Last year Facebook announced a “Business on Messenger” initiative, and this week we saw the beta version finally launch. As you can imagine, the launch of a business initiative for businesses has been highly anticipated; an offering that scales up its already hugely popular Messenger app.Most notably included in this upscaled version was the introduction of bots. These automated bots can carry out a variety of tasks—the example from the launch video being a man checking in for a flight, directly from the messaging app.We’re especially excited about this because with the beta launch included a Send/Receive API, and we’re fully ready to embrace it. The Messenger Platform will therefore open up the previously untapped conversation space for businesses to interact with their customers. For those integrated with the Esendex platform, this means there is an added potential to improve customer engagement. Incorporating instant messaging with the already well establish SMS channel.Understandably these new chat bots are getting a lot of attention. It’s the Siri people might actually use. It’s Facebook’s foray into the AI space, seeking to catch up with Microsoft and bot integrations already seen in WeChat and Slack.While chat bots themselves are nothing new, integrating them into instant messaging channels presents opportunities for automating and scaling existing business workflows, from booking confirmations to delivering enhanced customer support. It’s not just about the bots, though.
There’s more than just bots
We, however, are more excited about the Send/Receive API. It opens up a fresh commerce and communication channel that has more than 900m users worldwide, and although its ubiquity is unlikely to rival that of SMS, it is certainly a channel with a huge audience.Our customers recognise the value of connecting with their users on the platforms they use. They understand that engaging with customers through automating their processes, using our industry-leading APIs, is paramount to their communication strategies. The Messenger Platform has the potential to further increase their engagement as part of an intelligent multi channel messaging solution.
We’re exploring the possibilities of the Facebook Messenger Platform
One of our developers, Paul, has taken some time to demonstrate a few early interactions with the Facebook Messenger Platform:
The dangers of getting it wrong
Not all early demonstrations have resulted in great user experiences. While SMS is well established as a business communication channel, users of these Instant Messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, mightn’t be as comfortable, and perhaps even a little creeped out by receiving messages from companies they’ve interacted with via these platforms.Couple this with recent examples of flawed AI in inexperienced robots, such as Microsoft’s “Tay” Twitter bot, which took less than 24 hours to become corrupted, and it’s easy to see how getting it wrong that leave your brand on the back foot.
Intelligent multi channel messaging
We are here help you to protect your customers’ trust. Not only that, but we will help you to improve brand engagement by incorporating Messenger as part of an integrated, intelligent multi channel messaging solution. Offering fresh opportunities to impress and charm your customers and leverage your brand.The Facebook Messenger Platform launch invites you to think more freely about the ways in which your company is engaging with its customers. How can you bring added value to those customer? And, are you making the most of the communication channels available?We’ll be bringing you more updates from our exploration of the Messenger Platform, so keep an eye on this blog. If you’d like to register your interest in the progress we make, please contact us on 1300 764 946 or fill in our contact form.
