Bots for Your Brand

One of my favorite speakers this semester was David Hu, VP of Strategy and Engineering at Dexter, a platform that allows brands to create meaningful online conversations with their customers by way of chat bots. His lecture got me thinking – are chat bots really the way of the future, and should brands look to leverage chat bots to better serve their customers? I began to research some firms that are currently using chat bots to revolutionize their space, and it goes to show that in everything from food to beauty, chat bots are making simple tasks faster and less painful for brands and customers alike.

1. Lyft uses chat bots to give you information about your ride. You can also request a ride through a chat bot via Facebook Messenger or Slack.
2. Fandango lets users get information on movies as well as purchase tickets through their Facebook Messenger bot.
3. Users can chat with Seophora on Kik via their personal beauty assistance chat bot.
4. Stay on top of big news with The Wall Street Journal’s chat bot for Facebook messenger, which lets you check on the latest news, stock prices, etc.
5. Order pizza through Twitter or Facebook Messenger thanks to Pizza Hut’s Facebook Messenger integration.
6. Services like HealthJoy let users learn about their individual health benefits, available providers, and to learn about their different healthcare options.

While the above just scratch the surface of how firms can use chat bots to create a better experience for their customers, they go to show how wildly different industries can leverage chat bots. From ordering food to managing one’s health, chat bots take a lot of the ‘busy work’ out of what would otherwise be manual, laborious processes.

A key takeaway here is that even though it may not seem intuitive, chat bots can likely be helpful in most (if not any) industry. The above brands are pushing the envelope and integrating chat into their daily operations, and their success can serve as a lesson to other brands who may be questioning how chat bots could fit into their overall brand/sales/marketing/customer service structure.