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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/

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

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.

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/

What Defines Great Restaurant Customer Service?

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:

• 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 behaviour⁠-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 prepared⁠-or worried⁠-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

The 5 Steps to Customer Journey Mapping

School of Bots: There's a Bot for that! | Restaurant Chatbots | Matt Plapp |

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

Oracle CX: A 2 Minute Look at a Restaurant Chatbot: Smarter Demos Series

Josh Thomas: Reviving the Restaurant Industry, A Chatbot Story

We know the story all too well. Amazing restaurant opens up, locals rave and pack the venue every weekend, and a year later? They close their doors. It’s a story all too common. In fact, 80% of restaurants and bars are out of business within 5 years. (Business Insider)
Who would have thought? After all, on paper, they had it all right. They were active on social media, hosted events frequently, were inundated with local press, and treated every single customer like they were their own special star. Alas, all of the limited-release craft brews, hand-cut cocktail ice, and artisanal charcuterie meats in the world couldn’t save them.
Bypassing the ‘why’ (ahem, Millennials & Uber - I’m guilty also), we have a serious issue- people just aren’t showing up to restaurants as frequently. As Sam Wynne, our client & owner of BrainDead Brewing in Dallas, TX puts it-
“a few years ago it was all about getting a handshake at the front door, but now you have to get that first handshake digitally.” — Sam Wynne, BrainDead Brewing
Some restaurants are downright awful. For them, it’s only a matter of time. But for those who aren’t? One of my favorite spots in Dallas for Tacos and Old Fashioneds (don’t judge my taste buds, bud) was Victor Tangos. They closed this year after a decade of stellar service. This is a prime example of a great venue that provided immense value, but just couldn’t keep up with the times.
Now, let’s get to the meat of this post. I’m going to share two of the strategies we are using to help restaurants, bars, breweries, and others push through the hard times.

The Benefit
Chatbots can be used for many things. At Botsmith AI, we are leveraging them to build brand awareness, increase attendance, and distribute information on events & specials for our restaurant clients. Additionally, we are using them to thank visitors to ensure the best customer service.
It’s like email on steroids. Done right, the benefit here is obvious & incredibly potent.
A Few Strategies to Start
Quick Note on Choosing a Platform
I’ll cover this briefly as others have already written exhaustive lists on the pros and cons of each chatbot platform. For restaurateurs who want to go this alone, I highly recommend using ManyChat. It is incredibly visual and intuitive, and easier to manage than most platforms. That said, there are other great platforms out there, so do your research and pick the one you feel most comfortable with.
The Facebook Comments Growth Tool
Growth tools are the bread and butter of what makes chatbots great. We won’t go into a ton of detail here (again, tons of articles about these) but here is our favorite:
Facebook Comments GT Example: Run an organic page post or paid ad promoting an irresistible special. Ask users to comment on the feed to be sent a coupon. Create the tool + sequence in ManyChat. The bot automatically sends the opt-in + coupon, and informs them they will get some messages every now and then. Don’t forget to ask them to share with friends!

BrainDead Brewing Beer List Messenger QR Code
Using Messenger QR Codes
Here is a hot tip for you, and something we are doing at BrainDead Brewing. We are printing Messenger QR codes on menus & stickers, linked directly to the beer list. Now, instead of patrons getting up to read chalkboards, they can scan the code in Messenger and read the updated list on their phones.
The benefit here is that they become subscribers. The next day, you can thank them for their visit via Messenger, ask how their visit was, and welcome them back in. Bonus points? Give them a coupon to come back in the following week and thank them personally when they do.
P.S. If you want to see BrainDead Brewing’s Messenger QR Growth Tool, just open the Messenger app, go to the camera and hold your finger on the screen to scan the image above! Or Click Here to see the Welcome Sequence.
Final Note
Restaurateurs, you’ve got it rough right now, but we are all appreciative of your hard work, and for bringing our communities together with great food, masterfully crafted cocktails, and cold brews. My hope is this helps many of you keep your businesses running strong so I can continue stuffing my fat face.

If I can help, or if you would like us to build a bot for you, please shoot me a message!
Send Josh a Note on Messenger

Cheers to your success,

-Josh

Article Source: https://chatbotsmagazine.com/reviving-the-restaurant-industry-a-chatbot-story-cbbf77a3b938

Restaurant Chatbots powered by AI

Ish Jindal: A Comprehensive Guide for using Chatbots in your Restaurant

Dominos, TGIF and Pizza Hut all have chatbots and you can too.

Early last year, a high-level Uber executive named Chris Messina claimed that 2016 would be the year of conversational commerce. If you don’t know what that means, then you are normal.

But if you work in the restaurant industry, you should definitely change that.

Silicon Valley has an uncanny habit of creating new tech trends that turn industries on their heads. Conversational commerce is one of those tech trends and the restaurant industry is one of its first targets.

This is your comprehensive guide on why this is the case and how you can get ahead of the curve.

Here’s how this is article is structured. In the sections 1 and 2, I am going to explain what conversational commerce is and why there is growing buzz around it in the tech space. Skip to section 3 if you already know all of this. In section 3, I will discuss what this new tech trend means for the restaurant industry in particular. Finally, section 4 will give you resources you need to get started.

Enjoy!

1. What is conversational commerce?
The term sounds jargony at first, but when you break it down to its fundamental parts, it is fairly basic. Conversational commerce is the process of conducting business by talking to someone. The vast majority of business conducted in human history has been conversational commerce.

If you have ever gone to a corner store, pharmacy or a shopping mall and talked to any of the store attendants you have engaged in conversational commerce.

It can even occur over distances. Ever ordered food through the phone? Or chatted with someone to buy something from them? Those count as conversational commerce as well.

2. Why it matters
There are three reasons you should care about conversational commerce:

Reason 1: The growing popularity of messaging apps.
Think about all the apps you use everyday. A messaging app surely figures near the top of the list.

Unsurprisingly, this is the case for most people with a smartphone. The chart below shows the number of people using the top 4 messaging apps vs the number of people using the top 4 social media apps over time.

In 2015, the top messaging apps overtook the top social network apps in usage by a wide margin.

Implication 1: Your customers are devoting hours of their attention to conversational apps.

Implication 2: Your customers are used to the chat interface because they use it on a daily basis (you will find out why this is important in Section 3).

Reason 2: The proliferation of platforms that allow customer interaction.
The potential of conversational commerce has not gone unnoticed by companies in the space. In the year after Messina’s statement:

Facebook introduced its Messenger bot platform which allows Facebook pages to create automated chat experiences with users
Kik, Telegram and Line developed their existing bot platforms further
Viber opened up public accounts for companies to talk to people
iMessage added apps within chats.
Seemingly WhatsApp is the only big chat app missing in action (as an Indian this makes me sad), but even they have announced plans for commercial accounts soon. In fact, they are already doing beta testing of commercial accounts with a few businesses now.

Implication: You can now easily interact with your customers in the apps that they use most.

Reason 3: The Increasing capability of Artificial Intelligence.
Conversational commerce has always been hampered by the need for human labour. We get tired, we can only talk to one person at a time, we get stressed out, and most importantly we need to be paid. This makes us too expensive and slow for certain tasks.

Till recently, the solution has been to get customers to serve themselves. Think about travel booking as an example. We have shifted from a model of asking travel agents to bundle flight and hotel bookings for us, to doing it ourselves using the plethora of online hotel and flight booking sites available at our fingertips.

Why? Because we can instantly book flight tickets and hotel rooms on Expedia for cheaper than any travel agent could afford to charge (There is a great piece explaining this shift better and more in-depth that you should check out if you have the time. Here is the link)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly enabling us to shift back to a paradigm where the user does less on their own. An ideal AI travel assistant would be able to take your travel requirements and book all the flights and hotels you need in one bundle like a travel agent. Unlike a travel agent though, they could do it instantly like an app and for cheaper because there is no human that needs to be paid sitting at the back. Computers cease to be a tool used to do something yourself and more an assistant that is doing things for you.

Before you get too excited we are still a few years away from such a travel assistant. But the underlying AI technology is becoming cheaper, more advanced and readily available. Google, Facebook and IBM all have AI resources available for anyone to use right now.

Implication: Conversational Commerce is becoming cheaper to engage in.

A Quick Note on AI
There are two caveats to consider when thinking about AI. First, AI as it is currently available is still quite raw.

Second, if you are willing to sacrifice the complexity of the interaction, you do not need AI to create a good and cheap conversational commerce experience.
You’ll find out why conversational commerce is still beneficial without AI in the next section.

3. How can restaurants use this tech?
Restaurants are arguably the pioneers of conversational commerce. One of the only reasons I still use my smartphone to make calls is when I am ordering food. But even this basic use case could stand to be improved significantly by new technology. The primary new channel through which conversational commerce can occur is chatbots.

A chatbot is a piece of software that can respond to a customer’s messages in a chat interface using either AI or pre-programmed rules. The examples we gave above of the AI fail and the hotel booking were both examples of chatbots.

Where can customers find them?
Customers can interact with them in popular messaging apps that support chatbots (FB Messenger, Telegram, Line, Kik) or even on your website.

The most obvious use case for such a technology is for food ordering. Users could use a food ordering chatbot much like they would a phone ordering system except instead of talking to a staff member they chat with the bot.

Another possible use could be a chatbot for taking feedback. Bangalore based food chain Bhukkad uses a conversational feedback form for their delivery orders. You can read more about their experience here or check out the bot that they use over here:

Real-world Examples of Restaurant Chatbots
The three most prominent users of chatbots in the restaurant space are Domino’s, TGI Friday and Pizza Hut. Dominos and Pizzahut use it for food ordering and TGI Friday for making reservations.

What are the advantages of a chatbot?
This is a natural question to ask. All of the examples above could be implemented through an app or a website so why use a bot?

Let’s break it down:

Bots require no extra downloads
Bots have one clear advantage over apps in particular. Customers do not have to download anything extra to use a bot. If you use GrubHub for delivery and a customer has Eat24, the probability that the customer downloads Eat24 just to order from your restaurant is quite low. The average American downloads 1 app per month. In developing market like India, where people have cheaper phones with less memory, the probability becomes lower.

As Cliff Kuang from FastCo Design put it

There’s an enormous amount of friction associated with learning about a new app, downloading it, signing up for it, and then remembering you even have it.

Since users can interact with bots in messaging apps they already have downloaded or in a web browser, the chance of them completing an order goes up.

Chat is mobile optimised
Regular websites don’t fair too much better than apps. While you don’t have to download anything extra to use a website, many websites have a tendency to suck on people’s phones. If they aren’t built correct, they can be slow, clunky and unresponsive. If they aren’t optimised for the phone screen, users can spend ungodly amounts of time pinching and zooming on the screen to figure out what is going on. Even if you do invest enough money to build a good website, the user’s internet connection could give out reducing your beautifully designed site to a continuous stream of loading screens.

Chatbots don’t face these problems. First, chat as an interface was designed with the mobile user in mind. So whether you implement it through an app or your website, the user can easily see what is exactly going on at all times.

Second, if you build a bot within a messaging app like FB Messenger, you can trust Facebook’s highly paid and highly trained UI team to make the interface responsive.

Finally, since each chat interaction happens on a single page the customer never needs to interact with a load screen.

The chat interface is familiar
Every website and app looks different. Even if you convince a user to use one of them, they have to learn how to navigate their way around. Look at the Domino’s website and bot again. With the website there is so much happening on the screen you do not know where to click.

With the bot on the other hand, the customer knows exactly what to do. The interface is similar to one they use everyday.

Chat feels more human than apps and websites
When a customer interacts with a bot and an app the two experiences feel very different even if they achieve the same thing. Using an app feels like using a tool to achieve something, while using a bot feels like the computer is assisting you through a process.

Before you start building… (Read this whole section. It is very important)
There are two things to consider before you start building your bot. First, I would think long and hard about what function your bot will serve. Remember that AI technologies are still very raw so the tasks a customer gets done through a bot cannot be too complex. Also, in my personal experience of using bots everyday, I have found that the best bots tend to be those which do one or two tasks really well. Add too many tasks and the user can get easily confused because you have to run through far too many menus. I wrote a whole other piece on this that you should check out for a better understanding (Chris Messina recommended it so I promise it is good).

Second, I would try and figure out which platform you want to build your bot on. This will depend largely on where your customers are. Facebook Messenger is fairly universally used so bot developers tend to gravitate towards it. But if you are in a region where another messaging app is popular then build a bot on that platform (Line, Kik, Telegram, etc).

Also consider a bot on your website as an option. Website bots offer two advantages of their app based counterparts. First, in a lot of developing markets, like India, people do not like using Facebook Messenger because it uses too much data and runs very slowly on most phones. In a case like this, you could build a bot on the preferred messaging app in the region or on your website (this is especially true if WhatsApp is the preferred messaging app in your region because WhatsApp does not support bots). Second, Messenger (and Kik and Telegram) bots all face a discovery issue. People do not know how or where to find them. Your website on the other hand is already getting traffic and people can easily run into them on Google. But be warned, if you make a web-based bot it is harder to send users notifications once they have left the site. This could be a downside if you want to ping your customers with discount coupons over time.

Article Source: https://hellotars.com/blog/restaurant-chatbot-guides/

Restaurant Marketing Strategies: How To Use Chatbots

How Can Chatbots Play an Important Role in the Food Industry?

Do you want a human with that?

Just under two years ago we wrote a blog exploring the rising trend of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the food industry. Fast forward to 2018 and we find ourselves now living in a digital economy of expectation, one where we don’t want to go out and stand in a queue to order food.

Why choose a chatbot?

Put simply, chatbots can mimic human conversations using technology based on AI. They are often personalised with names and can be seen by customers as an extension of your brand online.
Chatbots allow your real-life staff to work without being interrupted to answer simple questions as these can be directed to your online chatbot. By encouraging customers to place an order with your bot and not wait in a queue, it can increase sales as chatbots can process an unlimited number of orders at any time, day or night.

With many millennials preferring to communicate with a business online instead of over the phone, using a chatbot can help attract a younger audience.

Where can you chat with a chatbot?

Chatbots can be accessed within an app, a business website or on a social media messenger platform. The most popular messenger platform for chatbots is Facebook Messenger. Launched in 2014 and opened to chatbots in 2016, the platform has an estimated 1.2 billion users. That’s a lot of potential customers your bot could be chatting to!

Using chatbots on a messenger platform can help entice occasional customers to become regulars and build brand loyalty if they like your bot. They’re also good for appealing to customers who don’t want to download your app but still want a quick and simple ordering experience.

How do you write the chatbot chit chat?

It’s important to create a well-thought-out content strategy for your chatbot that will work for your brand. First, focus on creating a storyline arc for your chatbot to follow – from initiating opening conversations through to rising action, climax and resolution.

Your copy needs to be engaging, representative of your brand values and tone of voice, and in line with customer expectations. Keep interactions to a maximum of four lines as this helps to reinforce a natural sense of ‘back and forth’ conversation and encourages a customer to interact with every piece of content. To help the conversation feel more natural and less drone-like, programme your chatbot to not only answer questions but ask them back too.

It’s also important to keep your chatbot feeling fresh. Nobody likes a stale bot. Instead, your content strategy should be updated to stay relevant with seasonal campaigns, company promotions and other topical events.

Looking at some top brand’s chatbots

Global chain Starbucks introduced their Barista Bot last year on their app, allowing customers to quickly pre-order and pay for their drinks and skip the queue in-store. The chatbot might even spell your name right on your order!

In the US, supermarket brand Whole Foods launched their recipe bot to help customers decide their shopping list and recipes for the week. By using emojis instead of words, the chatbot speeds up interactions with customers and creates a unique experience with your brand for customers online.
Perhaps one of the best-known influencers for AI in the food industry is Domino’s, who created their pizza-loving chatbot ‘DOM’ in 2014. Today, Domino’s now conducts more than 65 percent of its sales in the U.S. via numerous digital platforms including using DOM.

To the future and beyond

The use of chatbots in fast food outlets and restaurants is having an instrumental impact on the way the industry interacts with customers and processes orders. Chatbots not only speed up interactions, encourage more sales and build brand loyalty, but they also ensure a brand stays current in a diverse and digital market.

With Domino’s DOM currently being tested to answer customer phone calls in America and KFC opening the first AI-only staffed branch in Shanghai, China, chatbots seem here to stay for the food industry with new and exciting possibilities.

Article Source: https://eat-marketing.co.uk/chatbots-and-food-industry/