The world is going crazy over messaging as a new platform and the concept of ‘conversational commerce’. A lot has been said about it in a variety of tones. It is here, there and everywhere. And yet, here we are, talking about it because we’ve got something to add.
But, let’s begin from the top. Let’s understand what we know and then see what we can do.
Let us start with a little preface
Humans have used conversations to do all sorts of transactions for thousands of years. With the advent of digital technology, our ways of accessing the world changed drastically. Mid ‘80s was an era of desktop softwares when computers started getting mainstream, changing our world forever. Then came along ‘The Internet’ in the mid ‘90s. With the gush of browsers & websites overflowing the internet, everything we ever did offline was available on the web. Around a decade later in early 2000s, came the invasion of apps, bringing the world to our fingertips. Everything became so accessible and convenient.
It’s been another decade since then and we are downloading fewer and fewer apps. App fatigue is setting in. The average app downloads per month became zero for most people almost an year ago.
However, it’s all changing once again. It’s “bot, bot” chant everywhere. Thanks to the innate human nature of conversing, we are running headlong to witness the biggest technical paradigm shift of the decade — the conversation commerce paradigm — which has the potential to open new vistas for businesses and consumers.
What is the need?
Humans have two basics ways of interacting with the world around them — gestures and conversations. Gestures are modelled in technology through IoT devices, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality etc.
Conversations, on the other hand, have always been our primary mode of interaction with others. However, talking to someone (or something) is a huge cognitive load. Thus, conversations morph into chat.
More and more people are shifting from social media to messaging apps.
Messaging platforms have emerged to be the most used globally accepted technology.
The simple truth is that chat has become our comfort zone. It is intuitive, easier, simpler and more fun 🖖.
Why chat will be above all?
The customers have to move out of their comfort zone to access any service. Customers need to have scores of those unwanted apps that they seldom use. Brands have to run behind the users to get them download another app. Users struggle with the given UIs to fulfil their variable intents.
The typical user flow before he uses an app has a number of hops and redirections. Anyone working with an online audience knows very well that with every context switch you are losing a chunk of your customers.
With business messaging, user preference is completely taken care of. The customer can solve his problem where he discovers the solution. He is working on the interface he is most comfortable with and he will make transactions in the most natural and easiest way possible.
To bot or not to bot?
People are talking about all sorts of things. Some say that commerce over conversation, the way it is being done, is not meaningful, while some say it can risk our social existence. Others are more optimistic about the future of CUI but are sceptic about implementations. GUI is constantly under judgement. Some smart people suggest that CUI should adopt intricate human interactional behaviours like worrying about first impression, revealing your cards as the time comes and cheating behind the back.
Bots will replace customer service, bots will replace apps, bots will replace humans🏽! The world is worried about many things. What’s really there to get worried about, only time will tell.
What is our take on it?
Given so many thoughts shared by some of the brightest minds in this space, one thing is for sure, the bots are coming! The customers are embracing the new technology and businesses will have to mould themselves to be ready for the change.
Here are the 4 mantras that we have adopted which will enable the brands to morph their business into chat.
Mantra 1 : Make delightful experiences, not humanized bots
We have not set out to pass Turing test, we are here to pass the ‘Beer Test’🍺.
Mantra 2 : Take businesses where users are
The most important reason we are experiencing this paradigm shift is that people have become comfortable with conversations. Let them stay in their comfort zone and take the businesses to them.
Mantra 3 : A problem half solved is a problem unsolved
The real solution is to connect all the links from end to end and make it possible for everyone, owning an app or a web-service, to move to conversational UI.
Mantra 4 : 0100110101101111011100100111000001101000
We have a few secrets of our own! 🤐 Do you think it was all going to be revealed? 😛
So, who are “we”?
Introducing Morph.ai
Transform your business into chat
Morph.ai helps businesses to morph their current infrastructure into conversations, thus seamlessly integrating their current services to next generation of UI. We are building an end-to-end solution for businesses; once integrated to Morph, businesses can enable their services on all the interfaces where their customers are present, on all their social networks like Facebook, Twitter and over SMS or via live-chat on their website etc.
A customer can use your service, complete his transactions or give a feedback or ask a query all through the same channel, no context switching anymore.
It is of primary importance for businesses to maintain their persona and persisting their brand identity. Therefore, Morph also allows businesses to customise their interactions, and helps them control the flow of conversations and deciding when is a good time to bring in a real human. Such symbiotic relation between man and machine is the key to solving the problem at hand.
The system is plug-and-play. It fits in the existing technical infrastructure of the company and goes along with all the tools that the company uses.
Morph understands the business, Morph understands the customer and Morph understands the relationship it has to maintain between the two.
With a bag full of features and eyes full of possibilities, Morph.ai is the key to the world of conversational commerce.
