Author: Ori

  • Deploying Gen-AI Agents? Here Are 5 Mistakes to Avoid

    Conversational commerce has the potential to accelerate the growth of your brand while improving customer experience. It is critical to understand the capabilities and avoid some of the mistakes while deploying Gen-AI Agents.

    Mistake #1: Beginning Without an Effective Plan & Strategy

    AI Agents are as good as the information it has regarding your brand, customers, and your product or service. While the AI is quick to learn and adapt as it starts conversing with customers, it is advisable to carefully plan the nuances.

    The purpose of developing a conversational AI project influences the plan for creating an effective conversational AI solution.

    Develop a plan by examining your customers’ motivations and then modifying the tone, technique, and AI behavior.

    Mistake #2: Your First Use-Case

    Conversational AI has been deployed largely for rule-based linear customer support. No secret that the experience can be a little frustrating at times interacting with such bots. Real conversational AI understands intent, dialects, sentiments, and multiple requests in the same sentence.

    Deploy real conversational AI solutions for your top and middle of the funnel, to begin with. This will allow the AI to learn as it pushes the customer down the sales funnel with intelligent contextual conversations. Treat your AI like a Sales agent who will mature to delight your customers.

    Mistake #3: No Hybrid (AI+Human) Approach

    We are still in the early days of conversational AI-based end-to-end effective customer transition. According to American Express, 23% of consumers still prefer human interaction in complex issues.

    Deploying an AI Agent that is capable of handing over the chat or a call to a live agent with context-rich and structured conversational data can be the most effective approach.

    A hybrid solution will bring efficacy, profits, and a better experience.

    Mistake #4: Continuous Training & Tracking AI’s Performance

    A real conversational AI has the ability to continuously self-learn from available sources and conversations. That still does not mean the AI requires no human intelligence to optimize its paths toward the objective.

    Appointing a SPOC for the AI, who can guide the AI in learning responses or understanding context will create a profitable and rewarding experience. Tracking key metrics of your conversational AI can help dramatically improve its performance.

    Mistake #5: Ignoring the Trends & Predictions

    Newer technology stacks and methods are being added to conversational AI daily. Gen-AI Agents are becoming intelligent and capable as we interact more and more with it. That means it becomes imperative to keep an eye out for early trends.

    This will help you design the best-updated conversational AI solution that suits your business needs and helps you outperform your KPIs.

    Check out the list of the top 5 trends we recently published for conversational AI adoption for 2025.

    If you’re a brand or an enterprise looking to take advantage of AI Agents, consider these 5 points and move ahead and upwards. Click here to schedule a demo with our experts, if you’re stuck adopting Gen-AI Agents into your operational or customer-focused processes today.

  • 5 Key Developments in the Adoption of Conversational AI

    Chatbots represent a new trend in how people access information, make decisions and communicate.”  — Christie Pitts ( Verizon Ventures)

    Hey Alexa…play BTS Butter

    Have you wondered, how even a 5-year-old today is so comfortable interacting with an AI? To think about it, it’s almost an extension of our brain now. 

    Something comes to my mind and I inform Alexa, it communicates back, which allows me to process my emotions. To say the least, AI has become integral to every sphere of our daily routine.

    At Ori, we innovate, create and deploy conversational AI solutions for global brands across the sector. As per Gartner projections, the market for conversational AI platforms was worth $3.8 billion globally in 2021, rising 55% from the previous year. 

    Till now, in 2022, Ori has handled over 2 billion conversations. Assisting customers of brands find the right product, making a seamless purchase experience, and even managing customer support. 

    As we near 2025 we list 5 key developments in the adoption of Conversational AI.

    1. Real conversational AI:
      A lot of experience today with chatbots can be boring and sometimes frustrating too. That is because most of the bots are simple rule-based responses. However, advanced chatbots like “Convert” can actually understand intent and context and respond with intelligence.

      As chatbots become more communicative and cognitive, the user experience will improve as the next significant step. Real conversational AIs will comprehend sentiments and make interactions almost human-like. Real conversational AI will become an integral part of a superior customer experience for brands.
    2. Truly multi-lingual:
      There has been a lot of research conducted on making AI comprehend languages than simply translating from English. Chatbots will soon be proficient in multiple languages, including Hinglish and even various dialects. At Ori, we have filed for a patent for the way we process languages. We’ve modeled our language tech stack on how the human brain learns and understands languages. In the coming months and years, we expect the industry to implement conversational AIs that can mimic its customers’ language, without simple translations.
    3. Way more than “if this then that”:
      The first ever chatbot was created way back in 1960 by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum. By 2022 the evolution of chatbots has been phenomenal, to put it simply. In the next few years, we will see conversational AI become as smart as “J.A.R.V.I.S”. Users will be able to have conversations than just give instructions. And based on these conversations, AI will recommend the best buying options, help users realize their needs and wants and be able to fathom complex emotions. The interactions will be more intuitive than based on triggers.

      According to Juniper Research, advances in NLP and Machine learning will lower the current failure rate of AI engagements, making conversational AI far more robust and valuable for customers.
    4. Unsupervised learning:
      It so happens that as we mature, we begin to learn how to think more effectively from our own experiences. Independent of any assistance or direction from adults or our teachers. Because we’ve put our minds through repeated training over the years, we begin to understand the key points from a specific piece of information. AIs will advance on this path in 2023. AI can classify hidden patterns of complex human thought without assistance or special training, thanks to unsupervised machine learning.
    5. Almost human-like cognition:
      There is no denying that we adore someone who is attentive to our feelings and moods. Because you don’t need to express your feelings to that person. By 2023, chatbots will be more communicative and cognitive, and AI will be able to do the same by using sentiment analysis.

      In addition to giving chatbots human-like abilities, this will improve the user experience going forward. Because we understand that deploying a chatbot involves more than just providing speedy responses; it actually involves delivering a positive customer experience.

    “Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.” — Steve Jobs

  • Instagram Chatbots for Business: A Complete Guide

    The evolution of conversational AI and messaging channels has revolutionized the way brands communicate with their customers. Meta’s family of apps, i.e., Messenger, WhatsApp & Instagram, provide a massive opportunity for brands to create meaningful conversations with their customers. This has led to messaging channels becoming an integral part of every brand’s digital transformation strategy.

    Over one billion people use Instagram regularly. 83% of users discover new products and services through the app, and almost half of them follow through with their purchases. It’s time for brands to create and establish their presence on the platform and shape their unique brand identity. 

    Messaging is an integral part of Instagram; it helps customers connect with brands through multiple avenues like feeds, stories, mentions, and DMs. The goal is to turn Instagram into a vital customer service and commerce channel for businesses of all sizes. With the introduction of the Instagram Messenger API for business, brands can manage customer communications at scale more quickly. 

    Messenger API is a game-changer for brands to drive more conversations, consideration, and brand preference. Consumers expect businesses to respond to their messages instantly and satisfactorily. Instagram chatbots can help businesses achieve precisely that and more.

    Businesses should explore the Instagram chatbot builder to automate communications and boost sales on Instagram.

    What is an Instagram Chatbot & Why do You Need One?

    A chatbot doubles up as a virtual consultant that sends automated responses based on triggers such as specific keyword searches or actions. Chatbots can also send bulk messages and collect customer information, which is stored in an integrated CRM system.

    Instagram chatbots can be beneficial to businesses in the following ways – 

    • Boost customer loyalty by providing instant answers to their queries 24/7
    • Achieve an increase in sales through instant, relevant and persistent communication.
    • Improve customer retention by sending relevant and helpful reminders and announcements.
    • Save internal resources since businesses will not require many agents to process orders and reply to repetitive incoming messages.

    How do Chatbots Help Automate Business Processes?

    Let’s first talk about the basic functions that brands can assign to chatbots on Instagram:

    1. Answering FAQ:

    Business accounts often receive direct messages containing similar questions about product availability, prices, sizes, locations, working hours, delivery times, etc. Brands can program the bot to provide options and react to specific trigger words in users’ messages, preventing the customer support executives from being overwhelmed.

    1. Automating the initial stages of the sales funnel:

    Brands can quickly weed out unqualified leads based on their interactions with chatbots. An Instagram bot can replace an actual salesperson and close the deal if the sales funnel is small. However, a live sales team is still needed to process an order — if that’s the case, the brand can add a switch button to allow the users to connect with human sales executives.

    Nevertheless, chatbots significantly help business owners save time and money by allowing their employees to provide excellent service and avoid being overwhelmed. After connecting a chatbot, the amount of work that usually takes three people can be processed by one. The bot empowered by conversational intelligence automatically processes appointment requests, reservations, and other inquiries.

    1. Increasing customer trust and engagement:

    Instagram bots can engage with an audience and warm them up. For instance, brands can design a quiz where users answer questions to receive a desirable lead magnet at the end. Getting something valuable for free will influence the audience’s perception of the brand, boost their interest, and increase their desire to try its paid products.

    Businesses can also use chatbots to provide helpful information, educate users about their brand, and share links to other resources.

    1. First-party customer data and hyper-personalized offers:

    Instead of scouring through a customer’s order history each time the brand wants to contact them, they can set up filters and send personalized automated messages based on their interests, status, and other details.

    A lot of conversational insights, customer preferences, and first-party data can be collected through conversations. This helps brands understand their users better and connect with them with content and offers that are tailor-made for them.

    1. Sending reminders:

    Potential customers can be forgetful regarding meetings, calls, or webinars. Businesses can send gentle reminders on Instagram through a chatbot to ensure customers won’t miss key engagement and brand events. This is backed up by the fact that people spend a lot of time on social media apps and check them outside their working hours, so the chances of noticing a reminder on Instagram are high.

    1.  Collecting feedback:

    Brands can use Instagram chatbots to conduct surveys and collect feedback. Enabling post-sales conversations, delivery updates and post-sale feedback helps build a connection with the customer.

    This also helps brands improve their processes and customer support through collecting timely feedback.

    1. Responding to brand mentions in Stories:

    Instagram Stories are short-lived. Businesses need to be agile and react instantaneously when they get mentioned by their customers.

    Businesses shouldn’t ignore or leave mentions unanswered. Monitoring brand mentions manually is a monotonous task that can be easily automated.

    The focus should be not only on thanking customers with words, but also responding smartly and intuitively. Brands can go a step further by offering special customized discounts or other incentives to encourage new purchases and mentions.

    1. Using Instagram as an all-in-one communication channel:

    Brands can add the “API Request” element to the message flow to extract data from another website or database and display it in a message to a subscriber. 

    For example, they contact the brand to learn more about a specific product, and the chatbot uses the name or inventory number of a product to retrieve the necessary information.

    1. Click to purchase. From Advertisement to Cart:

    It can often be a tedious task for any customer to browse through various products on a company website. Instagram’s conversational commerce will assist customers in finding the products they want.

    For instance, a customer finds a dress ad on her Instagram feed and clicks on the “send message” button to inquire whether the dress is available in size “M”. The bot immediately responds to the query and directly sends a payment link to help the customer complete the purchase without having to leave the app.

    In addition to this, the bot can send discount coupons and offers that can incentivize the customer to purchase more than they originally intended.

    1. Reduce Cart Abandonment Rates:

    Due to cart abandonment, e-commerce brands lose $18 billion in revenue each year. The use of an AI-powered Instagram chatbot reduces the possibility of cart abandonment since it engages with the customer, understands what they want, and retrieves relevant products that they will be interested in.

    Additionally, timely and smart nudges can get the user to take action.

    1. Build Customer Loyalty:

    A great way to differentiate brands is to create unique brand experiences. Creating a memorable customer experience leaves a lasting impression and creates loyalty for the brand. Conversational bots can send to specifically targeted customers. For example, brands can send discount coupons to customers who have spent a certain amount at the store.

    1. Increase Conversions:

    Automation has transformed how brands engage with customers. The buyer’s journey can now be a two-way conversation so that brands can increase conversions. Conversational intelligence on Instagram can be an excellent way to provide real-time conversations that help customers with their purchases. For instance, if a customer has a query about a product, they can DM the company’s Instagram handle and get a response almost immediately. By solving the customer’s question, the customer can proceed with their purchase.

    Impactful Ways to Use an Instagram Chatbot

    Instagram has over a billion users worldwide. Initially, Instagram was expected to reach a billion users in 2024, but it hit the mark three years early.

    Instagram has 2.5 crore business accounts out of 100 crore users, and approximately 20 crore people view a business page every day. Instagram’s rapid growth has altered how consumers interact with brands. Today, it is a standard practice for businesses to be active on Instagram, providing customer service and sharing content. It presents both possibilities and problems.

    Brands must allocate resources to develop a dominant Instagram presence. To make the most of these resources, brands must take advantage of the channel’s interactive and fast-paced nature. 

    We will now explore how an Instagram chatbot can help brands become more resource-efficient while maximizing their account’s value:

    1. Providing customer service that competitors will envy:

    In recent years, Instagram has become a predominant customer service platform. Managing this channel can be highly resource-intensive, often requiring a range of dedicated resources. Chatbots alleviate the pressure customer service departments face, acting as the first line of defense.

    Additionally, 71% of all Instagram users are under 35 years old. Since this generation is used to dealing with chatbots, conversational AI is an excellent customer support tool for Instagram.

    1. Responding to repetitive inquiries:

    Dealing with FAQs and repetitive inquiries is a chatbot’s bread and butter. Instagram chatbots can be trained on niche subjects, allowing them to answer a variety of complex FAQs.

    A brand needs to create its FAQs and program the chatbot. The chatbot will eventually begin to recognize various query variations and spelling errors by using AI and machine learning. It may be a little daunting for some people. In reality, it’s as simple as creating a spreadsheet with a list of questions and answers.

    1. Guiding customers through processes:

    Every brand has processes they need to guide customers through. These could be checking order status, resetting a password, or explaining how to complete a premium subscription form. 

    Agents are at their best when helping customers with complex or emotional issues. Machines perform best while completing repetitive processes.

    An Instagram chatbot can help take care of the long-winded, repetitive processes, while human agents can focus on those customers whose queries cannot be resolved by the chatbot.

    Using a chatbot’s conversational intelligence can replicate the company’s human processes, making it easy to turn every step into a chatbot conversation.

    Many customer service departments have guides or help sheets to train new agents on their standard processes. An Instagram chatbot replicates those help sheets talking to customers and assisting them directly. 

    2. Building a memorable and exciting brand:

    Chatbots are more than a simple sales or service tool for the innovative. They are a platform that may be used to portray a company as eccentric, represent a brand’s core ideas, or create trust by offering advice and support. With chatbots driven by conversational AI, there’s endless room for creativity. A single chatbot may significantly increase a business’s reach and recognition, while also working to boost brand recall. This boosts the overall success of the campaign, and the added element of user engagement helps businesses stand out from competitors.

    3. Sales, sales, and more sales:

    With 80% of Instagram users using Instagram to decide if it’s worth purchasing a product, brands must make the most of this potentially lucrative channel.

    Chatbots provide what influencers cannot, interactive engagement. They provide answers to inquiries, put people at ease, and build enthusiasm. In short, chatbots are personal shoppers for every follower.

    1. Turn Instagram stories into a stable revenue source:

    Instagram stories may be used to encourage direct interaction. A brand can direct message its followers using a specific term. When a follower writes this term, it will initiate a focused discussion.

    This enables brands to bring their social campaigns to life and follow-up campaigns with targeted conversations. These discussions can range from delivering discount coupons to complicated, multi-branch dialogues marketing a broad range of products.

    There are several strategies to enhance revenue using chatbots and Instagram stories. Here are some ideas to get you started:

    • Encouraging followers to engage with flash sales.
    • Create unique conversations that build interest around a product launch.
    • Giving an interactive touch to a marketing effort, assisting customers to move towards conversion with the brand
    1. Automate social selling:

    Modern customer, especially the younger generation, seeks simple purchase options. As they’re often on a mobile device, consumers don’t want to be bounced from a webpage to buy a product. When brands consider that Instagram users acknowledging the brand page make them more likely to complete impulse purchases, ensuring a seamless experience is paramount. This is where chatbots come in. Chatbots provide information about the product, recommend alternatives, and answer any customers’ questions. Following the deployment of an Instagram chatbot, a creative team may deliver a campaign that draws the eye through stories before concluding the sale through a tailored discussion.

    4. Bring in leads that actually care:

    The warmer the lead, the easier the sale. Chatbots warm up potential buyers by eliminating communication barriers using AI-based interactions. Before passing leads to the sales team, it’s easy to create a chatbot that:

    • Pre-qualifies the lead to ensure it is worth the attention of a salesperson.
    • Answers any preliminary inquiries that the customer may have, stoking their hunger and dispelling any concerns.
    • Shares promotional content, thereby educating leads about a brand’s products and services.

    5. Bring your ads to life:

    The problem with the previous practice of following up adverts with static mediums is that the consumer might easily become disinterested. They may become preoccupied, be unable to locate the necessary knowledge, or just forget.

    More forward-thinking firms are supplementing their social advertising with chatbots. After clicking on an ad, the user is taken to a chatbot conversation.

    The chatbot answers any questions the user may have. It also helps make the experience more engaging, increasing the likelihood the user will buy the company products. 

    6. The New Cash Register: Instagram

    With the growth of mobile technologies, consumer expectations are changing. On Instagram, conversational intelligence has paved the road for more direct sales pathways. Brands have begun conversing with customers to pique their attention and encourage them to take action. As more people purchase using messaging apps, marketers can leverage conversations to guide users through the buying process, allowing them to shop anywhere and at any time.

    Potential Use Cases of Instagram Chatbots

    Let’s take a glance at some possible use cases for Instagram message automation now that we’ve covered the basics.

    1. A retail/e-commerce brand allowing Instagram users to check the latest products, recover abandoned carts via notifications or let users check the delivery status.
    2. An insurance company allows users to book a call with a sales expert.
    3. A marketing influencer runs a ‘Comment to win’ discount campaign on their new course.
    4. An apparel brand offers coupons by Direct Message to users who mention the brand in stories and leave positive feedback.
    5. An electronics company is handling customer complaints with conversational AI chatbots.

    Instagram Chatbots: An Opportunity for the Creatives

    Instagram rewards creative efforts. Its fast-paced nature means that brands have to offer new content regularly, engage in rising topics and respond to thousands of messages. In the same way as a typical website chatbot, an Instagram chatbot helps reduce some of this workload.

    Instagram chatbots are empowered with conversational intelligence that gives a brand the capability to focus on more high-value activities. It also helps to establish a brand in the follower’s minds. Memorable interactions and amusing messages can help the brand stay in the minds of followers for a long time once it has been established.

    Next time a business thinks about Instagram, it must ensure to build a chatbot into the creative ideas that will offer a range of exciting avenues to explore.

  • WhatsApp Marketing + Humanized AI Conversations = A Game-Changer

    Having more than 1.3 billion monthly and 1 billion daily users, WhatsApp has been operating at a massive scale for quite some time. And the onset of the pandemic itself has taken its game to a whole new extent. Messaging on WhatsApp has increased beyond 50% in the last few months. In fact, the usage of video and voice calling has doubled than what it was before. This certainly proves WhatsApp usage has increased exponentially.

    When the first wave of pandemics hit humanity, the world went to lockdown, more people started using messaging apps for video calls and texting. This resulted in the consumer market shifting to WhatsApp, the first one being the most popular with 2 billion users worldwide. And the introduction of Whatsapp for businesses became a savior. The businesses were now able to spread the word about their services and products which they were unable to do earlier. 

    But the integration of WhatsApp with Convert, a conversational AI can elevate the game of modern-day businesses to a higher extent. As it offers personalized engagement at scale, acquires new customers, and generates valuable customer insights which will further spike conversions for your business and that too at no extra cost. Keeping all these points in mind this blog will help you understand why WhatsApp for businesses matched with the services of Convert has the potential of transforming businesses in the long run along with improving consumer service as a whole.

    Brief History of WhatsApp Marketing 

    Though WhatsApp for business and advertising might feel like it has been around forever, its history tends to be, very brief and surprisingly recent. Two former Yahoo employees namely Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp in 2009, the app became insanely popular but remained free of business presence as its sole purpose was to connect people of every social stratum, and that too in a much simpler way.

    Even after being acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, its co-founders promised to keep WhatsApp ad-free. Over the years, WhatsApp released multiple new features to defend itself from competition like improved group features and a Snapchat-like 24-hour story update, while some others were designed to improve the integration of the app within the Facebook ecosystem.

    In May 2018, Koum left WhatsApp due to a clash in the strategy with its parent company, Facebook, which has plans to move towards a business and ad-friendly model. And so, with the interest in WhatsApp marketing came the release of new business-friendly features like the free WhatsApp Business app for Android in selected markets and revenue-generating WhatsApp Business API and Ads in WhatsApp Status Stories.

    Knowing all this, now you must be quite familiar with the way how WhatsApp for business was introduced and the reason for the same. But the next question that you must be wondering of knowing the answer to would be why you should be choosing WhatsApp for your business. And the same will be answered in the next section.

    Why Choose WhatsApp for the Purpose of Business?

    Messaging apps have become the #1 form of communication amongst consumers and brands. In most countries, phones and even SMS messaging have become secondary options next to these new means. This is because channel like WhatsApp is much more efficient and immediate than traditional methods of communication. Following are the reasons why you should choose WhatsApp as a medium of communication with your prospective customers:

    It’s where most of your customers are:

    Out of all the messaging apps currently in the market, Whatsapp is the most used one, followed by Facebook Messenger and WeChat.

    Offers a guarantee of better engagement:

    WhatsApp increases engagement because it transmits and strengthens credibility. It shows potential consumers that your business is not restricted to traditional bureaucratic channels of communication and that the customer experience is an important part of the said business.

    Great reach and accessibility:

    Whatsapp is one of the most used messaging apps worldwide, having more than 2 billion users around the globe. Now is the time for businesses to make themselves more available and accessible for their customers, to contact them in channels they usually use and feel comfortable with. One feature that holds much importance is that it can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and with any device.

    Quicker responses:

    By using Whatsapp, you can answer more quickly by reusing useful and frequently sent messages for speeding up the support process. You can contact your target audience directly on their phones, anytime and anywhere.

    What are WhatsApp Business APIs & their Advantages? 

    WhatsApp Business API is basically an interface that allows businesses to interact with their customers in a secure, private environment while allowing a more friendly and informal way of communication. The main idea of the WhatsApp API is to take the WhatsApp API endpoint and integrate it into their business software. In this way, they can interact with the customers smoothly and securely.

    Advantages of WhatsApp business API include:

    • The multi-login feature lets you add your teammates to support customers and work from different devices at the same time.
    • Offers you the capability of managing large volumes of incoming messages seamlessly.
    • You can send quick responses and automatic replies to your customers.
    • Official business account verification via a green checkmark develops credibility.
    • It allows third-party software integration which is the most important feature considering the integration of Conversational AI like Convert which plays a crucial role in boosting your sales and offering 1:1 customer engagement at scale.

    Note: WhatsApp Business is different from WhatsApp Business API. WhatsApp API is for medium and large-scale businesses whereas, WhatsApp Business is for small-scale businesses that need to communicate with their customers 1-on-1.

    Integration Of WhatsApp with Convert: A leap towards transformation

    Being close and personal along with developing brand credibility in your customers’ minds is the key to having the edge over your business competitor. With more and more people using digital media and social media platforms to connect, evaluate and make decisions, it is vitally important to look for effective methods to increase the reach of your business.

    Developing a great product is the first challenge, but marketing it so that it is visible to its potential customers is the second and the biggest hurdle passing which later would convert into sales. With the world running on automated software and technologies, one can ace the business domain by implementing a personal, conversational AI like Convert to serve its customers.

    Convert as a Conversational AI unified with WhatsApp brings huge advantages which are:

    1. Improved revenue:
      Convert integrated with WhatsApp API lets you engage with your customers on the go using appropriate and customized messages. It also accelerates the process of product search and minimizes the time taken to purchase with its AI engine. Convert also offers the feature of up-selling and cross-selling to your customers which further improves the top-line drastically.
    2. Enhances CX:
      Convert lets you break the boundaries of the traditional and formal manner of communication with your customers. It provides the option of communicating through images, videos, and gifs which builds the connection of the brand with its consumers. The feature of reminding your customers of important dates and activities via timely alerts shows them that you care.
    3. Reduced CAC:
      By unleashing the huge potential of Convert unified with WhatsApp brands have an opportunity of decreasing their CAC. As much as 30% of reduction in costs can be achieved by implementing Convert in collaboration with WhatsApp API. Convert has the ability to analyze customer behavior and self-train itself to cater to multiple customers simultaneously, thereby saving your training time and cost immensely. The contact center cost is further reduced due to its ability to work round the clock without any human intervention.
    4. Higher reach:
      There are more than 2 billion users of WhatsApp messenger globally which proves that it is the most preferred platform for textual conversations. Convert as a Conversational AI for WhatsApp enables you to connect with almost all of your customers round the clock ensuring a higher reach and boost in sales ultimately.
    5. Customer satisfaction at its best:
      Convert allows your customers to connect with you regarding any issue instantly, by not making them fill out a form to respond or letting them wait for hours by using WhatsApp for business. Quick response and ease of access comprise a good customer experience and this is what drives a customer into giving positive feedback.

    Looking upon all the features and advantages of Convert as a Conversational AI integrated with the services of WhatsApp API makes it one of the best in the market. Oriserve is very proud to launch these features in collaboration with Vodafone Idea, Rupify, and many other such businesses. The use cases that these businesses are driving with Convert integrated WhatsApp commerce are:

    • Driving conversions through personalized conversations.
    • Sending personalized product recommendations based on customers’ needs & past behavior.
    • Driving orders through interactive messages and a seamless shopping experience overall.

    Conclusion:

    Summing all things up, it becomes quite evident that WhatsApp commerce is assured to become the biggest game-changer in the e-Commerce scene. Customers don’t have to jump through multiple apps and websites just to find what they’re looking for. WhatsApp will become the most vital channel when it comes to generating sales and unlocking hyper-exponential growth. Interested in knowing how Convert can take it to the next level?

  • The Most Important Conversational Marketing Chatbot KPIs For Success

    According to industry research, 85% of customer interaction will be handled without human agents by 2021. One of the most widely used tools to enable this customer service is the chatbot.

    Businesses considering adding a chatbot to their marketing stack should focus on specific KPIs to measure the chatbot’s effectiveness. Chatbots are not set and forget software but constantly need improvement. However, businesses need to monitor chatbot analytics and KPIs to know what to improve. Chatbots are rapidly transforming digital marketing strategies in direct-to-consumer industries, including fashion & apparel, e-commerce, retail, and automotive. They are being adopted for lead generation, guided shopping experiences, and scaling personalized experiences beginning with the first ad touchpoint.

    Marketing conversational chatbots streamline relationships with customers and marketing acquisition funnels. The introduction of conversational AI chatbots has allowed businesses to enhance customer communications by developing meaningful relationships, recognizing customer requirements, and offering the appropriate solutions to satisfy their needs. 

    Chatbot Benefits for Organizations

    The capabilities of chatbots and AI have led many businesses to scale up, providing enhanced operations and delivering better services to customers. Chatbots are not only available 24/7, but they also have other benefits. As chatbots continue to assist companies leverage customer service inquiries, the companies are also discovering more capabilities in which chatbots can be used to streamline tasks. A comprehensive list of chatbot benefits has been mentioned below: 

    1. Cost Savings:
      Company requirements to expand the customer service department can be managed by implementing increasingly capable chatbots capable of handling complex queries. The implementation of chatbots requires a one-time investment cost with additional investments in the future to ensure security and improve the chatbot’s functionality. However, this cost will be lower in the long run than employing many customer service representatives. 
    2. Faster Internal Processes:
      Chatbots can be used to improve internal communication and procedures for simple queries. Chatbots can be used in the onboarding process. IBM reports that 72% of employees don’t understand the company’s strategy. A chatbot could help answer employee questions about task prioritization. 
    3. Increased Sales:
      Chatbots boost company sales by offering a frictionless platform for presenting users with algorithm-driven recommendations that can smartly introduce customers to new products and services. The constant use of data by chatbots assists in providing personalized recommendations. Bots can also boost sales due to 24/7 availability and a fast response rate. The instant response time of chatbots ensures that the customer is constantly engaged throughout their customer journey. Chatbots can be leveraged to increase customer engagement with timely tips and offers. 
    4. Gaining a Deeper Understanding of Customers:
      Online customers rarely get to talk to businesses directly. Therefore, chatbots provide businesses with detailed, actionable data on customer requirements and grievances, helping the company improve its products and services. Chatbots are ideal tools for brands to learn about their customers’ expectations. Using the data provided by the chatbot-customer interaction, customer-specific targets can be planned. 
    5. 24-hour Availability:
      Keeping a 24/7 response system allows sellers and customers to communicate continuously. Of course, this benefit is proportional to the level of chatbot sophistication. Chatbots that cannot serve simple customer queries fail to add value despite 24/7 availability. 
    6. Instant & Consistent Answers:
      A customer service representative can resolve the queries of one customer at a time. However, a chatbot can answer multiple questions simultaneously due to the advanced software mechanisms and the scalability of chatbots. Talking to different customer service representatives of the same business could result in inconsistencies in answers. However, chatbots function on pre-determined frameworks and leverage their answers from a single source within the command catalog. This minimizes the possibility of inconsistency in responses. 
    7. Conversation Records:
      Most chatbots can record the conversation and provide the customer with a copy of the chat transcript. The chat can also be archived, and the user can be issued a support ticket for it, thus providing context to the live agent and helping in faster resolution. 
    8. Multilingual:
      One of the advantages of chatbots is that they can be programmed to carry out conversations in multiple languages by asking the user’s preferred language either at the beginning of the conversation or automatically switching to the regional language based on user location. This is useful for global brands operating in different markets.  
    9. Programmability:
      Since chatbots function on pre-determined codes, they can be programmed to carry out various tasks as long as programmers continuously update their command catalog to improve their functionalities.
    10. Personalization:
      The conversational AI capabilities of chatbots can store and leverage user interaction history to provide more personalized interaction. The chatbots can instantly draw up users’ background information to resolve their issues quicker. Chatbots can analyze the history of user interactions with a company to give a personalized experience. 

    Why do Chatbot Analytics Matter?

    Chatbot analytics help determine the success of the chatbot. They can also provide valuable insight into opportunities for business growth and retention strategies. Businesses must be aware of the chatbot’s benefits and capabilities by constantly measuring its performance. This can only be done by knowing the key chatbot metrics, which is an important aspect and a decisive factor for business success.

    Chatbot success metrics are important because they offer a wealth of data about the bot and its customers. Businesses should monitor how customers interact with the chatbot to ensure they continuously improve their experience, meet the set goals, and get a good ROI.

    In some cases, businesses do not get the desired results from chatbots because they have been optimized for the wrong metrics. Chatbot analytics helps businesses track important KPIs and make data-driven decisions.

    The following are some significant areas where chatbot analytics are critical:

    1. Understand Customer Satisfaction:
      By using conversational AI customer analytics, businesses can understand customer satisfaction after interacting with the bot. Artificial intelligence allows the chatbot to measure user sentiment. 
    2. Measure Business ROI:
      57% of businesses agree that chatbots deliver significant returns on investment (ROI) for minimal effort. Chatbot analytics helps measure the KPIs such as total leads generated, total issues resolved, estimated time to handle individual queries, and annual handling costs that aid in comparing its performance with other channels. Using these metrics, businesses can make calculated business decisions on the additional investment in required areas.
    3. Understanding Customer Journey:
      Businesses need to visualize key aspects of the customer journey to make data-driven decisions such as user paths and exit points.

    Most Important Conversational Marketing Chatbot KPIs 

    Merely automating business tasks with an AI chatbot isn’t enough. Automation should focus on implementation and customizing the chatbot to achieve the desired goals.

    There are 25 chatbot KPIs that can help brands maximize the success of conversational marketing chatbots. These measurements are indispensable for tracking the chatbot results, identifying problems, and improving performance. 

    1. Total Number of Users:
      This KPI represents the total number of active, engaged, returning, or new users who have used or are using the chatbot. The total number of users who interacted with chatbots is one of the primary KPIs businesses should track. 

    Active Users:

    Active users are the number of users who interact with a chatbot without waiting for the bot to initiate a conversation. This can reveal helpful information about customer preferences. These users interact with a real purpose and thus will be more engaged.

    Engaged Users:

    Engaged users are significant because they represent active users who have repeated sessions in a short period. These users see the value in using the chatbot. They are satisfied using the bot and keep returning to the business. 

    Returning Users:

    Returning users are neither new nor engaged. After using it, these users came back to the chatbot but are not yet using it at regular intervals. The higher the number of returning users, the better, highlighting the number of users who find the helpful chatbot engaging.

    New Users:

    Equally important is the amount of new users the chatbot receives. High new user engagement can be an indication that the chatbot is popular. This metric shows the number of unique first-time users in a defined time frame. Using this metric helps assess the success of marketing or bot promotion efforts. New users help maintain a strong customer base as customer preferences change over time. 

    Tracking metrics related to users helps capture insights about the number of customers using the chatbot. Additionally, it also assists the business in understanding the overall impact and chatbot success. This is a fundamental KPI metric, but it gives an understanding of the popularity of the chatbot. This metric can also calculate other metrics such as conversion rate.

    1. Brand Interactions per User:
      Brand interactions per user describe the frequency of customer interactions with the chatbot during a given time. Interactions are defined as an active engagement a user has with a brand via the chatbot. This includes interaction using a quick reply chip, button, carousel call to action, or messaging. However, it does not involve seeing visuals or messages.

    Brand Interactions per User = Total Interactions / Total Users

    For instance, if a marketing chatbot generates 25,000 interactions from 10,000 users that engage with it, that equals 2.5 brand interactions per user. The number of brand interactions per user is essential as it helps to measure the depth of engagement with the marketing chatbot for each conversation. Measuring the brand interactions per user helps improve marketing chatbot performance and customer experience with each successful conversation as every touchpoint from discovery to conversion can be optimized. 

    1. Customer Insights per User:
      Each brand interaction with a chatbot provides declared data that can be leveraged to improve the chatbot’s performance and other marketing campaigns. This is information voluntarily shared by the consumer during a conversation. Declared data is valuable because it empowers brands to stop relying on assumptions. Declared data can be used to validate assumptions and identify customer requirements. This KPI is called customer insights per user. It is calculated by dividing users’ total declared data points for a given time.

    Customer Insights per User = Total Declared Data Points / Total Users

    For example, if the conversational marketing chatbot collects 250 declared data points out of 50 users, it provides 5 customer insights per user.

    Deep customer insights can be collected using a conversational marketing chatbot by defining attributes and values based on the responses collected. This creates a customer database that can be leveraged to segment, recommend tailored products, and provide actionable insights at scale.

    1. Chatbot CTR to Website:
      Conversational marketing chatbots are an effective channel for driving conversions and sales. Chatbots should be programmed to guide customers through each marketing funnel stage and improve conversion rates. Higher CTR leads to an increased volume of qualified traffic redirected to key assets like product pages. Chatbot CTR measures the number of clicks to the website as a percentage of people engaged with the chatbot.

      Chatbot CTR to Website = Total Clicks / Total Users x 100

    For example, if a marketing chatbot generated 1,000 clicks to the website out of 8,000 users, the click-through rate would be 12.5%.

    It is critical to optimize marketing chatbot conversations for click-through rates to increase return on investment. Brands should monitor conversational goals regularly and continually review the chatbot analytics to identify opportunities for improving CTR, conversion rates, and performance. 93.67% of calls to action use verbs like buy, visit, find, try, schedule, discover, browse, view, see, etc. 

    1. Matched Response Rate:
      Each customer has unique wants, needs, and demands. Unfortunately, many chatbot platforms cannot accurately map responses to tailored suggestions. They utilize generic approaches to natural language processing (NLP), making them unable to deliver answers and information tailored to the situation. Matched response rate is how often a marketing chatbot accurately fits customers with what they ask for. This KPI can only be analyzed for marketing chatbots utilizing machine learning and NLP.

    Matched Response Rate = Matched Responses / Total Messages x 100

    For example, if a conversational marketing chatbot accurately matches 500 messages from a pool of 1000, then the matched response rate is 50%.

    NLP-powered chatbots can determine specific intents in different contexts. Brands can leverage customer input and data to create more accurate templates for the chatbot to make better predictions and match suitable responses. FAQs are one way to improve matched response rates. They’re questions on products, shipping, and returns.

    1. Cost per Conversion:
      The cost per conversion is the total cost of acquiring a new customer. This includes the customer making a purchase, watching a video, or filling out a form. Since marketing chatbots drive conversions through guided shopping and personalized experiences, it’s essential to know the cost of each conversion action. This empowers the brand to discover ways to decrease cost per Conversion while generating revenue.

      Cost Per Conversion = Total Cost of Generating Traffic / Total Conversions

      For example, if the total media spend on a conversational display ad campaign was ₹5,000, resulting in 100 conversions, the cost per Conversion would be ₹50.

      Conversions and the associated costs can be tracked using UTM parameters on URLs in the chatbot. 
    1. Conversion Rate:
      The conversion rate of a marketing chatbot is the rate at which traffic from the chatbot is converted. These include a completed purchase, reaching a particular page, or scheduling an appointment. It’s calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the total traffic and multiplying it by 100 to get a percentage.

      Conversion Rate = (Conversions / Total Visitors from Chatbot) x 100

    For example, if a business generates 100 conversions from 2,000 total visitors to the chatbot, that would equal a 5% conversion rate. 

    Brands can track the conversion rate to understand how marketing chatbots perform compared to other marketing channels. It is a key performance indicator for the chatbot.

    1. Conversation Duration:
      The conversation duration may depend on the chatbot’s intention. For example, if the chatbot is required to guide a visitor to a demo request fast, a short time is good. It shows that the chatbot understands what is needed. A chatbot programmed to handle support questions related to products or services may have a longer average duration.

    Therefore, the ideal length of a chatbot session should be long enough to solve the user’s problem and short enough to prevent them from giving up. The chat duration measures the length of the bot and user interaction. Monitoring this KPI helps to gauge the chatbot’s effectiveness using the size of the conversation. It shows whether the bot can have meaningful discussions and keep the user engaged.

    1. Average Daily Sessions:
      This KPI tells how often users (new, returning, or engaged) are starting a conversation with the chatbot each day. It is preferable to have many daily sessions to show the chatbot’s effectiveness. The chatbot metric measures the interactions sent and received between the users and the chatbot. It monitors and provides information on its ability to engage in a conversation. Comparing this to other daily metrics, like average daily traffic to the site, estimates the percentage of users using the chatbot on any given day. 
    1. Bounce Rate:
      The Bounce Rate corresponds to the volume of user sessions that fail to result in the intended use of the chatbot. It refers to the number of user visitors who enter the website and leave without interacting with the chatbot. A high bounce rate shows that the chatbot fails to provide correct answers, help users with their requests, or is not engaging enough. This should prompt the business to update its content, rethink its placement in the customer experience, or both. This chatbot KPI needs to be observed closely, impacting the customer experience.
    1. Fallback Rate:
      Fallback is defined as the number of times the chatbot cannot understand what the user needs and cannot complete the task or redirect correctly. The fallback rate captures insights into those scenarios where the bot cannot understand the user request and provide a relevant solution. This metric measures the percentage of messages when the bot didn’t get user intent or failed to answer the user’s question. This metric is important because it helps to understand how often the bot has no answer and find areas for improvement.

      The higher the fallback rate, the lower will be the user satisfaction. If this rate is high, the business may need to add more content or reassess the chatbot’s natural language processing abilities.
    1. Activation Rate:
      The activation rate allows companies to determine how customers are selecting the chatbot option accurately. It refers to how many customers engaged with more than one question. This metric counts the number of unique users who sent a message within a specific time frame. As well as with total users, businesses can track the active user number to calculate the percentage of active users out of total users. Multiple metrics are included in this KPI, such as the number of users, how many opened a chatbot message, and the number of users who responded to the chatbot. Comparing these monthly data sets will enable brands to substantiate the merit of their investment or find better ways to use the technology more engagingly.
    1. Chatbot Response Time:
      Chatbot Response Time is the time taken for the chatbot to respond to a question or comment. This shows how quickly the chatbot can start responding to the user. Ideally, businesses want this number to be on the low since customers are using the chatbot with the expectation that they’ll receive a quick response. However, an immediate response means nothing to the customer if it’s not correct or doesn’t fully address their issue.
    1. Human vs. Chatbot Interaction:
      The human vs. chatbot interaction rate will indicate how efficiently the chatbot redirects conversations to a human agent.

    The human takeover of the interaction is one of the critical chatbot evaluation metrics that determine the bot’s success. It refers to two main scenarios:

    • The conversations that the bot cannot understand are transferred to the human agents as a fallback scenario.
    • To have a comprehensive discussion, customers prefer to communicate with a human agent rather than a chatbot.

    Businesses can know whether the customers are happy conversing with the bot by understanding the chatbot analytics. If the ratio of human handover increases, it is better to switch back to live chat and use the bot to collect the initial details of customers. Businesses should monitor the number of human interactions vs. chatbot interactions to gauge whether the chatbot has managed to reduce the number of human interactions required.

    1. Ticket Deflection Rate:
      If the chatbot is being used to reduce customer support agents’ workload, businesses should focus on ticket deflection rates. This shows the average number of tickets the customer support team has had over time due to the chatbot. The deflection rate is calculated by dividing the number of chatbot conversations by the number of conversations transferred to a customer support agent. If the deflection rate is high, businesses may need to program the chatbot better to answer customer questions. 
    1. Most Frequently Asked Questions:
      Businesses can analyze the chatbot metrics and evaluate customer journeys to see which questions are being asked closely and how the chatbot is addressing them. Data like this can show whether the chatbot is equipped to answer customers’ or prospects’ concerns. Thus, businesses can program the chatbot to specialize in the subjects that come up most commonly and thereby improve its performance. Analyzing recurring questions will allow the company to focus on the topics of most significant interest to the users and improve the quality of bot responses and its overall comprehension levels.
    1. Customer Satisfaction Rate:
      The customer satisfaction KPI measures the level of user satisfaction with bot conversations. There are various ways to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the bot, including star ratings or providing emoticons with different expressions. It is essential to acquire customer feedback as businesses will be able to identify the flaws in the bot conversation flow and improve it. 

    Companies that provide customer service Chatbots must be evaluated regarding their influence on customer satisfaction. One way to measure customer satisfaction is by tracking chatbot errors and confusion triggers which can indicate problems with the experience, alongside metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), a customer loyalty metric that measures the likelihood of customers recommending the brand to others. 

    1. Chatbot Activity Volume:
      Chat volume is measured by looking at the number of successful interactions. This indicator is essential for verifying that the brands are achieving their goals. If brands target a specific population, they can measure the penetration rate for this audience to confirm that the intended people are making good use of the chatbot. If the conversation is more extended, it indicates a higher chat volume as the visitors find it easy to converse with the bot, and at the same time, the bot can deliver more value to them. The chat volume KPI answers two key questions:
    • How frequently is the chatbot being used?
    • Is the user base increasing?
    1. Retention Rate:
      The Retention Rate refers to the proportion of users who have consulted the chatbot on repeated occasions over a given period. It provides a good indication of the chatbot’s relevance and acceptance among business clients. The more frequently people come back to use the bot, the greater the retention rate. Businesses can monitor the retention rate by breaking it down into time frames. This will help them identify vital progress in the customer journey and adjust the customer engagement strategy accordingly.

    Some ways to increase the bot retention rate are:

    • Offer customers a discount based on their behavior
    • Deliver hyper-personalized conversations

    This KPI can indicate whether the current level of investment in the technology is sustainable and whether aspects of the technology need to be refined to improve the experience.

    However, businesses should remember that multiple return visits to the bot might suggest that a customer’s issue wasn’t resolved.

    1. Use Rate by Open Sessions:
      This is the number of sessions that are simultaneously active with the chatbot. This rate must be weighted with the average number of open sessions during a given period to get a meaningful measurement.
    1. Usage Distribution by Hour:
      This indicator is beneficial as it demonstrates how this 24/7 channel enables businesses to cover 20%, 30%, or even 50% of the hours during which user support services were previously unavailable. This measures how many times the chatbot is being used during each hour of the day. Additionally, businesses can use this metric to schedule more staff during peak usage hours.
    1. Question per Conversation:
      This indicator will help determine how many questions the chatbot needs to ask before providing its users with the necessary information. The interpretation of this metric depends heavily on the specific objectives. The lower this number, the more efficiently the chatbot addresses the questions.
    1. Interaction Rate & Non-Response Rate:
      Interaction Rate allows businesses to measure the average number of messages exchanged per conversation. The higher the interaction rate, the greater the bot’s effectiveness. This is a crucial metric for understanding overall engagement. While the non-response rate measures the number of times the chatbot fails to respond to a question. Such failure may result from a lack of content or the chatbot’s difficulty comprehending user inquiries.
    1. Self Service Rate:
      This rate corresponds to the number of users who were able to obtain the help they needed through the responses given by the chatbot without subsequently having to call Customer Service. It is calculated based on the percentage of completed sessions through an interaction with the bot without being redirected to a live operator. In the process, it enables businesses to evaluate client satisfaction.
    1. User Feedback:
      Finally, it’s indispensable to know what users think about the chatbot. This feedback will allow businesses to calculate two indicators:
    • The Satisfaction Rate – the average score received by the chatbot in user evaluations
    • The Evaluation Rate – the percentage of sessions in which the user evaluated the bot responses at least once

      This KPI is directly tied to the user satisfaction rate.

    Are These Chatbot KPIs Enough?

    These different KPIs are sufficient to evaluate the ROI and the added value of the chatbot. However, these KPIs should not be the only metrics taken into consideration when assessing the overall impact of the solution. Thus, beyond the KPIs directly linked to a chatbot, businesses should correlate these metrics with pre-chatbot indicators such as the volume of phone contacts, the volume of incoming emails via a contact form, and the volume of chats with agents.

    The Bottom Line on Marketing Chatbot KPIs

    Key performance indicators are significant. Without them, the brand won’t know how a marketing chatbot performs. Use the main chatbot KPIs we covered and other metrics like ad recall and purchase intent to help the business measure performance and achieve its goals. Defining an objective or purpose is essential to building a successful chatbot.

    However, measuring the right chatbot analytics and metrics is how to improve chatbot performance.

    Therefore, before brands start building a chatbot, they should:

    • Identify the end goal during each stage of the bot. While designing the chatbot, the critical practice is to outline the end goal when evaluating chatbot experiences.
    • Assign the right chatbot metrics to evaluate its performance. Choosing the correct KPI is crucial to measuring the overall effectiveness of the chatbot and identifying the loopholes. Brands can iterate the bot flow based on flaws to improve the communication process.

    Chatbots have gained immense popularity in almost every industry – e-commerce, retail, and logistics- because they are successfully helping companies with self-service support automation transform user experience and improve customer retention and conversion rates. Even if businesses don’t have the bandwidth to track every chatbot analytics metric, identifying the most relevant ones for the business will ensure businesses are making more intelligent decisions.

    Remember, as the business evolves, so should the chatbot. As an extension of the customer engagement strategy, the chatbot should be updated any time the business launches new features or goes through a brand revamp.

  • How Conversational AI Is Shaping Engaging Digital Experiences For Users

    To begin with, chatbots are like a digital resolution in this digital era. Wherever there is proper communication there is no place for doubts or some sort of confusion. They are rapidly becoming a huge part of our daily lives. Driven by round-the-clock consumer support, more companies are investing in this platform. Many companies nowadays are using chatbots alongside other channels of communication like email, phone, and social media.

    A recent study found that 53% of service organizations expect to use chatbots within 18 months — a 136% growth rate that foreshadows a big role for the technology in the near future. Conversational AI boosts productivity in a range of ways. They help workers set meetings and reminders, and ask simple questions without stopping what they’re doing, to name just a few use cases. At the same time, all-purpose virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant, are fast becoming the preferred interfaces for consumers to engage with brands across every industry.

    Are they really so impactful when it comes to the digital experience of users? Let’s find out.

    What is Conversational AI?

    To speak in a technical language conversational AI is a computer program that helps artificially communicate with users via text or voice. Additionally, chatbot facilitates immediate response, this quality of being spontaneous helps the brand to retain and gain customers. 

    Over the years, developers have incorporated more sophisticated techniques to enable chatbots to better understand people’s questions and provide more useful responses. They are designed in a way so that they can respond to frequently asked questions. 

    The simplest form of a chatbot system tackles such tasks by parsing customer input, then scanning its database for articles related to certain words and phrases. In short, it operates like a document retrieval system, based on keywords. For example, a cosmetics company might create a chatbot that engages users with set questions about their makeup preferences, then recommends products and offers that match their responses.

    In these cases, the computer program behind the chatbot works to a rigid set of predefined rules and has little ability to recognize the way people naturally speak. Think about the times you may have typed a question into a website’s dialogue box and received an answer that doesn’t make sense. That’s likely because the chatbot program recognized keywords in your request, but not the context in which they were used.

    There have been significant advances in the field of Artificial intelligence. By harnessing enormous amounts of data and cheaper processing power, AI and related technologies such as machine learning are helping to dramatically improve chatbots’ quality of understanding and decision-making. In particular, developers are using natural language processing (NLP) or natural language understanding (NLU) to build bots that can better understand human speech (or typed text). These technologies also make it possible to better discern the intent behind what someone is saying — and to respond more intelligently.

    When chatbots are connected to technologies like NLP and NLU it helps them better understand human conversations. An AI chatbot can be efficiently trained to improve conversation every time it interacts with a user. 

    How does Conversational AI Help in Business?

    Conversational AI can be custom-built to meet a range of specific business needs in both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) environments. The most widely used business cases include:

    • Providing call center support. By interacting with an AI chatbot via a call center application, customers can perform tasks such as changing a password, requesting an account balance, or scheduling an appointment — all without speaking to an agent.
    • Providing enterprise support. Chatbots can be integrated with a company’s back-end systems such as inventory management or customer relationship management. An AI chatbot can help sales reps quickly access phone numbers or help a human resources team perform faster employee onboarding.
    • Acting as digital personal assistants. Chatbots can help consumers navigate their daily lives and expedite activities such as ordering groceries or booking a vacation from a mobile device, browser, or chat platform. Apps such as Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana, or products like Amazon Echo with Alexa or Google Home all deploy chatbots to play the part of a personal assistant.

    How does Conversational AI Improve Consumer Experience?

    • Chatbots reduce customer waiting time by being there every single moment.
    • Chatbots resolve support cases by responding in a straightforward way to the questions asked.
    • Handling efficient redirects for customer inquiries. This is another AI chatbot strength: bots can instantly welcome customers with a branded greeting in a chat window, for example, and quickly direct them to the resources they need.
    • Chatbots help improve user experience by being there and providing initial leads to the consumers before taking the conversation further human. This helps in retaining the traffic to the website.

    No wonder conversational AI is being widely used these days. It is built to enhance the digital experience of users and be there instantly to respond to their queries or requests. This is just the beginning of chatbots offering assistance and efficiently managing conversations by saving time. The future of AI seems lit in every sense.

  • Using Conversations as a Lever for Lead Generation

    Use instant, persistent and relevant conversations as a lever for Lead generation, here’s how!

    Lead generation is the key motive of business and marketing activities, without which the base of business activities is lost. Different methods for lead generation have been used over the years however conversational AI remains top among those.

    Conversational AI has been one of the most prominent techniques widely used for lead generation the reason it’s a comparatively low investment with high ROI. Businesses that use AI chatbots are more likely to generate high-quality leads. Unlike human beings, a conversational AI can assist 24/7.

    When a potential client or a person visits the website of a business their first interaction occurs with the conversational AI. Hence not deploying a conversational AI on your website is an unnecessary risky business.

    Why Is There a Need to Use Conversational AI While Doing Business?

    Simply because communication is the key to attracting and sustaining existing customers. Communication is the guiding light and conversational AI does just that, it engages the audience and keeps them engrossed by simply having a conversation.

    Qualifying leads:

    Conversational AI qualifies leads without human intervention and directs them through the sales funnel. This makes the job of the sales department even easier.

    Better ROI:

    Conversational AI is synonymous with better ROI in every sense of the word. It helps in solving many business problems that existed traditionally. Leads generated ensure high quality.

    Promising Customer Engagement:

    Customer engagement is de facto for the success of any business out there. Customer engagement works wonders when done appropriately. Conversational AI not only provides 24/7 assistance but also helps to automate customer experience by adhering to their problems in real time. 

    Here Are a Few Ways to Use Conversational AI for Lead Generation:

    Traditionally, acquiring leads is 10 times more expensive than converting the leads that you already have. Using AI chatbots for lead generation can significantly reduce the cost and effort that goes behind attracting customers to the top of the funnel.

    Understanding & Creating User Persona:

    The first and foremost crucial factor for lead generation is understanding your customers.

    The demographics can be related to geography, gender, age group, economic status, etc. once the business has the knowledge of this it can be used to optimize the Conversational AI in such a way that it automatically generates qualified leads as per the requirement of customers. 

    It is always better to focus on a certain group of the target audience than an entire community.

    Segregation & Personalization:

    Conversational AI can be used to segregate potential customers as per their preferences this can further assist in drafting personalized messages for each customer. Surely one way to keep the customers intact. Personalization appeals to the customers and guarantees loyalty.

    Simplified Identification:

    It becomes convenient to identify and further collect the details of the visitors to your website using Conversational AI.

    Automated Scheduling of Appointments:

    If the leads stand qualified conversational AI schedules appointments automatically. This gives the company an upper edge over the competitors. By giving customers a zero-effort process of conversion. It reduces the efforts of the sales department and lets them focus on the customers in a better way.

    Proven Relevance & Educating Audience:

    It is true what they say, the best one is the relevant one. Using the given prospects’ conversational AI helps educate the audience when they are browsing through your website.

    Seamless Agent Hand-offs:

    In case there are complex queries that need human attention the AI can automatically direct them toward a competent person. In this way, the customer query is intelligently resolved and directed. Indeed, Conversational AI cannot replace humans however, it certainly increases their productivity. As the conversational AI provides a history of the previous conversation, it becomes easy for the employee to handle the task.

    Offline Lead Generation:

    Unlike human beings, conversational AI is never offline. Once installed it works forever. Hence it keeps generating leads even when its human counterpart is offline and that proves to be the biggest benefit. 

    Reduction in Bounce Rate:

    Using conversational AI is engaging. So even if customers are intending to bounce from your website, they feel the psychological need to interact with the Conversational AI bot. It understands customer requirements and gives you an advantage over competitors.

    That’s what Convert does for you, the conversations act as a lever for lead generation and support your brand to seize the height of lead generation.

    Convert provides an environment for your existing and potential customers to interact with the system directly and if the query isn’t resolved, it redirects the same, ultimately getting human attention. That does not only help to generate leads but also helps to work in a better way on the existing ones.

    AI technology is the future of marketing and sales. Corporations are investing in conversational AI on a large scale each passing day. Convert is one of those tools that help your business grow and prosper in unimaginable ways. Are you ready to invest in the future? Then surely you must invest in Conversational AI.

  • Drive Sales Through Contextual Conversations on Facebook Messenger. Here’s How to Do It

    With evolving times, Facebook Messenger is rapidly becoming a vital marketing tactic for businesses across all sectors. Having more than 1.3 billion users globally, and expectations for the number to grow close to 2.4 billion users by 2022, it is an invaluable channel for enterprises.

    Facebook Messenger for Business provides infinite opportunities and massive potential for companies worldwide.

    Convert AI, a conversational Sales AI engine can be used in sync with Messenger to personalize engagement at scale, acquire new customers, and generate valuable customer insights which will further increase conversions and improve the ROI for your brand.

    In this guide, you’ll get a deeper look at how the integration of messenger with a conversational AI system can lift conversions for you, as well as get insights as to how you can take advantage of it to increase your sales.

    Why Use Facebook Messenger for Business?

    Messaging is one of the fastest-growing modes of communication for friends, family, and increasingly, businesses. Facebook Messenger for Business is one of the messaging apps companies are using most often to communicate and connect with customers and potential prospects. As it allows enterprises to create rewarding and friendly conversations with their customers.

    Rather than a “one to many”, impersonal and ineffective approach to consumer marketing, Facebook Messenger enables businesses with a one-to-one approach to marketing which provides brands the opportunity to personalize every touchpoint, even before they connect with your website or mobile app.

    The ability to directly message your audience holds much importance, especially when Facebook can have users stay on their platform. More than 89% of users access Facebook on their mobile devices and they check Facebook an average of 14 times a day. This proves that people have an intimate relationship with Messenger.

    When your company starts conversations with users, you’re befriending them on that level. This is how you can change business relationships into personal ones.

    Though Messenger offers immense opportunities for businesses to engage customers, generate sales, and increase profitability. These are some of the reasons why you should be using Facebook Messenger for business in 2025 :

    Generate high-quality interested leads:

    When a person as a consumer reaches out to you through Messenger, it creates an opportunity for you to follow up, which causes a substantial increase in the amount of lead generated.

    Fosters consumer trust in your brand:

    Your organization becomes easier to trust if it always remains open to dialogue. The fact that a customer can message a business anytime makes them feel more confident and attracted to it.

    Derives a hike in marketing performance and enhances your marketing funnel:

    As a business, you would always be focused on meeting your performance marketing or sales targets. Messenger for business helps in actually turning those numbers on paper into reality.

    Influence consumer’s intent to purchase:

    Research suggests that 65% of the consumers are likely to purchase from a business they can connect with (via chat).

    Provides quality customer service:

    A survey conducted by Facebook revealed that 75% of the respondents feel comfortable reaching out to businesses via chats for support which provides brands the opportunity to establish credibility.

    What is Conversational AI & How Can It Prove to be Beneficial for Your Business?

    Conversational AI is the technique of using AI to communicate with users in natural, human-like conversations. This is done by understanding their text or speech inputs, identifying the intent behind them, and responding with relevant information. But due to the increase in competition in the modern world, businesses nowadays don’t have much time. And the usage of traditional marketing techniques takes up an ample amount of time. This is where the use-case of Convert as a conversational AI lies.

    Convert by ORI is changing the way businesses used to interact and engage with their customers. It not only helps organizations meet customer demands – be available 24×7, respond quickly, personalize the interaction but also provides options for customers to choose their channel and language of communication as per their convenience. These aspects combined with that of the messenger are definitely the key to driving sales. Let’s understand how in the below section.

    Ways to Use Facebook Messenger with Convert for the Purpose of Driving Sales

    There are many ways you can use Messenger in sync with Convert to increase sales and boost your ROI. These are some of them :

    1. By automating the sales process: With Facebook Messenger, you can engage with consumers and prospects at scale. You can conveniently guide customers, offer responses, personalize experiences, provide recommendations, drive business outcomes, and much more.
    2. Personalize the customer experience by using the collected data: Facebook Messenger merged with the powers of Convert AI has the ability to provide personalized customer experiences by using collected data. Convert identifies customer intents and responds accordingly, and helps customers find products that are most likely to convert quickly, especially in the case of large product catalogs. This hyper-relevant and effortless personalized shopping experience increase the chances of conversion by three times.
    3. Enhance customers’ shopping experience using conversational intelligence: Convert is revolutionizing the online shopping experience of consumers by improving it substantially. Having the feature of context management it recognizes customer needs and initiates personalized conversations, suggests products, replies to queries, and returns prospects to the buying process. Hence using the services of Convert along with messenger can prove beneficial.
    4. Using Social Data to refine Marketing: Messenger powered with the capabilities of Covert collects vast amounts of declared data from customers via questions which can further be used by businesses to improve their retargeting efficiency alongside optimizing their marketing strategy.

    Advantages of Using FB Messenger with Convert

    Though the integration of Messenger with Convert has many large-scale advantages in the coming times. The following are to name a few:

    • Offers Intelligent AI assistance: Convert as a conversational AI analyzes consumers’ varied replies and answers accordingly within no time, reducing customer service costs and improving your customer experience. It also makes product recommendations and closes sales.
    • Alerts at appropriate times: Inventory and pricing changes can comfortably be taken care of by using Convert. Customers can opt into intelligent reminders in Facebook Messenger with little effort, and you can leverage inventory restocks or price changes to bring customers back to complete purchases.
    • Helps in Reflecting Brand personality: Nowadays, people don’t usually prefer talking to chatbots. As they are pre-filled with data and cannot counter human conversation variance. In this case, Convert not only helps brands by being an AI that can counter any variance in conversation but also reflects the brand personality involved with the businesses.
    • Cart Recovery: Convert boost sales by re-engaging with customers in Facebook Messenger if they abandon their shopping cart. Bringing customers back to complete their purchases is seamless with Convert (contact us for a demo and we’ll show you how).

    Conclusion & Key Takeaway:

    After knowing all this, it’s very clear that Facebook Messenger is becoming a key channel for the future of marketing. With billions of people on Messenger and more projected to use it in the near future, Messenger offers a huge opportunity for the growth of companies worldwide.As now you have the top to bottom course knowledge about how Facebook Messenger teamed up with Convert can be a boon for businesses, we hope you will give your business brand the advantage of reaching out to your audience before they even know that they are your future customers. For more info related to Convert and its features, do visit www.oriserve.com.

  • Conversational AI & Business Messages: Helping Brands Drive Conversions & Retention

    “Google Business Messages drives a booming close to  85% CSAT scores for Levi Strauss.” Isn’t that amazing? According to the Vice President of Product experience at Levi’s, today’s consumer wants their problems to be heard. And that’s where google business messages being of sole purpose helps brands and businesses create a rich customer experience by enabling them to do a better job at ‘hearing’ their customers and uncovering new exciting ways to delight their consumer base.

    But what exactly is Google business messaging? And how is its collaboration with Conversational AI, a partnership leading the future of modern-day businesses? This blog will help you discover the answer to all these numerous questions along with also letting you understand how you too can gain benefits from this grand integration.

    What is Google Business Messaging and How Does It Work?

    Google helps organizations expand at a striking rate by accumulating various data, tools, and resources. It also provides organizations with an end-to-end marketing and branding solution. From a simple company listing to displaying ads and search engine ads, Google caters to any and all types of target audiences.

    People have been using Google Search and Google Maps to find information related to businesses for the last few decades. Though finding the location basic info listed in their Google Business (GBM) profile is easy. It hasn’t been that easy to actually contact the business, up until now. 

    In brief, Google Business Messaging is a messenger tool that helps consumers get in touch with businesses in real-time, straight from their Google Business Profile listing. This means that customers now have the power of reaching out to business directly from the search results, without having to go through the trouble of searching for your website and looking for a potential email address or a phone number that will lead them to you.

    But how does this actually work? The answer to this is simple.

    Think of GBM as a form of instant messaging. When a person activates the Messaging feature on the supported apps, customers will be able to see a Message button on their GMB listing. The button is only visible when your profile comes up in both Google Search and Google Maps. GBM is basically a channel that is solely driven by high intent searches. Its most effective entry points are from Google web or map searches, where people are continuously searching for shops, businesses, or products and can be engaged at the earliest point of their search.

    If for instance, a customer is applying for a  credit card application, and couldn’t complete the process due to a sudden interruption, hence on the website they’re lost.

    If the conversation starts with GBM, after entering the channel through a web search, there’s a second chance to engage and get help finishing what they started. Using Convert’s follow-up notifications, the consumer is re-engaged and the brand doesn’t miss out on an opportunity of converting a new customer or the ability to provide conversational experiences throughout time.

    But what exactly is Conversational AI and how is the integration of Convert and GBM tends to be the perfect conversational marketing partner for businesses? We’ll take a closer look into that below.

    Things to Remember While Using Google Business Messaging

    Though the process of signing up and usage of google business messages is quite seamless these are some of the points you should absolutely take care of while using google business messages to get a positive outcome:

    • Curation of an engaging welcome message that garners attention from customers.
    • The average response time should be as low as it could be to catch the highly powered intent of consumers.
    • Look out to solve customers’ apposite queries optimistically.
    • Cross-selling and other feedback should be as short as they could be.
    • Make sure that the consumer’s doubts are cleared.

    Keeping all this in mind and using it at the correct time will certainly lead to customer satisfaction and increased growth.

    The Integration of GBM & Conversational AI: A Partnership Towards Amelioration of Future

    Google Business Messaging has all the features of deriving growth to businesses. But the increase in the competition of the industrial space and less amount of time available to the businesses has brought forward the need for automation and integration of GBM with Conversational AI. And this is where Convert by Ori comes into play.

    Convert is an advanced Conversational AI that has the capability of boosting customer communication across sales, advertising, and marketing to drive better and more meaningful conversations. This in turn reduces the CAC and gives the company results that you would’ve otherwise never expected. It is an effective, immersive, and elegant method to fast track your sales from the time a customer starts researching about his desired need to the time where he buys it.

    The unification of Convert and GBM further turned on to become the partnership leading towards the betterment of future businesses. 

    Following are the pros of integrating Google business messages with Convert:

    • Customer Experience and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are integrating to offer an exceptional customer experience. Consumer experience is wholly taken care of with the usage of Google Business Messaging (GBM). Businesses can further improve their customer experience by automating it with Convert which will offer them better results as compared to traditional marketing automation techniques.
    • Instant resolution to the queries by using Conversational AI: Businesses can now easily automate Google Business Messaging by using the power of automation and conversational AI offered by Convert depending upon the queries they receive which also gives the advantage of little or no waiting time.
    • The integration is paving the way for Online-to-Offline business discovery which has seen decrement as the market has seen a massive change in the way customers interact with the local businesses since the inception of pandemic and new-age technology and this has significantly cluttered out the issue.
    • Live agents can take over in case of a complex query resolution which can also be termed as the integration of AI and humans working for the sole purpose of growth.

    All these features and advantages make the unification of Google business Messages and Conversational AI the need of the hour for growing businesses in 2022.

    Conclusion:

    To sum up, all the impactful features of Conversational AI coupled with that of GBM helps Commercial industries derive growth by:

    • Causing an increment in brand visibility.
    • Lead generation at an effective cost.
    • Easier product discovery on a larger scale.
    • Resolving customer queries 24×7, leading to customer satisfaction.
    • Increasing CSAT and leveraging organic growth.

    So to conclude, there cannot be a perfect time other than now to adopt the offerings of Convert as an automated Conversational AI tool for clinching the advantages of GBM which will further improve your customer satisfaction and overall sales performance by seven times.

    Get in touch with us to have a closer look at Convert for platforms like Google Business Messaging, Whatsapp, Instagram, and many other additional channels. We can certainly advise you on what’s best for your company considering your needs and requirements. We will also set up a demo so that you can see how Convert as a Conversational AI can skyrocket your business to new extents. For setting up a demo with us, visit www.oriserve.com.

  • WhatsApp Business API – All You Need to Know

    In today’s time where 61% of the people give priority to messages and updates before and after going to bed is an indicator of how written conversations have become the most preferred medium of interaction over time. 

    And when talking about written conversations what surely chimes into one’s mind is WhatsApp. Having a huge base of more than 2 Billion users out of which  1.6 billion interact through the app every single month makes it the most trusted and leveraged messaging platform. And with the introduction of WhatsApp for business and API, it has served the same purpose for businesses. Also, the role it has played in the tough times of the pandemic makes it an integral channel for businesses in 2022.

    The WhatsApp Business solution not only allows businesses to send usefully, templated notifications to their customers but also to respond and support those who reach out to them on the channel. However, WhatsApp has recently announced changes in its pricing model which has been made effective from Feb 2022. Though to some of you, it might be clear but for most of them out there the changes remain blurred and unclear. This blog is a guide to all the changes that WhatsApp has made effective from February and will also let you understand how it will impact your business in the long run.

    The Fundamentals of WhatsApp API

    WhatsApp Business API is an application program interface that allows medium and/or large-scale businesses to interact with their customers in a secure, private environment along with allowing a more friendly, leveraging, and informal way of communication. The main idea of the WhatsApp API is to take the WhatsApp API endpoint and integrate it into their business software. This way, the businesses can interact with the customers without any hassle.

    To access WhatsApp API, you need to go through an intermediary also known as WhatsApp Partner or Business Solution Provider (BSP) to get a WhatsApp API account because WhatsApp doesn’t give direct access to end-users.

    And now that you have a WhatsApp API account, you can further connect the WhatsApp API endpoint with Conversational AI like Convert to start messaging. You can choose the plan that suits your current need and can even shift it to another if needed in the future. But how exactly are the prices decided? and what are the associated costs that play a major role in the same? We’ll be understanding all of this in the next section.

    Who are Business Solution Providers? How do they impact the pricing?

    To understand the pricing game what needs to be understood is how WhatsApp provides its services to the businesses. And to recognize the same, you must first be acknowledged with business solution providers (BSP) and their role.

    WhatsApp is very significant with the companies it grants direct API connections to. For most companies, the only way to connect to WhatsApp API is via Business Solution Providers (BSPs). But what exactly do they do?

    The answer to this is simple. WhatsApp Partners provide you guidance at every step of registering your business on WhatsApp. From figuring out messaging rules to porting numbers to verifying your WhatsApp Business API account they’ll be there providing you with a helping hand all the way through. Your experience with WhatsApp API mostly depends on the BSP you choose. 

    Now talking about the pricing, WhatsApp doesn’t directly charge its fees from the businesses BSPs are the source of revenue for them. As BSPs are liable for providing API services and assistance to businesses that are borrowed by them from WhatsApp API directly, WhatsApp charges them for the same. But how do the BSPs get paid?

    So, the BSPs pass on this charge to the end-users which in this case are the businesses taking its service by adding certain costs which include set-up fee, markup per message cost, and their cost of services, etc. And this is how the BSPs get paid and also becomes a key aspect of the pricing model. Knowing all of this, let’s dive deeper into the way how all of this comes into play.

    Know-how of WhatsApp Business API Pricing

    WhatsApp API pricing has evolved. Starting in 2018 with charges based upon notification basis it has now switched to a conversation-based model where it is charging businesses based upon the number of times it interacts with its consumers. This new model of pricing has been made effective from Feb 2022. 

    Where earlier session-based messages were free and the cost of template messages sent to customers varied by region now WhatsApp will be charging the businesses based on the number of conversations initiated by users or businesses in a specified period. Let’s take a closer look at how these models work.

    Understanding the Conversation-based Model

    Talking of WhatsApp business API, there are two types of conversation models brands/businesses interact through. The first one is based on per-message/notification sent or received and the second one is session-based.

    Now the first model i.e, based on the number of messages sent/received is the model that was used earlier where businesses were charged for every message sent. The second model is session-based where businesses are charged for messages sent/received over a time slot of 24-hours. An example of a session-based message could be if a user asks you for more information regarding a product/service. Or if a user follows up on a sale, or a customer care issue, etc. This model of pricing has been deployed by WhatsApp as of now.

    How does Conversation-based Pricing work?

    Conversations are the key to building effective consumer relations. In comparison to traditional methods of customer resolution, conversational methods provide a fast and effective consumer experience.

    Just like notification-based pricing varies across different countries and regions the same applies to Conversation-based pricing. But conversations carried on in WhatsApp business API can be categorized into two categories which include:

    • User-initiated conversations: A conversation that initiates in response to a user message. Whenever a business replies to a user within the 24-hour customer service window, that message will be associated with a user-initiated conversation.
    • Business-initiated conversations: In this, the business sends the first message or continues a conversation outside the 24-hour session. One should keep in mind that this type of conversation can only be started with pre-approved message templates as suggested by WhatsApp official notice.

    The prices for the user and business-initiated conversations are different for every region as notified in the official statement which can be checked here.

    Key Changes after February 2022

    The following changes have been introduced for businesses using the services of WhatsApp API after the recent update:

    • Key Change 1: As WhatsApp has moved towards a conversation-based model, WABA API conversations will be priced differently towards user-initiated and business-initiated conversations.
    • Key Change 2: Each WhatsApp Business Account will receive 1000 Free tier conversations monthly, which can be either user or business-initiated. If you have more than one number linked to your account, these are shared between all your numbers.
    • Key Change 3: Businesses can send free-form messages within the 24-hour customer service window at user-initiated conversation price. If the company does not respond to the user-initiated message, it will not start the 24-hour conversation session and the company will further not be charged.
    • Key Change 4: After collecting customers’ WhatsApp contact through different channels, you can encourage the customer to Opt-in (agree to receive messages), and then you can update the company’s news or send a quality-based message to the opt-in customers anytime through WhatsApp. You should keep in mind that in this case, you can only use pre-approved message templates for sending messages.

    How WhatsApp Integrated with Conversational AI Delivers Value

    Having known all the changes that have been introduced post-update, you should also understand the role Conversational AI like Convert plays in maintaining large-scale customer relations through the channel which is widely used across the globe.

    WhatsApp API allows third-party integration into its channel which is a great opportunity for brands/businesses to create meaningful relationships with their customers. Convert as a Conversational AI, automates lead generation, helps in generating interest, provides efficiency along the process of sales, improves sales and marketing ROI, and much more.

    Summing up, it can be said that it is a one-stop solution for all your needs related to customer acquisition in modern times.

    To Conclude:

    After knowing all the key changes introduced by WhatsApp for businesses these are some of the things that should surely be taken into account while opting for a BSP post-update:

    • Paying a monthly fee is a far better choice than paying per message.
    • Choose a BSP that doesn’t apply markup cost on messaging.
    • Apply for a BSP that offers a proxy API.

    And the service partner that provides all these services is Gupshup integrated with the services of Convert. It not only provides the best service considering sales, support and notifications but also provides the additional benefits catered by Conversational AI. For knowing more about how it can change the way your business used to function earlier, visit www.oriserve.com.