Showing posts with label customer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer. Show all posts
Friday, 8 November 2019
Thursday, 7 November 2019
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
Tuesday, 5 November 2019
Monday, 4 November 2019
Thursday, 24 October 2019
Amazon chatbots and what they’re bringing to customer service
ere are few things more annoying to a customer than the following phrase: Your call is important to us. Please hold, we’re currently experiencing a high call load. Thankfully companies like Amazon are beginning to realize the damaging effects a phrase like this can have on their brand. The retail giant appears to be building its chatbots development team with the hiring of Angel.ai co-founder and CEO Navid Hadzaad.
The pros of chatbots to business
Amazon is implementing bot technology to better automate its online channels. AI-infused chatbots are a vital ingredient in the recipe of ‘conversational commerce’. This trend is beneficial because it can be used to drive sales through customer interaction and because it streamlines customer relationship management (CRM).
This technology will also strengthen Amazon’s search features with the help of natural language programming (NLP) – that is, it’ll allow smoother, more natural search functionality across the board.
Chatbots also have enormous potential to help Amazon significantly cut labor costs, and other companies should take note. Public Tableau suggests that 30% of customer service positions in the US could be automated through chatbots, saving an estimated $23 billion in annual salaries.
Another rapidly growing area that chatbot technology is helping in is inside the actual enterprise. Employees of companies like Amazon now have access to a range of intelligent assistants that can help them schedule meetings, manage tasks and interact with other employees. All this leads to an improved, more focused customer service employee and therefore an improved customer experience.
Chatbots will also help Amazon drive brand engagement. In the same way a website, blog, or Facebook page would deliver content, Amazon can use chatbots to push content to their customers. The major difference being that the content can be interactive and personalized.
Stumbling blocks to chatbot adoption
The chatbot experience also has some potential failings that, if left unchecked, could lead to alienating customers. If the technology is rolled out to a substandard level or if it’s only offered in isolation, companies like Amazon only risk adding another cumbersome element to the customer service process, something that’ll only succeed in driving customers away. Chatbots need to be seamlessly integrated into the current processes and need to be picked up on by a human agent. One study found that as many as 88 percent of respondents expect their chatbot interactions to be followed up with a transfer to a live person.
Unleashing chatbots into the customer service world has been a stroke of genius on Amazon’s part, matching technology with necessity. Chatbots will only get better, stronger, more versatile with time as we move towards the perfect CRM solution and Amazon is already on the way. Be sure to read our blog post on the future of CRM if you’re interested in the future growth of this technology alongside business workflow. In addition, have a look at our blog post that explores how Clickatell Touch is using artificial intelligence to revolutionize CRM.
Article Source: https://www.clickatell.com/articles/customer-relationship-management/amazon-chatbots-customer-service/
The pros of chatbots to business
Amazon is implementing bot technology to better automate its online channels. AI-infused chatbots are a vital ingredient in the recipe of ‘conversational commerce’. This trend is beneficial because it can be used to drive sales through customer interaction and because it streamlines customer relationship management (CRM).
This technology will also strengthen Amazon’s search features with the help of natural language programming (NLP) – that is, it’ll allow smoother, more natural search functionality across the board.
Chatbots also have enormous potential to help Amazon significantly cut labor costs, and other companies should take note. Public Tableau suggests that 30% of customer service positions in the US could be automated through chatbots, saving an estimated $23 billion in annual salaries.
Another rapidly growing area that chatbot technology is helping in is inside the actual enterprise. Employees of companies like Amazon now have access to a range of intelligent assistants that can help them schedule meetings, manage tasks and interact with other employees. All this leads to an improved, more focused customer service employee and therefore an improved customer experience.
Chatbots will also help Amazon drive brand engagement. In the same way a website, blog, or Facebook page would deliver content, Amazon can use chatbots to push content to their customers. The major difference being that the content can be interactive and personalized.
Stumbling blocks to chatbot adoption
The chatbot experience also has some potential failings that, if left unchecked, could lead to alienating customers. If the technology is rolled out to a substandard level or if it’s only offered in isolation, companies like Amazon only risk adding another cumbersome element to the customer service process, something that’ll only succeed in driving customers away. Chatbots need to be seamlessly integrated into the current processes and need to be picked up on by a human agent. One study found that as many as 88 percent of respondents expect their chatbot interactions to be followed up with a transfer to a live person.
Unleashing chatbots into the customer service world has been a stroke of genius on Amazon’s part, matching technology with necessity. Chatbots will only get better, stronger, more versatile with time as we move towards the perfect CRM solution and Amazon is already on the way. Be sure to read our blog post on the future of CRM if you’re interested in the future growth of this technology alongside business workflow. In addition, have a look at our blog post that explores how Clickatell Touch is using artificial intelligence to revolutionize CRM.
Article Source: https://www.clickatell.com/articles/customer-relationship-management/amazon-chatbots-customer-service/
Monday, 21 October 2019
ManyChat: How to Set up an Amazon Giveaway Bot Contest That Generates Sales, Leads, and Product Reviews
The idea of giving something away for free and still making money sounds a little wonky at first glance.
Seasoned marketers know that giving products away for free can be an extremely effective marketing tool. Just look at the businesses around you and observe what they’re doing. You won’t have to look far before seeing plenty of offers to “buy one get one free” or “claim your free widget today.”
Think about how many times you’ve started a free trial for software or services. If you liked the product, you probably ponied up the cash to buy it. But what if there hadn’t been a free trial? You would have been much more reluctant to pull out your credit card and might have even gone to a competitor of the product instead.
How about free samples? If you’ve ever been to Costco or Amazon giveaway bots, you know they’re all pushing free samples all the time, and it’s not just a coincidence.
Why? Because free works.
Free is one of the most powerful ways to provide leads and/or established customers with huge value to build brand awareness and loyalty.
And so, with this information in mind, here’s yet another feather in the cap of Messenger Marketing: bots are pretty much the perfect tool for running a giveaway campaign, often with (much) higher engagement rates than email.
Today we’re digging into one of the most effective ways to utilize freebies, a time-tested classic marketing maneuver: the giveaway.
Except this time, we’re going to put a more modern spin on it…
Why Giveaways Work for Amazon Sellers
A lot of ecommerce business owners tend to shy away from giveaways, especially when they’re just starting out. With a limited budget and inventory, the idea of giving away their precious product for free seems foolhardy.
This, however, is a pretty massive misconception.
Product launches—whether it’s your first or your hundredth—are a super effective time to launch a giveaway campaign, whether that’s in the form of a contest or a “buy one get one” scenario.
The bottom line here is that giveaways are an investment, not a loss.
Suppose that you run a giveaway contest on Facebook. While plenty of successful campaigns give away a single product, let’s go a little crazy and say you were giving away 10 items. To keep things easy, let’s say your cost per product is $10. That’s a total of $100 “lost” to the giveaway campaign.
However, say that your contest racks up 1,000 new leads (not unheard of by any stretch of the imagination). That’s $0.10 per lead… which, to put it plainly, is dirt cheap pretty much regardless of your product type or niche—physical product sellers typically pay significantly more per lead.
That, of course, is a fairly simplified example, but the point stands: giveaway campaigns + messenger bots = a match made in heaven.
Let’s dive into the details of how you can run one of these campaigns yourself.
The 3 Steps to Harnessing the Power of Giveaways With Facebook Messenger Bots
Time for nuts and bolts.
Here’s a rough sequence of events for running a giveaway with messenger chatbots:
Create a landing page for your giveaway. ManyChat’s free growth tools make it easy to create a straightforward opt-in page.
Get visibility for your giveaway. This will likely be via Facebook ads. There are free methods of course (including simply posting the giveaway details on your page), but for the most visibility ads will be best.
Create your messenger bot sequence and tie it all together. This is where the real magic happens.
That’s it—three steps to generate sales, leads, and reviews by giving away a handful of your products for free.
The messenger bot sequence is where the real meat and potatoes are found, which we’ll discuss shortly. If you’ve been an online entrepreneur for any length of time, steps 1-2 are likely things you’re already pretty familiar with, although we’re going to dive into a few expert tips to improve your chances of success with this particular strategy below.
Messenger Bot Giveaway Landing Page Do’s and Don’t’s
The first thing to be aware of is that landing pages for messenger bot giveaway contests should not utilize long form copy at all—we’re not saying that it’s impossible, but generally speaking it’s totally unnecessary and will likely be detrimental to the performance of your campaign.
In other words, we’re going to be applying the good old K.I.S.S. principle here: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Your short form copy should clearly explain…
What the product is and why it’s so great. Keep in mind that it’s possible people coming across your giveaway don’t know what your product is or why they’ll need it. Your copy should touch on the most important benefits and pain point solutions of your product.
How to enter the contest. This will likely be something along the lines of “Click the ‘Send to Messenger’ button below OR to comment below the post to be auto-added to your list, depending on your backend setup OR to enter their email address. In some cases, you can link your email marketing platform with your ManyChat messenger bot. More on this later.
When the contest ends. It has to end sometime, after all. Setting a firm date will create a sense of urgency for users and give you the opportunity to reach out to winners (and, as we’ll see later on, to contact the majority of users who didn’t win).
Keep the images and graphics light, with a clear eye path to your CTA and/or button.
Simple, short landing pages work better for contests because for most people, the decision to enter is a spur of the moment thing. If you’ve ever entered one, you probably thought, “I probably won’t win but it would be neat if I did, so I’ll go ahead and dedicate the next 15 seconds of my life to entering.”
If entering the contest took too long or if too much of your information was demanded, unless you really, really wanted whatever it was, you were probably out of there.
If you’re not a designer, don’t sweat it: ManyChat’s free growth tools make putting together a landing page with these features a breeze.
Amazon Giveaway Facebook Ads Done Right
Above is an example campaign. As you can see, short ‘n sweet is the order of the day here as well. In large part, you’ll want to mimic the same strategies that you would use for a landing page.
However, if you look a little closer at this campaign, you’ll notice that users can opt-in to the giveaway simply by commenting below.
If you haven’t ran a contest with comment opt-ins, you’ll be blown away by the response rate they can get. It’s easy and simple for people to enter, and yes, they do occasionally tag friends, which is just more free exposure for your contest.
As for the copy itself, you’ll notice that we…
Added a bit of social proof (“people are freaking out”)
Clearly explained what they’re getting (a year’s supply of dog food)
Clearly explained how to enter
Clearly explained that you’re going to follow up via Facebook messenger and that they’ll need to follow the instructions.
You’ll also likely want to mention below-the-fold that entrants must be 18+ and residents of the US (or your preferred country). You’ll also need to add a note about the contest not being associated with Facebook—copy for ads like this typically include boilerplate like:
You must be 18 years of age or older to enter. US residents only. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to the owner of this Facebook page and not to Facebook.
Also, and this should really go without saying, you need to be running a real contest with real winners—if you try to go “blackhat” and get cute with a campaign like this, it’ll more than likely bite you back down the line.
Tip: always split test your ads.
Now, let’s move on to the fun stuff, your messenger bot sequence after a user opts in.
Giveaway Messenger Bot Sequences
This is where things get exciting. Designing the sequence of your messenger bot messages is easy thanks to ManyChat’s Flow Builder. We’re going to proceed assuming you have a basic understanding of messenger bot sequences. If you don’t, read the post linked above.
It’s fairly obvious that a giveaway gives you a great opportunity to build a strong relationship with the winner(s). That’s great, but the vast majority of your entrants won’t be winners. There’s power in numbers, and the people who didn’t win are your bread and butter.
You’re not going to warm up to everyone on your first message; it takes time. Your complete sequence might last anywhere from two weeks to a full month—you’re playing the long game here.
Here’s an example of what your sequence might look like:
Day 1: Send them a welcome message confirming their entry into the contest. This is actually your opportunity to confirm that they want to hear more from your bot. Typically you’ll have them reply with a string or tapping a check mark (e.g., “Reply with ‘enter contest’ to get all the details from us!”).
Day 2: Second confirmation of entry. This follow up message can pick up a good percentage of users who ignored the initial message. If they already entered, this is your first opportunity to sell your product. You might tell them that if they don’t want to wait, they can buy the product at a discount “today only.”
Day 7-10: Typically contests run for 7-10 days, so somewhere in this time range you need to announce the winners. Again, you have an opportunity to offer those who didn’t win the chance to buy your product at a discount (as something of a consolation prize).
Day 15: Another follow up message, letting users know this is their last chance to get a discount on your product.
Day 20: At this point if a user purchased your product, they probably would have received it in the mail. Now is your chance to ask for a review.
Day 25: Review follow up.
As you can see, this sequence runs for nearly a month. There are three offers for your product at a discount—and asks for an honest review of that product twice.
It’s important to ask for reviews, whether you’re doing so via messenger bot or any other mode of communication. 70% of consumers will leave a review for a business… IF you ask them for one.
This sequence can of course be tweaked in many different ways. Maybe on day 10 you offer them a free ebook that really dives into how to use your product and the benefits of doing so. Maybe on day 15 you offer them the steepest discount yet, along with a video demonstration of your product in action.
When you set up your flows correctly, you can even segment your entrants into different categories. Winners can receive offers for complementary products later. Entrants who haven’t purchased the product by a predetermined time might be offered a different product.
There are so many different ways to spin your sequence and flows that you should be mentally salivating at the possibilities.
Bottom line? Free is good.
What’s Next?
Facebook messenger bots offer an incredibly unique opportunity. If history has taught us anything, those entrepreneurs who jump on new technology enjoy the most rapid and profound growth. (Don’t you wish you were doing email in the late 90s?).
Here’s a few other posts from the Manychat blog that you may find complementary to the information in this post:
Facebook Messenger Marketing Case Study: How A Local Mexican Restaurant Generated 85¢ Leads Using A Simple Chatbot
The New Business Card: Generate Customer Reviews on Your Facebook Business Page Using a Customer Review Bot
The Ultimate Guide To Messenger Marketing and Facebook Chatbots
If you’re an Amazon seller or other ecommerce entrepreneur, you’re plain old silly if you ignore this technology. There’s so many different ways to use it, but we humbly believe giveaway campaigns are among the most powerful.
Don’t miss this gravy train.
See you on the other side.
Article Source: https://manychat.com/blog/amazon-giveaway-bot/
Seasoned marketers know that giving products away for free can be an extremely effective marketing tool. Just look at the businesses around you and observe what they’re doing. You won’t have to look far before seeing plenty of offers to “buy one get one free” or “claim your free widget today.”
Think about how many times you’ve started a free trial for software or services. If you liked the product, you probably ponied up the cash to buy it. But what if there hadn’t been a free trial? You would have been much more reluctant to pull out your credit card and might have even gone to a competitor of the product instead.
How about free samples? If you’ve ever been to Costco or Amazon giveaway bots, you know they’re all pushing free samples all the time, and it’s not just a coincidence.
Why? Because free works.
Free is one of the most powerful ways to provide leads and/or established customers with huge value to build brand awareness and loyalty.
And so, with this information in mind, here’s yet another feather in the cap of Messenger Marketing: bots are pretty much the perfect tool for running a giveaway campaign, often with (much) higher engagement rates than email.
Today we’re digging into one of the most effective ways to utilize freebies, a time-tested classic marketing maneuver: the giveaway.
Except this time, we’re going to put a more modern spin on it…
Why Giveaways Work for Amazon Sellers
A lot of ecommerce business owners tend to shy away from giveaways, especially when they’re just starting out. With a limited budget and inventory, the idea of giving away their precious product for free seems foolhardy.
This, however, is a pretty massive misconception.
Product launches—whether it’s your first or your hundredth—are a super effective time to launch a giveaway campaign, whether that’s in the form of a contest or a “buy one get one” scenario.
The bottom line here is that giveaways are an investment, not a loss.
Suppose that you run a giveaway contest on Facebook. While plenty of successful campaigns give away a single product, let’s go a little crazy and say you were giving away 10 items. To keep things easy, let’s say your cost per product is $10. That’s a total of $100 “lost” to the giveaway campaign.
However, say that your contest racks up 1,000 new leads (not unheard of by any stretch of the imagination). That’s $0.10 per lead… which, to put it plainly, is dirt cheap pretty much regardless of your product type or niche—physical product sellers typically pay significantly more per lead.
That, of course, is a fairly simplified example, but the point stands: giveaway campaigns + messenger bots = a match made in heaven.
Let’s dive into the details of how you can run one of these campaigns yourself.
The 3 Steps to Harnessing the Power of Giveaways With Facebook Messenger Bots
Time for nuts and bolts.
Here’s a rough sequence of events for running a giveaway with messenger chatbots:
Create a landing page for your giveaway. ManyChat’s free growth tools make it easy to create a straightforward opt-in page.
Get visibility for your giveaway. This will likely be via Facebook ads. There are free methods of course (including simply posting the giveaway details on your page), but for the most visibility ads will be best.
Create your messenger bot sequence and tie it all together. This is where the real magic happens.
That’s it—three steps to generate sales, leads, and reviews by giving away a handful of your products for free.
The messenger bot sequence is where the real meat and potatoes are found, which we’ll discuss shortly. If you’ve been an online entrepreneur for any length of time, steps 1-2 are likely things you’re already pretty familiar with, although we’re going to dive into a few expert tips to improve your chances of success with this particular strategy below.
Messenger Bot Giveaway Landing Page Do’s and Don’t’s
The first thing to be aware of is that landing pages for messenger bot giveaway contests should not utilize long form copy at all—we’re not saying that it’s impossible, but generally speaking it’s totally unnecessary and will likely be detrimental to the performance of your campaign.
In other words, we’re going to be applying the good old K.I.S.S. principle here: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Your short form copy should clearly explain…
What the product is and why it’s so great. Keep in mind that it’s possible people coming across your giveaway don’t know what your product is or why they’ll need it. Your copy should touch on the most important benefits and pain point solutions of your product.
How to enter the contest. This will likely be something along the lines of “Click the ‘Send to Messenger’ button below OR to comment below the post to be auto-added to your list, depending on your backend setup OR to enter their email address. In some cases, you can link your email marketing platform with your ManyChat messenger bot. More on this later.
When the contest ends. It has to end sometime, after all. Setting a firm date will create a sense of urgency for users and give you the opportunity to reach out to winners (and, as we’ll see later on, to contact the majority of users who didn’t win).
Keep the images and graphics light, with a clear eye path to your CTA and/or button.
Simple, short landing pages work better for contests because for most people, the decision to enter is a spur of the moment thing. If you’ve ever entered one, you probably thought, “I probably won’t win but it would be neat if I did, so I’ll go ahead and dedicate the next 15 seconds of my life to entering.”
If entering the contest took too long or if too much of your information was demanded, unless you really, really wanted whatever it was, you were probably out of there.
If you’re not a designer, don’t sweat it: ManyChat’s free growth tools make putting together a landing page with these features a breeze.
Amazon Giveaway Facebook Ads Done Right
Above is an example campaign. As you can see, short ‘n sweet is the order of the day here as well. In large part, you’ll want to mimic the same strategies that you would use for a landing page.
However, if you look a little closer at this campaign, you’ll notice that users can opt-in to the giveaway simply by commenting below.
If you haven’t ran a contest with comment opt-ins, you’ll be blown away by the response rate they can get. It’s easy and simple for people to enter, and yes, they do occasionally tag friends, which is just more free exposure for your contest.
As for the copy itself, you’ll notice that we…
Added a bit of social proof (“people are freaking out”)
Clearly explained what they’re getting (a year’s supply of dog food)
Clearly explained how to enter
Clearly explained that you’re going to follow up via Facebook messenger and that they’ll need to follow the instructions.
You’ll also likely want to mention below-the-fold that entrants must be 18+ and residents of the US (or your preferred country). You’ll also need to add a note about the contest not being associated with Facebook—copy for ads like this typically include boilerplate like:
You must be 18 years of age or older to enter. US residents only. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to the owner of this Facebook page and not to Facebook.
Also, and this should really go without saying, you need to be running a real contest with real winners—if you try to go “blackhat” and get cute with a campaign like this, it’ll more than likely bite you back down the line.
Tip: always split test your ads.
Now, let’s move on to the fun stuff, your messenger bot sequence after a user opts in.
Giveaway Messenger Bot Sequences
This is where things get exciting. Designing the sequence of your messenger bot messages is easy thanks to ManyChat’s Flow Builder. We’re going to proceed assuming you have a basic understanding of messenger bot sequences. If you don’t, read the post linked above.
It’s fairly obvious that a giveaway gives you a great opportunity to build a strong relationship with the winner(s). That’s great, but the vast majority of your entrants won’t be winners. There’s power in numbers, and the people who didn’t win are your bread and butter.
You’re not going to warm up to everyone on your first message; it takes time. Your complete sequence might last anywhere from two weeks to a full month—you’re playing the long game here.
Here’s an example of what your sequence might look like:
Day 1: Send them a welcome message confirming their entry into the contest. This is actually your opportunity to confirm that they want to hear more from your bot. Typically you’ll have them reply with a string or tapping a check mark (e.g., “Reply with ‘enter contest’ to get all the details from us!”).
Day 2: Second confirmation of entry. This follow up message can pick up a good percentage of users who ignored the initial message. If they already entered, this is your first opportunity to sell your product. You might tell them that if they don’t want to wait, they can buy the product at a discount “today only.”
Day 7-10: Typically contests run for 7-10 days, so somewhere in this time range you need to announce the winners. Again, you have an opportunity to offer those who didn’t win the chance to buy your product at a discount (as something of a consolation prize).
Day 15: Another follow up message, letting users know this is their last chance to get a discount on your product.
Day 20: At this point if a user purchased your product, they probably would have received it in the mail. Now is your chance to ask for a review.
Day 25: Review follow up.
As you can see, this sequence runs for nearly a month. There are three offers for your product at a discount—and asks for an honest review of that product twice.
It’s important to ask for reviews, whether you’re doing so via messenger bot or any other mode of communication. 70% of consumers will leave a review for a business… IF you ask them for one.
This sequence can of course be tweaked in many different ways. Maybe on day 10 you offer them a free ebook that really dives into how to use your product and the benefits of doing so. Maybe on day 15 you offer them the steepest discount yet, along with a video demonstration of your product in action.
When you set up your flows correctly, you can even segment your entrants into different categories. Winners can receive offers for complementary products later. Entrants who haven’t purchased the product by a predetermined time might be offered a different product.
There are so many different ways to spin your sequence and flows that you should be mentally salivating at the possibilities.
Bottom line? Free is good.
What’s Next?
Facebook messenger bots offer an incredibly unique opportunity. If history has taught us anything, those entrepreneurs who jump on new technology enjoy the most rapid and profound growth. (Don’t you wish you were doing email in the late 90s?).
Here’s a few other posts from the Manychat blog that you may find complementary to the information in this post:
Facebook Messenger Marketing Case Study: How A Local Mexican Restaurant Generated 85¢ Leads Using A Simple Chatbot
The New Business Card: Generate Customer Reviews on Your Facebook Business Page Using a Customer Review Bot
The Ultimate Guide To Messenger Marketing and Facebook Chatbots
If you’re an Amazon seller or other ecommerce entrepreneur, you’re plain old silly if you ignore this technology. There’s so many different ways to use it, but we humbly believe giveaway campaigns are among the most powerful.
Don’t miss this gravy train.
See you on the other side.
Article Source: https://manychat.com/blog/amazon-giveaway-bot/
Friday, 18 October 2019
Friday, 11 October 2019
2 Easy Steps to Increase User Engagement for Small Businesses
Posting to social media is a great but even better is creating conversation.
For years companies all over the world have been leveraging the power of social media to grow their business. But many fall short when it comes to the true intentions of content marketing.
When you post something that is intended to appeal to your ideal users, don't walk away. Those notifications letting you know how the post is performing are the important part.
Engagement refers to any time you and users following your business's profiles interact. That interaction can not only lead to high quality leads, it will lead to more followers who are genuinely interested in what you provide.
How did you grow your Instagram Followers? If you made the mistake if buying them then try our previous article: Why You Shouldn't Buy Instagram Followers
How can you optimize your content for user engagement?
Optimizing your content marketing to improve user engagement isn't easy. Many people limit their activities to a blog post and then hope for the best.
Many small business content marketing strategies consist of Googling a topic and rewriting one or more other pieces in a new voice. Video content is guilty of this with many videos borrowing, or outright copying a previously successful video.
In either case a user has already seen that content so why would they act on yours when it's the same thing?
Here's some more effective ways to create content specific for user engagement:
Step 1 - Create Something New
Your first step for your content is to accept that you will have to take some risks.
That risk pertains to the way you present your content, what you have to say, and how your brand brings something new to the subject.
This graph shows how this task is seen as the most difficult for businesses when trying to improve their online presence. While it's focused on B2B, anyone working in B2C should pay attention.
This initial step is crucial because it forces you to do more than dismiss your marketing as a task to set aside.
A lot of businesses leave their content marketing strategy entirely in the hands of an agency, which will not be effective. An agency or consultant is an expert on the how to distribute the content, but not an expert on your business, so you will have to work with them.
This means holding meetings where they can get input from you on what you do and why any user would want to buy from you or be your client.
A solid content marketing strategy for small businesses involves a consistently collaborative process.
Working together is your best route to creating great content.
Great content means the combination of your skill set with that of the person or people you're working with to make sure it gets seen by the most eyes and is structured to benefit your overall online presence.
Step Two - Engage, Adapt and Refine
The second step is to watch the reaction.
Look for peaks in Likes, Shares, or new Follows and notice the subject matter users have expressed more interest in. This can show you a lot about what value your users see you providing.
If you post regular blog posts or videos and see 5 -10 likes and no comments, and then you post something that receives double that or gets users commenting, you know to explore that subject in future content pieces.
If/when you do see comments, then you should absolutely respond.
The worst thing a brand can do is leave engagement hanging empty. Not only will the user who took the time to comment be put off, you'll be showing every other person who sees that comment without a response that your company isn't really paying attention.
Moreover, many users see social media as a great way to get a company's attention when they have a problem. So when they see that they can't even reach you on Twitter or Facebook they will naturally question your support in general and likely look for another vendor who does engage their users.
Look at the phenomenal traction Facebook groups have for people who are interested in a particular subject.
Your niche may not be large but if you capture an audience within it, your engagement will benefit your business by showing users your expertise, your willingness to interact with them (and potential clients), and your commitment those that buy from you or become clients.
To make it easier, it's best to have an internal set of canned responses ready for whoever monitors the accounts to reference. Chatbots are a new product that automate this process through Facebook messenger and they exist for a reason. Many business owners aren't able to juggle their responsibilities and learn and monitor their accounts.
For social media your best bet is to hire a professional and work with them. You can draft a set of responses to frequently asked questions and when in doubt they will email you so you can respond on your own time. This again speaks to the cooperative nature of having a professional help you with your social media.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10036457
For years companies all over the world have been leveraging the power of social media to grow their business. But many fall short when it comes to the true intentions of content marketing.
When you post something that is intended to appeal to your ideal users, don't walk away. Those notifications letting you know how the post is performing are the important part.
Engagement refers to any time you and users following your business's profiles interact. That interaction can not only lead to high quality leads, it will lead to more followers who are genuinely interested in what you provide.
How did you grow your Instagram Followers? If you made the mistake if buying them then try our previous article: Why You Shouldn't Buy Instagram Followers
How can you optimize your content for user engagement?
Optimizing your content marketing to improve user engagement isn't easy. Many people limit their activities to a blog post and then hope for the best.
Many small business content marketing strategies consist of Googling a topic and rewriting one or more other pieces in a new voice. Video content is guilty of this with many videos borrowing, or outright copying a previously successful video.
In either case a user has already seen that content so why would they act on yours when it's the same thing?
Here's some more effective ways to create content specific for user engagement:
Step 1 - Create Something New
Your first step for your content is to accept that you will have to take some risks.
That risk pertains to the way you present your content, what you have to say, and how your brand brings something new to the subject.
This graph shows how this task is seen as the most difficult for businesses when trying to improve their online presence. While it's focused on B2B, anyone working in B2C should pay attention.
This initial step is crucial because it forces you to do more than dismiss your marketing as a task to set aside.
A lot of businesses leave their content marketing strategy entirely in the hands of an agency, which will not be effective. An agency or consultant is an expert on the how to distribute the content, but not an expert on your business, so you will have to work with them.
This means holding meetings where they can get input from you on what you do and why any user would want to buy from you or be your client.
A solid content marketing strategy for small businesses involves a consistently collaborative process.
Working together is your best route to creating great content.
Great content means the combination of your skill set with that of the person or people you're working with to make sure it gets seen by the most eyes and is structured to benefit your overall online presence.
Step Two - Engage, Adapt and Refine
The second step is to watch the reaction.
Look for peaks in Likes, Shares, or new Follows and notice the subject matter users have expressed more interest in. This can show you a lot about what value your users see you providing.
If you post regular blog posts or videos and see 5 -10 likes and no comments, and then you post something that receives double that or gets users commenting, you know to explore that subject in future content pieces.
If/when you do see comments, then you should absolutely respond.
The worst thing a brand can do is leave engagement hanging empty. Not only will the user who took the time to comment be put off, you'll be showing every other person who sees that comment without a response that your company isn't really paying attention.
Moreover, many users see social media as a great way to get a company's attention when they have a problem. So when they see that they can't even reach you on Twitter or Facebook they will naturally question your support in general and likely look for another vendor who does engage their users.
Look at the phenomenal traction Facebook groups have for people who are interested in a particular subject.
Your niche may not be large but if you capture an audience within it, your engagement will benefit your business by showing users your expertise, your willingness to interact with them (and potential clients), and your commitment those that buy from you or become clients.
To make it easier, it's best to have an internal set of canned responses ready for whoever monitors the accounts to reference. Chatbots are a new product that automate this process through Facebook messenger and they exist for a reason. Many business owners aren't able to juggle their responsibilities and learn and monitor their accounts.
For social media your best bet is to hire a professional and work with them. You can draft a set of responses to frequently asked questions and when in doubt they will email you so you can respond on your own time. This again speaks to the cooperative nature of having a professional help you with your social media.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10036457
Thursday, 10 October 2019
9 Best Uses Of Chatbots For Restaurants
Be careful with your investments. With the need of quick results, short-term powerful strategies are ta small business owner’s only option. Affordability is the deal-breaker.
The problem is most of the solutions are just fancy and don’t really deliver.
What makes chatbots different? Chatbots refer to bots that can interact with humans. With the emergence of machine learning technologies, these have become self-learning and smart bots that can solve business problems.
For restaurants, chatbots can be deployed at several places - website, social media, & in-restaurant app.
Note - Due to the relevance, we’re only discussing AI powered chatbots and not robotic chatbots, as for a small business, the former technologies are most affordable and beneficial.
1.Manage reservations & take orders
How much time do your employees spend on managing reservations & taking orders? With several online food ordering apps you may have partnered with, it takes a lot of time to take, process and complete an order.
A chatbot, deployed on your website, app, social media - Facebook, Twitter, and even your phone system, can interact with your customers and can perform these monotonous tasks with 100% accuracy.
As restaurants are primarily service based businesses, minimizing errors help you reduce loss of customers & business and avoid mismanagement issues.
2. Promote Deals & Offers
A chatbot can tap into your email list and entice your existing customers with new deals and offers. They can work on social media and even, on your website and bring in a lot of repeat business.
With machine learning, chatbots for restaurants can easily recognize your regular customers and bring them back for more business through automated deals and offers sent to them via emails or Facebook messenger or SMS reminders.
3. Present Your Menu in A Better Way
Any restaurant that has a big menu faces the problem of having some really good dishes ignored by customers. The solution is either each of your employees is trained to know the menu thoroughly and give on-spot recommendations or have a chatbot that can not only present your menu in a visually attractive & conversational way but also learn about your customer preferences to offer better recommendations.
4. Food Recommendations
The current generation prefers personalization and expects you to understand their choices better. Several businesses have had complaining reviews on Yelp for their staff couldn’t help to point out the vegan choices in a menu.
Most of the recommendations by your employees are based on what’s popular in your restaurant but for a customer, what they would like or dislike matters more. What beverage would be better with their existing order? What type of curry would go with the bread they just chose?
Either you hire employees who are adept at such recommendations with thorough knowledge of your menu, which obviously would be way too expensive or you deploy a chatbot that can do this for you for forever with zero downtime.
5. Connect With Your Customers Better
Whether the customer is online or sitting already in your diner, chatbots for restaurants are able to engage better, reducing the need for additional manpower and improving customer experience. Recommendations, taking orders, offering deals and answering FAQs can all be done through a fun, DIY, and conversational interface.
6. Follow Up On Feedback
For every restaurant, reviews on websites like Yelp bring in additional business. But how do you follow up with each customer that enters your restaurant to leave you a review? It’s time-consuming and expensive.
Chatbots can automatically send reminders to your customers to leave you feedback. In fact, if you are opting for a chatbot with multiple features, you probably already had your customer fill in his details and give you permission to email them.
With no human intervention, you have a better system to take reviews and feedback of customers via machine learning chatbots.
7. Easier Delivery & Takeaway
If your restaurant offers delivery & takeaway services, you can reduce the effort it takes for a customer to place such an order. They don’t even have to call you or switch to an app to place an order. They can message you just on Facebook or on your website’s chat window and place an order, while having a highly engaging conversation with the chatbot.
8. POS system on chat
Chatbots can be well integrated with major POS systems so that your customer can not only place order but also complete payment through the same interface.
9. Loyalty Program
Automating your loyalty program, encouraging people to buy more from you without acting all sales-y all the time is another useful application of chatbots for restaurants.
Take a moment and calculate how much money you would have to spend if you had to hire employees for all these tasks per year? Now, just think if the chatbot brings in even 1% of repeat business, how much more money would you make? Add that amount and give us a call for a machine learning chatbot consultation. We bet you will be able to have a chatbot developed for you in lesser cost than what you just calculated.
We understand how small businesses run on tight budgets so you can even start with one feature and keep adding. With each additional feature in the chatbot, you’ll be able to save more money and run your business better.
That’s how powerful chatbots for restaurants are. They’re not just another technology everybody is talking about. According to a 2016 business insider report, by 2022, 80% of businesses will be using chatbots. They’re good for business.
The problem is most of the solutions are just fancy and don’t really deliver.
What makes chatbots different? Chatbots refer to bots that can interact with humans. With the emergence of machine learning technologies, these have become self-learning and smart bots that can solve business problems.
For restaurants, chatbots can be deployed at several places - website, social media, & in-restaurant app.
Note - Due to the relevance, we’re only discussing AI powered chatbots and not robotic chatbots, as for a small business, the former technologies are most affordable and beneficial.
1.Manage reservations & take orders
How much time do your employees spend on managing reservations & taking orders? With several online food ordering apps you may have partnered with, it takes a lot of time to take, process and complete an order.
A chatbot, deployed on your website, app, social media - Facebook, Twitter, and even your phone system, can interact with your customers and can perform these monotonous tasks with 100% accuracy.
As restaurants are primarily service based businesses, minimizing errors help you reduce loss of customers & business and avoid mismanagement issues.
2. Promote Deals & Offers
A chatbot can tap into your email list and entice your existing customers with new deals and offers. They can work on social media and even, on your website and bring in a lot of repeat business.
With machine learning, chatbots for restaurants can easily recognize your regular customers and bring them back for more business through automated deals and offers sent to them via emails or Facebook messenger or SMS reminders.
3. Present Your Menu in A Better Way
Any restaurant that has a big menu faces the problem of having some really good dishes ignored by customers. The solution is either each of your employees is trained to know the menu thoroughly and give on-spot recommendations or have a chatbot that can not only present your menu in a visually attractive & conversational way but also learn about your customer preferences to offer better recommendations.
4. Food Recommendations
The current generation prefers personalization and expects you to understand their choices better. Several businesses have had complaining reviews on Yelp for their staff couldn’t help to point out the vegan choices in a menu.
Most of the recommendations by your employees are based on what’s popular in your restaurant but for a customer, what they would like or dislike matters more. What beverage would be better with their existing order? What type of curry would go with the bread they just chose?
Either you hire employees who are adept at such recommendations with thorough knowledge of your menu, which obviously would be way too expensive or you deploy a chatbot that can do this for you for forever with zero downtime.
5. Connect With Your Customers Better
Whether the customer is online or sitting already in your diner, chatbots for restaurants are able to engage better, reducing the need for additional manpower and improving customer experience. Recommendations, taking orders, offering deals and answering FAQs can all be done through a fun, DIY, and conversational interface.
6. Follow Up On Feedback
For every restaurant, reviews on websites like Yelp bring in additional business. But how do you follow up with each customer that enters your restaurant to leave you a review? It’s time-consuming and expensive.
Chatbots can automatically send reminders to your customers to leave you feedback. In fact, if you are opting for a chatbot with multiple features, you probably already had your customer fill in his details and give you permission to email them.
With no human intervention, you have a better system to take reviews and feedback of customers via machine learning chatbots.
7. Easier Delivery & Takeaway
If your restaurant offers delivery & takeaway services, you can reduce the effort it takes for a customer to place such an order. They don’t even have to call you or switch to an app to place an order. They can message you just on Facebook or on your website’s chat window and place an order, while having a highly engaging conversation with the chatbot.
8. POS system on chat
Chatbots can be well integrated with major POS systems so that your customer can not only place order but also complete payment through the same interface.
9. Loyalty Program
Automating your loyalty program, encouraging people to buy more from you without acting all sales-y all the time is another useful application of chatbots for restaurants.
Take a moment and calculate how much money you would have to spend if you had to hire employees for all these tasks per year? Now, just think if the chatbot brings in even 1% of repeat business, how much more money would you make? Add that amount and give us a call for a machine learning chatbot consultation. We bet you will be able to have a chatbot developed for you in lesser cost than what you just calculated.
We understand how small businesses run on tight budgets so you can even start with one feature and keep adding. With each additional feature in the chatbot, you’ll be able to save more money and run your business better.
That’s how powerful chatbots for restaurants are. They’re not just another technology everybody is talking about. According to a 2016 business insider report, by 2022, 80% of businesses will be using chatbots. They’re good for business.
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
Key factors for the perfect restaurant service
A perfect restaurant service is when the customer leaves the establishment completely satisfied. How often does this happen at your restaurant? The truth is that making our entire service run smoothly every day is a difficult—but not impossible—challenge. A supplier can fail to deliver one day and affect the briefing, and on a different day, a waiter can become sick or product can become damaged. However, the important thing is for customers to have a great experience in spite of unforeseen events.
Let’s start with an initial exercise where you put yourself in your customer’s shoes, which is something we suggest that you always do:
Enter your restaurant as if it were any other one and think about what would be your minimum service expectations and write them down. You would surely expect something like the following:
You would be greeted with a warm hello upon entering.
Quick service to seat you at a table.
An appropriate and convenient location.
The smell, temperature, music, and lighting of the establishment must be comfortable or at least not bothersome.
You quickly receive the menu.
The prices are accurate.
The waiter properly explains the food selection and helps you make a purchase decision.
The waiter gives you time to choose.
You have all the basic utensils without having to ask for them (napkins, silverware, bread, water, etc.).
Drinks are served to you in a timely manner.
They quickly take your order.
There is free Wi-Fi.
The food arrives on time, at the proper temperature, in the advertised portions, and is delicious and hearty.
Dishes are more or less brought at the same pace.
Restrooms are easily accessible, clean, and have all the amenities.
General hygiene conditions are also satisfactory.
Staff is always responsive to your needs.
You can finish your meal without feeling pressured.
The bill is brought to you on time and there are various payment options.
The farewell is equally cordial and without delays.
It is an exercise that lets you familiarize yourself with the most basic service characteristics that your restaurant offers and the measures needed to deliver them on a daily basis. With this starting point, you will have already made a lot of progress at your restaurant.
Second, it is ideal to define at least 3 more types of services so that you can be ready to satisfy different types of customers.
Service protocol for families with children:
– Have special chairs
– Have a menu that is tailored to them.
– The waiters must be extra patient and provide special treatment for these cases.
– Prioritize the children’s food in the kitchen.
– Your kitchen should be flexible with changes to dishes.
Service for large groups:
– A waiter should be particularly attentive to their needs since there are more people than usual.
– Determine the leader of the group so that they can be served in a more orderly manner.
– Have shareable dishes.
– The kitchen should be ready to timely fulfill the order.
– Offer the option of splitting the check.
And do the same with other types of customers such as couples, millennial friends, birthdays, etc. Naturally, this will depend on your restaurant’s characteristics, but it will always important to define the service steps according to each type of customer.
In a nutshell, the perfect restaurant service depends on the number of specifics that are taken into account and can be undertaken. Restaurants that establish protocols and follow them over the long term will definitely achieve the greatest success. We hope that this is the case with your restaurant as well.
Article Source: https://www.theforkmanager.com/au/blog/restaurant-service-perfect/
Let’s start with an initial exercise where you put yourself in your customer’s shoes, which is something we suggest that you always do:
Enter your restaurant as if it were any other one and think about what would be your minimum service expectations and write them down. You would surely expect something like the following:
You would be greeted with a warm hello upon entering.
Quick service to seat you at a table.
An appropriate and convenient location.
The smell, temperature, music, and lighting of the establishment must be comfortable or at least not bothersome.
You quickly receive the menu.
The prices are accurate.
The waiter properly explains the food selection and helps you make a purchase decision.
The waiter gives you time to choose.
You have all the basic utensils without having to ask for them (napkins, silverware, bread, water, etc.).
Drinks are served to you in a timely manner.
They quickly take your order.
There is free Wi-Fi.
The food arrives on time, at the proper temperature, in the advertised portions, and is delicious and hearty.
Dishes are more or less brought at the same pace.
Restrooms are easily accessible, clean, and have all the amenities.
General hygiene conditions are also satisfactory.
Staff is always responsive to your needs.
You can finish your meal without feeling pressured.
The bill is brought to you on time and there are various payment options.
The farewell is equally cordial and without delays.
It is an exercise that lets you familiarize yourself with the most basic service characteristics that your restaurant offers and the measures needed to deliver them on a daily basis. With this starting point, you will have already made a lot of progress at your restaurant.
Second, it is ideal to define at least 3 more types of services so that you can be ready to satisfy different types of customers.
Service protocol for families with children:
– Have special chairs
– Have a menu that is tailored to them.
– The waiters must be extra patient and provide special treatment for these cases.
– Prioritize the children’s food in the kitchen.
– Your kitchen should be flexible with changes to dishes.
Service for large groups:
– A waiter should be particularly attentive to their needs since there are more people than usual.
– Determine the leader of the group so that they can be served in a more orderly manner.
– Have shareable dishes.
– The kitchen should be ready to timely fulfill the order.
– Offer the option of splitting the check.
And do the same with other types of customers such as couples, millennial friends, birthdays, etc. Naturally, this will depend on your restaurant’s characteristics, but it will always important to define the service steps according to each type of customer.
In a nutshell, the perfect restaurant service depends on the number of specifics that are taken into account and can be undertaken. Restaurants that establish protocols and follow them over the long term will definitely achieve the greatest success. We hope that this is the case with your restaurant as well.
Article Source: https://www.theforkmanager.com/au/blog/restaurant-service-perfect/
Monday, 7 October 2019
How to Stay One Step Ahead of Changing Customer Behaviours
5 Ways to Align Your Business Practices to Manage Consumer Behaviour
In today's digital world, where people want instant gratification, it can sometimes feel like keeping customers happy is a moving target.
Shifts in customer behavior, demographics and preferences can change so fast you might not even notice it, until it starts to negatively affect your business.
The main reason for this is technology.
Everything has gone digital and customers are much more informed than they were in the past.
Think about it: we carry around an instant source of endless information in our pockets or purses. How many times have you whipped out your smartphone to check a product rating in a store, or to Google more information on a service provider?
Let's say you want to buy a car. Nowadays, you don't have to start by kicking tires at the dealership or buying the same vehicle your family always has.
You can get a wealth of information online: customer reviews, auto magazine ratings, maintenance schedules, resale values and so much more.
As new information comes out, a new car rating or a factory recal, of a part-your preferences might shift. All of a sudden, people love or hate a brand, and as a result, they win or lose sales. Not to mention, their reputation fluctuates whether the news is positive or negative.
Here are a few other reasons why people's preferences change:
So how can you manage consumer behaviour when it's constantly changing?
Just one of the many detailed auto reviews you can find online.
1. Watch your competition like a hawk.
This is an important piece of advice for your business overall. When you first create your brand messaging and USP (unique selling proposition), you'll want to do a competitive analysis. But even when you're an established business, you still need to be aware of what your competitors are doing.
From their prices to their value propositions, monitor what's happening in your competitive landscape and adapt accordingly. This may mean adjusting your prices, offering a freebie with a service or including free delivery for orders over a certain amount.
If you want to survive and thrive, market to changing consumer behaviour by focusing on what others in your field are doing.
2. Make it easy for people to leave reviews.
Customer reviews equal free advertising. According to research firm Martech Zone, 90% of users need less than 10 reviews to form an opinion about a business. If your customers are happy, some of them will write glowing reviews.
Their opinions will influence potential customers who are looking at what your business has to offer. See, you don't have to do all the work when it comes to changing customer buying behaviourâ -your reviewers will help do it for you!
Check out The Importance of Gathering Customer Reviews.
3. Keep moving forward.
If you focus only on the present or get complacent, you'll forever be playing catch-up when changes occur, and eventually (or very soon) you'll be left behind.
Technology is always one step ahead, and even if you think you've got too big a market share to lose to the competition, chances are somebody out there is thinking of a way to make what you do even better.
A good example of this is the ride-sharing service Uber. The taxi industry wasn't preparedâ -or worriedâ -about tech disrupting their world. Well, we know what happened. Uber has taken over in many cities, and cab drivers are feeling the pinch.
It's important to innovate based on your industry, competitor research and your customers' likes and dislikes. Differentiating yourself could be as simple as offering a wider online selection than your competitors, or as tech-savvy as connecting with your business consulting clients via an app.
4. Put your customers in charge.
Shoppers want to chart their own journey. They move between store, browser and mobile with ease.
You need to align business priorities to keep up with them, not just push ads at them. To manage consumer behaviour effectively, take a step back and look at touchpoints that make the most sense for your demographics.
Maybe you do a live video on social media, then email subscribers with an enticing offer and following up with a "Last chance" email to seal the deal.
Have you ever written a bad review? Have you ever received a negative review - real or fake? Watch this video to find out when and how to best respond to negative reviews, how to respond to fake reviews and how to report fake reviews on Yelp, Facebook and Google My Business
Watch to get great tips on using customer reviews to your advantage.
5. Remind your customers you're there.
While people want to be in control of their consumer journey, that doesn't mean they don't need your help.
According to a survey done by research firm Nuance, 63% of respondents said they actively 'outsource' their memory to mobile devices or computers. They coined the term "digital amnesia" to describe this phenomenon.
They also found that 89% of millennials are more willing to do business with companies that send reminders and notifications; 91% of Baby Boomers feel this way.
Guide your customers towards your product or service by nudging them along the way with resources and reminders of how valuable your product or service is, or that they're due for their next appointment... whatever makes sense to your audience.
Check some of Nuance's research on customers "digital amnesia."
Changing customer buying behaviour means that you'll never be able to stop moving!
But take the time to align business priorities to your customers' shifting needs, and pay attention to what your data is telling you, and your customers will be more likely to buy from you today, tomorrow and far into the future.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10179298
In today's digital world, where people want instant gratification, it can sometimes feel like keeping customers happy is a moving target.
Shifts in customer behavior, demographics and preferences can change so fast you might not even notice it, until it starts to negatively affect your business.
The main reason for this is technology.
Everything has gone digital and customers are much more informed than they were in the past.
Think about it: we carry around an instant source of endless information in our pockets or purses. How many times have you whipped out your smartphone to check a product rating in a store, or to Google more information on a service provider?
Let's say you want to buy a car. Nowadays, you don't have to start by kicking tires at the dealership or buying the same vehicle your family always has.
You can get a wealth of information online: customer reviews, auto magazine ratings, maintenance schedules, resale values and so much more.
As new information comes out, a new car rating or a factory recal, of a part-your preferences might shift. All of a sudden, people love or hate a brand, and as a result, they win or lose sales. Not to mention, their reputation fluctuates whether the news is positive or negative.
Here are a few other reasons why people's preferences change:
- Depending on the economic climate, people have more money to spend or have to tighten their purse strings. Think real estate costs, unemployment rates and the income tax paid in a particular area.
- With an overwhelming number of options available to consumers, maintaining brand loyalty is more difficult than ever.
- Competing brands come out with newer and/or better models of products people want.
- Trends come and go (here today, gone tomorrow diet fads are a good example of this).
So how can you manage consumer behaviour when it's constantly changing?
Just one of the many detailed auto reviews you can find online.
1. Watch your competition like a hawk.
This is an important piece of advice for your business overall. When you first create your brand messaging and USP (unique selling proposition), you'll want to do a competitive analysis. But even when you're an established business, you still need to be aware of what your competitors are doing.
From their prices to their value propositions, monitor what's happening in your competitive landscape and adapt accordingly. This may mean adjusting your prices, offering a freebie with a service or including free delivery for orders over a certain amount.
If you want to survive and thrive, market to changing consumer behaviour by focusing on what others in your field are doing.
2. Make it easy for people to leave reviews.
Customer reviews equal free advertising. According to research firm Martech Zone, 90% of users need less than 10 reviews to form an opinion about a business. If your customers are happy, some of them will write glowing reviews.
Their opinions will influence potential customers who are looking at what your business has to offer. See, you don't have to do all the work when it comes to changing customer buying behaviourâ -your reviewers will help do it for you!
Check out The Importance of Gathering Customer Reviews.
3. Keep moving forward.
If you focus only on the present or get complacent, you'll forever be playing catch-up when changes occur, and eventually (or very soon) you'll be left behind.
Technology is always one step ahead, and even if you think you've got too big a market share to lose to the competition, chances are somebody out there is thinking of a way to make what you do even better.
A good example of this is the ride-sharing service Uber. The taxi industry wasn't preparedâ -or worriedâ -about tech disrupting their world. Well, we know what happened. Uber has taken over in many cities, and cab drivers are feeling the pinch.
It's important to innovate based on your industry, competitor research and your customers' likes and dislikes. Differentiating yourself could be as simple as offering a wider online selection than your competitors, or as tech-savvy as connecting with your business consulting clients via an app.
4. Put your customers in charge.
Shoppers want to chart their own journey. They move between store, browser and mobile with ease.
You need to align business priorities to keep up with them, not just push ads at them. To manage consumer behaviour effectively, take a step back and look at touchpoints that make the most sense for your demographics.
Maybe you do a live video on social media, then email subscribers with an enticing offer and following up with a "Last chance" email to seal the deal.
Have you ever written a bad review? Have you ever received a negative review - real or fake? Watch this video to find out when and how to best respond to negative reviews, how to respond to fake reviews and how to report fake reviews on Yelp, Facebook and Google My Business
Watch to get great tips on using customer reviews to your advantage.
5. Remind your customers you're there.
While people want to be in control of their consumer journey, that doesn't mean they don't need your help.
According to a survey done by research firm Nuance, 63% of respondents said they actively 'outsource' their memory to mobile devices or computers. They coined the term "digital amnesia" to describe this phenomenon.
They also found that 89% of millennials are more willing to do business with companies that send reminders and notifications; 91% of Baby Boomers feel this way.
Guide your customers towards your product or service by nudging them along the way with resources and reminders of how valuable your product or service is, or that they're due for their next appointment... whatever makes sense to your audience.
Check some of Nuance's research on customers "digital amnesia."
Changing customer buying behaviour means that you'll never be able to stop moving!
But take the time to align business priorities to your customers' shifting needs, and pay attention to what your data is telling you, and your customers will be more likely to buy from you today, tomorrow and far into the future.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10179298
Friday, 4 October 2019
Thursday, 3 October 2019
Wednesday, 2 October 2019
Dan Fagella: Machine Learning for Restaurants and Food Services – Examples, Challenges, Trends
This year has been marked by an increase in artificial intelligence interest from new business sectors. Just one years ago, we hardly had any visitors or subscribers from the food services sector – and this year we have a strong interest from food processing and food services leaders, which has come as a surprise.
I was flown out this year to speak this year at the Ohio Restaurant Association’s annual conference, an event with over 4,000 attendees, mostly business leaders in the Midwest food services industry. This article is based on my preparation before that talk, and some ideas and details that I’ve added after speaking to a dozen-or-so business leaders in this sector.
Most of the audience was small business owners, but many of the perspectives in this article apply just as well to larger national food services firms.
All in all, AI has not penetrated the food services industry in general (compared to more active industries like healthcare or finance), and even less so the industry’s small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) – companies with revenues amounting to less than a billion dollars. Admittedly only a few trends are probably worth taking seriously in long-term strategic planning.
To help SMBs discern the right action around AI in food services, this article examines:
Any existing vendor applications are mostly exclusively made for large chains that have the data flow and the business model to merit the use of AI and machine learning. Whatever announcements companies make about investments and innovation for AI in food services is mostly unsupported by clear returns at this point.
At this early phase of AI’s life cycle, most AI companies are burning through venture money, trying to thresh out use cases and to their viability in the market. This seems to be true not only in food services but also in healthcare, finance, retail and other industries.
AI is clearly not for mom and pop operations at this point, and even if a business were fortunate enough to have money to invest in machine learning technologies, it probably wouldn’t have the data science talent and the R&D experience to really get value from artificial intelligence. Hence, even firms with the budget might be better off investing in security, customer service, marketing, or other areas.
For certain, there is a great deal of noise around AI but food services SMBs need to be able to discern the grain from the chaff. As it happens, the majority of AI applications should be ignored, with only a few worth considering in long-term strategic planning, not immediate implementation. We will cover some of these impactful long-term technologies later in this article.
CaliBurgers’ Pasadena location started using Flippy, the artificial intelligence-driven robot developed by Miso Robotics, a robot that can grab and flip burger patties, handle buns and other ingredients to create hamburger sandwiches. As of March this year, Flippy has only started working in Cali Burger’s Pasadena outlet, and if successful, will be deployed in 50 restaurants by the end of 2019.
Another application is the Moley Robotic Kitchen, a pair of robotic hands that replicates human movement to prepare home-cooked meals, from a library of stored recipes in its system. The developers intend for the Moley robot to be for consumer kitchens when it is released this 2018, but enterprise-scale use has yet to be proven. A check of the website showed that the product is still under development, and interested clients are directed to a pre-sales link that leads to a blank page.
Additionally, a mobile application will enable customers to place orders from their phone for pick up or synchronize with a kiosk to recognize their app profile, their favorite orders and preferred payment methods. McDonald’s had aimed to launch mobile ordering and payment in 20,000 restaurants by the end of 2017.
The technology hub at Wendy’s, meanwhile, was set up to create innovations in internal technologies for business intelligence and communications. The company is currently testing mobile-, voice- and beacon-based ordering; self-order kiosks; and a loyalty program.
In Asia, KFC in January 2017 had planned to deploy kiosks in China with facial-recognition software to predict customer orders based on age, gender and mood. However, this was met with some resistance in Hong Kong as customers continued to line up at the cashier.
Clearly, smart kiosks are not set to dominate the food service industry just yet. The big boys will need to first sort out the knots in innovation and customer behavior, and show that it can support the bottom line before AI technology makes its way to the little guys. Only then will more investment come in.
In January 2017, Starbucks announced voice ordering capabilities within the Starbucks mobile iOS app and the Amazon Alexa platform. This new tool extends adds a new layer to the barista and customer interaction, even before customer reaches the store.
For sure, it is a win for Starbucks in terms of technology innovation. But other than the press release, no numbers have been released to show this new interface has gained traction with customers.
Domino’s pizza chain rolled out its Facebook Messenger chatbot in Feb 2017, as an alternative to ordering via the phone or online. Prior to this, Domino had also introduced the pre-ordering via the AnyWhere platform, Twitter, Apple TV, Google Home, Amazon Echo, Ford Sync, SMS, Samsung Smart TVs, smart watches, an in-app voice assistant, and more. Likewise, Subway in April 2017 launched a chatbot at more than 26,500 domestic locations.
While high-ROI chatbot applications are the exception (our research seems to show that most chatbot initiatives are done as a PR stunt, or never produce meaningful returns), Domino’s seems to be among the few who are driving the technology forward. Domino’s also has the benefit of a limited menu size, and many repeat orders of simple favorites – making the programming and training of a chatbot more easily achievable.
How long before chatbots and other low-ticket applications become common for ordering food, delivery or otherwise, is anybody’ guess. What is clear is that large companies will mostly have the budget and data volume to build more effective bots and that chatbots are applications that are already in customers’ hands rather than developed by the food service businesses.
For SMBs that want to be involved in customer recommendation technologies, it is imperative that they explore ways to achieve better reviews and ranking from customers to ensure they show up in the platform’s recommendations.
Venga offers solutions that collect, analyze, and use data related to purchases, preferences, and habits to enrich the dining experience, personally engage customers, and ultimately increase repeat visits and sales.
Meanwhile large firms will continue to explore viable AI applications that can leverage big company data, the results of which will eventually trickle down to SMBs. For now, AI applications in food services will use currently available consumer technologies, rather than in the hands of restaurants.
We don’t recommend that SMBs jump into the AI bandwagon just because it seems cool and “everybody is doing it”. This is an illusion, and a waste of time and resources. In truth, 95+% of SMB food services companies will be “late majority” adopters on the adoption curve, with only some in the “early majority”.
Here are some steps that food services leaders could take with respect to AI now:
This article was written by Ayn Veronica De Jesus from an audio transcription of Dan Faggella’s presentation on “AI in Food Services” for the Ohio Restaurant Association.
I was flown out this year to speak this year at the Ohio Restaurant Association’s annual conference, an event with over 4,000 attendees, mostly business leaders in the Midwest food services industry. This article is based on my preparation before that talk, and some ideas and details that I’ve added after speaking to a dozen-or-so business leaders in this sector.
Most of the audience was small business owners, but many of the perspectives in this article apply just as well to larger national food services firms.
All in all, AI has not penetrated the food services industry in general (compared to more active industries like healthcare or finance), and even less so the industry’s small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) – companies with revenues amounting to less than a billion dollars. Admittedly only a few trends are probably worth taking seriously in long-term strategic planning.
To help SMBs discern the right action around AI in food services, this article examines:
- The current state of machine learning in SMBs in food services
- The forward-looking trends of AI in food services
- AI technologies that may impact food services in the long term.
The State of AI Among SMBs in Food Services
Based on our research, we have found that for every 100 “AI companies”, only 1/3 of these companies have the academic or intellectual horsepower to leverage machine learning in any serious way while many are merely marketing hype. Of this number, a third has gone past pilot testing their product or service but have yet to show any real positive impact on their bottom line.Any existing vendor applications are mostly exclusively made for large chains that have the data flow and the business model to merit the use of AI and machine learning. Whatever announcements companies make about investments and innovation for AI in food services is mostly unsupported by clear returns at this point.
At this early phase of AI’s life cycle, most AI companies are burning through venture money, trying to thresh out use cases and to their viability in the market. This seems to be true not only in food services but also in healthcare, finance, retail and other industries.
AI is clearly not for mom and pop operations at this point, and even if a business were fortunate enough to have money to invest in machine learning technologies, it probably wouldn’t have the data science talent and the R&D experience to really get value from artificial intelligence. Hence, even firms with the budget might be better off investing in security, customer service, marketing, or other areas.
For certain, there is a great deal of noise around AI but food services SMBs need to be able to discern the grain from the chaff. As it happens, the majority of AI applications should be ignored, with only a few worth considering in long-term strategic planning, not immediate implementation. We will cover some of these impactful long-term technologies later in this article.
Machine Learning Challenges for SMBs in Food Services
Among the barriers that face AI in food services, these are the most formidable:- Most Innovation is for Bigger Firms: Vendor applications in food services (as with most other sectors) are costly and almost exclusively being developed for larger firms. These custom applications, such as video intelligence for assessing food quality, or food services robotics, are highly complex and require experienced machine learning experts on staff, plenty of resources, and/or huge volumes of data (neither of which are common for small or mid-sized food services businesses).
- AI is Resource Intensive, and Complex: The talent, budget, and time requirements to build AI and robotics applications is much more than most companies expect. SMBs are in no position to attract the best AI talent straight out of college and to compensate them with handsome salaries and clever perks like Google or Facebook. Even for restaurants with more than a hundred locations, data science talent is probably scarce or non-existent. AI not being a core or mission-critical part of operations makes it difficult to cultivate and develop from within a food service business.
- Food Services Isn’t an Machine Learning Innovation Hotbed, for Now: The food services industry receives little attention as a distinct niche for AI, unlike eCommerce, pharmaceuticals, banking, telecommunications, among others. Whatever scarce AI talent that exists is not beating a path toward food services – and the industry isn’t likely to see the same degree of innovation as many of the sectors listed above. This doesn’t mean that innovation will not exist in food services, but that we should expect a slower pace of innovation and adoption.
Use Cases of Machine Learning and AI in the Restaurant
Note that restaurant is not listed specifically, though customer service and marketing applications are relevant to this sector.1 – Robotics
As far as we can see, robotics has no relevance for SMBs in the near term due to issues with scalability even for the biggest companies. However, SMBs may consider robotics as an alternative workforce if minimum wages for human talent continues to increase, and indeed raising minimum wages are likely to spur more investment in the robotics space in the years ahead. Some use cases in this area include convenience store chain 7-11 which has adopted streetbots and drones in its delivery services.CaliBurgers’ Pasadena location started using Flippy, the artificial intelligence-driven robot developed by Miso Robotics, a robot that can grab and flip burger patties, handle buns and other ingredients to create hamburger sandwiches. As of March this year, Flippy has only started working in Cali Burger’s Pasadena outlet, and if successful, will be deployed in 50 restaurants by the end of 2019.
Another application is the Moley Robotic Kitchen, a pair of robotic hands that replicates human movement to prepare home-cooked meals, from a library of stored recipes in its system. The developers intend for the Moley robot to be for consumer kitchens when it is released this 2018, but enterprise-scale use has yet to be proven. A check of the website showed that the product is still under development, and interested clients are directed to a pre-sales link that leads to a blank page.
2 – Smart Kiosk Technology
AI-integrated smart kiosk technology has potential, but is speculative and still in its pilot phase, even for the large food chains. For instance, McDonald’s self-service kiosks recommend products depending on a season, weather, and new or repeat customer’s preference, through a digital menu board. As well, this touchscreen menu board offers personalized options from which customers can choose their preferred amount of salt in fries, sauce in burgers and sugar in cold drinks. It also allows them to order and pay for their food, expediting process at point of sales process, reducing human error while giving customers control over their food choices.Additionally, a mobile application will enable customers to place orders from their phone for pick up or synchronize with a kiosk to recognize their app profile, their favorite orders and preferred payment methods. McDonald’s had aimed to launch mobile ordering and payment in 20,000 restaurants by the end of 2017.
The technology hub at Wendy’s, meanwhile, was set up to create innovations in internal technologies for business intelligence and communications. The company is currently testing mobile-, voice- and beacon-based ordering; self-order kiosks; and a loyalty program.
In Asia, KFC in January 2017 had planned to deploy kiosks in China with facial-recognition software to predict customer orders based on age, gender and mood. However, this was met with some resistance in Hong Kong as customers continued to line up at the cashier.
Clearly, smart kiosks are not set to dominate the food service industry just yet. The big boys will need to first sort out the knots in innovation and customer behavior, and show that it can support the bottom line before AI technology makes its way to the little guys. Only then will more investment come in.
3 – Chatbot / Conversational Interfaces
Chatbots have received some attention recently recently, not only because these allow restaurants to enhance customer relationship, but also help change customer behavior, reduce order-taking and possibly garneri expanded market share among mobile-savvy users.In January 2017, Starbucks announced voice ordering capabilities within the Starbucks mobile iOS app and the Amazon Alexa platform. This new tool extends adds a new layer to the barista and customer interaction, even before customer reaches the store.
For sure, it is a win for Starbucks in terms of technology innovation. But other than the press release, no numbers have been released to show this new interface has gained traction with customers.
Domino’s pizza chain rolled out its Facebook Messenger chatbot in Feb 2017, as an alternative to ordering via the phone or online. Prior to this, Domino had also introduced the pre-ordering via the AnyWhere platform, Twitter, Apple TV, Google Home, Amazon Echo, Ford Sync, SMS, Samsung Smart TVs, smart watches, an in-app voice assistant, and more. Likewise, Subway in April 2017 launched a chatbot at more than 26,500 domestic locations.
While high-ROI chatbot applications are the exception (our research seems to show that most chatbot initiatives are done as a PR stunt, or never produce meaningful returns), Domino’s seems to be among the few who are driving the technology forward. Domino’s also has the benefit of a limited menu size, and many repeat orders of simple favorites – making the programming and training of a chatbot more easily achievable.
How long before chatbots and other low-ticket applications become common for ordering food, delivery or otherwise, is anybody’ guess. What is clear is that large companies will mostly have the budget and data volume to build more effective bots and that chatbots are applications that are already in customers’ hands rather than developed by the food service businesses.
4 – Customer Recommendation Platforms
Consumer platforms will expectedly impact more restaurants in the next two to three years, but “adapting” to these apps probably won’t be much different than when restaurants learned to make “findable” listings on Yelp, Google Maps, and Halla.For SMBs that want to be involved in customer recommendation technologies, it is imperative that they explore ways to achieve better reviews and ranking from customers to ensure they show up in the platform’s recommendations.
5 – Analytics Solutions and AI
There is almost no hype or current applications of analytics solutions in the food services space, but it might not be long until restaurants partner with technology companies to use predictive analytics to help forecast visitor traffic, food orders, inventory needs, as well as revenues and costs. Among the companies that provide analyics services:Venga offers solutions that collect, analyze, and use data related to purchases, preferences, and habits to enrich the dining experience, personally engage customers, and ultimately increase repeat visits and sales.
- OpenTable connects diners with restaurnts by allowing to find a restaurant and reserve a table
- UpServe’s restaurant management platform is for easier payment processing, point of sale, reliable payments and in-depth analytics that can boost margins and save valuable resources
- PosIQ provides cloud-based Big Data solutions that collect customer data in real-time to help improve restauarnt businesses and customer experience.
Final Insights for Restaurant Business Leaders
In conclusion, AI is not expected to make its way into SMB food services in the near term. Some marketing automation tools will may integrate AI in the next two to three years, and some consumer recommendation apps will use AI to connect users to restaurants, but SMB food services leaders are unlikely to get their own hands on AI software (due in part to the challenging nature of these technologies, the cost of related AI talent, and the huge volumes of data required to make them work).Meanwhile large firms will continue to explore viable AI applications that can leverage big company data, the results of which will eventually trickle down to SMBs. For now, AI applications in food services will use currently available consumer technologies, rather than in the hands of restaurants.
We don’t recommend that SMBs jump into the AI bandwagon just because it seems cool and “everybody is doing it”. This is an illusion, and a waste of time and resources. In truth, 95+% of SMB food services companies will be “late majority” adopters on the adoption curve, with only some in the “early majority”.
Here are some steps that food services leaders could take with respect to AI now:
- Consumer Apps May Be Relevant Near Term: Be mindful of and to carefully explore apps and consumer platforms that are becoming common or gaining popularity, and to allocate reasonable resources to those that might deliver value to your firm. Apps like Yelp (and it’s newer competitors) will likely become more effective recommendation channels.
- Most AI PR is Hype: Understand that most AI press releases are hype, and that most AI applications in food services are merely very expensive pilot programs, usually with little direct evidence of ROI. It behooves companies to seem “innovative”, and there is a felt social pressure to put on this appearance when their competitors and doing the same.
- Follow the Giants of Your Industry: Follow the big food services giants (McDonald’s, Subway, etc) to stay on top of where machine learning is becoming an important part of their business. Once an AI application begins consistently driving ROI to the biggest players in the industry, then we might expect the same technologies will become viable to the mid-size market. The best view to the future of AI in the food services sector will probably be looking at the successful AI applications of the industry giants. Until it works for them, there’s no good reason for small business owners to be concerned about them.
This article was written by Ayn Veronica De Jesus from an audio transcription of Dan Faggella’s presentation on “AI in Food Services” for the Ohio Restaurant Association.
Tuesday, 1 October 2019
Karen Summerson: Restaurant Chatbots – Comparing 5 Current Applications
Just as chatbots are being created for consumers in the hospitality and fast-food industries, technology companies are also serving those restaurants that wish to take advantage of this emerging technology to better their customer service and maximize their productivity—and profitability.
According to the 2017 US Mobile Consumer Report, while “more than half of consumers have yet to see a [chatbot],” 65% would be fully comfortable engaging with a company via chatbot; Vibes, the producer of the report, attributes this to a need for immediacy, as well as the less “intrusive” nature of avoiding human customer service representatives.
While this assertion cannot be fully verified, the growing number of mobile applications used to improve the customer experience is evidence that apps like these should be further monitored as potentially profitable resources for companies looking to provide a more personal experience for their target audience(s).
Over the last year we’ve examined chatbot use cases in healthcare and other sectors; in this article, we have organized five companies targeting restaurant owners, using the same seven quantifiable factors (e.g., funds raised, target user, staff size, etc.) to profile several applications that are gaining traction.
These companies are not ranked, but rather presented as individual entities in alphabetical order.
We’ll conclude by discussing the potential value in connecting with customers via mobile devices and future implications of these applications.
Company logos sourced from LinkedIn. Data collected from Crunchbase, LinkedIn and company websites.
These companies are not indicative of all chatbot applications within this market, but we considered the following observations worth noting:
Allset claims to make the dining experience convenient and fast for users by allowing them to use either the Allset application or the Allset Bot to make reservations, order ahead, plus process payment and tip in advance of the guest(s) arrival at their chosen restaurant. Allset Bot is a designed as a more limited iteration of the full-service application, offering to identify restaurants within a specified zip code, make reservations in advance, and giving the user an option to choose from 10 “hand-curated” menu options.
In its video demo, the chatbot is activated by the user typing “Get Started” and “Order Now.” The bot requests the zip code or street you’d like to search for restaurant options. After confirming the location, users scroll through restaurants, choose one, indicate their time of arrival and whether they’d like to order from the pre-selected options shown in the messaging app.
According to their website, restaurant owners could specifically benefit from this service because the orders are pre-paid and pre-tipped, sent in advance of the customer’s arrival, allow for faster turnaround, and could introduce new clientele that may have not had the time to visit before—assuming the potential customers are limited on time during the work day.
The Allset website does not specify whether or not businesses must opt to be included in a search, nor does it detail from where the app pulls data, like available seating, curated menus or approximate wait time. Order information is sent to the restaurant via app, email, text message or fax, so information could be pulled from these receipts; however, the company doesn’t publically indicate whether this data is aggregated into a report or database. Businesses pay Allset a 12% fee per order, plus a processing fee (2.9% + $0.30). Additionally, there is a specific FAQ section for participating business owners.
Conversable claims to be a SaaS platform for designing, building and distributing AI-enhanced messaging and “voice experiences” across multiple platforms, including Facebook Messenger, Twitter and SMS. As detailed by its co-founder and CEO, Ben Lamm, in a June 2016 VentureBeat article, “Conversable doesn’t make bots, it helps companies better communicate with their customers in the messaging channels where their customers already are.” Clients, including eight restaurant chains featured on their site, work with Conversable to create full conversation designs that allow for transactions to be customized for a particular business model.
Conversation Flow Model for Conversable, Source: Conversable
For example, TGI Friday’s uses the Conversable platform to allow patrons to make reservations, browse the menu, place orders and search frequently asked questions.
Screenshot of TGI Fridays Application via the Conversable Platform, Source: Conversable
The company uses an interactive content editor (“ICE”) to build complex conversational flows. Visuals on the site show conversation mapping being created “from scratch,” requiring the company to write and input all copy.
However, the Answering Questions Using AI (“AQUA”) platform offered by Conversable allows both customizable responses to be programmed by the company, in addition to using language processing to pull what the bot identifies as relevant information and replying to the inquiring user via chat. The resulting metrics are recorded in a live dashboard for the company and identify popular topics and queries from app users.
Data Dashboard for Conversable Users, Source: Conversable
Conversable seems to be an in-depth, intensely detailed application appropriate for those businesses who are looking to create personalized messaging and customizable communication flows, rather than those businesses that need a more standardized approach in integrating AI with customer service.
Guestfriend claims to build chatbots for small businesses using publicly available data, such as operating hours and a business’ address, which is automatically sourced by the software. Their primary selling point is a providing a “fully customized bot for any small business.”
Guestfriend Screenshots Using Various Platforms, Source: Guestfriend
According to founder and CEO Bo Peabody, their primary audience is currently restaurant owners (a “vertical test”), which may be expanded to include the hospitality industry, among others, in the future.
As outlined on their website, restaurateurs enter their business’ name in a search field on the Guestfriend website, a bot is populated with publicly available information, and the chatbot feature can be integrated into both the restaurant’s website and Facebook page with customizable messaging and images.
The final result appears as a chat feature/SMS box. Demo screenshots on the Guestfriend website show conversations between patrons and the bot through Facebook Messenger, the iPhone messages app and the restaurant’s website, integrating emoji, imagery and hyperlinks.
Specific data on user outcomes is not reported on the site; however, it does list four restaurants as case studies, whose websites you can visit to see the app in action. Additionally, Guestfriend does not detail what the business’ interface/backend dashboard looks like and what data is gathered from users.
The Template Bot Builder, created by Gupshup, claims to provide entrepreneurs and small business owners with pre-defined templates using chatbots, connecting them to their target audience(s) and digitizing day-to-day functions. A Business Wire article from November 2, 2016 gives the example of a restaurant owner using a template “that already has food browsing and ordering functionality coded in it.”
Gupshup’s interface features a dashboard of metrics for individual bots, monitoring health and analytics information for the business owner after the completed template has been finished.
The Template Bot Builder for restaurants does not detail whether it processes voice data, although Gupshup uses this technology in other applications. Therefore, we didn’t include voice data within this specific profile. On the restaurant template page, its primary marketing promises were increased customers (i.e., increased orders) and the ability to “easily manage menu updates.” Little detail was given regarding further programming requirements or costs.
Punchh, Inc. claims to be a fully integrated, transformative marketing solution for restaurants’ loyalty programs. According to a Business Wire article published on March 8, 2017, its chatbot technology integrates into existing point-of-sale systems, loyalty and ordering programs and connects to customers via message and voice-based apps, like Facebook Messenger and Alexa.
Punchh positions itself as serving specifically “brick-and-mortar” businesses, and in addition to marketing to restaurants, also serves convenience stores, gas stations and the health and beauty industry. It is designed with an “end-to-end application lifecycle” and offers connection to a company’s POS, ordering, and email systems via APIs and pre-built integrations.
The company reports a 50% increased frequency in [customer] visits and a 20% increase in customer spend, although no source attribution and further data are paired with these claims. Additionally, little information is given about the design and customization process for the participating restaurant(s).
Chatbots processing both text and voice data have the capability of creating unique, immediate interactions between companies and their customers; text data processing is a standard feature in these applications, while voice recognition software seems to be adopted as an enticing, but secondary capability.
Providing further video demos and data to potential customers, especially for those businesses who are looking to make a sizeable investment (relative to their budget) in this technology, could go a long way in transforming public perception of chatbots’ use in customer service and sales from one of hype to one of necessity.
Smaller restaurant conglomerates may view AI technology of this kind as superfluous given the small amount of hard data that accompanies these applications. We suspect that larger restaurant giants with existing tech infrastructure and high volumes of customer data are most likely to take advantage of these technologies in the near term.
An app like Conversable would require high data volumes within a company, as its many functions require personalization and custom copy. Applications that source some publicly available information, like Guestfriend, may be more attractive to restaurants/companies with less need for customized information and input, though it’s unclear as to how transferrable different customer requests and replies are from company to company.
Finally, these applications approach their target audience through various approaches (templates, custom communication plans, automatic population of publicly available data); more research and data collection is necessary to determine which of these methods is preferred by different sectors of the restaurant industry. Making chatbots and AI useable and accessible to non-data scientists is no easy task, and this level of access will be extremely important in the competition in the market for these applications.
Article Source: https://emerj.com/ai-application-comparisons/restaurant-chatbots-comparing-5-current-applications/
According to the 2017 US Mobile Consumer Report, while “more than half of consumers have yet to see a [chatbot],” 65% would be fully comfortable engaging with a company via chatbot; Vibes, the producer of the report, attributes this to a need for immediacy, as well as the less “intrusive” nature of avoiding human customer service representatives.
While this assertion cannot be fully verified, the growing number of mobile applications used to improve the customer experience is evidence that apps like these should be further monitored as potentially profitable resources for companies looking to provide a more personal experience for their target audience(s).
Over the last year we’ve examined chatbot use cases in healthcare and other sectors; in this article, we have organized five companies targeting restaurant owners, using the same seven quantifiable factors (e.g., funds raised, target user, staff size, etc.) to profile several applications that are gaining traction.
These companies are not ranked, but rather presented as individual entities in alphabetical order.
We’ll conclude by discussing the potential value in connecting with customers via mobile devices and future implications of these applications.
A Comparison of Current Restaurant Industry Chatbot Applications
Company logos sourced from LinkedIn. Data collected from Crunchbase, LinkedIn and company websites.
These companies are not indicative of all chatbot applications within this market, but we considered the following observations worth noting:
- Two of these five companies process both text and voice data; these companies have been active for 4+ years, but there is no direct correlation between higher amounts of funding and the ability to process both text and voice data.
- All featured companies are based in the United States. Trends and demands may be unique to the country and do not give a global perspective on the development of chatbots for the restaurant industry.
- The range of longevity, staff size, and funds raised among these companies is indicative of the nascent state of the applications in this space. There are no entrenched players – and to a large degree – the ROI of these technologies has yet to be fleshed out in full.
Allset
- Total funds raised: $8.4 million
- Year founded: 2015
- HQ location: San Francisco, California
- Number of employees: 57
- Target user: Restaurant owners, busy executives
- Type(s) of data processed: Text
- Estimated number of current users: Unspecified
Allset claims to make the dining experience convenient and fast for users by allowing them to use either the Allset application or the Allset Bot to make reservations, order ahead, plus process payment and tip in advance of the guest(s) arrival at their chosen restaurant. Allset Bot is a designed as a more limited iteration of the full-service application, offering to identify restaurants within a specified zip code, make reservations in advance, and giving the user an option to choose from 10 “hand-curated” menu options.
In its video demo, the chatbot is activated by the user typing “Get Started” and “Order Now.” The bot requests the zip code or street you’d like to search for restaurant options. After confirming the location, users scroll through restaurants, choose one, indicate their time of arrival and whether they’d like to order from the pre-selected options shown in the messaging app.
According to their website, restaurant owners could specifically benefit from this service because the orders are pre-paid and pre-tipped, sent in advance of the customer’s arrival, allow for faster turnaround, and could introduce new clientele that may have not had the time to visit before—assuming the potential customers are limited on time during the work day.
The Allset website does not specify whether or not businesses must opt to be included in a search, nor does it detail from where the app pulls data, like available seating, curated menus or approximate wait time. Order information is sent to the restaurant via app, email, text message or fax, so information could be pulled from these receipts; however, the company doesn’t publically indicate whether this data is aggregated into a report or database. Businesses pay Allset a 12% fee per order, plus a processing fee (2.9% + $0.30). Additionally, there is a specific FAQ section for participating business owners.
Conversable
- Total funds raised: $6.85 million
- Year founded: 2014
- HQ location: Austin, Texas
- Number of employees: 35
- Target user: Enterprises, business owners
- Type(s) of data processed: Text, voice
- Estimated number of current users: Unspecified
Conversable claims to be a SaaS platform for designing, building and distributing AI-enhanced messaging and “voice experiences” across multiple platforms, including Facebook Messenger, Twitter and SMS. As detailed by its co-founder and CEO, Ben Lamm, in a June 2016 VentureBeat article, “Conversable doesn’t make bots, it helps companies better communicate with their customers in the messaging channels where their customers already are.” Clients, including eight restaurant chains featured on their site, work with Conversable to create full conversation designs that allow for transactions to be customized for a particular business model.
Conversation Flow Model for Conversable, Source: Conversable
For example, TGI Friday’s uses the Conversable platform to allow patrons to make reservations, browse the menu, place orders and search frequently asked questions.
Screenshot of TGI Fridays Application via the Conversable Platform, Source: Conversable
The company uses an interactive content editor (“ICE”) to build complex conversational flows. Visuals on the site show conversation mapping being created “from scratch,” requiring the company to write and input all copy.
However, the Answering Questions Using AI (“AQUA”) platform offered by Conversable allows both customizable responses to be programmed by the company, in addition to using language processing to pull what the bot identifies as relevant information and replying to the inquiring user via chat. The resulting metrics are recorded in a live dashboard for the company and identify popular topics and queries from app users.
Data Dashboard for Conversable Users, Source: Conversable
Conversable seems to be an in-depth, intensely detailed application appropriate for those businesses who are looking to create personalized messaging and customizable communication flows, rather than those businesses that need a more standardized approach in integrating AI with customer service.
Guestfriend
- Total funds raised: $5 million
- Year founded: 2017
- HQ location: New York, New York
- Number of employees: 7
- Target user: Restaurant owners
- Type(s) of data processed: Text
- Estimated number of current users: Unspecified
Guestfriend claims to build chatbots for small businesses using publicly available data, such as operating hours and a business’ address, which is automatically sourced by the software. Their primary selling point is a providing a “fully customized bot for any small business.”
Guestfriend Screenshots Using Various Platforms, Source: Guestfriend
According to founder and CEO Bo Peabody, their primary audience is currently restaurant owners (a “vertical test”), which may be expanded to include the hospitality industry, among others, in the future.
As outlined on their website, restaurateurs enter their business’ name in a search field on the Guestfriend website, a bot is populated with publicly available information, and the chatbot feature can be integrated into both the restaurant’s website and Facebook page with customizable messaging and images.
The final result appears as a chat feature/SMS box. Demo screenshots on the Guestfriend website show conversations between patrons and the bot through Facebook Messenger, the iPhone messages app and the restaurant’s website, integrating emoji, imagery and hyperlinks.
Specific data on user outcomes is not reported on the site; however, it does list four restaurants as case studies, whose websites you can visit to see the app in action. Additionally, Guestfriend does not detail what the business’ interface/backend dashboard looks like and what data is gathered from users.
Gupshup
- Total funds raised: $44.1 million
- Year founded: 2005
- HQ location: San Francisco, California
- Number of employees: 136
- Target user: Entrepreneurs, small businesses
- Type(s) of data processed: Text
- Estimated number of current users: Unspecified
The Template Bot Builder, created by Gupshup, claims to provide entrepreneurs and small business owners with pre-defined templates using chatbots, connecting them to their target audience(s) and digitizing day-to-day functions. A Business Wire article from November 2, 2016 gives the example of a restaurant owner using a template “that already has food browsing and ordering functionality coded in it.”
Gupshup’s interface features a dashboard of metrics for individual bots, monitoring health and analytics information for the business owner after the completed template has been finished.
The Template Bot Builder for restaurants does not detail whether it processes voice data, although Gupshup uses this technology in other applications. Therefore, we didn’t include voice data within this specific profile. On the restaurant template page, its primary marketing promises were increased customers (i.e., increased orders) and the ability to “easily manage menu updates.” Little detail was given regarding further programming requirements or costs.
Punchh, Inc.
- Total funds raised: $33.5 million
- Year founded: 2010
- HQ location: Moutain View, California
- Number of employees: 136
- Target user: Restaurant owners, CMOs, CDOs, CIOs
- Type(s) of data processed: Text, voice
- Estimated number of current users: Unspecified
Punchh, Inc. claims to be a fully integrated, transformative marketing solution for restaurants’ loyalty programs. According to a Business Wire article published on March 8, 2017, its chatbot technology integrates into existing point-of-sale systems, loyalty and ordering programs and connects to customers via message and voice-based apps, like Facebook Messenger and Alexa.
Punchh positions itself as serving specifically “brick-and-mortar” businesses, and in addition to marketing to restaurants, also serves convenience stores, gas stations and the health and beauty industry. It is designed with an “end-to-end application lifecycle” and offers connection to a company’s POS, ordering, and email systems via APIs and pre-built integrations.
The company reports a 50% increased frequency in [customer] visits and a 20% increase in customer spend, although no source attribution and further data are paired with these claims. Additionally, little information is given about the design and customization process for the participating restaurant(s).
Concluding Thoughts on Restaurant Chatbots
Further research is necessary to determine the conversion rate of customer interactions with bots to increased sales and brand awareness. While each of the companies featured here promise positive outcomes and ROI for participating restaurants, little to no data is presented to back up these claims. As a caveat, ROI may be difficult to objectively measure for those well-established enterprises and restaurants that already have high brand awareness – and it’s unclear if the novelty appeal of new applications could skew the future ROI of these applications one way or another.Chatbots processing both text and voice data have the capability of creating unique, immediate interactions between companies and their customers; text data processing is a standard feature in these applications, while voice recognition software seems to be adopted as an enticing, but secondary capability.
Providing further video demos and data to potential customers, especially for those businesses who are looking to make a sizeable investment (relative to their budget) in this technology, could go a long way in transforming public perception of chatbots’ use in customer service and sales from one of hype to one of necessity.
Smaller restaurant conglomerates may view AI technology of this kind as superfluous given the small amount of hard data that accompanies these applications. We suspect that larger restaurant giants with existing tech infrastructure and high volumes of customer data are most likely to take advantage of these technologies in the near term.
An app like Conversable would require high data volumes within a company, as its many functions require personalization and custom copy. Applications that source some publicly available information, like Guestfriend, may be more attractive to restaurants/companies with less need for customized information and input, though it’s unclear as to how transferrable different customer requests and replies are from company to company.
Finally, these applications approach their target audience through various approaches (templates, custom communication plans, automatic population of publicly available data); more research and data collection is necessary to determine which of these methods is preferred by different sectors of the restaurant industry. Making chatbots and AI useable and accessible to non-data scientists is no easy task, and this level of access will be extremely important in the competition in the market for these applications.
Article Source: https://emerj.com/ai-application-comparisons/restaurant-chatbots-comparing-5-current-applications/
Monday, 30 September 2019
Chatbots in Restaurants: Redefining Customer Experience
Chatbots can be programmed to carry out a myriad of tasks. Can they help your brand?
Chatbots can free your staff up for other tasks.
Gartner predicts that by 2020, a whopping 85 percent of enterprise-customer relationships will be managed without human interactions. Surveys show that 89 percent of consumers opt to engage with businesses through text and 64 percent of consumers that communicate with businesses via text leave with a positive impression.Clearly, we are not far from the time where majority of interactions will be automated completely given that conversational AI/intelligent chatbots are playing a crucial role in almost every industry.
With chatbots becoming mainstream, several industries are utilizing them as they offer greater and less intrusive opportunities when it comes to customer engagement (esp. hyper connected millennials). It is only a matter of time before chatbots in restaurants make their way to the forefront. Designed to communicate in a meaningful manner with customers, chatbots can be integrated with any interface (Facebook, Slack or Telegram to name a few). For example, the pizza bot from Domino’s takes delivery orders directly from Facebook Messenger with a mere emoji.
Given that customer retention and loyalty is at the core of any service-based business, it is paramount for restaurants to fulfill and exceed expectations when it comes to guest service. Everything from running marketing campaigns, their website to online and offline services is a means to attaining the very goal of impeccable service. However, be it ordering food, making a reservation or even getting recommendations, it is impossible for service staff to meet everyone’s standards consistently, which can result in a negative brand image for the restaurant.
With chatbots, your customers no longer need to make a call to reserve a table, wait for staff to attend to them or wait in line for tables to free up. Restaurants don’t need to have an exclusive service executive for the customers either. Bots can be programmed to carry out a myriad of tasks ranging from answering FAQs, making a reservation, ordering food or processing payment. The bot can carry out these tasks in manner similar to a service executive, difference being—it can execute round the clock with zero downtime.
Here’s an interesting scenario:
The customer uses the chatbot to order a steak. Post assessing the order, an intelligent chatbot can offer suggestions on pairing that steak with a red wine.
Additionally, if the customer is looking to simply order wine along with their food, the chatbot shows recommendations on the different kind of wines available with the restaurant.
Customer then selects the wine of his/her choice and places the follow up order. If this is an order for delivery, the payment can be processed through the bot itself.
Restaurants can use chatbots for similar meal pairings or recommendations—this not only engages the customer with your brand but also drives revenue. The best part? You don’t have to ask your customers to download the chatbot like an app (it can be integrated with the channel of your choice). These bots also keep the conversation ongoing. Whether it is by asking relevant questions, sharing interesting trivia or even cracking the occasional joke just like a friend would on Messenger.
Furthermore, chatbots in restaurants need to be perfectly synchronized with the marketing and other customer oriented efforts. Bots can parallel serve as an intelligence-gathering tool which assists a restaurant in understanding their customers. With customer contact details, past orders, preferred method of payment etc., the chatbot in restaurant can not only personalize a customers experience but also reward/incentivize loyal customers in order to increase repeat business—all through a well designed chatbot conversation.
That apart, while the staff focuses on preparing and serving food, chatbots can engage with the customers by answering questions related to open and close times, reward points or whether if the restaurant is open on a public holiday. The use cases of chatbot in restaurants rely heavily on the kind of experience restaurants want to offer their visitors.
For millennials, the generation that actively prefers not speaking with others, they can be the perfect fit as they are the ones who, apart from food, also expect a digital experience. This is where restaurants need to evolve by understanding modern day customer behaviors and expectations with the advent of digital technology.
Across multiple industries, capturing and retaining customer interest and business through AI powered technologies has now become a priority. An estimated 2 billion messages have been sent by 60 million businesses on Facebook messenger alone on a monthly basis. This shows that there is a huge opportunity for chatbot in restaurants when it comes to enhancing customer engagement and thereby opening the doors to a broader hyper connected demographic.
Hotels have already started integrating chatbots in their operational processes and noticed good ROI. Restaurants that take the leap in incorporating chatbots will be sure to see a growing customer base and more cost-effectiveness, which will ultimately be conducive to overall growth and revenue generation.
Mitul Makadia is founder of Maruti Techlabs and a true technophile. With his industry experience, he has rapidly developed Maruti Techlabs in specialized services like Chatbot Development, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. Makadia has considerable expertise in Chatbot Development and NLP.
Article Source: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/chatbots-restaurants-redefining-customer-experience
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