Tag: chatbot

Domino’s Launches Pizza-Ordering Bot On Facebook Messenger

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pizza Hut may have announced their pizza-ordering bot for Facebook Messenger first, but it has been beaten by its rival Domino’s, which has launched its chatbot for the popular messaging app in the U.K. and Ireland. As an extension of the Domino’s Easy Order program, which allows customers to order their favorite pizza with a simple tap of a button in its app, the chatbot will cue up your default order in response to a single word command of “pizza” once you’ve signed in with your My Domino’s account.

What Brands Need To Do
This is not the first time Domino’s has ventured into conversational interfaces. In February, Domino’s released an Alexa skill that allows users of Amazon Echo devices to order pizza by speaking. The chatbot is designed to focus on performing one task only, which is certainly a valid approach as we pointed out in our Medium post on chatbots.

However, compared to Pizza Hut’s upcoming Messenger bot, which promises the ability to hold a back-and-forth conversation with customers and functions beyond ordering pizza, Domino’s approach may be missing out on chatbots’ vast potential for customer service and feedback collection.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Skype Adds Chatbots To Help You Book Flights And Event Tickets

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Skype has added a slew of chatbots as its parent company Microsoft continues to build out the bot platform it launched in April. The new bots include ones from travel booking services Skyscanner and Hipmunk that aim to help you find flight and hotel information and one created by StubHub to search for event tickets. There is also an IFTTT bot that can pull in information from other apps and services into your Skype chat.

What Brands Need To Do
While these bots are fairly functional in completing search inquiries and presenting the results, they are a long way from the ideal case where the bot actually completes the booking process within the chat. Nevertheless, this is a necessary step for Skype to build out its bot inventory and stay competitive to other bot-supporting chat platforms. Brands should consider developing bots to reach customers on messaging apps that are popular among mobile users, as branded bots are poised to become a crucial tool for brands.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Customer Engagement Platform Flok Adds Chatbot Service

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Another day, another CRM platform gets on board with the ongoing rise of chatbots. Customer engagement startup flok announced that it is adding a chatbot service to its platform to enable the thousands of local businesses using its platform to connect with customers. The addition of chatbots aims to facilitate customer feedback and provide a more engaging customer service experience.

Previously, flok’s main product focused on helping local businesses build customer loyalty and improve engagement by using beacons to retarget customers who have previously visited their stores. Besides small local businesses, the company is also working with the likes of Salvation Army and Subway to help them better understand their customers on a local level.

Why Brands Should Care
As we pointed out in our Medium post on branded chatbots, they serve as a great tool for handling basic customer service and other single-focus tasks such as gathering feedback. This chatbot service from flok provides local businesses and brands with physical locations an opportunity to add a chatbot to their customer communication channels.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Street Fight

Macy’s Taps IBM’s Watson To Build Shopping Assistant Chatbot

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
National department store chain Macy’s is tapping into the cognitive power of IBM’s cognitive cloud service Watson to create a web-based chatbot that can help shoppers navigate stores. Customers will be able to access the Macy’s On Call bot via their mobile browsers and ask the bot questions about where they can find certain products, store information, and store-specific events. As part of the pilot program, the digital shopping assistant will be able to help customers navigate ten select Macy’s locations around the country.

What Brands Need To Do
As we noted in our Medium post on branded chatbots, they are great for handling basic customer service and other single-focus tasks. Macy’s Watson-powered chatbot focuses on store navigation as it aims to enhance the customer experience with a digital touch. Other retailers looking to modernize their in-store experience should take note and start experimenting with new ways to connect with shoppers via mobile devices.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Trolli Creates Facebook Chatbot That Engages Users With Mini-Games

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Tuesday, candy brand Trolli launched a Facebook Messenger chatbot that aims to engage users with a series of interactive quizzes, GIFs, and real-life rewards. The personality quizzes will assign users to three different personas corresponding to three different Trolli flavors, which each come with their own branded content to further engage customers. The “crawler,” for example, gives users a digital pet to take care of and the “blast” will dispense memes and GIFs to amuse fans on a daily basis. The company is buying ads on Facebook and other social channels to promote the chatbot and will also reward participating consumers with free candy they can redeem through Trolli’s website.

What Brands Need To Do
Unlike many other Facebook chatbots brands have developed that focus on customer service or other utilities, this Trolli chatbot stands out for the way it aims to engage consumers with gamified conversations and real-life rewards. With more and more smartphone users adopting messaging apps as their primary communication channel, it is time for brands to consider developing chatbots in order to reach prospective customers.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: AdWeek

Here Come The Pizza Hut And Whole Foods Chatbots

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Another day, another crop of branded chatbots pop up on Facebook Messenger. Pizza Hut customers can now ask a chatbot to order a pizza and, once signed in with their Pizza Hut accounts, check their past purchases. In addition, the Pizza Hut bot will also be available via Twitter DM. For people who wish to eat healthier, Whole Foods is developing a Messenger bot that will respond with curated recipes related to keywords and emojis users send. Both chatbots are built with the Conversable platform and were unveiled at the VentureBeat MobileBeat conference on Wednesday.

Why Brands Should Care
These two chatbots are the latest additions to a growing list of branded bots as companies seek to connect with consumers on popular messaging apps. As we noted in our Medium post on branded chatbots, they are great for handling basic customer service and other single-focus tasks. Both of these new chatbots adhere to that principle, focusing on ordering and dispensing recipes, respectively. With more and more smartphone users opting to communicate via messaging apps, it is time for brands to consider developing chatbots in order to reach prospective customers.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

Source: AdWeek

Microsoft Adds New Features To Its Skype Bots

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Chatbots on Skype are about to become more useful as Microsoft debuts new features for its Skype Bot platform. Now with the new groups support, users can add a bot to group chats to schedule an appointment, get an Uber, or order a pizza. With added support for various “in-conversation cards,” such as visual image cards, carousel cards, and receipt cards, bot developers can deliver more content to users without leaving the chat. The update came just days after the company refreshed its main Bot Framework platform with a stack of new features.

What Brands Need To Do
These new chatbot features should give the Skype bots a boost in functionality. The support for group chats extends the reach of Skype chatbots, transforming a typically one-on-one experience of talking with a chatbot into a social experience. The added support for cards provides developers a handy tool for offer users a more enriched chat experience. Brands developing their own bots to engage with Skype users should definitely take advantage of these new features. To learn more about how brands can use chat bots to better serve customers via messaging apps, check out our Medium post on this topic.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Engadget

Kik Introduces An “Invite” Feature To Help Bots Go Viral

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Kik added a new feature for its chatbots on Friday that allows users to invite their friends to try them out. The Canada-based messaging app launched its Bot Shop in April and has since accumulated over 70 available bots from various brands, publishers, and game-makers. The first bot to receive this invite feature is a game called Zombie Invasion, and Kik says it is working with other bot developers to widely roll out this feature.

Why Brands Should Care
This invite feature should be a handy tool for brands to spread the words about their Kik bots and we expect other messaging platforms to come out with similar features for their bots soon. Early adopting brands such as H&M and Yahoo have launched branded bots on Kik to reach users, and more should take advantage of this new feature to aid chatbot discovery. With eMarketer predicting that messaging apps will reach 80% of global smartphone users by 2018, brands would be smart to start experimenting with branded chat bots to reach customers on popular messaging apps.

To learn more about how brands can use chat bots to better serve customers via messaging apps, check out our Medium post on this topic.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Header image courtesy of Kik’s official blog

Facebook Updates Messenger Platform With New Chatbot Features

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The chatbots on Facebook Messenger are getting a little bit smarter. The social network announced on Friday a slew of new chatbot features and tools in the latest update of Messenger Platform. The stand-out additions include quick replies for guiding consumer-bot conversations, a persistent menu for easier navigation and selecting commands, account linking that users can opt into to link their Messenger accounts with their customer accounts, and support for more content types such as GIFs, audio, video, and other files. Also, users will be able to mute bots and rate the chatbots as private feedback for developers. You can click here to read more details about each of these new features.

What Brands Need To Do
With these additions, Facebook is making it easier for brands and developers to create more focused and functional chatbots. The new quick replies and persistent menus, for example, can help guide user-bot conversations and keep the interface streamlined and more user-friendly. The added support for more content types grants brands a good opportunity to spice up conversations with fun GIFs and add a touch of personality to their bots. Account linking should also help branded bots offer users that opted in a more personalized experience and optimize the conversation based on their customer profiles. Therefore, brands building chatbots for Messenger should definitely incorporate these new features into their bots when necessary.

The Lab has extensive knowledge about building chatbots. If you’re interested in reaching your audience on messaging apps and better serving them with a chatbot, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Header image courtesy of Facebook

American Express Debuts Financial Service Chatbot On Facebook Messenger

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
American Express has snatched the honor of becoming the first financial institution to create a chatbot on Facebook Messenger. The credit card company demoed the chatbot at Cannes Lions with plans for a roll-out in the coming months. Designed to provide transaction alerts and other purchase-related content, the AmEx bot will message users receipts, reminders for flights they purchased, and restaurant recommendations. The company also says it is working on leveraging the purchase data to personalize the recommendations.

What Brands Need To Do
Ever since Facebook introduced chatbots to its messaging app at its annual F8 conference in April, some early adopting brands such as Mondelez and Staples have been experimenting with bots to reach the over 900 million active users on Messenger. With increased usage of messaging apps, brands need to follow the consumer attention and start developing useful bots to better serve their customers.

To learn more about Facebook’s F8 conference this year, click here to read our Fast Forward analysis of the event.

 

Source: AdWeek