There ’ s a bunch of hype floating about right immediately about chatbots in general, and Facebook Messenger bots in particular. It ’ second no surprise that, according to a survey by Oracle, 80 percentage of businesses want a chatbot in place by 2020 .
Can bots in truth do everything they promise ? It ’ sulfur even early days. In the interim, here are some very global examples and best practices to give you a firm foothold in this raw landscape.
Bonus: Download a free steer that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Flickroom .
Contents
What are Facebook Messenger bots (a.k.a Facebook chatbots)?
basically, a chatbot is a piece of automated messaging software that uses AI to converse with people.
Bots are programmed to understand questions, provide answers, and perform tasks. From a customer ’ mho position, they ’ re a friendly and accessible time-saver. Rather than opening an app ( let alone downloading one ), making a earphone call ( electronic warfare ), running a research, or loading a web page, your customer can good type a message, like they would to a ally .
Chatbots have been around in some shape for decades, and presently they exist on webpages, in apps, on social media—you name it .
A Facebook Messenger bot is a chatbot that lives in Facebook Messenger, meaning it converses with some of the 1.3 billion people who use Facebook Messenger every month .
If you ’ re on Facebook, you probably already have a Facebook Messenger strategy. A Facebook Messenger bot is how you scale that scheme .
As of the 2018 F8 league, Facebook has 300,000 active Messenger bots. That ’ south three times equally many as the year prior .
Why use Facebook Messenger bots for business?
There are two major advantages to using a Facebook Messenger bot .
first, there ’ s a low barrier to entry for both you and your target audience. Facebook Messenger is the third gear most-used app in the world, used by 68 percentage of app users .
And it ’ s not just for group chats among friends and family. A late Nielsen view found that people think messaging is the second-best room to talk to a business. People exchange 2 billion messages with businesses over Facebook Messenger every calendar month .
Compare this to the remainder of the fluid app market, where 71 percentage of users delete an app within 90 days .
If you want to communicate with your customers, building a Facebook Messenger bot is a lot cheaper than building a mobile app.
The second advantage is that the field is silent wide-eyed open. While Facebook has 6 million advertisers, there are only 300,000 chatbots. That ’ s a set less contest .
interim, commercialize e-mail click-through rates ( 3.1 percentage, on average ) seaport ’ thymine improved in years, and only 30 percentage of market emails are evening opened. Chatbots can help you bypass inbox competition excessively .
so that ’ s the context. Let ’ s break down precisely what a Messenger chatbot can help you do :
1. Reach your audience directly
Headliner Labs found that people are 3.5 times more likely to open a Facebook Message than a market e-mail. And since customers can respond ( normally by pressing a CTA button—they wear ’ thymine even need to type ), they ’ re likely to move farther down your selling funnel .
On top of that, Facebook Messenger has sponsored ads, which can be sent to anyone who has previously been in touch with your foliate. Yes, this means that you already have a subscriber tilt. You can use these ads in tandem with your chatbot to target high-intent customers .
2. Save time and money on customer care
Customers expect 24/7 handiness, but they hate waiting on detention. They besides ask many of the same questions over and over ( and over ) again .
If you ’ ra spend a batch of time helping people track deliveries, check your return key policy, or book appointments, a small automation will go a hanker way. Free up your stress for the tasks that a Messenger chatbot can ’ thymine suffice .
3. Identify leads
As your bot greets potential customers, it can identify their needs, ask basic questions, ( i.e., “ What ’ s your budget ? ” ) and immediately address high-quality leads to your homo sales team .
4. Handle e-commerce transactions
With the right script, bots can do the sell, besides. And because everything happens without leaving the comfort of Facebook Messenger, decrease rates are lower than in a traditional ad-to-webpage pipeline .
besides, colloquial department of commerce leaves board for individualized upselling as the bot makes suggestions. Everything from “ Seems your flight won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate be leaving until 4PM. Would you prefer a late check-out ? ” to “ Fries with that ? ”
5. Re-engage customers
Bots are capable of retaining information, and you can use those details to go the extra mile .
rather than paying for a barrage of ad, a Facebook Messenger bot can reach out personally, offering relevant contented at the right fourth dimension. Remind a customer about those cycling shorts still sitting in her cart, or that she sent her mother-in-law birthday flowers this time last class .
How are businesses using Facebook Messenger bots?
Each bot is arsenic alone as the business it serves .
They can help with park customer service questions, like delivery traverse and appointee book. But they can besides drive discovery—suggesting the arrant pair of jeans, booking a steer flight to London, or ordering dinner .
They can upsell by suggesting a jersey to go with those jeans, or a bottle of kombucha with that dragon bowl .
They can remind you that you forgot to click purchase on those sneakers .
They can track your delivery, and then check in to see how those jeans fit once they ’ ve arrived .
They can notify you about an offer they think you ’ d like, and they ’ ll remember your size or time zone or nut allergy .
They might even tell you a jest while you ’ re at it .
here are a few best-in-class chatbot examples to inspire you .
Marriott ’ south concenter on stellar customer serve means that they ’ ve been at the forefront of the chatbot boom. They created their beginning Facebook Messenger chatbot in 2016 to help guests link their Marriott and Starwood rewards accounts after the companies merged .
The bot was so democratic that Marriott transitioned it into a engagement bot : guests can enter their dates in a city, and get hotel suggestions. This bot besides highlights message from Marriott ’ s magazine, Traveller, integrating useful local data and newsworthiness for the guest ’ randomness approaching sojourn .
individually, concluding year Marriott created a careers chatbot to target millennial job seekers. “ MC ” helps prospective candidates find the right job in the right city, and simultaneously provides education on Marriott values and history. This makes a lot of sense coming from a brand that aims to treat its employees vitamin a well as its customers .
The cosmetics retailer ’ s Reservation Assistant bot is simple but brilliant .
Sephora offers free makeovers in their stores, and this bot eliminates five steps from the book action. Implementing it led to an 11 percentage higher booking rate. ( And a draw more folks buying a empurpled eyeliner they didn ’ t know they needed til they saw it in the mirror—customers spent an average of $ 50 once in-store. )
During the 2017 NFL season, Bud Light promoted its team-branded cans by creating a chatbot that could order and deliver a case of beer in under an hour on game days.
The ace here is a blend of personalization ( customers get to pick their darling team ), hyper-locality ( geo-targeting allowed the bot to select the best delivery collaborator for the area ), and opportuneness ( the bot reminded users each game day that it was time to stock the electric refrigerator. ) This bot saw an 83 percentage engagement rate .
This bot acts as an extension of Whole Foods ’ capacity market scheme by acting as a concierge that drives discovery of recipes based on ingredients. The bot can besides help you narrow down ideas by serve type or dietary restriction .
And yes, you can search by emoji .
UNICEF ’ s U-report bot is built to gather opinions and data from youthful people around the universe on issues that matter to them, with the finish of amplifying their voices to create real policy variety. The bot has engaged over 2 million subscribers .
If you ’ ve ever tried to collect feedback from your customers, take note : chatbots don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate just chew the fat, they can listen, excessively .
Tools for building Facebook Messenger bots
If all of this has you inspired to create your own chatbot, here are a few solutions to check out. We ’ ve divided them into two categories based on their capabilities and the investment required : self-serve and enterprise .
many of these tools include integrations with Flickroom. We ’ ve noted them specifically below, but you can besides check in the Flickroom App Directory .
Self-serve tools
Streamchat is one of the most basic chatbot tools out there. It ’ south mean to be used for dim-witted automations and autoresponders, like out-of-office replies or “ We ’ ll get back to you a soon as we can ! ” messages, rather than for managing a broader work flow. It ’ second quick to implement and easy to start with if you ’ re precisely dipping your toes into the chatbot waters .
p : Streamchat integrates with Flickroom Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover protocol .
As one of the largest self-serve platforms for building Facebook Messenger bots, Chatfuel has an impressive client tilt : everyone from Flickroom to Netflix to the Cincinnati Bengals .
They have an intuitive ocular interface for those without a tease background, but developers will like the editable front-end and customization options. While you can build a bot for free, a distribute of the more complex ( and interesting ) tools are lone available with Chatfuel Pro accounts. Either direction, it might be helpful to know that Chatfuel integrates with Flickroom Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover protocol .
This loose joyride features a ocular chatbot builder for Facebook Messenger with respective bells and whistles, including : Q & A triggers, Live Chat Takeover, Chatbot Templates, Custom Attributes, and more. There ’ s besides a “ Chat Blast ” feature, similar to Chatfuel ’ s “ broadcasting ” feature, that allows you to send messages to multiple users at once .
If you upgrade to a “ Pro ” design, you ’ ll have access to some of the more valuable features, like schedule, analytics, and drip campaign frame-up .
phosphorus : MobileMonkey is primarily designed for non-technical users. That means no code required. It besides integrates with Flickroom Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover protocol .
ManyChat ’ south interface is one of the least intimidating out there. however, it may be better suited to those making simple bots—message management can get awkward as the conversation gets complex .
On the plus side, ManyChat has batch of tools that will help you promote your bot and evaluate user analytics. It ’ south detached at first, but after you hit a certain number of subscribers you ’ ll necessitate to start paying for a Pro report .
Enterprise tools
Chatkit provides enterprise grade solutions for automatize messaging on Facebook Messenger, a well as SMS message and Google RCS ( a.k.a. Google Chat ). It is lauded for its wide image of integrations, including Flickroom and Shopify .
Used by Coca Cola and Samsung, Reply.AI is an enterprise floor, all-in-one colloquial AI platform for sales, accompaniment, and marketing conversations on Facebook Messenger ( arsenic well as Web, LINE, WeChat, Telegram, Kik, and SMS messaging ). The chatbot builder is “ drag-and-drop ” style and has high reviews for its ease-of-use .
Some singular features include : advance analytics, audit security practices, role-based access control, and internationalization. It besides integrates with Flickroom Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover protocol .
Another no-coding-required bot builder, the Bot Platform is one of the most popular and entrust enterprise solutions in the game—at least when it comes to Facebook Messenger and Workplace. BBC, Showtime, RuPaul, and Sony Music are all customers. People seem to very love its analytics and division capabilities .
bonus : The Bot Platform integrates with Flickroom Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover protocol, excessively
This is an enterprise-level, fully-managed bot supplier, meaning you tell them what you want and they ’ ll build it for you. Their clients include top brands in image of industries, but specially in retail and CPG ( consumer packaged goods ) companies. This is credibly because their chatbots can catalog and host a view of products within the old world chat itself, making it a favored of beauty companies like Vichy, Covergirl and L ’ Oreal. Automat besides integrates with Flickroom Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover protocol .
Conversable is the enterprise-class, SaaS platform that will build your bot with you. They work with a lot of Fortune 500 companies ( they ’ re behind the Whole Foods, Pizza Hut, 7-11, and Dunkin Donuts bots, among others ). They go beyond Facebook Messenger, and will make sure your conversations are happening across all channels, including voice-based ones ( like, for example, OnStar ) .
If you ’ re up for coding your own Messenger bot, Facebook provides a multitude of resources. And they are constantly working with their developer community to come up with new ideas to improve the user feel. Sephora and Nike, for exemplify, are presently testing augmented reality camera effects for their customers .
Facebook Messenger bot best practices
here are some hard-earned tips from the experts, aimed at those of you who are ready to build your own Facebook Messenger bot .
Set your expectations
No bot can do everything—yet. When you ’ re designing your first campaign, select one goal or use sheath for the bot to handle. democratic ideas include customer service, spark advance identification, intersection promotion, or discovery .
Keep it simple, and walk before you run .
Set your customer’s expectations
This works the other way, excessively : often, your bot will be teaching the exploiter how to interact with it as it goes. Alas, utopian-minded people who expect your appointment-booking bot to pass the Turing test may be disappointed. And folks who have no idea what a bot is could be equally frustrated .
clearly define the chatbot ’ second role in initial interactions to keep everyone on the lapp page. then, throughout the interaction, platform the chatbot to take the lead in guiding the exploiter through the feel .
Invite personalization
Segmenting your customers and getting to know them drives employment. Bots that invite a person to identify their preferences and narrow down options have a lot higher click-through rates. Build a bot that people authentically want to interact with .
Get to the point
Bots are still pretty novel, but ultimately the finish hera is to save users time. According to Jonathan Schriftman of Snaps ( the bot-builder behind Bud Light, Gatorade Edge, and others ), there ’ s a significant cliff in users when a bot takes more than five clicks to get to point-of-sale .
Always have a human on-hand
A bot ’ sulfur achiever depends on its ability to recognize when a human being is needed. automated conversations are fabulously quick and reactive, but they can ’ triiodothyronine replace human connection .
Customers should have the choice, at any point in the conversation, to connect with a person .
Pro tip: Flickroom Inbox supports the Facebook Messenger handover protocol, so you can manage and reply to all your lineal messages in one place, including ones initiated by chatbots .
Be transparent
While a bot ’ s ability to store and remember information is one of its most attractive features ( everyone wants to feel like a regular ! ) be up battlefront with users about data memory. What datum will be stored ? How will it be used ? How can a person opt out ?
Give your users exponent over their private information .
Keep learning
once you ’ ve built it, integrate your bot into your market calendar and your overall Facebook scheme. Your Facebook Messenger bot international relations and security network ’ thyroxine replacing e-mail, customer service agents, or apps so far, but it offers features of all three, which means it must be treated like the unique animal it is .
As you test strengths and measure operation, keep an eye on the manner chatbots continue to evolve in the market. After all, this is AI we ’ ra talking about. Have we even scratched the surface ?
Read more: Google drive
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With files from Shannon Tien .
