Make Your Messenger Chatbot More Successful
October 1, 2018
Facebook has quickly become one of the most used social media platforms for business. Aside from the ability to post videos, ads, and use the Facebook group features to promote your business, companies may also benefit from chatbots. Chatbots are preprogrammed bots which respond to your customers the same way a CSR might.
Chatbots aren’t meant to answer in depth questions or concerns regarding personal customer account information, but rather, are programmed with answers to FAQs. Chatbots, while much the same as an FAQ page on your website, create a more personal touch to any Facebook business page.
So, how can you make your chatbot more successful in the promotion and maintenance of your company Facebook page? Here are a few tips to keep your chatbot relevant and performing well in 2018.
Make Your Bot Accessible: It isn’t enough to have a messenger system for your site if your customers can’t find it or aren’t privy to it. By adding a messenger button to your website, you make it easier for consumers to access social channels and share your site through theirs. The button connects your customers directly to Facebook messenger, allowing them to ask questions without having to navigate around manually or type anything in the address bar. To add this type of button, simply copy and paste the embed codes from your Facebook onto your contact page on your website.
Put Your Bot in Your Email: It isn’t just your website which should have a quick link to your chat bot; your email signature should also be equipped with this information. This lets consumers reply via messenger rather than email if they have a quick FAQ they need answered.
This is especially helpful for email newsletters with a “no reply” feature programmed in, as it opens doors to customers to get in touch through alternative means.
Use Messenger Ads: One of the unique ways companies are making advertising more personal is through the sending of private messages. Coupons, special offers, and invitations to local events within the community can all be directly mailed via your chat bot to consumers who have shown interest in your site.
Customers who aren’t interested can opt out by replying to “stop” communications, or by blocking the bot from accessing their account on messenger. It makes a more personal touch and reminds customers of what’s going on in a more eye-catching way than a simple Facebook ad they see as they scroll through the daily news feed.
Give Your Chat Bot Personality: When designing your chat bot, it can be a big help to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and map out what you want your bot to achieve, the type of personality it should deliver, and even what its name might be. You can, of course, just stick with the basics and use your business name. But, the types of messages it sends and how it responds to people will be a big part of how consumers receive your bot and your brand.
Remember that interacting with your bot is interacting with your business, so you want that representation to be accurate and on point with your brand.
Design a Great Greeting: The first message consumers receive when they access your messenger bot goes a long way toward whether they’ll engage or not. A simple, “hi” could come off cold or unhelpful, but a long drawn out paragraph will look forced and unnatural. Consider whether your bot should be formal or informal. Will it greet customers with a “Hey, how’s it going? What can I do for you today?” or, “Hello Mr. Frost, what can we help you with this afternoon?”
Your greeting message might be the only message customers see if they choose not to continue using the bot after the initial hello, so be sure to make it a good one with a lasting positive impression of the company.
Test Your Bot: The most important thing to do when building a successful chat bot is to test it for yourself. Accessing your business page from your personal Facebook page and interacting with the bot will show you the exact type of interaction a customer might have. When you ask questions or type messages, type the way a customer might. Is your bot answering questions appropriately? Do the messages come off friendly and on brand? Is there anything you’d like to change before consumers start using the messenger feature?
After you test it, make some updates and test it again. It can help to get a second opinion from someone outside of the business who doesn’t know what to ask or how to ask it. Get a friend or family member to give it a try and give honest feedback about their experience, this will help you hone the bot to a fine-tuned friendly greeting service.
Messenger bots are one of the more popular business trends for social media in 2018, and experts project that they’ll continue being used into the next year. What new methods of customer communication will we see in 2019? There has been some chatter in the social media world about video messages and other more interacting methods of communication via the messenger bot method. How that will work and whether it will roll out next year is yet to be seen. Stay tuned for more updates and news on social media, algorithm changes and more.