Why the Success of Conversational Commerce Depends on a Great UX
Facebook opened its F8 conference this year with a huge announcement about their investment in chatbots. Facebook Messenger is growing to become more popular than Facebook itself, and companies that want to access that massive user base will need a chatbot to play in their sandbox. That’s so important because Facebook’s bet on bots is a bellwether for where the web, especially the mobile web, is headed.
David Marcus, Facebook’s VP of messaging, laid out how they see the future,
“To me it’s about bringing back all the best parts of the interaction between people and businesses. What we’re trying to build with bots are rich conversational experiences. That’s what we believe will be the future of interactions and services.”
Companies creating their own bots have the most to gain from these “rich conversation experiences” as the foundation for conversational commerce. Here’s a closer look at what conversational commerce really means and why an engaging UX will be so critical to its success.
A Working Definition of Conversational Commerce
At its most basic level, conversational commerce = instant messaging + monetization. A quick search using the hashtag #ConvComm on Medium will give you all the background you need. The idea is that there is much more to chat UI real estate than conversation, and companies will be able to generate revenues through options like in-app purchases, targeted ads and payment tools.
There’s no denying the rapid growth and revenue potential of messaging apps like WeChat, WhatsApp and Kik. TechCrunch stated categorically, “Messaging app platforms are the single most important shift in how the internet is being consumed this decade.” That sounds like hype until you see how quickly this market is growing.
Nearly half of the world — 3.2 billion people — are already using instant messaging services; they sent more than 43 trillion instant messages to each other last year. So far, monetizing those conversations has proven to be tricky, but the rewards for the winners will be incredibly vast.
Conversational UX
The Neilsen Norman Group found that mobile UX has been the driver of mobile’s rapid rise. Adoption followed a steep trajectory as people sought out intuitive ways to connect that are faster than email and less interruptive than a phone call. Chatbots are now beginning to ride that wave, but as messaging evolves into a full-fledged channel, there will be clear winners and losers. The next battleground will be over building the ideal chatbot UX that will engage users, whether they are launched in interfaces like Facebook Messenger, on the company homepage or pop out of some new device in the emerging Internet of Things (IoT).
What’s the difference between Facebook and MySpace? About $18 billion dollars in operating revenue over the past 12 months. In the social market, one matters and the other doesn’t. Brand value is a measure of what users tell each other about a company. In other words, you would be entirely justified in saying that UX is the difference between market winners and losers in the world of messaging. An attractive onboarding UX welcomes customers and makes them want to return.
This is a wide open field, as it is so early in the game. There are no established best practices in chatbot UX, and even sure things, like Peach and Meerkat in the messaging market, have collapsed. Here is some solid conclusions, based on UX from related tools.
3 Elements to Consider
1. Color — Just like the speed of business, the speed of fashion has accelerated in the mobile culture. Colors and textures, which used to stay fresh for years, are cycling every season now. Developers need to stay up on the color trend reports released each season. Customers in the real world subconsciously register these colors as new and exciting.
2. Personality — Fast Co. Design made this point in saying, “In conversational UIs, personality is the new UX.” Chat interaction designers are drawing on folklore, mythology and theater to create characters that connect instantly with the next generation of users.
3. Response — Every micro-second delay on mobile is glaring. UX chatbots need to display images or text that let the user know the bot is working on the request. This can be a message like “Chatbot is typing” or a visual like the infamous Apple beachball. Make this communication fun and surprising for the user.
The New Rules of the Game
In essence, conversational commerce and the next wave of chatbots need a welcoming UX because users won’t talk or explore until they feel safe and part of a fresh, new community. They need to know that their privacy is respected and that the brand reflects their values. The chatbot’s UX needs to be practically invisible so monetization efforts enhance rather than interrupt their conversations and drive them away to safer harbors.
Discovering the right chatbot UX that feels safe to your very unique preferred customer base will be a very individual journey for each company. Fortunately, the rules of chatbot UX design are wide open right now. Where you end up will be as individual as your buyer persona.
Many companies are calling on experts in natural language interfaces, and omni-channel messaging management like Tawk.to to help them manage their messaging. The one absolute is that the more customer research you do prior to your chatbot development, the better your access to real time messaging insights, the lower your risks and the less it will cost to improve your chatbot’s performance in the very near future.
