Imagine a world where you can order and get your food delivered without ever leaving Facebook? Well, with these Facebook Messenger Bots, this could very much be a reality.

There are now over 11,000 bots with companies, such as Pizza Hut and Fynd, substituting HR for them and using them as a new type of customer service. This is a new development for Facebook with the aim of getting the valuable information of consumer habits online.

Depending on your company, each bot would collect different data, and then use that feed back and forth between the customer and company. For example, the Pizza Hut bot would collect data on which pizza is the most popular, and Fynd would collect data on current trends of fashion as they are a fashion retailers company.

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Bots for Business

People now choose to visit their social media sites much more regularly than going on to websites. Having a Facebook Messenger Bot for your business can be very useful and is the cheaper alternative to using HR. They are very quick to respond if your customers do have any queries and they are available 24/7 seven days a week, which a person cannot simply do. Examples of very well know chatbots are Siri and Cortana, which can answer almost any question you have and reply within seconds.

As said by The Drum, conversations with customers are far more useful than what you would find at any social media marketing research.

This would give the appearance of very good customer service and if the bots get to know the customer well, they can even suggest items for them to buy which can increase sales for the company. It would make them appear more ‘human’ and hence form brand-consumer relationships, making them seem more reliable and trustworthy.

As said by The Drum, conversations with customers are far more useful than what you would find at any social media marketing research

However, there is always the worry they will go rouge, and cause more confusion or annoyance for a customer. So be careful!

How can you create a Bot?

Here is a short clip highlighting the steps on how to make a Facebook Messenger Bot in 10 minutes. It’s quite simple!

Who uses Messenger Bots?

There are a number of businesses and brands that have taken to this idea and are already integrating bots into their offering. A few to name are Pizza Hut, Bastille, Kayak, HealthTap and Fynd.

Fynd, which is a fashion retailers, have created the first AI fashion shopping botfriend named Fify. They have programmed it to have a memory and a personality so it can be just like a human (well, close to it anyway).

Through experience with the different users, it will be able to behave and response differently to each customer, and this would be done by remembering their tastes and preferences. Eventually, they aim for the bot to be able to discuss the brand with a customer as well as gossip and talk about all things fashion.

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Pizza Hut use their bot to help with deliveries and orders, as you can imagine. So now you can order straight from Facebook – Great!

You also have access to all the latest promotions that Pizza Hut has to offer, and any questions you may have, the bot is able to answer them for you straight away. Unlike having to call there is no extra charge for the service either, as it’s inside the Facebook Messenger app.

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Band Bastille has taken to this idea too, helping to market their new album to help sell tickets to their tour online. They have also used it to announces the launch of their new single and under their YouTube videos, there is an option for their fans to say ‘hi’ to their Bastille Bot and find out more about their new music.

It’s a really clever way to get your product in front of thousands, if not millions instantly. You’re far more likely to see a Facebook message than a tweet, when following hundreds of other accounts.

Would you consider using a Facebook Messenger Bot for your company? Do you think there’s any further pros or cons to giving it a go? Let us know in the comments…