Strategy for Bots
We live in a time where we take for granted that computers can beat chess champions or win Jeopardy. We also take for granted that computers are able to enter a space where humans have been the only colonizer:natural language. Bots are machines able to interact with humans in natural language through channels such as Facebook Messenger, Slack or SMS. Bots are poised to become a missing piece in a digital portfolio, providing sophisticated and established customers what they want, when they want it in a conversational way.
Where users are
Instant messengers (IMs), are poised to become the paradigm in mobile interactions. The adoption of smartphones across the globe has given rise to more than 3 million apps hosted between the 2 major app stores. These mobile applications are now so diverse that virtually any task can be completed within them, but unlike the desktop world which is centered around the browser, the mobile world is fragmented, it forces users to switch between apps to complete simple workflows, which inevitably reduces the efficiency that can easily be accomplished in a desktop browser. Companies like Facebook who own the channels in the US, recognize this drawback of the mobile world and are positioning products like Whatsapp and Facebook messenger, where an astonishing number of users are spending most of their mobile time, to become the place where all commerce and productivity happens within the mobile phone. In other words, IMs could be the new portal to the cloud for mobile, and because IMs primary mode of interaction is natural language, Bots have potentially found their land of milk and honey.
How did bots become so useful?
While Bots have a relative long history, most of us remember the infamous Clippy in the 1990s, it was not until recently that mainstream developers were able get their hands on easy to use Bot builders like Watson Conversation. These products in combination with A.I platforms like the Watson Developer Cloud enable developers to build Bots that understand natural language and identify images more accurately than humans in specific circumstances. The new breed of Bots can transform speech into text with unprecedented fidelity and more importantly, learn how to do it better over time. These technologies did not appear this year either, they have been available for years inside the R&D departments of tech giants. We have successfully benefited from them when using Google without worrying about grammar or relative precision to retrieve relevant information. What has now changed, is the accessibility of these powerful technologies, to users without specialized skills or deep pockets.
The new piece in the digital strategy
Whether you are an incumbent or an invader, digital strategy is a key component to the success of your product in the market and is the most democratizing asset capable of changing the landscape of competition. Web, mobile apps and social media are must have’s in today’s digital portfolio for a great majority of companies and the investment has been significant over the past decade. Bots on messenger platforms or connected devices will soon start to diversify and expand the digital portfolio. In some cases, they will completely replace the existing options. However, these cases are not the norm and neither should they be. Conversational experiences with artificially intelligent Bots are exceptional only in the right circumstances and geared towards the right set of users.
The technology is here but…
While technology has significantly advanced from the Clippy times and tools like Watson Conversation exist to make it easy for developers of a wide range of skills to design Bots that can communicate in natural language, the UI patterns for conversational experiences have not matured like applications UIs have, and the science has not evolved to the point where it can fully replace the nuances of human to human interaction. This causes an inconsistent and non-intuitive experience that slows adoption of the less sophisticated user segments, reducing the effectiveness of Bots as successful commercial channel. Even with rationalized UI patterns in place — is a matter of time — , the science behind Bots is not yet on par with the commercial hype of AI. This is why strategic thinking is crucial to increasing the chances of user adoption leading to the diffusion of the technology in the market. Like any other good user experience, the user should be at the center of the discussion and the entire purpose of the Bot should be to alleviate the frequent pain points customers have with existing channels. If placed correctly in the consumer life-cycle, with the understanding of the technological limitations and designed with users in mind, Bots can significantly elevate touch points where GUIs in websites and applications currently fall short.
There is an opportunity. What should be the strategy?
Bots are a new piece of the digital channel portfolio and can dramatically improve the customer experience with the products and services that a company provides, but not all customers can be reached through Bots and not all functions that channels serve can be fully delivered through Bots. These functions, which Alex Osterwalder describes in the Business Model Generation framework, can be defined as a customer life-cycle that starts with Awareness and is followed by Evaluation, Purchase and Support. Bots are particularly good at fulfilling short interactions through out the channel phases when sophisticated and established customers, need something fast and in their own terms.
Digital channels and the consumer life-cycle
Awareness: raising awareness among customers about a company’s products and services
Digital channels are particularly good at raising awareness in the most cost-efficient manner. Social media in particular excels at providing information to customers when it is most needed, and websites or mobile apps can use a variety of sophisticated techniques to reach customers with engaging content. Bots can enter this phase to support existing channels. As an example, Facebook introduced Messenger codes this year to improve how users find friends and Bots in the platform. The code works similar to QR codes directing users to the Bot’s messenger page after scanning the unique identifier with their phone. Companies can use this method at retail stores, conferences, and advertising campaigns enabling users to easily reach the Bot for follow ups and contextual information retrieval.
Evaluate: helping customers evaluate the value proposition
While a conversational experience can help companies explain the value proposition of their products and services, other digital media such as video content and image galleries on social media, websites and blogs can be more successful at telling the story effectively. The limitation of Bots in this channel phase is primarily about scope and complexity; customers at this stage will be asking open ended questions that Bots would have difficulties resolving, such as “is this product right for me?” or “why should I buy this and not the competitor’s product?” Companies should examine carefully the scope and depth their Bots will be able to handle. In the evaluation phase it may be best to use the Bot as a bridge to richer media on websites or human sellers that can take customers on the journey when the service or product is sophisticated enough to justify the expense.
Purchase: allowing customer to purchase products and services
Perhaps one of the most important roles of a channel is to enable customers to purchase products and services. Websites and mobile applications excel at this task when the customer is unsure of what she wants and the transaction consist of multiple and distinct items. This is because the flexibility of the medium and the depth of GUIs allow the app to aid the user towards a decision point. However, when consumers are established and sophisticated with the company’s offerings, mobile apps and websites lack the ability to provide a fast and enjoyable experience. Bots on the other hand can be exceptional at this task, their ability to enable an omnipresent interaction that feels similar to a personal human shopper or advisor is unparallelled and can exponentially improve the user experience with the brand for the most loyal and established customers.
Support: providing post-purchase customer support
Bots have traditionally captured attention in this space because of their potential to significantly reduce cost in one of the most expensive but necessary operations that a company has: customer support . Websites and mobile applications are arguably incapable at providing higher level services, so companies have defaulted to human agents, mostly offshore to reduce cost, with experiences that can enrage the most even-keeled customers. Bots can be highly effective at taking customers to home-base faster and with a better experience than any of the alternatives. However, Bots are not the ultimate solution, the technology is far from replacing capable humans that can resolve complications requiring off-script, creative solutions and providing higher tier support.
The recap
Bots are here to stay, they are now able to interact with humans the way humans want to interact. They have become cheaper, more flexible and easier to build. Companies ready to use Bots should understand the technology’s limitations and focus on the the right set of customers. If done right, Bots can vastly improve customer relationships by enabling a more fluid and natural communication.
