Men Vs. Women: Who Engages More With Chatbots ?

In order to be informed before you start creating a chatbot, it is important to know a little more about the profile and practices of the users of this tool! Let’s take a look at the different relationships between chatbots and men vs. chatbots and women.

Who uses Chatbots the most?

On average, 63% of the users of chatbots are men and 28% are women with 9% still unknown or undetected. Men tend to be more engaged than women in terms of sessions per user per month. On an average, they have about 50% more sessions. However, women write more messages per session, about 12% more messages per session.

The Usage of Bots

Regarding the number of bots used by men and women, the majority use only one bot. 14% of men use more than one bots compared to 10.6% women.

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

By looking at the images sent to bots on Facebook Messenger, we can see a prominent difference between men and women.

Using the Amazon API to detect these images we can see that both men and women send selfies to the bots. Women tend to send a little more than men. The keywords “person”, “human” and “portrait” appear in the selfies which seems logical. Men take a magnitude of photos of cars, motorcycles and the keyword “car” returns regularly.

Another element that we can see by studying the images sent to Chatbots is people tend to send the Chatbot risqué photos. Men and women been sending these images to bots to see how the latter react. About 90% of these photos sent to Chatbots come from men.

Fortunately, the total percentage of sending these kind of pictures is low with only 2.5% of the images sent and only 6% of the chatbots are concerned by this kind of images. What is interesting is that even if the percentage of users performing this kind of practices is relatively low, when someone sends compromising photos, they send a lot! On average, the same image is sent 5 times, compared to only once for a normal picture. In fact, users can even send the same image more than a hundred times! Apparently, when you enjoy sending compromising photos, you cannot stop!

How do we like bots?

It’s time to see how men and women perceive Chatbots. On average, for each bot, the feelings experienced by men and women are almost similar, that is, they feel the same (whether positive or negative) sentiment while speaking to a chatbot.

For example, during the Valentine’s Day, when love was in the air, it was found that many users expressed their love to the Chatbots they use. This phenomenon has been noticeable in more women than men!

Depending on the target of your market, it is important to know their behaviors in a dialogue with a chatbot and these investigations prove that the bot must be trained in order to address the users in the right way. However, it is also essential to prepare your chatbots to react to comical situations such as sending particular photos and love notes!

The Most Common Chatbot Errors & How To Avoid Them

There will probably be a time when Bots will be able to flatter our egos and tell us what we want to hear but this day has not yet arrived.

Based on the latest debates on the subject, we find that assisted artificial intelligence of bots still has a little way to go before reaching the conversational and social skills required to converse with human intelligence . By taking a closer look at the phenomenon of robots, we find that it is easier to give them a human appearance than to provide them with the skills peculiar to humans.

This means that we will have to wait a little longer before we have a version of Samantha, from the movie “Her”, in real life!

The Rise of Chatbots:

There is no doubt that Chatbots have made enormous progress since their creation decades ago. You can meet them today in different forms and they are able to solve many tasks, like helping consumers via Slack or sometimes even casually flirting with Tinder users.

Many companies have realized the stakes of these chatbots and the potential they represent for a brand. Some experts even say that Chatbots will soon dethrone applications as they are ubiquitous, easy to use and essential in our daily actions.

These experts are certainly right. Technology giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple have already bet big on this artificial intelligence based on database and automatic learning to make the bot more human like. For many of these projects, Chatbots most often serve as a bridge between artificial intelligence algorithms and people who try to communicate with them. This is how meaningful dialogues can emerge, and therefore commercial transactions.

This is why the demand for the interfaces of conversations tends to increase, supported by rather revealing cases. From the point of view of technology leaders, large companies in the finance, toys, food, media and automotive industries, for example, can now actively use Chatbots to have meaningful discussions with their consumers.

Successful Bots

The benefits and success of an effective Chatbot are easy to see:

Scale: A single chatbot can handle thousands of conversations at the same time. This same bot can perform many tasks either in after-sales service or in terms of marketing actions, and this better than the appointed real agent team. This bot performs these tasks at a lower cost which increases the profitability of the company that chose to launch its bot in the long term.

Practicality: Chatbots promise an unprecedented level of practicality. This is justified when you see how many users use the “Assist” Chatbot to organize their applications to do daily tasks such as calling a taxi, booking a hotel, reserving a table, sending a gift to a loved one etc. . All these transactions have never been easier thanks to the Chatbot!

Customization: Chatbots can be programmed to build an organic personal profile for each consumer, allowing companies to deliver a truly personalized experience.

Versatility: Applications often have a specific purpose. Chatbots are known for their role as lawyers, doctors, stylists, caretakers, financial advisors, sports coaches, pets and even boyfriends.

Natural Interactions: “Chatter” is second nature to us and this makes our use of the Chatbot much more intuitive and easy than clicking on a multitude of buttons on a classic interface. In addition, the Z-generation, which represents the market of tomorrow, spends a lot of time on message applications, rather than on websites, which is a huge opportunity for companies that want to reach this target on email platforms .

When do Bots go wrong?

Even though Chatbots represent a strong interest in brands, some of them repeat the same thing over and over because of a huge lack of vocabulary and answers in their database. Others can not answer even a very simple question because their creator did not necessarily think of the fact that humans could ask stupid and unthinkable questions in a long time. And worse, some Chatbots fail even in their specialized field because they do not understand what consumers are asking.

A Know-it-all Chatbot

Do not try to create a chatbot that knows absolutely everything and everything people ask! Siri, for example, may possibly develop this ability but it is more interesting to specialize for a single specific purpose in order to engage your audience.

Solution: Define specific goals and identify the different cases your Chatbots might face. Do not try to solve problems that do not concern your bot. Instead, focus on a particular area and try to respond as effectively as possible to consumer expectations by keeping conversations in a comfort zone.

No Engagement Paths

The majority of chatbots used by companies still need human intervention to generate the best commitments. Never create a bot without first establishing a scaling string that corresponds to a map of the interactions defining different routes that your users can use during the conversation. All answers to questions or problems that may be raised in the conversation should be defined.

Solution: Make a summary of the different engagement paths so that your bot knows exactly what the scenarios may be. Make sub-categories so that your bot prepares for different scenarios and collect interesting data and possible consumer demands. It is necessary to build the knowledge of its bot in time and giving more time to the real agents to optimize the tasks.

Limited Linguistic Knowledge

This major issue can take form as the following:

  • Inability to answer unique, complex, contextual, personal and unusual questions.
  • The abusive use of familiar emoticons and expressions simply to appear human.
  • Answers to certain human linguistics, the use of sarcasm, humor or insults.

For example, some Bots do not know how to arrive at the correct answer because of a poor understanding of natural language and a weak ability to break down sentences that do not coincide with the pre-established Bot library.

Solution: We must first manage the expectations of users. If necessary, let your bot admit that it did not understand and that it does not know some term used. At the same time, train your chatbot to improve its conversational skills by creating a language database so that it can always communicate by improving from session to session.

Inconsistent or Non-Existent Personality

There is probably a very few set of people who would enjoy talking to a robot that acts like a robot. That’s why technology leaders strive to make their Chatbots as human-likeas possible and try to establish a real connection with their audience. However, abusing emoticons and familiar language does not always work!

Solution: Make sure to create a Bot that includes visual elements (symbols, avatars), vocabulary, a certain tone, a personality in its own right that will make sense for your consumer target. After all, your Chatbot must represent the ambassador of your brand just as much as the human who creates or sells your product / service.

Lack of Consistency with your Company’s Business Systems

A Chatbot that has no clue about the company it is supposed to represent or the target to which it is supposed to address is a real disadvantage. Consumers want to optimize their time. As with after-sales service with real agents, consumers may lose patience quickly if your Bot constantly asks for their account credentials or if they are unaware of their purchases or their previous interactions with the company.

Solution: Allow chatbot to access relevant consumer databases, biographies, contact information with key people in your company, media and marketing information, brand CRM data etc that will allow it to generate much more value.

Neglected security and privacy

Certain Twitter users for example like to give a lot of false information that can destroy the brand’s reputation. Since your Chatbot represents your brand, you would not want such a thing to happen to it. In addition, if you have already integrated your bot into your CRM system, internal servers or other systems, a breach can destroy everything!

Solution: Adopt the best security procedures and ensure that your Chatbot is well protected from external attacks.

Conclusion:

Interactions with a chatbot can influence your consumers to buy your products or to love your brand, or to hate and criticize it!

Since the benefits of Chatbots are becoming more and more proven, many companies are creating their own artificial intelligence assisted bots to improve their consumer service, marketing, sales, social media strategy on social networks. It should be remembered that the user experience remains the key that will contribute to the success (or failure) of your Chatbot strategy.

Delivering Pizzas Through Facebook? 5 Interesting Examples of Brands Using Chatbots

As we establish the emerging buzzword for 2017 in the digital marketing world is undoubtedly ‘Chatbots’. Over the last quarter, we have witnessed many ways businesses are using Chatbots to interact with their audience in the most effective way. Here are some interesting examples of how brands are making use of this effective conversational user interface on Facebook.

1. Dom – A Chatbot that can deliver a pizza

As the name suggests this Chatbot is an automated ordering Bot from Domino’s. If you are in the mood for pizza all you have to do is message Dom, the pizza bot and connect your pizza account so it can know your specific preferences for your order. This is a great example of the efficiency of Chatbots and how they can make tasks much for user friendly for customers.

2. ReplyYes – A Chatbot that can help you buy music and concert tickets

ReplyYes enables artists that are partnered with Universal Music group to sell tickets, music and other merchandise directly from the Facebook Messenger to its fans. With a simple user interface, this app is an example of how Chatbots can cater to almost every industry and contribute to its success.

3. FRAnky – A Chabot that provides you flight information and updates

FRAnky is the Frankfurt Airport’s Chatbot that was introduced to help passengers with their questions,flight updates and offers information of airport restaurants, shops and facilities within the airport. This an example of the revolutionary technology that can eliminate users going to the help desk of the airport or searching for the information online. The specific information is contained in the Chabot and is easily accessible to passengers instantaneously.

4. Just Eat – A Chatbot that helps you decide what you should eat

The JustEat Chatbot chats with users and provides them some ideas on food choices depending on your current mood. The Chabot asks you questions and redirects you to a particular dish that you can eat if you feel indecisive. Chabots can be a great customer service tool that helps brands keep track of their user behaviour.

5. SnapTravel – A Chatbot to book a hotel or travel recommendations

SnapTravel helps users find a hotel according to their budget and specifications on Experdia, Priceline and more than 100 other websites. The Chatbot asks the user questions about their travel dates and makes meaningful recommendations based on these dates. The Chatbot also provides users the opportunity to chat with human agents to take it a step further.

There are numerous examples on how Chatbots can be the tools for success in a business and as days go by more marketers are opting for Chatbots to leverage their business and get an edge over their competitors.

3 Questions You Need To Answer Before Building Your Chatbot

The emerging buzzword for 2017 in the digital marketing world is undoubtedly ‘Chatbots’. Over the last quarter, we have witnessed many ways businesses are using Chatbots to interact with their audience in the most effective way. However, for brands that are new to the idea of Chatbots the whole situation may be quite overwhelming.

Here are 3 questions you need to ask before adopting a Chatbot model for your digital space.

1. What role will the Chabot adopt for your business ?

Before answering this question it is important to know about the different types of Chatbot your business can adopt on the various social channels.

– The Assistant: This Chatbot acts as the user’s personal assistant providing crtitical information and answers queries that are usually pre-programmed. For example a restaurant could adopt a Chatbot to automate its reservation system or a travel agency can host a Chatbot for users to book their travel in the comfort of their favourite Messenger Application. This is one of the most popular types of Chabots in the market.

– The Conversational Bot: The sole purpose of this Chatbot is to strike a conversation with its audience. There are no pre-set tasks. However, this is not a recommended model unless a lot of time and money is invested in educating the Chatbot on every possible conversational topic.

– The Search Bot: This Chabot helps users find a particular set of information. For example, the Chatbot for a mall can help the user find exactly what they are looking by interacting with the Chatbot. Users can find a particular product or a particular article from a shopping or news website and more. The purpose of this Chatbot is to act like a search engine for specific topics related to the brand.

– The Complex Bot: This Chatbot is able to perform all the tasks specified above and more. This Chatbot is well versed in multiple topics and is able to provide a personalized experience to the user that interacts with this Chatbot.

It is always important to have a clear idea of what the Chatbot will help the business to achieve before developing your own. It is crucial to define which process can be simplified with this automation to build a better relationship with your audience.

2. What will be the personality of the Chatbot?

Establishing a relationship between a Chatbot and the user plays a great role in the success of a Chatbot. Therefore, it is important to ascertain what personality will the Chatbot adopt to make it more likeable and trustworthy among the users. The Chatbot must be injected with the values and persona of the brand itself and speaking with the Chatbot must make users believe they are interacting with the brand itself. This is what will help the user ultimately build a lasting relationship with the Chatbot.

3. Who will develop the Chatbot?

Let’s say the business has internally analysed the objectives of the Chatbot and how it will impact the goals of the organization. If someone is new to the Chatbot world, they may be unaware of who to approach to create a Chatbot. Should you opt to have a software company build your Chatbot or a dedicated Chatbot Agency? It is always recommended to go with the latter because the Chatbot Agency will be well equipped with the digital strategies needed to market the Chatbot, creating a personality for the Chatbot that matches the brand, even designing the the phrases it will use; as well as provide the technical assistance to develop and host a Chabot on the instant messaging applications.

With the numerous industry leaders using it to leverage their business in the digital space, Chatbots are undeniably the future in conversational user interfaces.

A Software Company vs. A Chatbot Agency – What Should you Choose for your Chatbot?

Since Facebook announced Chabots at the F8 conference last year, many brands have opted to introduce Chatbots on their Instant Messaging Apps. Chatbots are much more than automated responses, they are conversational interfaces that can be used to connect with the brand’s audience in the most efficient way.

With the rise in tech giants using innovative ways to interact with information, many businesses are considering the idea of teaming up with software companies to create Chatbots. However, they often face limitations due to the scope of the Chatbot being much more than a software. This is where, a dedicated Chatbot agency is more equipped to handle the intricacies of creating a Chatbot.

Let us explain why:  A Chatbot is nothing without the essence and personality along with what it conveys to the audience. A Chatbot is not merely a software but an efficient tool by which a brand can leverage its business and improve its conversation with loyal fans and potential customers. Every word and personality must be customized to suit the voice of the brand and generalized for every brand. Therefore, it is extremely essential to understand the digital space and more importantly the social strategy of the business before creating a Chatbot. The Chatbot must be technically sound while ensuring it is able to build a loyal relationship with its users while providing them a sense of satisfaction and connection with the brand.

Conversation blocks occur when the Chatbot is unable to process the user’s replies, these can only be understood with a deeper knowledge of user behaviour and habits on the platform which a software company may be ill-equipped to deal with.

A dedicated Chatbot Agency, therefore provides the business with reliable technical support with a core focus of personalisation in the Chatbot on the social sphere. While there are multiple ways how companies can adopt Chatbots in the most effective way, there is no denying the fact that 2017 is the year of Chatbots!