How Chatbots Impact Enterprise Business Enablement

 This is a non-Messenger example, but it points to how businesses follow consumer behavior trends.

Slack is a business messaging and communication platform that has grown  significantly over the past few years, and, part of that success is due to its extensive bot store.

A number of startups have created enterprise class business, marketing, and sales enablement bots to help professionals get their job done — including Troops, which recently raised $2.6 million dollars to connect Salesforce to Slack.

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As Facebook rolls out its Facebook at Work service, we expect similar enterprise apps to appear on its platform. HubSpot, for example, has its own integration that allows you to connect its chatbot to Facebook Messenger.

When You Shouldn't Use Chatbots for Customer Service

There are moments in the customer journey where a chatbot isn't appropriate and the customer needs to speak with a human rep. No matter how smart or sophisticated your chatbot is, it can't replace the experience someone will have when interacting with another human being. When customers are upset or need urgent help, it's more reassuring to have a human present, than a chatbot. 

Here's an example. 

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In this conversation, the user is asking the chatbot what the weather will be like this weekend. The chatbot clearly has some trouble identifying the user's location which leads to further complications between the bot and the user. After the user clarifies their location, the bot still has trouble completing the user's request. 

At this point, the bot essentially has two options. It can continue to try to solve the customer’s problem  — and risk adding more friction to the experience — or, it can transfer the conversation to a human rep. In this case, it should transfer the conversation because the customer is looking for quick information and the chatbot is becoming more of a roadblock than an aid. If the customer was connected with a human rep, they could easily find the information they’re looking for and go on with their day. 

Below is another example of a chatbot fail.