How Chat Bots Are Set to Disrupt Retail

According to Facebook, about 11,000 chatbots have been created on Facebook Messenger itself by retailers and other businesses aiming to use the platform for customer service and sales efforts. 

Is customer service about to become more automated via SMS? It's sure looking that way. RetailDive has been reporting on how chatbots are going to redefine retail customer service.

THE SMARTHOME: A New Battleground for Intelligent Assistants 

Meanwhile, this has already occurred in the smart home arena with Amazon Echo via the intelligent assistant Alexa, making Amazon a leader in the field with its voice search box with Google, Facebook, Apple, Viva and others likely to enter the race soon.

China has already achieved this kind of ubiquity in Ecommerce via WeChat, where software automates customer service tasks, that here would still occur primarily over the phone or Email.

Since in many parts of the world mobile is the primary means of internet connection, chat bots can scale very easily and quickly. 

However, SMS and intelligent assistants that can integrate third party apps and services is the future, and Retail is going to incorporate this as well as Retail robots like Pepper, into their customer service workflows to improve customer service. 

Since retail shoppers want ubiquity and the most convenience, Facebook messenger is striving to allow new ways for customers to access information, retail goods and entertainment related to brands.

With 50 million companies worldwide and 1 billion business messages occurring, ordering services and accessing retailers will soon be easier than ever.  

Quick Access: No More Hold or Wait Times

In the age of mobile, it's all about speed to service. Chatbots enable an end to sitting on hold, and the end (quite thankfully) for 'press one for this press two for that' and awkward phone systems. 

There is a lot of hype behind intelligent assistants even taking over call center inbound and outbound tasks and such situations as ordering a plane ticket, and a global transition to intelligent assistants is already under way.

This can impact Retail in a big way obviously, with more ubiquity and access to swift service, and while human customer service is still primary on location, there will increasingly be more options. New channels, more automation, will Retail be able to keep up?

The End of Apps 

Many believe intelligent assistants that link third party services seamlessly into voice search, facilitates the death of apps and a significant change with how we relate to technology.

With personal intelligent assistants that mediate how we relate to services, brands and content (filtering out the noise and automating according to our preferences), how we access retail could also change significantly. Chat-bot automation and intelligent interactions as we browse the store & on our mobile or wearable devices is on its way as well. 

Facebook Messenger will just be one option among a new ecosystem of chat-bot channels. Retail brands will seek to position themselves on the channels consumers will be using the most. 

In the United States, retail spending on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets is projected to grow from $123.13 billion in 2016 to $242.08 billion in 2020, according to eMarketer.

UBIQUITOUS Interactive channels 

We've come a long way since 1964 when MIT's Joseph Weizenbaum, created chatterbots to mimic a therapist. What's beautiful about intelligent assistants with voice is how more relatable the voice is as of Amazon's Echo Alexa interface. 

While Facebook messenger vies to have a monopoly in North America for retail, chances are it won't. There's too much at stake, and too many major tech companies competing to make a splash in this exciting new market which may become the go-to way to reach the new consumer, or rather for consumers to reach Retail brands.

 ACCESS TO RETAIL BRANDS

For retailers and even for the future of mobile wallets, intelligent assistants allow for the streaming of apps where apps, websites and services are better integrated for the end user and where the customer experience approaches a new level of ubiquity. 

Ubiquity is a word often cited in the Internet of things movement, and how our billions of devices connect will largely it seems occur via intelligent assistants and SMS chat-bots. Customer service in-store and from home, is set to take an interesting twist as digital evolution and retail communications charges ahead. 

We've evolved from websites to apps and now an era of intelligent assistants (chat-bots) is fast arriving, Retail brands need to plan accordingly. 

Consumers typically do not use many apps, and app usage will usually only be a small subset a Retail brand's customer base. However using a chat-bot integrated into Kik, WhatsApp or FB Messenger is starting to make a lot more sense.

We've evolved from websites to apps and now an era of intelligent assistants is fast arriving, Retail brands need to plan accordingly. It's looking like chat-bots will arrive before immersive virtual reality, with the two becoming more integrated offering a whole new AI-human channel before 2025.  

Beyond Fragmented Services 

The infeasibility of the individual retail brand or retail app acting on their own has been well documented. Forrester Research, in their 2015 report "The Future Of Mobile Wallets Lies Beyond Payments", hinted that chatbots would be better than apps at reaching consumers post-transaction since they would be immediate, integrated and interactive. 

As consumers migrate from social media to SMS, they will continue to likely migrate to the channels that have the most intelligent and useful personal assistants. 

The fact is SMS intelligent assistants could interact with consumer touch-points such as mobile wallets, and digital receipts that could be retail starting points where new ecosystems and multiple apps could be "streamed" in new ways that are more consumer friendly and offer more integrated experiences.

Intelligent assistants that know our preferences means also Amazon and Netflix esque cross-selling "recommendations" that could be lucrative for Retail. Matching and personalizing the consumer with the right product is key. 

Consumer Centricity in an Mobile Interactive Age 

As attention spans are decreasing and mobile nativity means a new level of expectation when it comes to product design, convenience and accessibility.

When Google Home launches with the most sophisticated personal assistance level of interactivity yet, Retail will take notice. Consumers will come to expect chat-bots that don't just facilitate routine customer service, but can provide more dynamic interactions of search and product info, streamlining payment and all other aspects of customer experience whether in-store or via mobile devices. 

As consumers migrate from social media to SMS, they will continue to likely migrate to the channels that have the most intelligent and useful personal assistants. Facebook Messenger is the first choice, but it won't be the last. 

From Apps to Automation Streaming of Apps 

Since the average person spends 80% of their time on mobile using just three apps, and of those three, their preferred messaging app ranks among them, according to ComScore, the way this "streaming" of services will occur, will bypass apps and eventually even SMS for direct access via voice driven intelligent assistants. 

In a chat-bot future, customer service and loyalty marketing must occur ubiquitously with zen like precision and simplicity, and chat-bots will afford Retail  brands and the in-store experience, this opportunity. Chat-bots will have many distinct advantages to websites and apps: 

1. Bots won't require installation 
2. Bots will "stream" apps & services via third party integration that are seamless, e.g. calling an Uber on FB Messenger. 
3. Voice integration, e.g. interacting with Google Home about a Retail brand and their products. 
4. Open-API: open platforms where devs can design bots that can be integrated with any messaging service e.g. the advent of a "bot store". 
5. Bots facilitate new levels of customer and product analytics leading to improved personalization. 
6. Bots can automate loyalty marketing to a new level of interactivity and real-time location offers. 
7. Bots will evolve faster than static apps once did. 
8. Bots will be accessible anywhere easily (e.g. voice on a wearable device). 

SMS apps will be competing with major tech companies to provide the most seamless chat-bot experience.

This will encompass routine customer service, increasing interactivity and integration into devices in-store (e.g. The Pepper sales robot). The Chat bot revolution heralds how the internet of things (IoT) can come alive for Retail and personalization can become increasingly automated uniquely by our favorite brands. 

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How do you see the chat-bot revolution impacting Retail customer experience both in-store and for Ecommerce?