Facebook Messenger wants to create a customer service Utopia with Bots – AI technology could replace millions of industry jobs in just 5 years

By: Annette Timmins, August 7, 2017

Bots/artificial intelligence are being used for everything from ordering food and clothes to finding a restaurant or checking your bank balance. A July 27, 2017 article on CNET reports the social network Facebook, wants to turn its chat app Messenger into a customer service utopia. The goal to have people text with chatbots instead of having to talk to agents on the phone.

What is a bot? Short for robot, a bot is an application that performs an automated task, such as setting an alarm, telling you the weather or searching online. A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the broader concept. IT is the capability of a machine (bot) to imitate intelligent human behavior.  

Bots and AI are only going to get more relevant. This could mean a major impact to the customer service industry. In September 2016, Forrester, a Massachusetts-based research and advisory firm, predicted that automation would replace 6 percent of U.S. jobs in the next five years, eliminating many positions in customer service, trucking and taxi services,

Just last month, two key innovations in the customer service arena were introduced in the Facebook Messenger App. The goal, to get more bots on the platform and making them easier for people interact with:

1.     "Natural language processing" tools for software developers. These tools will allow chatbot developers to use the built-in AI tools offered by Facebook. The software can detect a few different things in a person's message, including saying: hello, bye, thanks, the date and time, a location, an amount of money, a phone number and email.

2.     Enhanced features for users that enable interactions between bots and human customer service reps.

AI/Bots Good for Business but Potentially Bad for Customer Service Agents

Automation is good for businesses looking to cut costs wherever possible—but it’s bad for the ones who manage the Filipino call center/customer service workforce. Benedict Hernandez, the Chairman and President of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines, has said the industry is trying to stay ahead of these technological advances. In an article published in Newsweek Jobs On the Line: New Technology Could Replace Millions of Call Center Workers in The Philippines, Hernandez cites: “this is not a challenge but an opportunity for the Philippines to handle more interesting, more complicated tasks and come out a winner.” Hernandez also pointed out that most businesses in the Philippines have evolved past low-skilled tasks. Agents in the customer service industry are not only handling routine inquiries but are navigating through tiers one two and three technical support, as well as closing complex sales and customer care interactions.

Facebook Messenger an Integral Part of Customer Service Strategy

Hernandez's thoughts are echoed by Anand Chandrasekaran, Head of Messenger Partnerships at Facebook. In an article posted July 25, 2017 in Entrepreneur Magazine, Messenger Is Changing Customer Service, excerpted here, he talks about how you can leverage messaging and bots as an integral part of your customer service strategy:

What is Facebook Messenger seeing in care?

We did a study which indicated that across age demographics, consumers actually prefer messaging a business as opposed to calling or visiting the business in person. Intuitively, the customer behavior is the biggest driver in this adoption. For example, one use case might be you are in the middle of dinner and you realize that something needs to be resolved. You don’t stop dinner if you need to call somebody. The more natural behavior is to message them, and the interaction is asynchronous. Then they can take a couple of minutes to get back to you, and by the time you are done with dinner, you have a resolution.

What trends are you noticing around businesses using bots and/or messaging for customer service? 

Number one, is go to where your customers already are. Around 1.2 billion customers are using Messenger monthly, and a lot of them are getting used to the behavior of messaging a business, so it’s a very compelling place for a business to start spending their time. Nearly 20 million businesses on Facebook are already turning on messaging and actively messaging back.

The second thing is to start with the outcome and identify what you are solving for. Some businesses would look at this as an upselling opportunity, as great customer care often leads to the opportunity to upsell. Some businesses would look at it as an opportunity to increase the customer satisfaction (CSAT) score, because that is a metric that is important to our business. And some other businesses might look at it as wanting to increase employee productivity, because they are able to resolve more issues using this as a channel to resolve issues quicker, as opposed to some other channel. Not that some of this are good and some are bad, but the important thing is to clarify your goal.

Number three is: you shouldn’t be too embarrassed to copy. There are publicly available case studies where people are seeing CSAT improvements, employee productivity increases, cost decreases, as well as upsell opportunities. It’s better to do what someone else is doing as their phase one, before saying, “Okay, I’m going to do it in a totally different and unique way.” Rogers experienced a 65% increase in their CSAT, and Globe Telecom in the Philippines experienced a 50% reduction in calls on their hotline once they resolved the issue on Messenger. As a result, they had 3.5x increase in employee productivity, because they were not receiving calls from the same people whose issues they had resolved.

Messenger is a big part of Facebook's business strategy. It's all part of Facebook's push to make Messenger, with its 1.2 billion users, more than just a place to text with friends, but rather a one-stop shop for almost everything including shopping, food delivery, payments and games. Facebook began testing ads on the app earlier this year. "I want to see us move a little faster here," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said about making money off of Messenger during the company's second-quarter conference call on July 26.

1-800 Flowers Facebook Messenger App Chatbot Story

Other Facebook Messenger ROI stories include 1-800 Flowers. Last year, when Facebook announced that its Messenger app would now support branded chatbots, 1-800-Flowers was the example Mark Zuckerberg used in his very first demo. “I love this one,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s pretty ironic: To order from 1-800-Flowers, you never have to call 1-800-Flowers again.” You can view bouquets, gift baskets and floral arrangements and place orders without leaving Messenger. The bot was an immediate success, and was particularly efficient at attracting new shoppers to 1-800-Flowers. Chris McCann, president of 1-800 Flowers told Digiday that just two months post launch, over 70% of the company’s Facebook chatbot orders came from brand new customers, who in fact were younger than the company’s typical customer.

Room for Both

Bottom line Customer care is one of the most important aspects of any enterprise, regardless of the industry in which it operates. While chatbots have several advantages, there’s no denying that some people still prefer the human touch. The future of customer service is making it easy for consumers to have an experience that they prefer, in the channel of their choice, and that includes bots.

Sources:

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-messenger-chatbots-nlp/

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/297438    

https://digiday.com/marketing/two-months-1-800-flowers-facebook-bot-working/

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/12/ai-will-eliminate-six-percent-of-jobs-in-five-years-says-report.html

https://www.newsweek.com/how-new-technology-automation-ai-take-away-millions-jobs-call-centers-503726

1-800 Flowers Facebook Messenger app photo: https://www.topbots.com/project/1800flowers-facebook-messenger-bot-review/

Facebook Messenger app photo: https://phandroid.com/2017/05/01/best-android-apps-may-2017/

Customer Service Agents Photo: https://www.callcentrehelper.com/human-touch-still-key-to-great-customer-service-108900.htm

Author

Annette Timmins, Vice President Sales, VXI Global Solutions linkedin.com/in/annette-timmins-71a4408 Profile URL