Easy Method to Calculate Chatbot ROI

5 minutes, 6 seconds read

Published on Sep 23, 2019

Updated on Aug 3, 2020

IBM reports that globally businesses spend over $1.3 trillion/year to handle roughly 265 billion customer calls. Chatbots spring up to minimize the expenditure on handling customer queries, especially the most redundant ones.

It’s quite common for businesses to assess the return on investment before adopting new technology.

However, ROI from chatbots may vary according to the purpose it serves. For example, an insurance chatbot ROI differs from that of an HR chatbot. Here are certain parameters to consider for calculating the return on investment from chatbots.

#1 Average Human Live-chat Cost

The total number of tickets raised per month and the number of agents involved gives an idea of the average price per contact.

According to Help Desk Institute, the average cost/minute for a live chat is $1.05, while the average cost per chat session is $16.80. Assuming an organization handles 10,000 chats in a month, the cost incurred sums up to $168,000/month.

Depending on the number of people involved and their compensation, you can calculate the amount you’re spending on your organization’s customer support. Here’s a salary reference, which can be used in further calculations.

sample customer support operational cost

The salaries mentioned are referred from Job Futuromat 2019 wrt 12 months, 18 working days, 8 hours.

The actual operational cost also depends on material resources invested like office space, conveyance, communications, gadgets, etc. You can consider these aspects on your chatbot ROI calculator.

#2 Bot Installation Cost

The phases of bot installation cost involves brainstorming sessions, integration, and training both bots and agents.

During kick-off sessions, stakeholders discuss the scope of the bot, define goals and responsibilities, and make a project plan. After this, programmers and managers integrate the bot on the organization’s website and other platforms. Customizing the bot according to the client’s support cases covers the bot training phase. Testing the bot and training agents to use it are also factored into the ‘bot’ installation costs.

According to Ometrics, the average development charge for a chatbot may range from $1,000 to $5,000. But, this is a one-time charge, and after that the bot-developer may bill for maintenance charges.

chatbot roi calculator: installation cost

If the chatbot requires a higher level of customization, then the bot-developer may also claim additional charges. Also, the number of days spent for bot installation varies according to industries and organizations.

#3 Gains through Bots

Here we’re assuming all the customer queries are routed through the bot and it is accurate 50% of the time. Out of the 50% queries handled by a bot, if half of them are self-served and the remaining required human intervention, then monthly gains from the bot can be-

chatbot roi calculator: gains from chatbot

You can find the exact cases and accuracy from your bot’s analytics dashboard.

#4 Monthly Maintenance Cost

Like humans, bots also require human assistance for its successful operation. Its monthly maintenance cost is a summation of the organization’s human resources it needs and developer’s charges. Here, let’s assume a chatbot maintenance fee, which ranges from $100 to $1,000 a month. Similar to the bot development charges, maintenance fees vary according to bot capabilities.

chatbot roi calculator: montly maintenance cost

#5 Chatbots Return on Investment Calculation

The return on investment is a ratio of benefit from the investment to the cost of investment. It evaluates the efficiency of an investment. Mathematically, ROI = (Current Value of Investment – Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment.

Since chatbots incur a one-time development cost and recurring monthly maintenance cost, here’s the chatbot ROI calculation from both perspectives.

Chatbot ROI during the first month: This includes the bot installation charges.

For the above case,

ROI = (Gains through bot – Installation charge – maintenance charge)/(installation charge + maintenance charge)

ROI = ($63,000 – $9,292 – $3,647)/($9,292 – $3,647)

ROI = 3.9 or 390%

Chatbot ROI after the first month: This excludes the bot installation charges.

For the above case,

ROI = (Gains through bot – maintenance charge)/(maintenance charge)

ROI = ($63,000 – $3,647)/($3,647)

ROI = 16.3 or 1630%

Using this method, you can build your own chatbot ROI calculator considering your own business parameters.

NLP and AI-powered chatbots can yield a better return on investment. For instance, Religare has incorporated a service chatbot on its Web portal and WhatsApp integration to handle customer queries. It has resulted in 10 times more customer interaction and 5 times more sales conversion.

Conclusion

For the above case, where bots are able to handle 50% of customer queries, there’s a direct 50% capital gain to the organization. The human-time saved can be utilized for more productive tasks, which can eventually accelerate the organization’s productivity.

Powerful bots result in better success rates for customer facing operations. For example, Diageo’s iDia chatbot has led to a 55% drop in help desk tickets.

Here are more enterprise chatbot use cases.

Researchers predict that by 2025, chatbots will accomplish more than 90% of the B2C interactions. Also, chatbots can cut operational costs by more than $8 billion per year in the next three years.

AI in Insurance will value at $36B by 2026. Chatbots will occupy 40% of overall deployment, predominantly within customer service roles.
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As healthcare becomes more patient-centric, the demand for efficient and personalized care continues to grow. One of the key technologies that have gained traction in this domain is Conversational UI (CUI) — a user interface where interactions occur through natural language, often with the help of chatbots. For developers, building a robust CUI in healthcare requires a balance of technical proficiency, understanding of the healthcare landscape, and empathy toward patient needs. Let’s explore how CUI can improve patient interactions through chatbots and what developers should consider during implementation.

Why Conversational UI is Gaining Popularity in Healthcare

From scheduling appointments to answering medical queries, healthcare chatbots have become vital tools for enhancing patient engagement and streamlining healthcare workflows. Conversational UIs enable these chatbots to interact with patients naturally, making them accessible even to non-tech-savvy users. By incorporating AI and NLP (Natural Language Processing), chatbots can now simulate human-like conversations, ensuring patients receive timely, relevant responses.

Image credit: https://www.analytixlabs.co.in/blog/ai-chatbots-in-healthcare/

Key Areas Where Chatbots Are Revolutionizing Healthcare

Appointment Scheduling and Reminders – Chatbots can automatically schedule appointments based on patient availability and send reminders before the visit, reducing no-show rates. For developers, this feature requires integration with hospital management systems (HMS) and calendar APIs. The challenge lies in ensuring secure and real-time data transfer while adhering to healthcare compliance standards like HIPAA.

Medical Query Resolution– Chatbots equipped with NLP can answer common patient questions related to symptoms, medications, and treatment plans. This reduces the burden on healthcare providers, allowing them to focus on more critical tasks. Developers working on this feature need to consider integrating medical databases, such as SNOMED CT or ICD-10, for accurate and up-to-date information.

Patient Monitoring and Follow-ups – Post-discharge, chatbots can monitor a patient’s condition by regularly asking for health updates (e.g., vital signs or medication adherence). Developers can integrate IoT devices, such as wearable health monitors, with chatbot platforms to collect real-time data, providing healthcare professionals with actionable insights.

Mental Health Support – Chatbots have shown promise in offering mental health support by providing patients with an outlet to discuss their feelings and receive advice. Building these chatbots involves training them on therapeutic conversational frameworks like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), ensuring they offer relevant advice while recognizing when a human intervention is required.

Key Considerations for Developers

1. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and AI Training

NLP plays a pivotal role in enabling chatbots to understand and process patient queries effectively. Developers must focus on the following:

Training Data: Start by gathering extensive datasets that include real-life medical queries and patient conversations. This ensures that the chatbot can recognize various intents and respond appropriately.

Multi-language Support: Healthcare is global, so building multi-lingual capabilities is critical. Using tools like Google’s BERT or Microsoft’s Turing-NLG models can help chatbots understand context in different languages.

Contextual Understanding: The chatbot must not just respond to individual queries but also maintain the context across the conversation. Developers can use contextual models that preserve the state of the conversation, ensuring personalized patient interactions.

2. Security and Compliance

Healthcare chatbots handle sensitive patient information, making security a top priority. Developers must ensure compliance with regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the U.S. and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe. Key practices include:

Data Encryption: All communication between the chatbot and the server must be encrypted using protocols like TLS (Transport Layer Security).
Authentication Mechanisms: Implement two-factor authentication (2FA) to verify patient identity, especially for sensitive tasks like accessing medical records.
Anonymization: To avoid accidental data breaches, ensure that the chatbot anonymizes data where possible.

3. Seamless Integration with EHR Systems

For chatbots to be truly effective in healthcare, they must integrate seamlessly with Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This requires a deep understanding of healthcare APIs like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) or HL7. Developers should aim to:

Enable Real-time Updates: Ensure that chatbot interactions (e.g., new appointment schedules, and symptom checks) are instantly reflected in the patient’s EHR.
Avoid Data Silos: Ensure that all systems (EHR, chatbot, scheduling system) can communicate with each other, eliminating data silos that can lead to fragmented patient information.

4. Scalability and Performance Optimization

In healthcare, downtime can be critical. Developers need to ensure that chatbots are scalable and capable of handling thousands of patient interactions simultaneously. Using cloud-based platforms (AWS, Google Cloud) that offer auto-scaling capabilities can help. Additionally, performance optimization can be achieved by:

Caching Responses: Store frequently used responses (such as FAQs) in memory to speed up interaction times.
Load Balancing: Implement load balancers to distribute incoming queries across servers, ensuring no single server is overwhelmed.

Image Credit: https://www.analytixlabs.co.in/blog/ai-chatbots-in-healthcare/

Tools and Platforms for Building Healthcare Chatbots

Several tools and platforms can aid developers in building healthcare chatbots with conversational UIs:

Dialogflow (Google): Offers pre-built healthcare intents and integrates with Google Cloud’s healthcare APIs.
Microsoft Bot Framework: A scalable platform that integrates with Azure services and offers AI-driven insights.
Rasa: An open-source NLP tool that provides flexibility in creating highly customized healthcare bots.

Conclusion

Conversational UI in healthcare is transforming patient care by offering real-time, scalable, and personalized interactions through chatbots. However, for developers, building these systems goes beyond programming chatbots — it involves understanding the unique challenges of healthcare, from regulatory compliance to seamless integration with hospital systems. By focusing on NLP capabilities, ensuring security and privacy, and integrating with existing healthcare infrastructure, developers can create chatbots that not only enhance patient interaction but also alleviate the burden on healthcare providers.

References

NLP in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges
HIPAA Compliance for Chatbots

About the Author:

Shristi is a creative professional with a passion for visual storytelling. She recently transitioned from the world of video and motion graphics to the exciting field of product design at Mantra Labs. When she’s not designing, she enjoys watching movies, traveling, and sharing her experiences through vlogs.