Biggest takes from Facebook’s F8 conference
Facebook’s F8 conference has finally come to an end and boy wasn’t it an exciting two days for developers and the tech community at large. Named F8 after the Facebook tradition of having eight-hour hackathons, the conference was viewed and attended by millions of developers from all around the world.
There were lots of takes from this year’s event, as Facebook unveiled everything from Virtual Reality goggles, to 360 degree video cameras, a 10 year road map and new analytics tools.
(Not to mention, Samsung also gave all 2,600 developers who attended the conference a free Gear VR kit along with a customized Galaxy phone…) cool stuff huh ?
No love lost on our end though, because the biggest news of the day was more than music to our ears.
Facebook Messenger will begin to allow for the use of bots !!
A QUICK RECAP ON BOTS
Bots are special accounts designed to handle messages automatically. The use of bots, especially in relation to Instant Messaging is not new. Messaging apps such as Telegram and WeChat have been using bots for some time and Facebook had been lagging behind in this aspect.
CASE IN POINT: Earlier this year, KPLC launched a bot on Telegram that allows customers to check everything from their monthly bills, to their last purchased token, and even their debt status. Eliminating the need for customers to call, email or wait for their bills to arrive by mail.
WHAT’S THE FUSS ?
The reason we’re so excited about this news is because bots open up a whole new range of possibility in messaging. They allow you to say more, do more and ultimately reach more..
Think about the last time you called customer service and you sat there listening to the hold music as you were told “ Your call is important to us “… Such forms of interaction require full attention and quite frankly, waste a lot of time. With messaging, both the customer service agent and the customer are freed from this and can resolve issues at 7X the speed.
“ Facebook foresees the future being more about how people can interact with businesses more intuitively, and use bots to make their lives easier — be it to order pizza, arrange a car pickup, send flowers, or go shopping. “ — TNW
To power the bot platform, Facebook has released a machine learning engine that will allow for automated responses that will be sensitive to a customer’s mood, simply by analysing the context of the conversation.
THE ABC’s of machine learning.
Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that focusses on pattern recognition and gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.
For instance, the bot engine can learn to escalate an issue for a customer who seems angry or dissatisfied. While a customer who is pleased with a product or service can receive a warm, light hearted response in reply.
Bots are really creating a new dawn for business — customer interaction and we’re here to help take your business there.
Whether you’re running a restaurant, an ecommerce shop, a delivery service or a marketing campaign, messaging can increase your interaction and conversion rates faster than any other channel can.
Check out our Messenger page and find out how you can make the most of Facebook Messenger for business today. All you need is a facebook page and we’ll take care of the rest.
Don’t be shy, get your business a Messenger account today..
Originally published at blog.ongair.im on April 15, 2016.
