Sounds like a cliché? Perhaps. But from what we’ve seen, many businesses struggle to stay agile and take too long to adapt to the new platforms emerging in an age of ever changing technology.
From small businesses to enterprises, companies are spending a lot of money on launching and updating new apps, while no one is really using them at the end of the day.
And it’s even more true for the younger generation of Millennials and Gen Z. According to Fast Company, teens rarely surf the web or try out new apps. Instead, they conduct their digital life through a collection of social apps, from Facebook Messenger to Instagram to Snapchat. On all of them, they’re messaging.
Most US smartphone owners download zero apps in a typical month, according to comScore’s mobile app report. There’s some solid data and research done on the rise of messaging apps and bots. As Business Insider reports, messaging apps have surpassed social networks in terms of monthly active users.
This app fatigue particularly applies to all the conference, airline and restaurant apps. Why?
Think about it. You’re at a conference for 2 days. To get their app you have to find it in the App Store, wait for it to download, create a profile and learn the UI. Just so you can delete it the day after cause why should it take up your storage space, knowing you won’t be back for another year.
Now imagine that you just scan a code that opens up a conference bot in your favourite messaging app. You’re already familiar with the interface, don’t need to create an account and you can immediately start interacting with the content, which might even be personalised to you. Whole lot of friction removed.
Similar applies to restaurants. Instead of begging customers to download their app at the bottom of a receipt, restaurants could be present in messaging apps. From there, customers could receive personalised offers, join loyalty programmes or book a table without the need of installing anything.
I would even extend it and say that the killer application for bots is in transactions. Imagine the Uber-like experience where a customer walks into a restaurant, scans a code on the table, orders and pays within the messaging app and the food just magically appears.
This rise of conversational interfaces has changed the way customers find your business. It’s quite likely that in the past few months, you’ve acquired new customers from various messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack or Kik, and perhaps even voice assistants, like Amazon Alexa or Google Home.
But it’s less likely that you were present on these platforms or have any insights into what type of customers you attracted and how they interacted with your business.
It’s time for you to be present where your customers are and let them interact with your business immediately using chatbots.
