Can I set an auto reply on Facebook Messenger?
Chatbots will replace mobile apps. Chatbots will change email marketing. Chatbots will replace client care agents.
There's a great deal of buzz drifting around right now about chatbots in basic, and Facebook Messenger bots in specific. It's not a surprise that, according to a study by Oracle, 80 percent of companies desire a chatbot in location by 2020.
Can bots really do everything they promise? It's still early days. In the meantime, here are some genuine world examples and finest practices to offer you a company footing in this new landscape.
Bonus offer: Download a complimentary guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Boostdo.
What are Facebook Messenger bots (a.k.a Facebook chatbots)?
Generally, a chatbot is a piece of automated messaging software that uses AI to speak with individuals.
Bots are set to comprehend questions, provide answers, and carry out jobs. From a client's perspective, they're an available and friendly time-saver. Rather than opening an app (not to mention downloading one), making a call (ew), running a search, or loading a web page, your client can just type a message, like they would to a good friend.
Chatbots have actually been around in some type for decades, and presently they exist on websites, in apps, on social media-- you name it.
A Facebook Messenger bot is a chatbot that resides in Facebook Messenger, indicating it converses with some of the 1.3 billion people who use Facebook Messenger each month.
If you're on Facebook, you most likely already have a Facebook Messenger strategy. A Facebook Messenger bot is how you scale that strategy.
Since the 2018 F8 conference, Facebook has 300,000 active Messenger bots. That's three times as numerous as the year prior.
Why utilize Facebook Messenger bots for service?
There are 2 significant benefits to using a Facebook Messenger bot.
Initially, there's a low barrier to entry for both you and your target audience. Facebook Messenger is the 3rd most-used app in the world, utilized by 68 percent of app users.
And it's not just for group chats amongst buddies and family. A current Nielsen survey found that people think messaging is the second-best method to talk to a company. People exchange 2 billion messages with organizations over Facebook Messenger every month.
Compare this to the rest of the mobile app market, where 71 percent of users delete an app within 90 days.
If you wish to interact with your customers, developing a Facebook Messenger bot is a lot more affordable than building a mobile app.
The second advantage is that the field is still wide open. While Facebook has 6 million marketers, there are just 300,000 chatbots. That's a lot less competitors.
Marketing e-mail click-through rates (3.1 percent, on average) have not improved in years, and only 30 percent of marketing emails are even opened. Chatbots can help you bypass inbox competitors too.
That's the context. Let's break down precisely what a Messenger chatbot can help you do:
1. Reach your audience straight
Headliner Labs discovered that individuals are 3.5 times more likely to open a Facebook Message than a marketing e-mail. And because customers can respond (generally by pushing a CTA button-- they don't even need to type), they're most likely to move even more down your marketing funnel.
On top of that, Facebook Messenger has sponsored ads, which can be sent to anybody who has actually formerly been in touch with your Page. Yes, this means that you already have a customer list. You can utilize these advertisements in tandem with your chatbot to target high-intent consumers.
2. Save money and time on consumer care
Clients anticipate 24/7 availability, but they hate waiting on hold. They also ask a lot of the exact same questions over and over (and over) again.
If you're investing a great deal of time helping individuals track deliveries, check your return policy, or book visits, a little automation will go a long method. Free up your focus for the jobs that a Messenger chatbot can't do.
3. Determine leads
As your bot greets prospective customers, it can recognize their requirements, ask basic questions, (i.e., "What's your budget plan?"), and right away direct high-quality results in your human sales group.
4. Manage e-commerce deals
With the best script, bots can do the selling, too. And because whatever happens without leaving the comfort of Facebook Messenger, drop-off rates are lower than in a conventional ad-to-webpage pipeline.
Conversational commerce leaves space for tailored upselling as the bot makes tips. Everything from "Seems your flight won't be leaving till 4PM.
5. Re-engage customers
Bots are capable of maintaining info, and you can utilize those details to go above and beyond.
Instead of spending for a barrage of advertising, a Facebook Messenger bot can reach out personally, providing pertinent content at the correct time. Advise a consumer about those cycling shorts still sitting in her cart, or that she sent her mother-in-law birthday flowers this time in 2015.
How are organizations using Facebook Messenger bots?
Each bot is as distinct as the organization it serves.
They can assist with typical client service questions, like shipment tracking and appointment booking. They can also drive discovery-- recommending the ideal pair of denim, scheduling a direct flight to London, or buying dinner.
They can upsell by recommending a t-shirt to opt for that denim or a bottle of kombucha with that dragon bowl.
They can remind you that you forgot to click purchase on those tennis shoes.
They can track your delivery, and then sign in to see how those jeans fit once they've arrived.
They can alert you about an offer they believe you'd like, and they'll remember your size or time zone, or nut allergic reaction.
They may even inform you a joke while you're at it.
Here are a few best-in-class chatbot examples to influence you.
Marriott Benefits
Marriott's concentrate on excellent customer care indicates that they've been at the forefront of the chatbot boom. They produced their first Facebook Messenger chatbot in 2016 to assist visitors to link their Marriott and Starwood rewards accounts after the business merged.
The bot was so popular that Marriott transitioned it into a booking bot: visitors can enter their dates in a city, and receive hotel suggestions. This bot likewise highlights content from Marriott's magazine, Visitor, incorporating useful local details and news for the guest's upcoming checkout.
Independently, in 2015 Marriott created a professions chatbot to target millennial task seekers. "MC" assists prospective prospects to find the right task in the ideal city, and concurrently offers education on Marriott values and history. This makes a lot of sense coming from a brand that aims to treat its staff members along with its clients.
Sephora
The cosmetics merchant's Appointment Assistant bot is simple but dazzling.
Sephora provides complimentary remodelings in their shops, and this bot removes five steps from the booking process. Executing it resulted in an 11 percent higher booking rate. (And a lot more folks purchasing a purple eyeliner they didn't know they required til they saw it in the mirror-- consumers invested an average of $50 when in-store.).
Bud Light.
Throughout the 2017 NFL season, Bud Light promoted its team-branded cans by developing a chatbot that might deliver a case and buy of beer in under an hour on game days.
The genius here is a blend of personalization (consumers get to select their preferred group), hyper-locality (geo-targeting enabled the bot to pick the best delivery partner for the location), and timeliness (the bot advised users each video game day that it was time to equip the refrigerator.) This bot saw an 83 percent engagement rate.
Whole Foods.
This bot functions as an extension of Whole Foods' content marketing method by acting as a concierge that drives discovery of recipes based upon components. The bot can also help you limit concepts by meal type or dietary restriction.
And yes, you can search by emoji.
UNICEF.
UNICEF's U-report bot is developed to gather viewpoints and data from young individuals worldwide on concerns that matter to them, with the objective of magnifying their voices to create real policy change. The bot has actually engaged over 2 million subscribers.
If you have actually ever tried to collect feedback from your consumers, bear in mind: chatbots do not simply chat, they can listen, too.
Tools for building Facebook Messenger bots.
If all of this has you influenced to create your own chatbot, here are a few solutions to inspect out. We have actually divided them into two categories based upon their capabilities and the financial investment required: self-serve and enterprise.
A number of these tools consist of combinations with Hootsuite. We have actually noted them particularly below, but you can also check in the Hootsuite App Directory.
Self-serve tools.
Streamchat.
Streamchat is one of the most standard chatbot tools out there. It's fast to implement and easy to start with if you're just dipping your toes into the chatbot waters.
PS: Streamchat incorporates with Hootsuite Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover procedure.
Chatfuel.
As one of the biggest self-serve platforms for constructing Facebook Messenger bots, Chatfuel has an impressive customer list: everyone from TechCrunch to Netflix to the Cincinnati Bengals.
They have an instinctive visual interface for those without a coding background, however designers will like the editable front-end and customization options. While you can build a bot for complimentary, a lot of the more intricate (and intriguing) tools are just available with Chatfuel Pro accounts. In any case, it may be practical to understand that Chatfuel incorporates with Hootsuite Inbox using the Facebook Messenger handover procedure.
MobileMonkey.
This complimentary tool features a visual chatbot builder for Facebook Messenger with a number of bells and whistles, including: Q&A sets off, Live Chat Takeover, Chatbot Templates, Customized Elements, and more. There's likewise a "Chat Blast" feature, similar to Chatfuel's "broadcasting" feature, that permits you to send out messages to several users simultaneously.
If you update to a "Pro" plan, you'll have access to some of the more valuable features, like scheduling, analytics, and drip project setup.
PS: MobileMonkey is primarily designed for non-technical users. That indicates no coding needed. It also incorporates with Hootsuite Inbox utilizing the Facebook Messenger handover procedure.
ManyChat.
ManyChat's user interface is among the least intimidating out there. However, it might be much better fit to those making easier bots-- message management can get cumbersome as the discussion gets complex.
On the plus side, ManyChat has lots of tools that will assist you promote your bot and evaluate user analytics. It's free at initially, but after you struck a specific variety of customers you'll need to begin spending for a Pro account.
Business tools.
Chatkit.
Chatkit provides enterprise level services for automated messaging on Facebook Messenger, in addition to SMS messaging and Google RCS (a.k.a. Google Chat). It is lauded for its large range of combinations, consisting of Zendesk and Shopify.
Reply.AI.
Utilized by Coca Cola and Samsung, Reply.AI is a business level, all-in-one conversational AI platform for sales, assistance, and marketing discussions on Facebook Messenger (as well as Web, LINE, WeChat, Telegram, Kik, and SMS messaging). The chatbot home builder is "drag-and-drop" design and has high evaluations for its ease-of-use.
Some special features consist of: sophisticated analytics, audited security practices, role-based gain access to control, and internationalization. It also integrates with Hootsuite Inbox utilizing the Facebook Messenger handover procedure.
The Bot Platform.
Another no-coding-required bot contractor, the Bot Platform is among the most popular and trusted business services in the video game-- at least when it concerns Facebook Messenger and Office. BBC, Showtime, RuPaul, and Sony Music are all consumers. People seem to really like its analytics and division capabilities.
Bonus offer: The Bot Platform incorporates with Hootsuite Inbox utilizing the Facebook Messenger handover protocol, too.
Automat.
This is an enterprise-level, fully-managed bot company, meaning you tell them what you desire and they'll construct it for you. Automat likewise integrates with Hootsuite Inbox utilizing the Facebook Messenger handover procedure.
Conversable.
Conversable is the enterprise-class, SaaS platform that will construct your bot with you. They deal with a great deal of Fortune 500 business (they lag the Whole Foods, Pizza Hut, 7-11, and Dunkin Donuts bots, amongst others). They go beyond Facebook Messenger, and will ensure your conversations are happening across all channels, including voice-based ones (like, for example, OnStar).
Facebook Messenger for Developers.
If you're up for coding your own Messenger bot, Facebook offers a multitude of resources. And they are always working with their developer neighborhood to come up with new ideas to improve the user experience. Sephora and Nike, for example, are currently testing increased reality electronic camera effects for their customers.
Facebook Messenger bot finest practices.
Here are some hard-earned ideas from the experts, aimed at those of you who are ready to develop your own Facebook Messenger bot.
Set your expectations.
No bot can do whatever--. When you're designing your first campaign, choose one goal or use case for the bot to manage. Popular concepts include customer care, lead recognition, product promo, or discovery.
Keep it basic, and walk prior to your run.
Set your consumer's expectations.
This works the other method, too: typically, your bot will be teaching the user how to engage with it as it goes. Unfortunately, utopian-minded people who expect your appointment-booking bot to pass the Turing test might be disappointed. And folks who have no concept of what a bot is could be equally frustrated.
Clearly specify the chatbot's function in preliminary interactions to keep everybody on the exact same page. Then, throughout the interaction, program the chatbot to take the lead in guiding the user through the experience.
Invite personalization.
Segmenting your customers and being familiar with them drives engagement. Bots that invite an individual to determine their choices and narrow down choices have much greater click-through rates. Build a bot that individuals really want to connect with.
Specify.
Bots are still pretty unique, but ultimately the goal here is to save users time. According to Jonathan Schriftman of Snaps (the bot-builder behind Bud Light, Gatorade Edge, and others), there's a considerable drop in users when a bot takes more than five clicks to get to point-of-sale.
Always have a human on-hand.
When a human being is needed, a bot's success depends on its capability to acknowledge. Automated conversations are fabulously quick and responsive, but they can't replace human connection.
Consumers need to have the alternative, at any point in the conversation, to get in touch with a person.
Pro idea: Hootsuite Inbox supports the Facebook Messenger handover procedure, so you can reply and manage to all your direct messages in one location, consisting of ones initiated by chatbots.
Be transparent.
What data will be saved? How will it be used?
Offer your users power over their private details.
Keep knowing.
When you've constructed it, incorporate your bot into your marketing calendar and your general Facebook technique. Your Facebook Messenger bot isn't changing email, customer care representatives, or apps yet, however it offers functions of all 3, which implies it must be treated like the distinct monster it is.
As you check strengths and determine efficiency, keep an eye on the way chatbots continue to progress in the marketplace. This is AI we're talking about. Have we even scratched the surface?
Save time by automating the most convenient parts of the discussion. When building Facebook Messenger projects in AdEspresso and Hootsuite Ads, integrate chatbot design templates into your advertisements. Try it totally free today.
While you can construct a bot for free, a lot of the more complex (and intriguing) tools are only offered with Chatfuel Pro accounts. Another no-coding-required bot home builder, the Bot Platform is one of the most popular and relied on business solutions in the video game-- at least when it comes to Facebook Messenger and Office. If you're up for coding your own Messenger bot, Facebook offers a plethora of resources. When you're creating your very first project, select one objective or utilize a case for the bot to deal with. Build a bot that people truly want to communicate with.
