ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

3 Ways ChatGPT Can Support SME Businesses

Written By Lee Tebby

In an already competitive digital marketplace, how do you as a SME business owner leverage the opportunities that artificial intelligence offers and how can ChatGPT be such a valuable tool in your arsenal.

Tip 1 - Enhance Your Customer Service

We all understand that customer service is now much more than delivering a top-notch service, it is about making your customer 'feel special' and giving them a memorable experience. Key to creating lasting customer loyalty is being building strong relationships, addressing their needs and being able to respond to enquiries.

Whilst ChatGPT doesn't replace the unique and intimate understanding of your customers business, or the warmth of human relationships, it is excellent and efficient at tackling the repeat straightforward queries that customers raise and just need quick answers to. This is how ChatGPT can positively impact your customer service and free up your resources to deal with more complex queries and provide a fast and immediate self-service option for basic customer enquiries.

To successfully utilise ChatGPT into your customer services process, we have highlighted 5 factors to consider before implementing AI into your business:

1. Integrate: Consider whether to use the ChatGPT API to integrate with any existing customer service platform you may be using already. If not, then build a new chatbot with ChatGPT as the underlying engine.
   
   
2. Train & Fine Tune: Whilst ChatGPT comes pre-trained, it can be beneficial to fine-tune it on your products, services and typical queries to ensure that it can provide the right and relevant responses.
   
   
3. Construct Prompts: Once integrated and fine-tuned, you can use prompts to guide the language model. For example if a customer asks, "What is your return policy?", the model can be prompted with terms like, "Customer Enquiry: What is our return policy?". Using automation, you can eliminate the need for human interaction to craft the prompts using the chat interface depending on how the system is set up.
   
   
4. Monitor & Feedback: One crucial step is to continuously monitor the interactions with your chatbot to ensure that it is providing accurate and helpful responses. Over time, it may require adjustments and further fine-tuning based on real-world performance.
   
   
5. Fallback Strategy: When your artificial intelligence is unable to resolve a query or your customer has a more complex question, it is essential that you have a strategy in place for a customer to speak to a human. This could be directing the user to a live chat agent or providing contact information.

Tip 2 - Ignite Your Marketing & Content Creation

When you are a SME business, time and resources are often in limited supply. The pressure to craft and create compelling content for your blog, email marketing, social media and industry publications can be challenging. Whilst you shouldn't rely on ChatGPT to replace your entire marketing department or social media manager it can help lessen the load through content ideas, automation and creating captivating headlines. Yes, there is still a need for human finesse to maintain brand voice and consistent quality standards, there is no denying ChatGPT is a marketers sidekick.

With its text-generation capabilities, this technology can dramatically save time in the creation of articles, snappy social media posts, engaging email campaigns to name a just a few applications.

But here are a few example prompt ideas for various marketing needs:

1. Blog Post Content Ideas
   
   Prompt: "Generate a list of blog post titles related to sustainable fashion".
   Expected Output: Titles like "The Rise of Eco-Friendly Fabrics" or "How Sustainable Fashion Impacts the Environment". etc.
   
   
2. Email Campaigns
   
   Prompt: "Draft an email subject line and introduction for a summer sale on outdoor furniture".
   Expected Output: Subject like "Sizzling Summer Savings on Outdoor Furniture!" and introduction like "Dive into Summer with fantastic deals on our latest outdoor furniture collection. Transform your outdoor living space today!"
   
   
3. Social Media
   
   Prompt: "Write a tweet announcing our new software update with enhanced security features".
   Expected Output: "Exciting News! Our latest software update is here with robust security features to keep you safe and sound. Upgrade today! #safetyfirst #techupgrade".
   
   
4. Product Descriptions
   
   Prompt: "Describe a portable Bluetooth speaker that's water resistant and has 10 hour battery life".
   Expected Output: "Experience unmatched audio quality on the go with our portable Bluetooth speaker. Whether it's by the pool or on a hike, its water-resistant design and impressive 10 hour battery life ensure uninterrupted music anywhere, anytime."

Tip 3 - Turbocharge Your Business Insights

Having insights into your business data not only helps you visualise what is happening, but enables you to make informed decisions. ChatGPT is able to quickly  summarise or analyse large volumes of data. For example ChatGPT can extract common themes and sentiment from your online customer reviews something which could free up valuable resources to focus on other tasks. But it is all about the right tool for the right job. Where you need more in-depth and intricate data analysis, ChatGPT is no substitute for more comprehensive business intelligence solutions.

Here are some ways in which to structure prompts for such tasks:

1. Interpreting Data
   
   Prompt: "Based on the data showing a 15% increase in sales but a 10% decrease in website traffic, what could be some potential reasons for this?"
   Expected Output: Improved conversion rates, more effective marketing leading to higher purchases from fewer visitors.
   
   
2. Summarising Data
   
   Prompt: "Summarise the following data points: Our company saw an increase in sales in January 2024 by 10%, February 2024 had a decrease of 2% and March 2024 experienced significant growth of 25%."
   Expected Output: "Over the first quarter of 2024, your company experienced a dynamic sales pattern. January enjoyed a 10% boost, while February saw a minor dip of 2%. However, March rebounded strongly with a notable 25% increase."
   
   
3. Descriptive Statistical Explanation
   
   Prompt: "This dataset shows an average (mean) of 150 with a standard deviation of 25. Explain what this means in simple terms."
   Expected Output: "The average value in your dataset is 150. The standard deviation of 25 means that most of the data points fall within a range of 125 to 175."
   
   
4. Hypothetical Predictive Insights
   
   Prompt: "Given that our marketing spend increased by 20% in April and we saw a boost in sales of 15%, what might we expect if we increase marketing spend by 30% in May?"
   Expected Output: "If a 20% increase in marketing spend led to a 15% boost in sales, a 30% increase in May could result in a more significant sales uptake. However, it's essential to consider other factors such as diminishing returns, seasonality or external market conditions."
   
   

In Summary

There is little doubt that ChatGPT offers SME businesses a valuable helping hard with tasks like customer service, content creation and data insights. But it is crucial to recognise that this technology does not replace people, it is there to compliment your talented team and focus energy on the areas where artificial intelligence does not add value or is not the right fit.

Fortunately, you are not alone, all of our IT support plans include our eLearning platform. There are a series of specific artificial intelligence courses that teach you about both ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot along with over 200 other subjects that cover a range of Microsoft, Adobe and Google applications as well as soft skills such as copywriting and internet marketing. These courses have been designed to help your employees hone their skills and elevate your business to new heights.