Nowadays a company can make it to the top only if it provides outstanding customer service. There are many competitors in the market, but the one with prompt customer service comes out as the winner. Companies spend a lot of money on building an efficient customer service team.

Customers do not like to wait as they want their queries to be resolved as soon as possible. To curb this challenge, companies hire customer executives to address the problems and queries of the customers. Hiring a huge team of customer service officers can be an expensive affair, therefore, only big companies could afford it. For a startup, it is not possible to invest so much money in a customer executive team.

But now the tables have turned, even small companies are able to provide amazing customer service through chatbots or Virtual assistant. But wait, aren’t chatbots or Virtual assistant, the same thing? This is a common misconception and often Online Virtual Assistants or chatbots are branded as one. They almost do similar things, but the scope and limitations are different in both. For example, an Online Virtual Assistant works with you on a more personal level as you will be hiring experts to complete a specific task. These professionals will help you and work with your side-by-side in order to achieve a particular organizational goal. On the other hand, chatbots are only pre-programmed applications that are there to only clarify the doubts and queries of the target audience.

In this article, we will point out a few major differences between an Online Virtual Assistant and Chatbot.

Limitation

Chatbots are programmed in such a way that they can only answer a set of pre-programmed questions. If a question is asked which is not programmed in the chatbot, then the chatbot will fail to answer the question. Chatbots cannot hold long and interactive communications like a human. They mostly communicate in the form of text messages. 

Online Virtual Assistant is a more interactive platform than chatbots. They can understand every word which a user conveys. These assistants learn as they interact. Unlike like chatbots, they can have long interactive conversations. This way they can also handle complex tasks and solve them.

Tasks

As discussed earlier, chatbots can complete tasks that are only programmed within them. They are fed with FAQs and if something is asked beyond these questions, then the chatbots fail to answer.

On the other hand, Virtual Assistants understand everything a customer conveys. With the use of its learning behavior, an Online Virtual Assistant can compare products as per the features wanted by the user. It can also tell you which product is the best among the lot. 

Final Result

Now we know that Online Virtual Assistant and chatbots are different. Chatbots are limited to performing only selected tasks. Whereas, a VA can solve complex tasks due to its learning ability. Hence, for a company, it is advisable to opt for Virtual Assistant, to ensure that users experience a smooth customer service experience.