How To Create A Good Messenger ChatBot?

Here are the steps to build a good ChatBot:

1.They do not play guessing

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: 
welcome message that explains the Bot’s mission. 
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

With that, it is impossible to miss your Bot!

The Complete Guide to Facebook Messenger For Businesses

Today, ignoring Facebook Messenger in your business strategy means ignoring a network of over 1 billion active users. Probably not a wise decision for your business.

If you thought that this platform is only suitable for private conversations, then you will be surprised to know almost 53% of consumers are more likely to buy if they can have a direct exchange with the brand. (Based on a survey by Nielson)

And yes, over 1 billion messages are exchanged with companies each month on Facebook.

Why does your brand have to worry about Facebook Messenger?

By studying the general trend of the use of social networks, it is impossible to miss the dazzling growth of Facebook Messenger. The number of instant messenger users has now exceeded that of social networks.

According to Business Insider, the top four instant messaging applications have 500 million more active users per month than the top four social networks.

It is also interesting to compare this trend with that of mobile applications. According to a Yahoo Flurryshows study, the use of instant messaging is 5.6 times greater than that of traditional applications (11% over the last 12 months for applications against 62% for instant messengers).

If you take into account these numbers, but also all the benefits Messenger offers, like: communicate privately with your customers, customize your message but also set up automatic messages with ChatBots, it is importnat for your business to have a specific marketing strategy for Facebook Messenger

How to use Facebook Messenger for your business?

Now that you know WHY your business should use Facebook Messenger, this guide will explain how to integrate this application into your marketing strategy.

How to configure Facebook Messenger?

Before having fun finding original ways to use Facebook Messenger, you must first go through the less glamorous step of the configuration.

If you company does not have a Facebook page, it’s time to create one. Messenger and Facebook are intimately linked and inseparable from each other.

1. Choose your username

If you have not done so already, you will need to create a username for your Facebook page (which will also be your Messenger username). It starts with the @ symbol and immediately appears under the name of your page in the left column.

It is also visible in the URL of your Facebook page. It must be at least five alphanumeric characters. It is obviously wise to create a consistent name with your company to facilitate the search for your customers.

How to set up your Facebook Messenger username?

1. Click Create a @username page in the left column of your page

2. Enter the chosen user name

3. Click Create User Name

If this name is already in use, you will need to look for variations until you find the combination available.

2. Enable Messenger for your page

Once you are ready and available to answer future incoming messages, you can enable email on your page.

How to enable email for your page?

1. From your Facebook page, click Settings

2. Click General in the left column

3. Scroll to Messages and click Edit

4. Select the Allow me to contact my page in private checkbox

5. Click Save Changes

3. Configure instant responses and welcome text

Instant answers, without much surprise, are sent instantly when a user sends a message to your page. For example, you can use these messages to inform the waiting time of your response, or to redirect visitors to a page on your website that answers “frequently asked questions”. It is also possible to customize the response with the name of the user.

How to enable instant answers on Messenger?

1. From your Facebook page, click Settings

2. Click Messaging in the left column

3. Under Answer Wizard, select the Yes check box to Send instant answers to everyone who sends messages to your page.

4. Click Edit

5. Edit the message of your choice

6. Click Save

In addition, the greeting appears in Facebook Messenger as soon as someone triggers a conversation with your page. You can use this text, for example, to highlight the types of services you provide through Facebook Messenger and how users can access them.

How to activate the welcome message in Messenger?

1. From your Facebook page, click Settings

2. Click Messaging in the left column

3. Under Answer Wizard, click Yes for a Messenger greeting.

4. Click Edit

5. Edit the message

6. Click Save

4. Manage your response time

Now Facebook posts the speed at which you reply to messages (just a few minutes, a few hours, or more than one day) right on your page. Needless to say, if you want to encourage users to interact with you via Messenger, a shorter response time is better.

If you are ambitious, you can even target the status “Very responsive”. To obtain it, you must have an average response rate of 90% and an average response time of 15 minutes in the last seven days.

To improve your response rate, you can set the email status of your page to “absent” during your idle hours. Messages received during these hours will not be counted in this rate.

How to set your email status when you are not available?

1. From your Facebook page, click Settings

2. Click Messaging in the left column

3. Under Answer Wizard, select the Yes check box to remain responsive when you can not access your computer or phone.

4. Click Edit

5. Edit the greeting to indicate when the user can expect to receive a response from you

6. Click Save

7. Under Stay responsive when you can not access your computer or phone, click Edit.

8. Click Schedule

9. Select your time zone, and then click Add Time Zone

10. Enter the hours when your business is closed or if you can not reply to messages

11. Click Save

Good tips for building your Facebook Messenger strategy

Now that your Facebook Messenger account is ready, let’s see how to use Messenger in your business.

1. Use e-mail codes

Like Snapcodes, Messenger codes allow users to connect to your business by scanning this “image”.

How to find your Messenger code?

1. From your Facebook page, click the Messages tab

2. At the bottom of your inbox, click on the information icon

From this screen, you can see your Messenger code and download it as a graphic file for inclusion on your website, share it on other social networks or add it to your business card.

2. Use Messenger links

Like your Messenger code, your Messenger link is a tool that you can use to encourage customers to start a Messenger conversation with your page. You can use it on your website, in your e-mail signature or even on the various social networks on which you are present.

Your Messenger link is: m.me/[username].

3. Use the “Send a Message” button on local ads

Local ads are among the easiest to create. You can launch them directly from your Facebook page. They allow you to target people based on geographic distance.

Adding the Send a Message button to a local ad encourages potential local customers to contact you directly to learn more about you.

4. Pay attention to your clientele

When your customers encounter a problem with your business, they will not fail to talk about it on social networks. Facebook Messenger can help you in many ways.

  • Respond privately to public messages

Sometimes customers post questions or comments directly to your Facebook page (rather than sending you a private message). These messages are visible to everyone, this can be a problem when, to answer, your company needs personal information about the customer (such as contact information, customer number …)

Rather than urging your customer to send you an email with the information you need, you can now respond directly to a public message with a private message.

The initial comment will remain visible on your public page, but it will display a message saying that you have responded privately, so that other visitors to your page know that you are not ignoring your client.

  • Offer a customer service directly via Messenger

Facebook Messenger can also play the role of customer service for your business. It’s even easier for them to find you on Facebook than to find the email address of your customer service on your website.

Rogers Communications, a major Canadian telecommunications company, has tested Facebook Messenger as a customer service. After several months of use, she noticed a 65% decrease in customer complaints to give way to a 65% increase in customer satisfaction.

However, if you want to use Messenger as a customer service, you must have someone dedicated to this position during your opening hours. Indeed, customers expect a quick response from you. Rogers Communication justifies these very good customer satisfaction figures thanks to its response rate (“Very responsive”).

5. Provide services via chatbots

ChatBots are undoubtedly the most interesting way to exploit Facebook Messenger. They allow you to automate everything while personalizing your message.

The use of ChatBots Messenger by the Dutch airline KLM is among the most developed. KLM uses Messenger to provide flight updates, send you your boarding pass and even change your seat.

6. Vender your products directly on Messenger

A new program has emerged in the United States. It allows you to sell your products directly via Facebook Messenger. However, you must apply to access this program.

Tommy Hilfiger started this practice during New York Fashion Week. Customers had access to the new collections directly after the shows.

For the moment, in order to benefit from this service, your company must be based in the United States. However, you can already start thinking about the strategy to adopt when the service becomes more widely available.

7. Share your location

This feature has no business purpose. It is only a way to simplify the internal communication of your company. By sharing your position, your colleagues or customers know exactly where the meeting or meeting is. This ensures that everyone gets together in the right place.

How to send your location in Messenger?

1. Open a conversation

2. Tap the three-dot icon at the bottom of your screen

3. Click Location

4. Move the pin to the desired location or locate the location by name

5. Tap Send

8. Use a DropBox

It is also possible to attach a DropBox link in your Messenger conversations. This is especially relevant for images and videos because they are displayed directly in the conversation. The receiver will be able to instantly comment the image / graphic … etc on the chat.

For other documents that are not visible, you just have to open them, and these will be available on DropBox.

How to attach a Dropbox file to a Messenger conversation?

1. Make sure the Dropbox application is installed on your computer

2. Open a conversation

3. Tap the three-dot icon at the bottom of your screen

4. Choose Dropbox

5. Select your file

Social networks are constantly evolving. To stay ahead of the pack, your business has to be responsive and adaptable.

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.