Lets get up to speed with ChatBots.
Chatbot is: Customer service and support in an automated
form disguised to feel like a human. These bots are going to get smart really
fast as end-users keep feeding them their information, which the bots will catalogue
for future use.
There are 900 million active users per month using Messenger
App and is the number 1 way to communicate around the world, statistically. The
smart phone has become the centre of our lives. Messaging is the number one
activity we do on our smart phones. How can you, as a business take advantage
of this?
There are more than 50 million businesses on Facebook. From
your local favourite restaurant to the giants in the market, customers are
communicating with these businesses sending more than 1 billion messages every
month.
It’s a communication that is instant, keeps context and
establishes a permanent thread between you and your customer, which is so
valuable these days and is growing exponentially. Messaging between businesses
and customers over the last 12 months has nearly DOUBLED.
We are in the middle of a huge parallel shift of how people
are communicating to businesses. In response, businesses are creating
conversational experiences that offer rich, personalized ways to interact.
How does it work and what can you build on it?
- Automated subscription content
- Weather & Traffic updates
- Customized communication such as receipts, shipping notifications & live automated messaging
Essentially, how Chatbots work is through a send/receive API
that connects you with your customer. This can be a combination of automated responses,
bots, as well as human interaction.
Together, a business can create a superb customer service
experience. One that is tailor-made for them. The messages you send can take
various forms. You can send text, images and templates. Flexible templates
offer structured text and functionality, like call to action buttons.
This is where the magic happens. For example, say you
confirm an order with your customer; you could give them an option to track the
shipment or maybe change the colour of their item. You could add an image too.
The appearance looks professional and creates that cutting edge so many
businesses are striving for.
Here are a few examples of what Bots can actually do:
A shopping experience:
Bots create conversations that are instant, interactive,
proactive and personal. Think about shopping online, how tedious the whole
process is. Spring, cleverly used messenger API and the conversational
interface to create a new way of selling to customers online. The system can match similar options to
previous browsing and buying behavior and recommend them to your customer.
Using bot technology, the customer can then converse via Messenger asking
questions about the product.. At this point, messenger API is pinging Live Messaging
Tools. Based on information fed to the bots from previous experiences, the bot
will reply to your customer which will then close the deal with your potential
customer and you would have earned a sale effortlessly.
Daily Behaviour:
Checking the weather, news and ordering a cup of coffee may
be part of our daily routine. How do Bots come in here? Today we sought after
information rather than that information proactively coming to us. Use
messenger app to ask CNN, what is the latest update with regards to
#zumamustfall? Messenger then responds with a quick summary of the latest
updates.
Measuring and Intelligence? NO PROBLEM!
A simple CMS tool is used to measure the length and
frequency that the bot is communicating with your customer. This makes the
timing and response perfect, just as if your customer is having a natural
conversation (natural pacing).
An emotional index scores a person’s attitude. Let’s say
your customer is rude, the bot will detect this and dynamically adapt to keep
the relationship with your customer.
It is a little hesitant on how smart the chatbots can
actually get, there is a limit they say. With hundreds of languages, so many
unique customers and customer inquiries, customer expectation will increase
which in turn puts more pressure on you as a company. To provide a true and
exceptional customer experience, rely not only on the smart bots but also on
the human ingredient too.
Here are 5 AMAZING and USEFUL chatbots we are using
right now:
1. Travel bot :
- Instalocate - is a chatbot for Facebook Messenger that can track flights by flight number and notifies travelers about delays.
- Guggy - Replies with Gifs and Stickers saying the text you send it
- Icon8 - Turn your images into an artwork.
- EshterBot - Learn about a person, then take quizzes and play games (the company suggests to transforms your resume into a bot)
- Sequel Stories - Choose from several stories, read and slightly affect the story
- ChatShopper - The first ecommerce fashion and shopping chatbot for Facebook Messenger, ChatShopper asks users about their fashion taste and replies back with the product suggestions.
- TechCrunch - The TechCrunch chatbot for Messenger helps you stay on top of the topics and stories you care about. You can subscribe to different topics, authors, or sections of the site, and the bot will send you news articles from TechCrunch about the things you are interested in the most.
- DIGG - Delivers the most interesting and talked about stories on the internet right now.
- CNN - Instant breaking news alerts and most talked about stories. Just ask it anything actually.
5.
Information Bot:
- Poncho — Sends daily weather, with each weather forecast you get additional quick options.
ENJOY... :)
