Chatbots for Charities – Operational Impacts

As more and more businesses are turning to chatbots to help them with their live chat functionality, so too are charities and other non-profit organisations.

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Chatbots offer the possibility for any entity to provide a wide range of services and functions through an automation process. The implementation of chatbots is intended to reduce the pressure on existing staff, freeing them up for more vital organisational activities. An often-touted saying is 'Automation where possible, human where it counts.'

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HR Role where needed

When good chatbot functionality is achieved, it can be a resource that works well for both service users and staff. Most charity organisations have a large number of volunteer staff. Automated processes can be created that can alert staff to the need for additional assistance in locations, confirm important information about events, or even act as an advice line for claiming expenses, calling in sick, checking rotas, and so on.

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Having a chatbot program in the HR role can be very efficient with any administrative process like onboarding a new starter, allowing information to be sent out or received directly into back-end software without human involvement.

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Simply assisting the network

For users of the charities, chatbots can offer up information on opening hours availability of advisors or direct them to partner services. An example of this might be when Charity A regularly gets asked about a service they do not offer, but they are happy to direct users to Charity B. Rather than this enquiry having to be dealt with via an expensive call centre that has to try and spell out URLs or tell the customer to use a search engine, the chatbot can directly deliver links that take the user to the appropriate location.

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This option is especially helpful for users who struggle with internet technology anyway, as it is conversational but also a simple interface.

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Partner processes

Process automation takes the pressure off existing staff within any organisation, freeing them up for other tasks. Being as smart as possible with partner communications is essential to the success of any information-based organisation.

Automation where possible, human where it counts.

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A lot of charities rely on referrals into their organisation from partners in their network as well. This referral kicks off a process that needs to be done before the service is delivered in many cases. So why do this on the phone, when a chatbot can gather all the relevant information and get your team 50% of the way there.

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By freeing staff to work where they are truly needed, a vast amount of overheads are saved, which frees up more money for the charity to work more efficiently and get the money to its intended destination, rather than on administration.

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As a final thought, chatbots can also be helpful for the procurement of donations, both monetary and physical items to resell. Donors can inquire how to make donations, where to take items that they wish to donate, and even sign up for alerts that could bring to their attention any time the charity is having a drive for resources.  

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In the end, process automation through chatbot implementation will enable charities to provide a better service to their audience while also driving their organisation forward in the background.

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