Facebook Messenger Chatbot

Facebook’s messenger service’s integration with chatbots helps businesses provide customer service over their channel. This helps them resolve customer queries with the help of a bot on their platform. 

1. What is a chatbot? 

A chatbot is a piece of Artificial Intelligence-powered messaging software that can be used to generate automated conversions through their website and social channels. They are programmed in such a way that they can understand questions, provide answers, and execute tasks. From a customer’s perspective, they provide quicker solutions, are easy to approach, and create a hassle-free user experience by simply typing a message or selecting one from the given options.

2. How does FB Messenger work? 

Facebook Messenger is an app that is integrated with Facebook and allows users to chat, connect, share images, videos, files, and interact via group and private messages with other users.

3. What is a Facebook Messenger chatbot? 

It has been decades since chatbots have been around in some form or the other, and currently, they exist on a number of webpages, in apps, and on social media including Facebook messenger. A Facebook messenger bot is a chatbot that is deployed on Facebook and can converse with the people who use the said platform.

4. How do I deploy a chatbot on Facebook Messenger? 

One can deploy a chatbot on the Facebook messenger with the help of Engati - which is the best free platform for chatbots and live chat using the following steps: 

• To deploy a bot on Facebook Messenger, you must have a Facebook page you manage. If you don’t have a page, you will have to create one before proceeding further.
• Once your Facebook page has been created, just go to the Deploy section of the Engati portal and then click on the Facebook messenger tab and then click on Sign in with Facebook button.
• It will ask you to log in to your Facebook account which has the page access. After login, it will ask you for certain permissions like the list of pages you have. We need these permissions to set up the bot with the Facebook page. Allow these permissions.
  [Note: Make sure that you don’t have pop up blocked on the browser]
• After logging in, you will get a list of your Facebook pages for which you would have given the permission for. Just select one of them and click on the Connect button to create your messenger bot.  
• You are all set and ready to interact with customers through your Facebook page over Messenger.
• You can always click on the Button “Try this Chatbot” to see how your bot would work on Facebook messenger.

5. How can Facebook Messenger bots be used for business? 

Out of the many advantages of using a Facebook Messenger bot for business, the two main advantages are -  

Firstly, there are fewer barriers to entry for both the business and the target audience. Facebook Messenger is the third most-used app in the world, used by 68 percent of app users. A recent Nielsen survey even found that people think messaging is the second-best way to talk to a business. Also, another statistic states that Facebook users exchange 2 billion messages with businesses over Messenger every month. 

The second major advantage is that the field is still wide open as Facebook has 6 million advertisers but there are only 300,000 chatbots. That’s a lot less competition. 

The other advantages are - 

• Reach your audience directly as people spend more time on social media websites than opening a marketing email.
• Save time and money on customer care by giving them 24x7 customer service on their preferred platform.

6. How much does a Facebook bot cost? 

The cost of the Facebook chatbot depends upon the software provider and the number of interactions. You can try it for free with Engati and then choose the plan according to your preferences. 

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7. How many bots are present on Facebook? 

As per the 2018 F8 conference, Facebook has 300,000 active Messenger bots. That’s three times as many as the year prior. 

8. What is an example of a Facebook messenger bot? 

Chatbots can help businesses tackle common customer service questions, like delivery tracking, appointment booking, and answering FAQ’s. 

Some use cases of chatbots are as follows: 

1. Marriott Rewards
   Mariott created their first Facebook Messenger chatbot in 2016 for helping guests link their Marriott and Starwood rewards accounts after the companies had a merger. The bot became so popular that Marriott got it transitioned it into a Hotel booking bot: guests can enter their dates to the visiting city, and receive hotel suggestions, book rooms, avail offers and much more. This bot also highlighted content from Marriott’s inhouse magazine, Traveller, creating a mix of useful local information and news for the guest’s upcoming visit and displaying it to the guest 
   

2. Sephora
   Sephora is a cosmetics retailer that makes use of a reservation Assistant bot which is simply brilliant. Sephora offers customers free makeovers in their stores, and this bot eliminates five steps from the booking process making it easier for the customers. On implementing the chatbot there was an 11 percent rise in the booking rate. (And a lot more folks buying a range of cosmetics they didn’t know they needed till they tried it on and saw it in the mirror — customers spent an average of $50 once in-store.) 
   

3. UNICEF
   UNICEF has built a U-report bot to collect opinions and data from the youth around the world on issues that matter to them, with the motive of amplifying their opinions to create real policy changes. The bot has engaged with over 2 million subscribers until now. 

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9. What Tools to use for building Facebook Messenger bots? 

To build a Facebook Messenger chatbot one can use Engati. Engati is a software providing service that helps deploy a bot over Facebook and other channels. 

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10. What are some of the best practices for a Facebook Messenger chatbot? 

Some of the tips that you should follow to get the best of your Messenger bot are - 

1. When you’re designing your campaign, select one goal or use case for the bot to handle, and stick to it. Set your expectations practically. 
2. Invite personalization throughout. Segmenting your customers and customizing content according to them drives engagement. 
3. Always have a human on-hand. Use live chat along with the messenger bot 
4. Keep learning and once you’ve deployed it, integrate your bot with your marketing calendars overall Facebook strategy and its application algorithm.