Social messaging is hot, but what do consumers get out of it? Technology is great, but are we making the customer's life more fun and beautiful with it? In other words, what's in it for them? In this article I will answer these and other burning questions about social messaging.
“ Social messaging apps have surpassed social networks .” This factoid is used to open the Social Messaging Event by chair Frans Reichardt. This article is based on the Social Messaging Event that was organized by Frankwatching on Friday, September 22, 2017.
What can you do as a company with social messaging?
Many companies are currently still looking for the holy grail in customer service. “That will change,” says Jarno Duursma. He also tells us that consumers are just as happy to send a message to a company as to call (49.4% versus 50.6%). The advantage of social messaging for companies is that customers ask easier and shorter questions. That in turn offers opportunities for chatbots.
Conversational commerce capability
Conversational commerce describes how you can still achieve your sales goals in a customer service conversation. It originates from the concept of conversational interfaces , which is a development of the basic concept of artificial intelligence . Because algorithms are now better developed, there is more data to inform and train and new solutions are being built based on cloud-based cognitive services, conversational interfaces have become increasingly important in customer contact. The starting point of the conversation is to provide service. If you do that very well now, via social messaging channels for example, you bind your customers and target group to your brand.
Many companies are still searching for the holy grail in customer service.
Social Messaging
The prime example of Facebook Messenger is the Chinese WeChat, which can be described as ' one app to rule them all '. The Chinese use WeChat 30 percent of the time they use their phone, which is a considerable share! You can not only send messages with the app, you can also order food, pay in the cinema, call a taxi, make an appointment with the doctor and so on. Mark Zuckerberg also wants to make that possible in Messenger. The commercial possibilities via Messenger are therefore very great for companies. "WhatsApp will c level executive list remain the light version of that for a long time to come", expects Jarno Duursma.
Opportunities for chatbot technology
Most companies still have a (large) webcare team working to answer incoming messages from customers. That will change in the future: artificial intelligence is getting better and better and offers you the possibility to answer customer questions in an automated way. We can start a conversation very easily, but the quality is not 'up to par' today. Many chatbots are still menu-based. "But in a few years you won't know whether you are talking to a chatbot or a human," says Jarno Duursma.
I was in a 'conversation' with the chatbot of Allerhande last week. All I wanted was to use my leftover Turkish bread from the weekend in my dinner, that was difficult:
Conversation All Kinds
Chatbot conversation with Allerhande. Click on the image for a larger view.
I think this conversation confirms how important it is to train a chatbot properly and that the technology in general still has plenty of room for development.
- Board index
- All times are UTC
- Delete cookies
- Contact us