concept Of NLG

Once the machine understands what the human from the other side is trying to say, it can generate an adequate response based on a contextual analysis similar to a human being.

In turn, entities can fully automate different processes from their operation.

Scripted Vs. AI Chatbots

Let’s compare the two broad categories, scripted chatbots, and artificially intelligent chatbots, to understand the concept better.

A scripted chatbot cannot respond if the question isn’t written in its code.

In turn, AI chatbots are based on NLP. They learn and expand their knowledge from each interaction, better understanding the context and entirety of a message or a question.

So, even if the same exact inquiry isn’t written in its code, it can come up with an alternative on its own.

According to Fortune Business Insights, the NLP market size will grow from $10.2 billion in 2019 to $26.4 billion by 2024, reaching a CAGR of 21.0%.

So, it’s only wise to use this potential.

Now that you get the overall idea let’s see how NLP for a chatbot is useful and how it all works.

How Do NLP Engines Work?

As mentioned, an NLP chatbot is partly independent. Here’s what it does to avoid or at least reduce failure coming from fully-automated responses:

• It breaks down complex sentences into more straightforward phrases
• It distinguishes among names, numbers, places, descriptions, etc.
• It distinguished among different tenses and conjugation
• It links synonyms and continually updates the vocabulary for better understanding
• It removes capitalization for improved recognition
• It removes apostrophes in between words

At this point, the only question is how your business benefit from adding an NLP to your site can?

Reasons Why Your Chatbot Needs NLP

Here are the top three reasons you should incorporate NLP for your chatbot to help your customer support.

Customers Don’t Like Default Responses

If you are using a chatbot for customer support, your customers might occasionally throw the bot off.

Essentially, they might ask questions or include explanations that go well beyond the chatbot’s scope. In turn, it might provide vague answers, being the cause for customers’ dissatisfaction.

With NLP, the chatbot goes through multiple interactions and conversations. So, it interprets queries on a much broader basis, leading to more effective results.

As explained, NLP performs many actions, considering different aspects of human speech.

By breaking down complex sentences into more straightforward phrases, the NLP can better assist current customers.

By remembering this information, it can also improve future communication and responses.

Think about it; there are infinite ways to express a single emotion.

So, customers have endless ways to ask for the same thing or impose the same questions. In turn, it’s impossible to include all possible variations in the code.

Using NLP for your chatbot is the comprehensive solution that allows for natural conversation across languages, improving the experience of both sides.

Reduces The Overall Cost Of Operation

As mentioned, chatbots are the cheaper alternative to live chat agents.

Sure, scripted chatbots further decrease the costs. However, they are less likely to generate any benefits.

Essentially, it all comes down to a cost-benefit analysis, in which the NLP-based chatbots take the lead.

NLP reduces the direct inputs or live chat costs. However, by taking the attention off customer services, it increases the profits indirectly as well.

When your team doesn’t have to worry about answering customer queries, it can focus more on mission-critical tasks, leading to better financial statement results.

Improved Market Research and Analysis

With so many available automation and marketing tools, it has become essentially easy to collect information.

However, it’s not enough to get a pile of unstructured data from different sources, including social media, comments, or customer reviews.

NLP takes things to another level as it analyses the context of this data.

By understanding this content’s “hidden” meaning, NLP can provide in-depth insights regarding your business operation.

The Key Takeaway

In today’s competitive environment, customer support has become a necessity for business success.

Customers need your assistance, and they need it fast. If you are not willing to provide the guidance, someone else will.

Sure, chatbots are the cheaper alternative to live chat agents. Even so, that’s not where it ends, as there are scripted and AI-driven ones.

NLP chatbots are Artificially driven, which helps your chatbot better understand human language and generate proper responses.

By comprehensive understanding and more adequate responses, NLP can help you better satisfy customer demands.

And as you are well aware by now, customer satisfaction is a key ingredient for gaining customer trust, building brand reputation, and customer loyalty.

Essentially, it can lead to building a competitive advantage, strengthening, or even expanding your business.