How deep are you stuck in chatbots?
Look at your smartphone right now. Is there any notification on the screen? Maybe not now, but every day we find ourselves stuck in messenger chatbots for different reasons. Even though you can be interested in arranging meetings or chatting with friends, most business owners have already recognized contemporary chatbot obsession and incorporated them into their businesses! Why?
Actually, it’s an open secret that we are fond of communication and instant messaging. And the statistics on the top 10 apps in the world proves it – all of our favorite apps are social for some extent and almost two-thirds of them are instant messengers. You see, the popularity of chatbots is rising. The numbers speak volumes: 275 million users (in the U.S. only!) are the users of Kik platform – one of the chatbots platforms operating these days.
Along with the number and popularity of messaging, the number of spheres where chatbots prevail is also tremendous. In our previous post, we’ve discussed the specifics of Facebook Messenger-based chatbots used for customer service. But if you think they are useful for customer service only, look at all these industries and see how helpful chatbots are for various business needs!
E-commerce
Chatbots are great at facilitating online communication between you and your customers. This small tool doesn’t need extra human and technical resources to work 24/7, so you don’t suffer from typical shopping fuss: hiring and managing extra staff and paying extra working hours. But how to make the most out of it?
First, consider your chatbot as a bridge between you and your customers. With this tool, you can collect their questions, complaints, and provide immediate clarifications. Done? Then use this data to predict the customer behavior.
Have you ever thought your chatbot could offer and potentially manage your client’s purchases? While you are reading this question, Ebay, H&M, and Burger King are sending text messages to their customers on updates and special offers. To enjoy the same benefits, analyze the everyday interactions of each user on your website and provide your “Push the purchase!” button based on the information collected. Hard to disagree – chatbot is a magic pill for e-commerce!
Banking
To facilitate your online shopping, chatbots take charge of the complexities of financial operations and online purchases. For example, you can try to message your bank directly and check whether you can make transfers with a chatbot. If you’re a client of a Citibank India or HSBC, it’s not a problem; they use chatbots to make your financial management easier. Ukrainian PrivatBank has also launched chatbots for their customer, and it seems like it was a success.
Huge organizations like Bank of America or M&S bank to startup businesses like MyKai bot from Kasisto do use chatbots as well. If you were their client , you could transfer money, receive payments and check the amount of money you’ve spent on coffee this month in just a minute. Anything!
Education
If you run business in the educational field – visit this page for opportunities of using chatbots. To list just some of them, your chatbot can ask professionals some questions (Ask the Lawyer bot), assist in learning languages (Tutor chatbot), or deepening knowledge in sciences (Ask the Professor bot).
As Bill Gates says, effective learning is nothing but receiving knowledge through dialogue and self-education. Nice example of following this innovative education pattern, isn’t it?
Assistants
Assistant chatbots like Microsoft’s Tay and Apple’s Siri are so popular that any novice has heard about them. In contrast to the method of collecting facts and providing feedback (which was common for previous industries), these assistants mostly respond to your instant reactions.
Following Microsoft and Apple, Google has decided to introduce its own chatbot assistant – Allo. The special thing about this AI-based chat app is the extended functionality with Google’s information resources. In particular, this new assistant combines messaging with animated graphics, media sharing, event planning, purchasing, and searching for information.
Of course, current stage of technological development doesn’t allow chatbots to behave like humans. But how about tomorrow? With assistants like Allo, communication and searching on the Internet will be as fast and easy as never before!
News
In fact, you can use chatbot not only for getting feedbacks. Why not to share valuable information with your client? Take a look at Sephora – this brand uses bots to post beauty tips and product details. With chatbots you can avoid too aggressive corporate strategy and indirectly add value to your business.
In a similar manner, news companies use chatbots to notify their readers of recent updates via SMS-messaging. Among the media already in trend, Wall Street Journal and CNN ask their readers to communicate with their chatbot helping him to provide a more customized experience. In return, these news companies know the interests of each reader and can provide customized news block on a daily basis.
Travel
Think of your recent vacation planning. Remember all this frustration and uncertainties you inevitably face: which country to go, how to plan the best route, where to stay, is it better to eat in a restaurant or enjoy local food… With these questions floating in your mind, travelling always starts with stress.
But chatbots have changed this situation. Today, you can use a chatbot like Taylor that positions itself as your travel assistant and provides advice, informs on prices, and even books flights and hotels (at extra cost). Other travel chatbots (Kayak or Ticketbox for AirAsia) are more convenient for customers since they’re embedded in Facebook Messenger. These planning assistants stay in your pocket without the need to open a website! With such instant help, the chances your customers will book the tour and receive the services they have expected are higher.
Sales/retail
1-800-Flowers was a pioneer in their industry who recognized the potential of Facebook Messenger for business and created the bot for searching and ordering flowers. It requests the delivery address, occasion, and provides product options along with delivery details in response. Even though the idea is great, the chatbot user experience reveals inconvenient UI/UX design and low interactivity. Nevertheless, this example has inspired the appearance of Slack as ordering bot for Taco Bell sales and Kik messaging bot that has let customers communicate with H&M, Sephora, and Vine brands.
Leisure
Another chatbot incorporated in Facebook Messenger, Doc Brown, is a great tool satisfying people’s need for entertainment. Similar to Kik, it takes the role of a particular movie character and communicates with customers via text messaging. It is impressive how leisure chatbots empower your promotion and advertising campaigns! Let’s take Harry Potter as an example. What if Doc Brown advises his users the beverage your company produced because it tastes exactly like butterbeer? Now you know the reason as Universal Studio and Pepsi have relied on chat campaigns before launching the new products.
In the case of Uber, the intention to provide fast and predictable car service ended up a highly popular leisure business. Maybe chatbot is the tool that your company lacked?
Dating
We’d rather open Facebook Messenger to visit our friends than download new apps and search for their corporate websites. For this aim, dating chatbots eliminate the problem of cold messaging. Among them: OutChat (built in Facebook Messenger) and Botlibre! which are visual mentors that help people match their preferences. In particular, their functionality allows searching for partner without additional downloads and signups, which is more useful than traditional dating apps.
Feeling enthusiastic about arranging the date or have even found your match? With Poncho Weather Bot, you can also check the weather forecast for your date.
Construction
Actually, chatbots change even the construction industry! For example, SafeTrack by Talania allows tracking and communicating solutions between site and office workers. In fact, this tool is highly useful for instant problem-solving by using the most convenient messaging platform already installed on a smartphone. Imagine the improvements in project costs management and risk reduction! In a similar manner, Talla as automated assistant for knowledge workers and TARA as automated recruiter of freelance teams work on optimization and better coordination within the industry.
Food
By mentioning online purchases and news messaging, it was inevitable for chatbots not to get involved in the food industry. Another example is a recently launched recipe chatbot – Whole Foods Market. The way it facilitates shopping and cooking is inspiring: the chatbot lets you find both products in a store and recipes in a database by keywords or even emoji! In its turn, Burger King and Domino’s Pizza chatbots let users purchase the items from the restaurant menu in Facebook Messenger.
Game industry
Along with leisure chatbots, entertaining includes game industry as another important niche. In this case, there is a tendency to teasing the new games in Facebook Messenger before the official release (like Call of Duty). Some games (like Mitsuku chatbot) even created the overall online game as a chatbot. Not only online games but also sports use chatbots to provide news updates, highlights, and top plays (NBA’s Facebook Messenger bot). Each game developer can use these basic chatbot opportunities to engage more users! For more insights, check our post on Slack as the communication platform.
Healthcare
Finally, healthcare is the target industry for chatbots. Here, chatbots are assistants, conversational and virtual agents (like Motion AI). In Healthyotta, patients can resolve their health concerns. Within Facebook Messenger, HealthTap is the most popular chatbot for physician-provided answers.
Similar to traveling concerns, the professional assistance from your business through chatbot helps you know your patients better and increases the chance your doctors will offer proper treatment.
So should you incorporate chatbot in your future business strategy?
Definitely!
Previously, businesses launchers thought that constructing websites and mobile apps are the most accurate ways to come as close as possible to customers. With chatbots, you can be one step ahead of your key competitors. With the high risk of mobile app failure and the decline of native apps in favor to integration, investing in chatbot is completely different approach to your business development. Would you like to become your customer’s best friend? Contact us and we’ll be pleased to help you!
