How mattress companies are bridging the gap between brands and customers. How brands are staying connected with their customers via conversational bots
Imagine you are up late, you don’t want to be but you are, and texting someone at this hour would be inappropriate but you would like to have a conversation. Or imagine you are thinking about revamping your fall fashion wardrobe and you’re not sure who to consult. These nominal inconsequential problems are what brands all around the world are trying to solve by using conversational chatbots. To develop a direct relationship with customers, companies are building solutions to problems, sometimes unrelated to their core business. In the case of the Insomnbot 3000 launched by Casper, circa 2016, the purpose was to be a night companion for those who find themselves still awake in the wee hours of the morning. Even though it’s a bot made by a company that sells mattresses, it’s not something that will help you count sheep or that will bring you chamomile tea. It’s a chatty-friendly bot that has watched all of “Stranger Things”, it’s sort of hungry and obsessed with pizza. It was only available from 11 PM to 5 AM and wanted to be your companion when your friends were asleep but you were still awake. The bot was created by Casper’s tech, design, data, and creative departments. The bot uses technology from Twilio and Dexter and does not incorporate machine learning, but can respond to most of your questions about “Seinfeld” reruns. Casper has positioned itself as a company based around the entire culture of sleep from mattresses to pillows and sleep-centric blogs.
With the Insomnobot it reached out to help you when you’re trying to get to that sleep but just aren’t there yet. Insomnobot 3000 is a great example of a marketing bot, part of the evolving relationship between people and brands that are happening in chat windows. During the same era from sleep to fashion, Burberry created a Facebook Messenger bot to show off threads that will be on the runway, as part of London Fashion Week. The Burberry bot was able to show consumers new clothes to buy, details on those particular items, and randomized chat. But the bot had more than just your basic functionalities, it also lets you watch the fashion show being held at Makers House in London. In sharing that inspiration, the Burberry bot gave people the choice to press buttons and navigate a maze, finding images of the new fashion collection along the way. The Burberry bot also gave users the option to speak with a human if they have any questions. At the time the chatbot still carried out sales through its website and not through Facebook. Burberry is not the only company in the fashion industry utilizing this innovative strategy to connect with its consumers. Tommy Hilfiger launched its chatbot through Facebook also with lots of fanfare during the same period. The bot was used to launch fashion lines for supermodels and upcoming events. Through the bot, consumers were able to type questions or select pre-made queries to learn about seasonal lineups, see behind-the-scenes content from the collection’s runway show event, and, most importantly, shop for items from the nautical-themed clothing line. At the time of launch, Facebook still didn’t have a native checkout and payment flow into its Messenger bot platform. Shoppers would have to be linked out to Tommy Hilfiger’s website to put in their credit card details to confirm purchases. While it gave brands a deeper sense of control over the experience, it also reduced conversion rates as leaving Messenger gives them a chance to get distracted or reconsider buying something. Those chatbots are ancient as far as technology goes. Today’s chatbots are more sophisticated, better trained, and have numerous more features.
Current chatbots will try to answer people’s questions and offer a more immersive, responsive feel than shoppers can get online. Chatbots allow for a constant, instant, and engaging experience. Brands are attracted to chatbots because of the relationship aspect, not just sales. If they can create a memorable, interactive experience with their brand instead of just one-way marketing, customers will keep coming back. Additionally, relying on a dependable well-vetted Chatbot implementation company, there’s less to worry about and more to gain as customers embrace new ways to shop. As most are aware, the sophistication of a chatbot depends on the advancement of the technology and how far it can take a customer towards creating value. This also goes for completing purchases or finding a solution. The recent pandemic has fundamentally shifted how people communicate and behave. In the age of instant gratification and everything-at-your-fingertips, consumers are increasingly expecting faster and more seamless service and responses from brands. This is even more relevant now that being able to see, speak, and communicate with representatives from your brand may not be possible. More and more brands have innovated to be there when their consumers need them most.
Prior to the pandemic, 69 percent of customers were more confident about brands that are reachable via messaging. Additionally, consumers want more personalization, with 83 percent of them willing to share data with a brand should it lead to a more personalized experience. Getting conversations started is essentially the best way to build an audience early and not get left behind. Across the board research brands with the greatest eCommerce chatbots on the internet, and you’ll find Sephora’s implementation in practically every search result. The chatbot has a high-end experience and handles communication so effortlessly. Consumers can browse the products, receive customized beauty tips, personalized product recommendations, and much more. Like a human sales executive in an actual showroom, the chatbot will even ask targeted questions from you to come up with recommendations as per your precise taste. Furthering Sephora’s dominance in chatbot implementation they have added AR (“Augmented Reality”) functionality that allows the consumer to try on different make-up via live selfies right from their mobile device. LVMH the company that owns Sephora has accelerated the value of its market capitalization over the last five years by over 450%, presumably in no small part to the relationships the brand can create utilizing innovations similar to chatbots. Heyday is a company that provides AI-powered conversational commerce platforms for retailers in a range of categories, including auto brand Ford, food brand Danone, and luxury goods brand LVMH. The goal is to launch before the lead-up to the crucial Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days that kick off the holiday shopping season.
Create a great omnichannel experience, and meet customers where they are at every stage of the consumer journey. An industry with a special interest in competitive customer service, an innovative banking chatbot has stepped forward in the form of Capital One’s Eno. This “virtual assistant” can do the basics of checking a balance and paying bills online, but also has more sophisticated features like notifications about soon-to-expire free trials and fraud alerts. Eno was built in-house, with its algorithm based on real chat conversations between customers and representatives to allow an understanding of nuances in human communication. For instance, Eno can understand that “activate,” “turn on my card” and “make my card work” are the same request. To implement an element of fun, the chatbot was also made compatible with emojis and casual conversation, with abilities like telling jokes and rejecting marriage proposals. Amusingly, Capital One discovered that 14 percent of messages to Eno were unrelated to banking, illustrating how the line between human and bot blurs with advanced chatbots and how they play a role in entertainment.
This is just the tip of the iceberg where chatbots are starting to pop up. New developments have been seen in mental health via apps like Wysa and the automotive industry with KIA’s Kian. The World Health Organization has developed a WhatsApp-based chatbot to answer questions and offer advice on COVID-19. Additionally, the education market has a surge of chatbots including popular language learning apps like Duolingo. As the impacts of COVID-19 are felt around the world, the applications of chatbots can only increase to satisfy the demand for digital services. The future of chatbots is truly limitless, especially as AI (“Artificial Intelligence”) becomes more advanced and gains the ability to fulfill more nuanced and difficult requests. Trends illustrate that the demand for faster, better, and more personalized will only drive chatbot innovations into more creative and mainstream usages in the future. Investment in the digital channel early and with conviction brings real value to the consumer. The value translates into long-term loyalty and profits for the brand.
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