Messenger bots, also known as chatbots, are on the rise for a number of reasons. Consumers and businesses alike are finding them an invaluable tool for giving and getting information, and making connections in real time.
What Are Messenger Bots?
Messenger bots are robots which send out pre-prepared messages. They are similar to the autoresponder in your email marketing platform, except they are triggered by certain keywords and phrases into giving what will hopefully be an appropriate matching response to the message that has been sent.
Messenger bots use a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and “natural language processing” to try to determine meaning and give a reply suited to what the customer is trying to accomplish. For example, “How large is the Toshiba EM925A5A-BS microwave?” should send back a message with its dimensions so that a shopper could decide if it would fit in their allotted space for it on their kitchen counter.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Each company should have a list of FAQs in order to streamline their customer services. Many question keywords can be set in a messenger bot, with matching answers uploaded into the system for a hopefully seamless experience that gives the customer what they need without them having to interact with a human. No system is perfect, but they have gotten to the point where the technology is good enough to match a high percentage at a time. The tech has also reached the point where people are willing to use it.
The New Generations of Consumers
In the olden days, people would call a business on the phone. Then came email. Then came social media customer service. All of these rely on a human being at the other end in case of difficulty, or in order to deal with the customer request.
But all of these also take time. Who wants to wait on hold for an hour, or wait a day or two for an email reply? People in “question mode” and “buying mode” want their answers about a particular microwave ASAP so they can make a decision one way or the other and buy something quickly. A messenger bot is the best solution to this issue.
Younger consumers like the convenience and speed. They are moving away from social media to even more direct connections. They also like to feel as though a company cares and that they “know” each other. Some people just love messaging technology anyway, so it makes sense to them that if you offer it, they will use it.
The Business Benefits of Messenger Bots
The more you can automate your business, the more time you have for other tasks. Messenger bots can help improve efficiency even as you cut down on the number of hours staff have to spend answering customer service queries, for example. This will help save money, because you can either hire fewer people, or add more duties to their jobs – tasks which could help you earn more money.
Marketing messenger bots can help you make more money. They can stimulate sales by answering the many questions potential customers might have about a product, and by promoting the product in the first place. For example, whenever you launch a new product, you can message your list of contacts with information about it. The message will be highly visible and therefore a lot less likely to be ignored compared with an email.
Tired of getting no response on Facebook? We’ll teach you the best practices for getting attention and creating connections on the biggest social media platform out there.
