How a Clothing Boutique Can Use Messenger Bots

Today we talk about:

• Customer service
• Getting feedback
• Coupons
• Buying process

Christian: [00:00:16] Hey,how's it going? And welcome to another episode. Today we're talking about how aclothing boutique can use Facebook Messenger bots. We're going to be talkingabout customer service. They can also do coupons. You can get feedback and evengo through the whole buying process.

Aaron: [00:00:33] Allright. So this is an exciting episode for multiple reasons. One, because thisis cool, new technology, but it's something that I think is practical enoughthat a business owner doesn't necessarily need somebody else to help them with.It is very practical and something that can really help accelerate your growthand take your hands- maybe not automate some things, but it can move thingsquickly and get more sales without having to have a bunch of knowledge. So thisis going to be really a good episode.

Christian: [00:01:04] Yeah.And for those of you who don't know what a Messenger chatbot is basically theyallow you to automatically provide consumers or customers with immediateresponses that you sort of integrate to the chatbot or you teach chatbot. Theycan answer sort of basic questions like what's your return policy or, you know,what sizes of shoes do you have currently. So things like that. I mean, theycan get very smart to just very simple questions.

Aaron: [00:01:33] Right.And this doesn't have to be automated. So you could do it. The bot could becompletely automated and learn some answers to common questions or at leasttell your customers hey, we'll be there in a minute. Those are all automated,but you could also use the bot to strike other conversations. For example, oncethey started a conversation with you and say they have a problem withsomething, it could spark a message that goes directly to you, and you starthaving this conversation inside of Messenger. So it takes it outside of thebot. The bot just kind of initiates the conversation or kind of takes yourhands off the wheel to start the conversation or kind of guide theconversation. So when you show up, it will make the process simpler. This isn'tto necessarily, and to clarify, not to take away the human effect with this.It's to hopefully enhance the user experience, and by doing that, we're talkingabout customer service. And that's huge in the clothing industry. We're talkingabout people who want to hold and feel and touch whenever they buy shoes orclothes because it's important. I mean, the type of shirt that you wear, thetype of shoes, the way that they feel, all of that matters, and a bot cananswer some of those questions, those commonly known questions, on, you know,this type of shirt or this type of dress. Answer those questions so that ifthey do have an issue or a problem, they can at least give you more towards theMessenger side, and you can handle it afterwards. But you get that initialinformation, and you don't have to answer the same questions over and overagain.

Christian: [00:03:08] Yes.So customer service is a huge thing for the clothing industry in general. Soteaching the bot to answer those frequently asked questions. I mean, they maybe on your website. They may be on your website six different times, but a lotof people don't like looking for things like that. So having the bot automatedquestions can help them, you know, get to that sale and get to that check out alot quicker.

Aaron: [00:03:35] Right.So for example, on the customer service side, they- I mean, we always encourageyou to have a chat box on your website anyway, but this kind of outside ofthat. For example, you have the ability on Facebook that if somebody visitsyour website, you know, X amount of times, five times in the last week, they'reprobably interested in buying. Same thing if they added to your cart or ifthey've spent so much time there. For example, like you know, 10 to 15 minuteseach time that they're on your website. You can actually have a bot send them amessage and say hey, do you have any questions? Or you know, we'd love to chatwith you further about something that could help you. Et cetera, et cetera.That just kind of sparks the conversation and starts that, and they maybe justneed help with, you know, what kind of shoes do they need? Or you know, I'vebeen really looking at these pair of leggings or whatever, and they just needhelp walking down the aisle or walking down that process just getting a littlebit more feedback on that. All right. So next we have our coupons, and bots arereally, really good for coupons because we've tried this outside of theclothing industry but also have tested this in the clothing industry. And withbots, you can send images. So you can essentially send your coupon overMessenger. You can do this by- again we talked about people who have taken aspecific action on your website. For example, they added to your cart, but youdon't ever see that transaction come through. You could have a bot message themand send them an image for a coupon that says hey, here's 10 percent off. Youhave the rest of today to use it kind of thing.

Christian: [00:05:15] Yeah.And they can also go to your Facebook business page, and they can sort ofsubscribe to your Messenger because I did this with CNN. And they would send meI think either daily or weekly sort of like the breaking news or a summary ofwhat was going on that day, and they did that automatically. Like I didn't haveto ask the CNN messenger bot to send me that. They would just do itautomatically. So there is a feature that you can sign up for that particularMessenger bot for your boutique, and then you can sort of blast these couponswhenever you have a sale going on.

Aaron: [00:05:55] Idid not know you could do that, but that's- absolutely. And I was eventhinking, this is kind of outside of it, but we have a boutique we work withthat does newsletters. So that could be like a reminder like hey, we're aboutto send a newsletter. Go check it out or here's the link to check out thenewsletter. So you can send updates as well.

Christian: [00:06:11] Yes.So, yeah, we're talking about coupons here, but generally this can be aplatform for you to distribute content. It doesn't have to be, yeah, justcoupons. It could be like Aaron said a newsletter. It could be a new video thatyou came out with. So it's just a better way to notify your customer base that,you know, you have some new content out.

Aaron: [00:06:33] Right.And one of the biggest things that is important for shopping online is reviewsand for local stores is reviews, and you can get great user feedback andexperiences. This is something that can absolutely be automated on your bot.You just uploaded a list of people who have purchased in the last 10 days or 20days or however. I would consider- I would like for you to do it morefrequently. So you know, when it's fresh on their mind within seven days, justkind of upload an email list to Facebook, and you can have a bot send them amessage and say hey, rate your experience from 1 to 10. You know, and you getthe experience, or they'll get the feedback right there. The bot knows to saythank you, and if you have any questions. So a response or that's somethingthat can be done completely automatic by the bot, and you don't have to doanything except to collect the data.

Christian: [00:07:28] Andthen another huge thing that a bot can do is walk them through the whole buyingprocess. We're talking about, you know, someone initiates the conversationlike, you know, what are your new arrivals? Then the bot could ask are youlooking for something in particular? They may say shoes, and then the botautomatically just gives them the list of new shoes that you have uploaded toyour boutique. And then from there they can even ask for the name, phonenumber, credit card information, and do the whole check out process right therefrom Messenger. This is something that obviously is very new. So there wouldhave to be a little bit of, I guess, education, you know, to the customer basein order for them to even find out that that's an option for them.

Aaron: [00:08:16] Right.And although it is new, it is something that people are becoming more and moreaware of. So just having that conversation at the first time will make itpossible for them to make that purchase. But I think in the next couple ofyears, we'll see this more and more. You know, I guess it will be easier for thepeople to make those purchases, and they won't think twice about doing it overa Messenger bot. But it is still very new. Do we have any other good ones? Ifeel like we flew through these.

Christian: [00:08:48] Prettyquickly. Yeah. I mean, it's very exciting. Another thing, a very quick thing,is, you know, through that whole check out process, you can have the bot toautomatically just ask, you know, are you looking for anything else? Like justdo a upsell of different products, and that's automated right there. Wheneveryou go to a website and you check out, sometimes you see this in the check outprocess where, you know, they sort of blasted with-

Aaron: [00:09:12] Youmay like this or-

Christian: [00:09:14] Exactly.

Aaron: [00:09:14] Thisalso looks good if it was in your cart or something.

Christian: [00:09:17] Butthis is more direct because it's basically like a sales rep asking, you know,are you looking for anything else? Or have you checked out these products too?So that's a great way to upsell. Now do you have any recommendations onFacebook Messenger chatbots? I know we've worked with a few.

Aaron: [00:09:38] Yes.So there is Chatfuel and ManyChat, that's M-A-N-Y Chat, which we can put bothof the links up on this podcast for you guys to check out. Both services arefree, and it does have machine learning. So what that means is that as youanswer responses, it will learn the way that you respond, and it will start torespond that way. But you can have certain triggers. You could do- I mean,there's a lot of things and a lot of other apps that integrate with it. Forexample, if you have a Shopify app, you can send them directly from a bot toShopify and then once they make a purchase you have something else happen. Sothere's very, very cool stuff, and it is free to a certain extent. I think onceyou get, you know, so many different tasks that happen, it will, you know, makeyou charge, but for the most part it is free. And that is ManyChat and Chatfuelwhich are really good resources.

Christian: [00:10:31] Yeah.And they're not necessarily super hard to do either. A lot of these have verybasic and simple user interface where, you know, a business owner can do asimple chatbot by themselves. Maybe a frequently asked questions chatbot. It'sdefinitely possible for you to do it on your own.

Aaron: [00:10:51] Right.I was going to say if anything just test it out, find out, you know, what youcan and cannot do, but there's plenty of articles out there to walk you throughexactly how to set it up. But like Christian said, it is very intuitive, and ifyou do have questions and, you know, you can always ask us and we'd love toguide you in the right direction. But it could be very beneficial because otherthan the big brands like Macy's and, you know, Kohl's and Neiman Marcus andstuff, they're probably doing it, but on a local level businesses, they are notdoing that. I can almost guarantee that.

Christian: [00:11:24] Yeah.Absolutely not. Again so, this was another episode of the Marketing Natives,how a clothing boutique can use Facebook Messenger bots. The Messenger bots areamazing, and some of the things that we talked about was, you know, use themfor customer service, for some frequently asked questions. You can use them tosend out content like coupons or newsletters or new videos. You can also usethem to get feedback and get some reviews in, and also you can use them to gothrough the whole buying process and even check out from the Facebook Messengerbot. Hopefully you got something out of this episode, and definitely look intothis because this is going to be blowing up a lot more in the coming years.

Aaron: [00:12:06] Allright. And at this time we'd love for you guys if you're not driving or, Idon't know, doing something else, running. Go ahead and click that subscribebutton or when you get to a place you can stop. Click the subscribe button andthen share this with a friend. Sharing is caring. So click those three buttonsin the right hand corner. Share this episode with a friend or at least post iton your Facebook page and maybe somebody else that you don't know could benefitfrom it as well. So we will talk to you guys next week.

Christian:[00:12:39] Bye.