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KRDS launches the first Subscription bot in South India for a TV Show

Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu is a popular Indian regional television game hosted by Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi.

For the promotion of the show, the makers wanted to engage their fans and users in a unique way and simultaneously create a buzz on social media.

The team at KRDS were looking out for ways to engage with the audience on social media and also promote the show. Finally, the team proposed to build South India’s first Subscription Chatbot on Facebook Messenger. Bots are becoming popular by the minute and they have already been successful in the promotion of Bollywood and Hollywood movies. This would be the perfect way to gather the user’s attention on social media about MEK.

Users were encouraged to send a DM on Facebook or on Messenger. Once they sent a message, they were asked to subscribe to messenger. Post this, the users would receive exclusive information and news about the TV Show in their inbox. The fans were even given a poster with the megastar’s signature on it.

 

The chatbot campaign proved to be super successful with over 60,000 active users within a span of 2 days.

How Did ChatBots Win On Facebook Messenger?

In 2011, Facebook launched Messenger. Today, the platform has more than one billion users.
It’s almost five years since its launch, Chatbots, conversational robots run by algorithms, have embarked on the application.

The arrival of Chatbots on Messenger was perceived as a bomb in the digital world.
The experts split in two: the optimistic ones who saw the full potential of Chatbots and the pessimists highlighting all the past failures of these robots.
The press has notably titled “Please Facebook, do not let me talk to these ugly Chatbots” (The Guardian) or “The Facebook Chatbots are frustrating and useless”. (Gizmodo).

However, keep in mind that Facebook only develops Bots tools, not the final tool. It would therefore be more judicious to throw the stone on the right target: the developers of Bots …

The first generation of Messenger Chatbot was able to order his meal or send air tickets on his laptop. These were appreciated and highly effective.
However, other inefficient Bots provoked controversy, prompting David Marcus, Messenger’s manager, to declare ChatBots as old-fashioned and boring.

Today, this speech is over. Nearly 1.2 billion entities communicate on Messenger and contrary to popular belief, they are not all human. More than 100,000 conversations have been created by developers for the Facebook platform. Every month, these Chatbots send 2 billion messages.

The turning point of Messenger

We spoke with Anand Chandrasekaran, director of products and partnerships at Messenger, to understand how the platform has grown. He summarized Chatbots’ success in three key factors:

1- Design elements that support conversations 
2- Improved entry points for the consumer 
3- Understanding monetization for developers, brands and businesses.

The need for visual aids pushed Facebook to add media and interfaces. One of Chandrasekaran’s favorite Bots, Epytom, uses image and language understanding to give customers clothing advice and products.

Chandrasekaran, however, also highlighted the weak points of these Bots.
To be able to interact with a Bot Messenger you have to access it via the Facebook page of a brand (unless you are already familiar with the Bot and the brand). Most of the time consumers will not press the “send us a message” button. Moreover, even if the client has already interacted with the Bot, the conversation is lost in their history because it is mixed with their personal discussions (with your Facebook friends). A customer who can not easily get in touch with a Bot is quickly discouraged. He gives up the conversation.

“We knew this behavior was important, but it was talking to the developers that we realized the problem. It also allowed us to understand customer expectations, “says Chandrasekaran. To solve the problem of losing Bots conversations in personal conversations and creating the Bots of tomorrow, Facebook has recently introduced Bots at the top of the screen that are more accessible.
Also, Facebook has launched a new service: “The M Suggestions”. This option offers solutions that are useful for a given situation. For example by sending: “I’m on the road”, the Bot will directly offer a share of position with your interlocutor. This option can also be extended to applications like Lyft or Uber to allow you to order your taxi online.

Finally, Bots are mainly used for social activities like ordering a concert ticket, buying new clothes or organizing a trip.
Chatbots are integrated into Messenger conversations, right next to the text box and uploading photos.

From growth to monetization

The avant-garde consumers of Chatbots quickly identified their potential to generate a flow on their activities.

SnapTravel has recently raised nearly $ 8 million. The company allows consumers to book a room via SMS and Messenger application. According to Chandrasekaran, SnapTravel would earn nearly $ 1 million, only through Messenger.
Meanwhile, brands like KLM, T-Mobile and Sephora have developed Messenger Chatbots that deliver a consistent consumer experience with their brand.
Chandrasekaran claims that Sephora Chatbots represent 11% more than the other digital channels of the brand. In addition to boosting business revenue, Juniper Reserch calculated that Chatbot would reduce business spending by at least $ 8 billion by 2022.

How can Chatbots help cut Customer Service costs?

As we are moving towards the beginning of 2018, businesses and brands have realised the scope of AI and Chatbots and their benefits.

It is a common misconception that incorporating Chatbots often lead to higher costs for the company. But this is not true. It is merely an investment for reducing the costs in the future. These bots have an initial development cost and the occasional maintenance costs.But their usefulness go a long way. Infact, bots are the ideal solution to reduce the costs for Customer Services.

So how exactly can chatbots help cut this cost? Read further to know all about this.

Quicker response time

This is the key aspect of customer servicing. Time is everything. The consumers want answers to their questions as quickly as possible. With human interaction, the user doesn’t always receive an instant reply to their queries. But this problem is completely eliminated with chatbots as they’re available 24×7 all seven days of the week! Bots can completely cut the waiting time for addressing customer queries. This is a huge benefit for the companies.

Better Customer Service

The Chatbot can be customized based on your business requirements. The tone and conversation capabilities can be personalized at the development stage. This cannot be done if you have actual employees in your customer service team. A lot of money has to be invested in their training processes and procedures. Also, the bot can also engage in conversations and provide any value added services (if possible). This is not possible with human interactions.

Bots are constantly evolving

Bots have a ability to learn something from every interaction and conversation with an user. This enables them to evolve constantly to provide a better service to the customer every time. These conversations can be tracked and analyzed which provides right data insights for companies to grow their business.

How to make your Chatbot more engaging?

It is no surprise that Chatbots are technology’s answer for reducing the human workload. The possibilities of incorporating a chatbot into your business are endless and so are its benefits. But care must be taken to ensure that these bots are not only created to join the fad but also adds some value to your business.

We know the one common complaint against the chatbots is the lack of personal touch. Users complain that the conversation with a bot seems robotic and repetitive. Once your customers start criticizing the performance of your bots, it is hard to bounce back. This might have a negative impact on your business.

But worry not, we’ve got some tips for you to consider before you develop your very own chatbot. These tips can ensure that your bot has got all the necessary ingredients to build an engaging conversation with the user :

Establish goals

Goals are important because it is the guiding factor for both the brand and its users. The purpose of a chatbot could be completely different, from providing online support, book orders for the customers, or help solve any customer issues or grievances. Once the goal is established, the company can work towards customizing the communication pattern of the bot.

Make the bot user-friendly and proactive

The chatbot must be easy to use and communicate with. Brands must avoid using complicated and technical jargons and keep the language simple. The customer is not expecting complex words but is only expecting responsiveness and answers to his/her questions.

It is also necessary for the bot to keep the conversation flowing and engaging. Bots can even add some value to the conversation by sharing some offers/discounts/other information that the user might find useful. Or if an user is looking for a particular product which is unavailable at your store, the bot must be able to offer some alternatives to the original one. This kind of value addition is what sets a chatbot apart from the others.

Incorporate Call-To-Action buttons

Sometimes, a customer does not want a long and interesting conversation with a bot but is rather looking for some quick answers. This is where the CTA buttons can help your business. Incorporating these CTA buttons in the right places can also help provide quick solutions to the customers. Some examples of CTA buttons include, feedback button, contact us button and links to certain webpages. These action buttons also track and measure the effectiveness of your bot.

Developing and maintaining a bot is a journey. With the above mentioned tips, you can ensure that your bot has got what it takes to build a conversation effectively and efficiently!

The New Era of Hiring – Recruitment through Chatbots

Chatbots are revolutionizing the online communication in different industries. More and more companies are starting to realize its potential and are looking for ways in which Chatbots could help their business. This brings us to the impact of Chatbots in the Human Resource department, predominantly the hiring process. We’ve already seen the drastic shift in the recruitment industry from classifieds, newspaper ads to Linkedin. Everything has moved to digital. And due to this, chatbots can prove to be extremely useful in this particular process.

Here are a certain reasons why chatbots can help a company’s recruitment procedure :

  • Help recruiters with their operational/administrative tasks

The job of a recruiter can be a tiresome one. They have to go through hundreds of profiles everyday to make sure they choose the right talent for their company. The chatbots can help reduce this burden by sorting the different profiles based on qualifications, requirements, experience and eliminate irrelevant profiles. The bots can even answer FAQs asked by the candidates. This helps the recruiter to focus on the actual interview and spend more time to assess the candidate with the right questions.

  • Saves time and money

Companies shell out a lot of money in their hiring process that involves screening applicants, group discussions etc. Chatbots can help perform more than 50% of the initial interactions thus saving money on labour. And the most important part is that it can help eliminate underqualified profiles easily. This process usually takes up the maximum manpower in the HR department.

  • Speedy process for applicants

The traditional method of hiring has different levels of interviews and the gap between each round is quite a lot. The candidates are often clueless about their progress. This lack of information can often hinder the job process for both the recruiters and the candidates. With the help of chatbots, information can be sent out to the applicants instantly regarding their selection or rejection. This is a positive trait for the company because it makes them more responsive to the candidates.

Seeing that the incorporation of chatbots brings some massive advantages to the business, it is time for companies to innovate their hiring procedures to make it a satisfactory experience for everybody involved.

Why does your business need a Chatbot?

Businesses are realising the need for Chatbots and are constantly looking for ways to incorporate them to improve their sales or customer service or even help with their marketing strategy. A few major brands have already leveraged Chatbots and have made a huge impact on their users.

This leads us to the big question, why does my business need a chatbot. These few points below can help you answer this question.

Lot of queries about product/service

This is one of the major reasons to develop a bot for your business. If your particular business receives a lot of online queries regarding your products/services, it might be difficult for a person to respond to these queries especially if its on a large scale. This is where the chatbots come in. They can even be customized to provide personalized solutions to the user.

Your business operates in different time zones

The biggest advantage of a chatbot is the convenience. It is always available to answer queries 24×7. For a business that is operating in different countries, this is the best way to ensure that communication with the customer is not delayed.

You want to increase online engagement

If you are a business that predominantly operates online and you’re looking for ways to engage with your customers, then chatbots can be an effective medium to achieve this. They can be integrated in your website or your Facebook page and doesn’t require any extra effort by the user to download a separate application. Through this, you can provide a satisfying shopping experience to your customer and also enable them make a purchase with you again.

Cost effective customer care service

By installing a chatbot, the costs incurred in the customer care team can be cut down. The team can focus on critical queries while leaving out the repetitive and basic queries to the bot. The business only has to incur the cost of developing the Chatbot. With the innovations in technology, even the creation of a chatbot has become economical.

If any of the above criteria fits your business then creating a Chatbot will definitely help grow it. It is the perfect fit for any business that wants to expand and venture into new channels.