Chat bots are on the rise with Facebook: How do you feel?

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November 14, 2017, 4:35 am

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Chat bots are on the rise with Facebook: How do you feel?

Chat bots seem to be the on the rise currently. Most of the chat bots I see are on Facebook or can be compatible with Facebook. I believe chat bots got their start in customer support systems, such as an auto-reply (a canned response to the customer or back in the old days with instant messengers such as AIM, or Yahoo). Now, since technology has adapted in other ways, companies are using chat bots for games, support, and other awesome functionality.

If you have a facebook page, especially if you have a business you should consider using a chat bot. Chat bots can be a huge help whenever clients message you. Facebook does some have features that allow for you to streamline the process by automating messages without implementing chat bots, but it is not full featured.

Start ups are beginning to pop up a lot with the offering of a chat bot service. These start ups are becoming heavily funded by investors because there is a large interest in such technology. With things becoming more automated these days, more and more companies will be created to meet the demands of the consumer in terms of automation.

We live in a world where we want a lot of tedious and repetitive tasks automated for us, to help us make things a little easier. On the downside of automation, you risk losing some respect from old fashioned people or perhaps even losing jobs themselves. Studies show that jobs such as support jobs will be replaced by robots or an AI. Would you rather pay someone a one-time type of fee to provide a bot that will reply to your customers and could be there literally 24/7/365 to help numerous people all at once, or would you pay around $15k-$50k a year for a couple of human employees to be a support agent? Things to think of in the future.

How do you feel about the direction technology continues to go in? Have you played with the chat bots on Facebook?

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Judas2018

I prefer to talk to clients organically. If a client messages me I will get back to them as soon as possible if I am not online. But I try to avoid using any kind of BOT - when it comes to conversing with clients or customers on social media.

7 years ago

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augusta

I hate this chatbot it can be annoying sometimes, the give offensive reply that doesn't even relate to one's question.It more annoying when one is trying to rectify an error with one's bank.

I think people should leave bots and attend to clients organically because this bots automation is not helping matters.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

Like Judas2018, I too prefer to do everything with good old fashioned human analog communication. The personalized touch is always preferred, if you ask me, and I want the people who I communicate with online to associate me and my personality with a brand and a brand that is cared for and professional. I was not aware of the rise of chat bots on facebook, but I do find that interesting. I can see some uses for this technology, but interacting with clients, customers, audiences, and readers of my content, I think that personalized communication is best.

7 years ago

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Cristian

I still believe that chatbots aren't smart enough to replace humans online just yet. I mean, there current Facebook chatbots are really not that special. I remember having and owning chat bots back when IRC servers where a thing and I can tell you I've seen people develop some really SMART bots, these bots would use to take over official channels duties and people found it normal to interact with them, the only problem was understanding how to communicate properly with them and ask them for info or to do something.

Anyways, Facebook bots seem really unevolved and after analyzing how people interact with such bots I don't really think this will go anywhere unless bots become way smarter than they are now.
Sure a lot of startups are rising because of these bots, but did anyone ask the marketing questions "do people really want and will interact with the bots in a productive fashion?"

7 years ago

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Baburra

I used to look at some of those conversations with chatbots online for fun and they are funny. I think it is still not that mature but probably it will just take a year more or so for it to become a good enough technology to replace human interaction. For now, I am more in favor of humans chatting but if it gets to the point where the bots are good enough then I wouldn't be against it as long as it gets the job done.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Me too. They can be really funny. But I think they're useful for leaving some basic information. Like with new clients who are asking similar questions. But more complex stuff still needs work.

6 years ago

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overcast

I think many of us saw things coming. And it was really harder to manage the way facebook decided to stop the AI. I am sure that they have learned from their experience. And only use the AI for automation and not more than that. Because you know such tech in the wrong hands can be really fatal. And for this we as business and freelance users, also have to set the limit. And not use such tools for taking advantage.

7 years ago

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limberg

I'm not against chatbots. Actually, I use a Chatbot in one of my sites. The advantage of having a Chatbot is that even if you're unavailable, visitors could be able to have a conversation with you. You can assign different replies to phrases and sentences.

For an awesome and free Chatbot service, you can try rebot.me. It's very easy to use and embed to your site. My only gripe is that it only works for http websites. It doesn't work for https websites.

Chatbots can greatly increase user interaction, especially if you make an extremely funny Chatbot.

7 years ago

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Baburra

I agree. It can be useful as long as the chatbot is a good one and fulfill the task you need it for. I imagine it will only get better from here so I can't wait to see how well they turn out to be in the future. I think it will happen fairly soon but even at this point it is already very impressive.

7 years ago

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mark8625

Same here. I have no issues with chatbots. I have a online business and it helps to me because once I am not available online it is the one replying on behalf of me but not all queries has been answered only the basic one.

6 years ago

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DenisP

There was a post on here a while ago where we had a discussion on the ins and outs of chat bots. It was a post on up and coming technologies being used in social media and online marketing.

In my honest opinion, I feel that in their current state, chat bots are little more than glorified search bars. Until super advanced artificial intelligence is developed, chat bots are still going to be entirely reliant upon human input. They're not going to have any more information than you would find on the regular old FAQ page of a website.

It can be good in the sense that it helps people who aren't very tech savvy and can't navigate to a FAQ page for help, but for the time being you just can't replace the reliability of a live person.

7 years ago

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TimothyAlex

I just don't think that chatbots are there yet for most companies. There will come a time when truly intelligent chatbots are useful and affordable. But, it is much like those intelligent digital telephones attendants... only major companies can afford the ones that can almost provide a true conversation and help.

7 years ago

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DenisP

Funny that you should mention digital telephone attendants, because in their current state, one could definitely compare chat bots to the automated systems that you'd have to deal with over the phone when calling a company.

"If you are calling about [blank], please press [blank]. For more information about [blank], press [blank]."

At the moment, chat bots essentially seem to be this, with the exception that they recognize sentences and direct you to potential answers, rather than giving you a rundown of options.

7 years ago

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TimothyAlex

There are higher-end systems. I know when I call my electric company or bank, the voice recognition is spot on, and the interaction is very natural. I can say, "My electric is out," and my electric company's digital customer service will verify my address, check if work is being done in my area, and let me know the status of repairs... all in a very natural way. It will even call me back if there is a delay in repairs or to verify that my electricity is back on. However, that kind of technology is expensive and not available to the vast majority of companies.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

I agree. At the moment some of the chatbots just aren't at a level where they can be truly effective. Most are quite expensive as well which makes it difficult for a lot of companies to take advantage of them. The chatbots used for telephone conversations are horrible sometimes, I have probably had one good experience, the rest have been awful because they just can't understand some things.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

Definitely there is nothing wrong with the rise in chat bots on Facebook. That should be the system in all social media networks. People must be rest assured that they can have enough space to chat with friends and groups anytime as they desire. Aside from having a big chat space, chat bots should be plenty on social media because that is the basic thing social media sites are all about.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

I haven't really played around with them myself but I have quite a bit of experience with chat bots being used by some big brands. EA has decided to use some chat bots for initial contact when you want to go through their live chat support system. The chat bot will verify you and ask you a few questions about the issues you are having. Once you are done, they will then move you onto a support team member who will be able to help you very quickly. Personally, I like it because of how much quicker you can get your problem solved.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Chat bots are nothing new though. They've been around since the old AOL days. When AOL, MSN and YAHOO chat were all the rage with teenagers - myself included. Chat bots would come through chat rooms sometimes with offensive graphic messages, or posing random questions to random chat room users. When most people figured it out - they just ignored the bots until they left the room.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Yes, I remember those days as well but nowadays you can see major businesses integrating different chatbots into their business model which is something "new". Years ago you never saw them open up a window on the Facebook page and start talking to you - it's innovative and they're transforming chatbots into something more useful and not just a spamming bot.

7 years ago

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kgord

Chat bots have their place, but they also have their limitations. In most cases, I prefer to talk to a real person, because as we all know, chat bos and AI have their limitations. It is just one of the things that we might have to deal with in the future though, as well as the present.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Haha, just yesterday I encountered one chatbot on one of the Facebook pages from a company that I bought something from. How do I feel about chatbots? Hmm... I have mixed feelings because they can be extremely annoying when you're trying to get a real answer and all they do is link you useless articles. I prefer to talk to a real person because that takes way less time and I am much more satisfied compared to a chatbot. Bots just can't offer the same thing because they don't have the needed interaction skill set.

7 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Chatbots are super annoying because they are scripted lack human interaction. They also spam you with useless posts and degrade the overall user experience. Companies need to quit being cheap and hire employees to deal with people. I almost never talk to the chatbot on the telephone I just keep asking for a representative over and over until I can talk to a real human.

7 years ago

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TommyCarey

I recently finished up a new website and instantly went to facebook to set up an ad for it. As I'm setting it up, I realize that I can set up a messenger ad that will pop up when they try to contact me, which is pretty awesome. The first thing I thought was "Is this like a bot that facebook allows in their messenger?" but when I started to look into it a bit more it's just a single canned response to let people know you're there and that's it lol. You can add you link to it, which is nice, and I use it like a welcome message with an inviting image so people are more willing to respond when I get to their message lol

As for the other 3rd party bots, I haven't seen too many actually living a long life. Facebook is actually pretty good at destroying these companies and they will usually track them down then send out a seize and desist letter to prevent them from continuing any more work.

I've only seen a few of these in action, and they never last long. The most recent one was my friend Dawn sending me an affiliate link to some random website, but I haven't talked to her in maybe 10 years lmao

I know she does hair in Atlanta Georgia but this random message had nothing to do with that and seemed a bit odd. If I wasn't in the online marketing field, I probably would have thought she was sending me something she actually wanted me to check out haha

7 years ago

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peachpurple

I don't quite accept chatbots because those are not real people who are responding online. There are some questions that computerized chats could not answer our questions . It is difficult when these chatbots kept pushing us back to the same answer sections which are not helpful.

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

I feel technology is heading in the right direction. I have never used chat bots before and I have only learned about them now. I think they are good for business people who need to handle and respond to many messages daily.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Yes, they're tricky to use. Others have begun to maximize their capabilities after experimenting for some time. Like now they seem to make customers feel accommodated if done well. Though, you can't replace a good customer care service with chat bots.

6 years ago

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zgecolea1797

I hate chat bots. I always wait because of this. There are always immediate response but you will have to wait several hours or days. I prefer having a 24/7 customer service than chat bots. I believe that chat bots make clients go away.

6 years ago

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Steve5

You might be right. It seems that they take much longer to get a satisfactory response. Having customer service will allow you to get assistance as soon as possible. So they're much preferable because of that.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

Can you imagine what will happen to social if the chatbots will be a dominant force by being improved and smart in their conversations? I would dread that day when users would be suspicious of the messages that they receive because it may not be humans at all. But in fairness to chatbots, isn’t it a novelty that you can talk to a non-human that you can say anything without inhibition?

6 years ago

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SEOClerks

Chat bots are on the rise with Facebook: How do you feel?

Chat bots are on the rise with Facebook: How do you feel?

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