The gaming market is vast and has expanded greatly in recent years, both in the form of in-app mobile games, online and console multiplayer games. Its worldwide market is expected to grow to $180.1 billion by 2021. That being said, chatbots are proving to be a solid solution for in-game customer support to meet players’ high expectations for fast customer service.
Bots can immensely lower support costs for gaming companies while exponentially speeding up resolution time which is why companies are jumping at the opportunity to integrate chatbots in their gaming foundations.
Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI). However, Chatbots too focused on understanding natural language, finally forget to guide the user. If the user can access a feature by writing a complex sentence, they can also do so by clicking a single button. It is neither helpful nor relevant to ask them too much detail.
A good ChatBot must consist of: A welcome message that explains the Bot’s mission. A menu that reminds users what they can do. A simple “button” and quick answers .
Artificial intelligence is a bonus. If the Bot can understand 1% of what the user writes in a complex sentence, that’s good enough.
2. They must be beautiful
Despite the constraints imposed by Messenger, you have no excuse to create a visually unattractive Bot. It is necessary to use as much as possible attractive images and visuals, of course in line with the identity of the brand.
3. Make short answers
Short answers are much more appreciated by users. You can also insert emojis , pictures or icons in your answers. Your Bot will look much more comfortable with emojis and users will feel closer to it at the same time.
Be brief and concise.
A user is attracted to visual elements. Long texts in ChatBots are a brake for the user. It will not read the superfluous text, which can be problematic if your text contains important information …
It can never be repeated enough, to create a successful ChatBot: be brief.
In summary, your ChatBot: – Should not play guessing – Should propose buttons and quick answers – Have a beautiful design – Include emojis – Should comprise of short texts
Chatbots have been making lives easier for people ever since its introduction. AI technology has come a long way with revolutionary innovations being made year after year. Bots have seeped its way into multiple industries and are making its way into workplaces.
Lot of companies have introduced bots to their offices in some way or another. But how can the usefulness of the bot be measured? What are the metrics that we need to focus on? What are the metrics that don’t matter. This article aims to answer all of those questions.
Accessibility
When a bot is incorporated in a workplace, it is necessary that is also easily accessible by the employee. One way to go about this would be to incorporate the bot into their existing interfaces or applications. The bot loses its value if the employee has to open a completely different application to access it.
Easy Maintenance
Since most of the chatbots for companies are developed by external agencies, if there is a minor problem or error, the company has to go back to agency to fix the error. This process leads to a waste of time and energy. Although, it may not be possible for employees to handle the complex technical aspects of the bot, there should be a mechanism where atleast small errors can be fixed internally.
Bots that go beyond providing information
Yes, it is important to get the right information at the right time and bots are incredibly useful in that aspect. But what would make them even better is if they could actually perform transactions for you. Going the extra mile is what makes a successful bot. The bots can be programmed to set appointments, give reminders etc. The possibilities are endless.
If your office bot is on the path to achieving some of the above mentioned points, then you have nothing to worry about. Let us know if you have any other factors that contribute to the sucess of a workplace bot.
Building a chatbot has become considerably easy with the introduction of different softwares, app and chatbot development tools. But with the introduction of such softwares, businesses pay attention to just the development of the bot and forget to constantly improve it. That’s why most of the bots fail.
Building a bot is just the first step. The UX and UI of the bot is of utmost importance. The bot must be easy to talk to and interact with. If this is missing, then your bot is no longer useful to the user.
Ensure all buttons are functional
Any normal conversation with a bot involves the user clicking on different buttons to provide answers. So the buttons must be thoroughly tested to ensure that it is responsive at all points of the conversation. Sometimes, the user would come back to the conversation and try to employ the old buttons instead of starting a conversation from the scratch. If the buttons aren’t responsive, you are losing out on valuable customers.
Increase wait time to allow users to read the messages
This is a flaw that most of the chatbots suffer from. Most bots continually spam the user with multiple texts at a time. This does not give the user any time to read every message as the new messages will move the text that the user is already reading. This leads to poor user experience. Therefore, it is advised to have some wait time in the middle before the bot sends out another message.
Try to re-engage after end of conversation
The bots must be equipped to re-engage the user with some valuable information after the end of conversation to ensure future engagement. But there is a fine line between trying to engage with the user and spamming the user. ONLY message the user if you have something that the user would find useful. Otherwise, you might actually end up hindering the performance of your bot.
Building a successful chatbot is a constant journey. There is something new to learn everyday. Trying to incorporate new trends and learnings is the way to instill growth in your chatbot.
Despite criticism from companies that have failed to integrate Bots into their marketing strategy, the fashion and beauty industries are still adept at Chatbot. More and more brands adopt them in their marketing strategy.
The question is whether this investment in Bots is paying off, and if so, why?
This article tells us why Chatbots are a popular and essential tool for ready-to-wear and beauty brands.
Try before you buy
Many brands have launched their Chatbot in the hope that one day users will naturally interact with them (especially on Facebook). Unfortunately, more than one example proves that it was not enough to encourage customers to create a real relationship with the company. They have failed to create added value for their customers.
For ready-to-wear and beauty brands, it’s different. Indeed, Chatbots can solve the number 1 obstacle of e-commerce: try the product before buying it. This is particularly problematic for cosmetic brands. Customers can not, for example, test the color of their foundation before ordering it.
By incorporating AR in ChatBots, brands are now able to find the right shade of lipstick or foundation just from a photo.
Estee Lauder is using this new technology to perfection. The brand makes it possible to test the different shades of lipstick virtually. The customers have the same service as in the store, but at home. This option encourages consumers to go to the act of purchase.
A stylist online
For ready-to-wear brands, the ability to “try before you buy” is limited. Even with the ARs, trying on clothes virtually remains difficult. However, fashion companies have found a system to attract consumers: personalized advice on style.
This means that brands can combine basic customer service with personalized recommendations. This process aims to reproduce the experience that the consumer would live in the store.
There are of course limits to this ChatBot. The success of this technology depends largely on its progress. The best brands will be those that will come to customize the tips. To illustrate this, we can take Levi’s, which asks users questions about their size, preferred model, the fit they want, and so on. to suggest the jeans that will fit them perfectly.
Another undeniable advantage of the brand is that it uses True Fit technology. It is designed to increase the chances of providing the perfect model to customers. This tool can significantly reduce the return rate.
In addition to providing useful tips, the Chatbot saves the user time, thus avoiding the need to browse the site for hours, without finding the product that suits him.
The question we can ask is: is it really important that the bot clearly has nothing human? Not really – indeed, users do not dwell on this point if the Bot brings a real added value.
Better integration
One of the biggest obstacles to Chatbots success is that many consumers do not know they exist. Many brands have failed in promoting their robots. Users discover these ChatBots when they try to communicate with the company.
However, recently, Facebook has launched a new plug-in that allows businesses to integrate Messenger into their own websites. This allows users to interact with Chatbot on mobile, desktop and tablet devices.
So, will other brands (other than ready-to-wear and beauty) start investing in Chatbots? Certainly. With the advantages mentioned above such as the integration and customization of the RA, it is clear that some industries have every interest in investing in this tool.
As the technological innovations get better, businesses have to keep evolving to hold their spot in the race for user attention. 2017 witnessed an explosion of chatbots dominating multiple industries at the same time. Chatbots are a perfect addition for businesses that are heavy on conversation with consumers like hotels.
The core of every hotel’s success depends on the quality of service provided. With the surge of internet and smartphones, users want to know all there is to know about a hotel from the comfort of their homes. So, hotels have to constantly innovate themselves to attract more bookings.
Here are some of the ways a chatbot can prove to be an useful asset for Hotels –
Responding to enquiries and FAQs
This is the first step involved when it comes to a hotel booking. Users want information about the hotel, right from its location and amenities to the additional recreational facilities provided. They want to know details about the types of rooms available, tariff, etc. Bots can help address these queries instantly.
Assist in bookings
This is one of the key tasks for a hotel. A lot of resources are employed to ensure that there is a smooth transition for customers from enquiry to booking. Phone reservations have become a thing of the past, customers now want to book rooms through online communication. This is where bots can be highly useful. Customers can instantly confirm their reservations with the hotel. This simplifies the effort taken by both parties i.e the hotel and the customer.
Receive guest feedback
There is always scope for improvement when it comes to providing quality service to guests. Hotels must pay a lot of attention to the feedback and comments from guests. Afterall, they’re the ones keeping the business afloat. Bots can be an efficient medium through which guests can give feedback about their stay. Their responses can be connected to relevant teams to ensure that suitable action is taken
Alerts about offers & discounts
Bots can also communicate about the available offers/discounts/promotions when a user initiates a new chat or even alert users who’ve already interacted with the bot. This helps the bot stay in touch with the customer database of the hotel and create awareness about offers that would result in more bookings for the hotel
Chatbots are proving to be really effective of late. It has become an universal tool for businesses from different industries. It is a viewed as a method for companies to engage with their customers at a minimized cost. With the rise of Chatbots, there are multiple apps, softwares and tech companies that have started developing the same.
So with the influx of different chatbots, what are the traits of a successful chatbot? Here are a few points that might help answer this question.
Chatbots that engage in conversations
It is no secret that Chatbots are viewed as a way to answer customer queries or mechanise any operational tasks. But it is also important for these bots to be chatty and truly engage in a conversation with the user rather than simply answer the question the point. The personalisation abilities of the bot is what truly sets it apart from the others.
Value added services
Over and above answering queries, the chatbots must also offer some extended support or value added services. For example – A bot created by an online fashion can regularly update the previously engaged users with the latest fashion trends, discounts or any other event that might be of interest to the consumer.
Accumulation of data
Your chatbots must also be built to gather useful information about your customers so predictions can be made about your untapped audience and new methods can be discovered to reach out to them. It is the true indicator of whether your chatbot is helping your business or not.
User-friendly Bot
The design of the bot must not be overlooked. The chabot must be simple, straightforward and user-friendly. This allows the user to have a good experience and enables him/her to make use of the bots again. Even though you have the latest softwares and technology incorporated in your chatbot, at the end of the day, it boils down to whether it is easy to use or not.
So do ensure that the above features are taken into consideration before you develop a chatbot for your business. Do you know any other traits of a successful chatbot? Let us know in the comments below!
Facebook has recently announced new updates on Messenger, the changes affect not only the application itself but also the algorithm that developers are primarily concerned with creating their chatbots on the platform. Facebook has launched these recent changes as new ways for users to discover, share and engage with the community.
What does this mean for Chatbots? Let’s take a look at the important updates and what they do:
A complete redefinition of the already existing menu
New tools that it easier for users to share a Chatbot
Improvement in purchasing conversions
Better statistical data
New methods to improve e-commerce solutions
Changes to the menu have caused many debates in the developer community, especially the new feature that allows the developer to disable free data by typing and limiting user-bot interactions via menus or buttons.This raises a known problem that developers and users have experienced in the past:
One of the primary drawbacks to Facebook bots is the fact that there are often misunderstandings on how to start the conversation. The chat directory on Messenger was not available before and now it only turns out once you have started the conversation in the application. And once it has been added it’s not always very clear to understand how the bot starts to talk and how the user can navigate back and forth inside the bot and sections.
The new feature update is on the same page as the standard “start” button but now allow developers to solve this problem and create a simple messenger experience without any conversational potential. Which brings us to a big question: Can we still call it a chatbot if we can not have a conversation?
The primary reason behind this issue is the behaviour of brands. Brands have been trying to sell products or build brands targeting the generation of “chatters” or “Millennials” and they have tried to create chatbots more and more intelligent in order to keep the conversation flowing with users. The result is a remoteness from the very idea as these brands continue to see Messenger merely as a primary means of reaching their consumers and not as a means of engaging with them in a relevant way.
However, there is no single opinion on the development of chatbots and the reactions to Facebook’s announcement have been mixed between the “it’s great” and the “that ruins the whole concept”.
This depends on what type of bots the business wants to develop. If you want to create something with a transnational nature that should support an easy and fast navigation and serve consumers in a tactical manner, then the new menus will be very useful to turn off unnecessary text and help set up a good experience for the user. On the other hand, if your bot has to handle complex situations and it is difficult for the bot to cope with a given situation, then it may be worthwhile to mix traditional conversation features with additional menus and buttons.
The new menu proposed by Facebook Messenger can be found here.
Bot developers have always been interested in the question of how to manage an interaction model that would function as an intermediary for consumers. While initially the expectations were to go to a natural language and have a simple interaction, it is now time to combine different elements in the same interface of a native messaging application, such as carousels, Graphics and buttons combined with text. This will become the most effective way to use chatbots.
In conclusion, the main goal is to provide billions of Facebook Messenger users with solutions they already enjoy with a well-designed chatbot that provides an effecient conversational experience.
