HUBSPOT AND MOTION AI: CHATBOT-ENABLED CRM

HUBSPOT AND MOTION AI:

CHATBOT-ENABLED CRM

1. Should HubSpot replace its human chat representatives with chatbots? Why or why not?
I believe that replacing human representatives with chatbots now might not have the best
outcome, maybe in the future with advancement in technology humans could be replaced.
Humans can understand customer's emotions, values, interests, and demands and respond
accordingly. HubSpot can use an integration of both agents and chatbot AI's rather than fully
functional bots.
The benefits of integration of agents and service automation are “Enhanced service
effectiveness, Enhanced service efficiency, Greater service agent productivity, Better agent
work experience, Improved customer experience, Improved customer engagement, and
Improved customer retention.” (Text, Benefits of SA. Pg. 298)
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 A more human interactive conversational UI would engage with customers more deeply
than a chatbot that engages in a streamlined manner.
a. What excites you and what worries you about using Chatbots with HubSpot’s customers?
Excites Me Worries me
 Chatbots free up time spent answering basic  Unable to understand the customers intent.
questions on the phone with customers.  Fail to interpret nuanced instructions.
 Have limited functionality or require constant
 Customers would receive faster responses.
tech support.
 Businesses save money.
b. What opportunities do you see for chatbots to help HubSpot interact with its
customers?
Chatbots have the scopes to advance based on technology improvements. HubSpot chatbots
have the opportunity to link multiple businesses to enhance the customer’s experience. For
example: “If you were making plans with a friend, for instance, you could invite a bot into the
thread to place a takeout order or call a Lyft — no need to leave the messaging app to open a
browser tab, or even another app.” (hubspot.com)

“Opportunity management applications enables reps and managers to monitor progress of

an opportunity against a predefined selling methodology, ensuring that opportunities are
advanced towards closure. An opportunity is a record of a potential sale or any other type of
revenue generation.” (Pg. 277 Opportunity management. Text) “It tracks the number of leads that become
opportunities and deals won, and the probability of closing the opportunity.” (Pg. 280 Opportunity
management Text)

c. What challenges do you foresee in using chatbots with HubSpot’s customers?

HubSpot had grown its brand with a strong anti-spam messages in homegrown social
media ads such as 2008’s “Dude, Cold calling is for losers”, which criticized traditional

marketing for intrusive outbound marketing techniques. With bots now functioning inside
messaging apps providing you access to customers personal space, and if misused by pushing
unwanted and interruptive spam, it will affect their brand. "The challenge will be thinking
about creative from a whole different view: Can we have creative that scales? That customizes
itself? We find ourselves hurtling towards another handoff from man to machine- what larger
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system of creative or complex storytelling structure can I design that a machine can use it
appropriately and effectively?" (Botched Bots. Pg 7. Case)

d. What can bots do better than e. What can humans do better than
humans? bots?
 Quick response.  More personalized responses.
 Unlimited number of chats.  Solve more complex problems.
 They operate 24/7  Understand customers sentiment.
Strength Weakness
 Faster customer service.  Limited responses

f. Chatbo Increased customer satisfaction.

 Customers get frustrated.
ts
 Lower labor costs.
 Lack of empathy.
 Human connection.  Not always available.
g. Human
 Solves complex problems.  Expensive to scale.
s
 Human flexibility.  Opportunity for errors.

2. Which activities in HubSpot’s marketing and selling process would you turn over from
humans to bots? Why?
An area where bots would improve is handling activities like taking inquiries from
customers at the early stages of the buying process, providing information about customers and
competitors to salespeople during the sales process, and assisting with market research before
and after-sales. Bots can run a quick analysis of what sold, what did not sell, and related
statistics. This provides good insights to HubSpot, so they know how to target future buyers. It
would help to escalate HubSpot’s marketing and selling process because these activities
involve less human interaction and more information gathering.
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Leading firms are trying to enhance CX by using inbound marketing automation tools to
help customers extract more value from the call. Enhanced experience is linked to customer
loyalty and hence improved CLV (Pg. 250. Par 1. BENEFITS OF MARKETING AUTOMATION Text)

“By using chatbots for marketing, it’s easier to promote new products and services, as
they can help you target the right people, with the right offer, at the right time.” (engagebay.com)

3. In which phases of the funnel (ToFu, MoFu, BoFu) would bot do better (worse) than
humans?
Top of the Funnel (ToFu) Middle of the funnel (MoFu) Bottom of the Funnel
(BoFu)
Bots can filter through the Customers have basic Need to provide detailed
traffic coming into the knowledge of the product at this information/demonstrations
website and find potential stage and start asking more in- of the products to help
customers. Human reps can depth questions to see if the prospective customers
do that too, but not as product is something they need. understand how to
efficiently. Bots in this phase The most effective strategy integrate the product into
also do not have to deal with would be a link bots and human their existing systems. This
any of the complex questions representatives. Chatbots are stage is where relationships
or problems initially. Hence, programmed to answers most are built. Having a bot run
bots would do better than questions, a human this part of the marketing
humans here at this stage. representative can take over funnel wouldn't be
when complexity becomes an effective for business.
issue, and the bot can’t assist. Human interaction is
crucial at this stage.
There are certain parts in the different phases of the funnel where chatbots can do better.
In conclusion, bots can attract more customers due to the amount of area they can cover.
Bots would achieve more in the ToFu phase because of the simplicity of that stage but would
be worse if implemented in the BoFu phase due to the need for relationship. MoFu could
benefit from adding bots and integrating them with humans for better outputs.
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“SFA software enables reps and their managers to manage sales pipelines, track contacts
and configure products, among many other things.” (Pg. 270 What is SFA? Par 2 Text) “SFA software
also provides standardized reports and analytics for sales reps and their managers. SFA enables
salespeople and sales managers become more effective or efficient in the pursuit of their
objectives.” (Pg. 271 Par 1 What is SFA? Text)

4. How might customer behaviour change if customers interacted with bots versus humans?

“Their response to an anthropomorphized robot would abruptly shift from empathy to

revulsion if the robot suddenly failed to act human enough.” (Case Document Pg. 8 Par 2) When
analysing consumer behaviour during interactions with bots, we must consider the "Uncanny
Valley". The more human-like a bot is, the more positive the consumer believes in their
interaction. If a consumer can't differentiate between a bot and human interactions and sees that
interactions are functional and provides the answers they were looking for, they will have a
more positive experience. If the consumer can tell they are talking to a bot and know that the
bot’s answers are minimal, their experience will not be as positive. “According to our survey of
1,000 U.S. adults, only 1 in 5 respondents preferred electronic systems to human interaction”.
(treasuredata.com)

5. How might this behavioural change affect the type of relationship formed with the
company and its inherent profitability (consider impact on cost of acquisition)?
When implementing chatbots, a business must consider the consumer's decision-making
process to analyse if chatbots could be implemented or not. If consumer's interactions initially
were found functional and provided the answers to what they were looking for, those
relationships could grow. If situations got complex, "businesses would need to find the right
technology to loop in a chat coordinator and provide a unified record of everything that has
happened in that record as well as the customer's history. That way, the context never gets left
behind in the handoff between a bot and human, or the switch from one communication to
another." (Case Document. Pg. 8 Par 3) Humans build trust and relationships with companies as it is hard
for machines to understand emotions.
Chatbot's cost savings can help companies financially only if they reinvest those savings
into the company to help it grow. With AI-powered chatbot software, there is a one-time fixed
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implementation cost. The cost to acquire one customer with chatbots is much cheaper when
compared to humans. If these savings are put towards acquiring more customers, financial
growth will be significant for the business.

“If customers believe their expectations have been met, they are satisfied. If their
expectations are underperformed, this is negative disconfirmation, and they will be dissatisfied.
Positive disconfirmation occurs when perception exceeds expectation. The customer might be
pleasantly surprised or even delighted. The model assumes that customers have expectations,
and that they are able to judge performance.” (Pg. 45 & 46. Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Business. Text)

6. As it develops best practices to share with its customers, what should HubSpot
recommend regarding:
a) How “human” chatbots should be.
"Humanizing a chatbot helps businesses establish an emotional connection between a bot
and their customers and brings tremendous benefits for business. Always remember chatbots
are machines but they don’t need to sound like one." (Appypie.com) HubSpot should recommend
building a bot with a humanlike conversational user interface where clients are comfortable.
Regardless, "humanlike" bots are still not able to address complex situations if the bot hasn't
been coded to address that particular type of situation.
An essential aspect that HubSpot needs to consider in its recommendation to its customers
is to stay away from an "Uncanny Valley" situation, where their consumers may have a
negative response to an anthropomorphized robot. The result of that can be frustration,
confusion, and loss of trust in the company. An essential aspect that HubSpot needs to consider
in its recommendation to its customers is to stay away from an "Uncanny Valley" situation,
where their consumers may have a negative response to an anthropomorphized robot. The
result of that can be frustration, confusion, and loss of trust in the company.
b) Whether and/or when/how to disclose to a customer that they are chatting with a bot
rather than a human
The consumer must learn at the start that they're chatting with a bot. It sets the expectation
from the start helping to boost the customer experience. By not hiding this, the corporate is
portrayed as more transparent and ethical and builds the customer's trust. Clients can get
frustrated if they believe they're speaking with a person's and determine they need been
interacting with a robot instead. If people know they're interacting with a robot, they may be
more forgiving and will even simplify their requests to assist the bot understand what they
have.
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“Relationships change over time. Parties become closer or more distant; interactions
become more or less frequent. Because they evolve, they can vary considerably, both in the
number and variety of episodes, and the interactions that take place within those episodes.
Dwyer has identified five general phases through which customer–supplier relationships can
evolve.5 1 Awareness 2 Exploration 3 Expansion 4 Commitment 5 Dissolution.” (Pg. 29 Change
within relationships. Text)

c) Whether the bot should always speak in the voice of the brand or adjust its relational
style based on cues it receives from an individual consumer (why?)

A company should stay loyal to its brand. Chatbots have established responsibilities, and
their primary function should be delivering results; otherwise, they will not add value to an
organization and become a liability. Having bots adopt relational styles supported customers'
cues becomes an instrument that's critical to confirm that the conversational experience is
satisfying for the purchasers and aligns with a company's goals and techniques. Using AI,
chatbots can understand the intent of a client's questions, determine the most effective
response, and deliver a customized reply that appears friendly and conversational. At the same
time, they have to escalate a situation effortlessly to a representative if required. When
developing the "personality" of a chatbot, companies must be strategic to make sure that the
customer's interactions are short, helpful, and feel less transactional. As a part of this
recommendation, HubSpot must remind its clients to not get wedged within the technology
and, as a result, stray from their established brand, and that they still have to be transparent
about the employment of chatbots and its limitations.

“Fully owning your conversational relationship with your customers requires building a
brand-specific chatbot personality . . . you’ll need word nerds on both the front and back end to
feed and teach your new baby chatbot. Not only does someone need to craft chatbot responses
with personality (brand-guided voice and tone) but a writer/strategist/UX expert will need to
think through the customer journey and provide sample customer input.” (Botched Bots. Pg. 7. Par 4.
Case)
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Work Cited

“Battle of the Bots” April 13, 2021

www.hubspot.com/stories/chatbot-marketing-future

AVERY, JILL & STEENBURGH, THOMAS "HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled
CRM" Harvard Business School, OCTOBER 22, 2019

BUTTLE, FRANCIS AND MAKLAN, STAN “Customer Relationship Management –

Concepts and Technologies Fourth Edition” Routledge, May 15, 2019.

Gohri, Ruchi “7 Effective Tips to Humanize your Chatbot.” Appypie, February 10th, 2021

www.appypie.com/humanize-chatbot

Haughey, CJ "12 Undeniable Benefits of Chatbots for Your Business" Engagebay, April
15, 2021

www.engagebay.com/blog/benefits-chatbots/

Treanor, Tom “AI vs. Human Customer Service: When Do Consumers Prefer a Bot?”
Treasure Data Blog, Nov 27, 2019

blog.treasuredata.com/blog/2019/10/08/ai-vs-human/