Little by little, ChatBots are replacing the use of mobile apps in a way that users can now simply use social media messaging to access services such as booking rides or hotels, checking your bank balance, or ordering a pizza. You no longer need to open your apps and wait for it to load, you can simply chat your request away. Convenient, right?
ChatBots (short for chat robots) are computer programs that mimic human conversations through artificial intelligence. Bots are able to understand and learn from conversational language, which means they can possibly get smarter with each interaction.
Chat bots work pretty much like virtual assistants, they allow companies to automatically provide users with immediate responses and answer basic or frequently asked questions. This enables your actual customer service team to handle more serious customer concerns and users can benefit by receiving answers to their queries regardless of the time of day.
In 2016, Facebook opened up its Messenger platform to third party chatbots. allows you to build on the already popular social application to get to your customers in their natural habitat.
With Messenger’s 1 billion monthly active users, it’s safe to say that social messaging is a universal trend. With SMS and email on a decline — especially to people 35 and younger — instant messaging apps are now considered as the millennial generation’s communication medium of choice, this makes chat bots easy to embrace.
**1–800-flowers:**1–800 flowers was one of the few early available forms of chatbots on that messenger chat box. The bot allows you to order and customize flowers simply by chatting with their shop’s chat bot.
Mark Zuckerberg even said this himself, “It’s pretty ironic: To order from 1–800-flowers, you never have to cal 1–800-Flowers again”
The popular ride hailing app now enables users to request for a ride via the Messenger app or even download the Uber app. Ride receipts and status are delivered via Uber Messenger so there’s no need to exit your messenger app especially when you’re in an extra hurry. See the vid below:
We created this chatbot for a local home-cleaning service. Due to their great reputation in cleaning units or even office places, they’ve been receiving non-stop facebook messages for inquiries. Since most of the staff are away cleaning units on daytime and asleep on night time (they’re humans after all), they fear that they might be losing clients due to delayed replies and possibly inconsistent messages.
We helped Mrs. Clean brainstorm the automate their flow by developing their Facebook messenger chatbot:
Ultimately, chatbots are here to make it easier for customers to work with you. If you think this is a solution that could help you with improving your business, send us a message at info@sym.ph — although ironically, a chat bot won’t be the one to respond to you.
See more inspiration for chatbots here
Sources:
Hubspot.comMessagingservice.com
