A lot of people don’t really know about messenger bots, how they can use them effectively in their business and which type to use. 

Chatbots are automated digital messages that can answer questions, provide automated responses and be programmed with simple AI (artificial intelligence) Now this works for some businesses and not for others. The chatbot uses keywords that are preprogrammed with certain answers, so the potential client types their question in the chat line and the bot with answer the question by picking up on those keywords. For example, if you are selling tickets and the question asked has the word ‘ticket’ then the return message will include the ticket prices.  Or if the question has the word ‘hours’ then it will respond with the preprogrammed operating hour’s response.

The problem is if the question is not clear in using the predefined keywords it can answer something totally incorrect and you can actually lose a sale a result.  That is why I say it works for some and not for others. 

Like anything, it needs to be done with a strategy focusing on what the outcome is that you’re trying to achieve.

Messenger bots are automated messages that get sent to your subscribers in their Messenger inbox. The only time I like messenger bots is when there is something in it for me.  For example, the local roller-skating rink sends out promotional offers and events, particularly during the holidays, which is helpful and I often get vouchers and special offers straight to my inbox.

I did some work for a takeaway restaurant that changed ownership recently.

Now changing ownership for a restaurant is always a concern, people worry about quality dropping and service etc.  So they put in the effort to retain their customers by offering specials and promotions.  They asked their senior citizens to subscribe to the bots so that they could receive notifications about discounted seniors nights, and it worked for them. 

If you do decide to make use of Messenger bots be careful that you don’t overdo it and do it thoughtfully you still want to keep your brand humanised.

If you send out too many, or to the wrong people, or a cold audience, or you hook in the wrong people, come off spammy, don’t offer value / the right conversational sequence,  people will get annoyed, lose trust with you and will simply unsubscribe. But more importantly, this can be detrimental to your business and reputation long term.

Did you have any questions? I’d be happy to go over them with you, you can book a call below or check out the awesome Do It Yourself Marketing course.