The idea that Messenger is aiming to transform itself from a messaging mobile app into an all-encompassing platform has been making rounds since 2015. And after the recent F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference, it was clear that the social site is working harder to make this possible.
One of the first bot-operated programs was called ELIZA, considered a primitive form of artificial intelligence (AI). It was designed by MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum to simulate conversations. Unsurprisingly, its biggest weakness was that it lacked the ability to contextualize a message.
Twitter has just followed Facebook’s footsteps in deploying a bot-operated customer support messaging feature. In April this year, Facebook announced that developers may now start creating bots and integrating these into their accounts. Twitter, on the other hand, recently added two new features —the welcome message and quick replies—into its Direct Message platform. These moves are giving brands new opportunities to engage with their customers in a much more responsive way.
There’s no denying that customers love live chat. A survey revealed that as much as 73% of customers prefer this channel, compared with 61% for email and 44% for phone.
Aside from ease of navigation and good design, most online shoppers would always prefer to visit websites that can offer them convenience and efficient customer support when buying online. As business owners, you don’t want to see site visitors leaving your online store without making any purchases just because no one can answer their inquiries in real-time.
When you’re considering live chat as a platform for providing online support for your customers, you’d see how its pros can overwhelmingly outweigh its cons. Even if you put its cost-effectiveness aside, it’s still easy to get convinced by how quick and proactive customer service becomes with instant messaging integrated on your websites. But this doesn’t mean that chat support is right for your business.
