Zendesk Sunshine Conversations – Taking Chatbot Personalization To Another Level

Updated on May 3, 2024

It is 2024, and chatbots have been around for some time now. Some might argue that chatbots are dead and it is the era of conversational AI agents now. Whatever the case, we know that merely implementing chatbots on your website is just one part of the equation.

Personalization is an important factor in the modern customer journey, and, chatbots are more than adept at providing personalization at scale. Enter Zendesk Sunshine Conversations, a revolutionary way to how organizations approach chatbot personalization.

In this blog post, we will explore how chatbots on Zendesk Sunshine can streamline workflows, and provide genuine value to the users. We will also cover:

1. What is Zendesk Sunshine Conversations
2. Difference between Sunshine Conversations and Zopim.
3.  Why personalize chatbots?
4.  How can chatbots be personalized?
5. Examples of personalization using Zendesk Sunshine Conversations

Introducing Zendesk Sunshine Conversations

Zendesk Sunshine Conversations is a powerful platform that enables organizations of all sizes to build and deploy personalized chatbots and messaging experiences, across a wide variety of channels. Conversations is part of the Zendesk Sunshine platform, Zendesk’s CRM solution.

Not just building bots, Zendesk Sunshine Conversations gives businesses a set of tools that lets them manage and optimize their messaging activities. It is a low code/ no code platform, meaning you don’t need a lot of technical expertise to get up and running building chatbots.

Zendesk Sunshine Conversations integrates with a wide variety of channels, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and in-app messaging. Reach your customers where they are, irrespective of which channel they prefer. Zendesk Sunshine Conversations offers advanced NLP capabilities, enabling chatbots to understand and respond to regular queries with surprising accuracy.

 Unlike traditional chatbot solutions, Zendesk Sunshine goes beyond a one-size-fits-all approach, giving a tailored approach to each user.

You may be wondering, how is Zendesk Sunshine Conversations different from Zopim, which Zendesk acquired and which is being promoted as a live chat addition to Zendesk Chat. 

Differences between Zendesk Sunshine Conversations and Zopim.

Here is a small table highlighting the key differences between Zendesk Sunshine Conversations and Zopim.

Feature	Zendesk Sunshine Conversations	Zopim
Conversational AI	Uses NLP and machine learning that makes natural and intelligent chatbot interactions possible.	Zopim relies more on basic rule-based responses, with limited conversational abilities.
Chatbot development	Enables low-code/ no-code chatbot development, in addition to integration using custom code and APIs.	Has a template-based approach to chatbot building.
Security	Has all the security features available with the Zendesk Sunshine platform, meeting the needs of large enterprises.	Does not offer the same level of enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities.
Analytics and Reporting	Tracking chatbot performance and reporting tools has never been easier with the set of comprehensive reporting and analytics tools	Basic reporting is available, with chat volume, agent activity and duration.

Before we do a deep dive into personalization using Zendesk Chatbots, we will take a look at why you need to personalize chatbots in the first place, and how you can go about achieving this.

Why do you need to personalize chatbots?

Some of the key reasons for personalizing chatbots include:

i) Improved customer satisfaction:  Customers who use a chatbot that is tailored to their needs feel heard and understood. This will lead to higher satisfaction levels.

ii)Enhanced loyalty:  Personalized chatbots foster stronger relationships, thereby increasing the likelihood of repeat business and brand loyalty.

iii) Differentiation from competition: When a business offers a personalized chatbot experience, they are differentiating themselves from the competition. This will make them an obvious choice in an already crowded market.

iv) Improved efficiency: Personalized Chatbots can handle a larger number of routine user queries and tasks. This will free up the human agent’s time to focus on more complex issues. 

We now know how companies can achieve chatbot personalization and why they must do this. Let us now look at one of the biggest names in the customer service industry, Zendesk.

How can chatbots be personalized

Companies can adopt a wide variety of personalization strategies to create chatbot experiences that are genuinely helpful, and tailored to individual user.  A chatbot’s behavior, language, and functionality are just some of the aspects that can be personalized to suit each individual user. This will lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. Here are some of the strategies that can be put to use for personalizing chatbots:

1. Personalized recommendations:  

Using sophisticated machine learning and predictive analytics, chatbots can make tailored product recommendations to users. H&M, the clothing giant, uses a chatbot on its website that recommends personalized outfit combinations based on a user’s individual browsing and purchase history.

2. Contextual awareness: 

Chatbots can analyze user data such as browsing history and previous interactions to to personalize responses that fit each individual query. Starbucks, for instance, uses a chatbot that analyzes customer’s order history and location data to give personalized food and beverage options.

3. Proactive outreach:

 Chatbots can proactively reach out to users with personalized information or reminders, based on their past behavior.  A prime example of a chatbot using proactive outreach is Bank of America’s banking chatbot Erica. Erica can detect when a customer is struggling with making credit card payments and proactively suggest personalized payment plans.

4. Integration with existing user profiles: 

You can integrate a chatbot with a user’s profile so that there is a seamless and personalized experience across multiple touch points. Amazon’s Alexa is a prime example of a chatbot that accesses and utilizes a wide range of information from the user’s Amazon account and provides them with a tailored experience.

5. Adaptive communication:  

Companies have been adjusting the tone, language, and communication style of chatbots to match a user’s preferences and needs. For example, Fidelity Investment’s chatbot alters its vocabulary and explanations based on how much the customers know about finance, sometimes translating complex financial vocabulary into simple-to-understand language.

Let’s now see how some of the organizations are leveraging Zendesk Sunshine to drive superior customer experience.

Companies using Zendesk Sunshine Conversations

Tesco:

Tesco is one of the largest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom,  using Zendesk Sunshine Conversations to communicate better with its customers. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are two of the most popular platforms where Tesco’s customers hang out, and with Sunshine Conversations, Tesco can engage with these customers. Tesco’s customer service has improved, as agents respond to customer queries in real-time while gaining valuable insights into customer behavior.

Airbnb

Airbnb is one of the most popular online vacation rental platforms, and the company uses Zendesk Sunshine Conversations to improve its overall customer experience. Sunshine Conversations is integrated into all of Airbnb’s messaging channels, allowing the support team to resolve issues and provide personalized assistance through messaging channels such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Airbnb has thus improved its response times and streamlined its customer support workflows.

Uber

One of the world’s largest ride-sharing services and also the company that popularized the idea, Uber is a household name. Uber has introduced Zendesk Sunshine Conversations to manage its customer interactions. The company provides updates through messaging channels such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Uber can thus maintain consistent branding, automate responses to common queries. Thus, it can give a whole new level of personalization to their customer interactions.

Zendesk Sunshine conversations thus gets you closer to the customer more than ever before, and, throughout this article, we have seen why that is important. We have also seen that Zendesk Sunshine Conversations is not just a fancy add-on to the Zendesk Suite, but a powerful, independent solution that lets you create chatbot experiences that go beyond mere scripted responses.

So, is Zendesk Sunshine Conversations the right choice for your organization? Let us look at a few pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Unified messaging experience: Zendesk Sunshine Conversations consolidates data from multiple sources. This gives it a 360 degree view of customer interactions and history. Businesses can thus deliver personalized and contextual support experiences, across various messaging channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and SMS.

2. Automation and bots: Businesses can leverage built-in automation and chatbot capabilities to handle routine enquiries, freeing up human agents to focus more on the complex tasks.

3. Contextual Conversations: Sunshine conversations maintain conversation history and context, allowing agents to pick up where the last interaction ended, ensuring a smooth and personalized customer experience.

Cons

1. Complexity in integration: If you want to integrate Sunshine conversations with your existing messaging channels systems, you will need to invest in significant technical resources. This is especially true for businesses with complex IT infrastructure.
2. Agent training: Effective utilization of Sunshine conversations will need you to have extensive agent training. This is so that there is a high quality of messaging interactions.
3. Compliance concerns: If your business handles sensitive data such as PHI, then implementing a messaging solution will require you to face additional compliance and security challenges. 

As you can see, businesses should thoroughly assess their messaging requirements before adopting Sunshine Conversations.They can integrate a chatbot solution such as Kommunicate with Zendesk Sunshine Conversations, which will make the chatbot journey even more smooth. There is a genuine connection built between each customer and your business, and this will lead to customers becoming more loyal to your brand.