AI-Powered Chatbot: A Luxury or a Necessity for Your Business?

Until a few years ago, the term “AI-powered chatbot” brought to mind only large tech companies with massive budgets. For many business owners, a chatbot was a “nice-to-have,” a luxury, but never a “must-have.” The belief was that no robot could ever replace the human touch, the warmth of a sincere “hello.”

But what if AI isn’t here to eliminate the human touch, but rather, to create time for those valuable human interactions? What if a chatbot is a superpower that frees your team from robotic tasks, allowing them to build real connections with customers?

Let’s listen to the transformation our customer, Emily, experienced in her clinic, in her own words.

“I Saw How AI Saved the Human Touch”

Emily, the manager of a private aesthetic clinic and a Vera.Support customer:

“To be honest, I didn’t believe in AI. Our business is all about the human touch. I believed that when a guest walked through our clinic’s door or called on the phone, they should be greeted by a warm, human voice. I was afraid a robot would damage our premium service image.

For years, we answered all phone calls, website chats, and WhatsApp messages with my two wonderful receptionists. They were truly great at their jobs. But there was a problem: 80% of their day was spent answering the same questions over and over again.

‘What are your appointment hours?’, ‘Where is your address?’, ‘Do you offer Botox?’… The same questions, constantly, repeatedly.

The truly painful part was this: while my receptionist was explaining our address over the phone, a potential customer on the website asking, ‘I’d like detailed information about your laser hair removal packages,’ would wait for 30 seconds and then leave the chat. That potential customer was asking about one of our most profitable services, but we couldn’t get to them. Because my team was busy with tasks that seemed urgent but were of lower value. I considered hiring more staff, but that would just increase costs.

On a friend’s insistence, I decided to try Vera.Support’s AI bot, telling myself it would ‘only run outside of business hours.’ I had nothing to lose.

The first morning I came into the office, I saw 15 new conversations waiting in the panel from overnight. I opened them in a panic. The bot had already resolved 12 of them on its own: they asked for the address, it answered; they asked for appointment times, it provided them; they asked about basic services, it listed them.

But one conversation was different. At midnight, a woman from abroad had written in, asking very detailed questions about a quite expensive cosmetic procedure. The bot, after providing the basic information, had understood that she was a serious lead and said, ‘Our patient coordinator can give you the best information on this. If you leave your details, I can have her call you tomorrow morning.’ The woman had left her phone number.

That morning, instead of wrestling with the usual ‘where’s your address?’ phone calls, my receptionist directly called that warm, ready lead. At the end of a productive half-hour conversation, she scheduled the appointment for an operation that would become one of our biggest sales of the month.

That’s when I understood. AI wasn’t replacing the human touch. It was creating precious moments for my talented team to display their human touch by taking over the meaningless and repetitive tasks. For us, it wasn’t a luxury; it had become our most efficient employee.

Now, our bot works 24/7. And my receptionists are no longer people who ‘give directions’; they are ‘value-creating consultants’ for our clinic. Thank you for giving us this vision, Vera.Support.”