How to maximise Facebook Messenger Bots for your business

Mobile technology has taken the world by storm and a lot of businesses have benefited from it. Technology is also moving at a rapid pace, in fact, in less than a decade since mobile apps have been dominating the market, it will soon be overtaken and eventually replaced by chatbots.

Chatbots are going through a rapid evolutionary process that it is soon going to replace email marketing, customer care representatives, and could even help in cutting costs in doing business while increasing revenues.

But can bots actually be the ultimate solution? It’s still in the early stages of development but based on what its current capabilities are, according to tech company Oracle, around 80% of businesses want to have chatbots by 2020.

One of the resounding bots currently making the buzz in the online sphere is the Facebook Messenger bots, which works as an automated messaging system that utilises artificial intelligence (AI) to interact with people.

What can Facebook Messenger bots do?

Also known as Facebook chatbots, these bots are developed to analyse questions, give answers, and perform tasks. Chatbots are beneficial for the customer as it is friendly and saves time, compared to traditional processes where a customer opens an app, make a call, run a search, and wait for a webpage to load. With chatbots, all they need to do is type a message and chatbots will do the rest.

The Facebook Chatbot is currently integrated into the Facebook Messenger app where it has been conversing with some 1.3 billion Facebook users worldwide each month.

Many businesses currently use Facebook chatbots and you may have even been introduced to one since as of the latest count, there are more than 300,000 active Facebook chatbots which have tripled in number compared to the previous year.

Why use Messenger bots for your business?

There are two practical reasons why your business may be able to benefit from using a Facebook Messenger chatbot.

Firstly, there ‘s a low entry barrier for your target audience and your business, considering Facebook Messenger is currently ranked third commonly used app globally and used by no less than 68% of the world’s active app users.

According to a recent study by online survey group Nielsen, people agree that direct messaging is the second best way to reach and interact with a business. This has been supported by a study where it was estimated around 2 billion messages are being exchanged over Facebook Messenger each month.

The reason for this is surprisingly simple. Building a Facebook chatbot is far cheaper than developing a mobile app for your business.

Secondly, there’s still a lot less competition in the Facebook chatbot integration, since there are only around 300,000 chatbots versus the six million advertisers on Facebook.

How can your business benefit from using Facebook chatbots?

Your business can take advantage of the valuable and dynamic features of Facebook chatbots.

Directly reach your audience

 A recent study by online tech company Headliner Labs revealed that people are almost 4 times more likely to open a Messenger chat message versus a marketing email. At a simple click of a call to action (CTA) button, customers are directed to go through your marketing funnel.

 Also, Messenger has sponsored ads which can show up to anyone who has recently visited your Facebook page which becomes your subscriber reference. With these ads, you can incorporate it with your chatbots to reach out to customers.

Optimises your customer care channel

Customer care demands have evolved through the years and have made it more challenging to many businesses such as  24/7 availability, reduced wait times, and after-sales support, just to name a few.

With Facebook chatbots, customers get instant responses, helps keep track deliveries, return policies, schedule and book appointments, automate orders, process requests, etc.- all in real-time by eliminating the wait and hold times.

Identifies and direct leads to proper business support channels

The moment your Facebook chatbot greets customers, it immediately identifies their initial needs and asks questions, for which answers are analysed by the chatbot AI to direct the leads to the appropriate sales or support team.

Chatbot questions can be programmed using a set of pre-planned questions to guide the customer through a seamless and efficient journey through your business network.

Retains customer information for future engagement

Just like a manual customer logsheet, bots are more efficient at retaining customer details which can be used in future marketing campaigns to reach out to customers. 

Best Facebook chatbot practices

Here are some tips to help you get started and running your Facebook Messenger chatbots;

Set your goals

A chatbot cannot read your mind, so planning your campaign and setting your expectations are critical. Start by aiming a goal for your chatbots such as product promotion, lead identification, customer service, or brand discovery.

Make it simple and be prepared to learn as you go along.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

Try to think as your customer would in developing your chatbot such as listing down possible questions and providing answers, customer interaction, lead generation, booking options, etc. Specify the role of your chatbot in initial interactions and eventually lead the customer to complete their journey.

Develop personalised responses or interaction cues

Create segments based on the expected needs of customers and identify their points of interest. It helps drive engagement as you help provide options and guide them through the possible solutions in helping customers make their decisions.

This can help increase click-through rates and make your customers turn to you for a convenient and seamless customer experience journey.

Be specific

Avoid wasting the time of your customers by providing too many options. Be specific and get straight to the point, since it was found that users drop off or abandon a journey when it takes more than five clicks to get to the point of sale.

Bonus Tip: Always have a human representative ready to take over when there’s a need for a customer to get to human contact. Chatbots are able to recognise cues when a customer needs to establish a human connection, so having a person on standby is critical to continue the customer journey.