US Messenger usage for top brands 2018 March
This quick review of some of the US’s top brands, indicates that Messenger is an important channel however, brands are slow to add bots. This is not an brand exhaustive list, I just used Kantar’s BrandZ Top US brands as a guide.
The metrics I looked at were, do they have a Messenger button on their Facebook Page?, do they use buttons (these are like set messages a customer can tap to route their query)?, do they have a bot?, do they use an auto-reply (the simplest form of bot), the time Facebook says the brand usually responds to a message in and how many people recently messaged the brand (this is just an indicator).
First, off the main Facebook page’s there were only 4 bots, so bots at 4%. However, it is likely that some brands are spinning up Messenger bots as separate entities, for instance Amex. That said, the number is still low. Facebook does not have a bot off its main Facebook company page, neither does Microsoft (who is busy trying to get people to buy its Bot Framework).
The 4 bots I found were Paypal, Bank of America, 7-eleven and Wholefoods.
8.5% of the brands used Messenger Buttons (quick reply answers) that help route your messenger query.
Telco’s
Verizon has the busiest channel, followed by T-Mobile. T-Mobile and Sprint have the quickest response times, with AT&T the slowest.
Retail
Suprising, as I struggled to find a Facebook presence for Walmart, Costco, Lowe’s, Target and Kroeger (maybe I need to use a US proxy). Wholefoods has the busiest channel, and also has a chatbot. Walgreen's, and 7-eleven also have chatbots.
Top Articles on How Businesses are using Bots:
1. WhatsApp for Business: A Beginners Guide
2. Revenue models for bots and chatbots
3. Series of stories on AI, chatbots and how can they help businesses
FMCG
I did not find a lot of Messenger activity for FMCG brands. Again, these brands tend to like to create campaign pages and bots as opposed to using their main FB property. Also, like the UK, these brands tend to have millions of Facebook followers, so it feels like a wasted opportunity.
Lays and Tide have the busiest Messenger channels.
Banks
If Paypal is counted as a bank, then it has by far the most Messenger traffic. Though, again it is a very digital/global business. It also has a chatbot as does the Bank of America which was the second busiest Messenger channel. Bank of America is also the most responsive Messenger Channel. Investment banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, did not have Messenger channels. Fair enough! Maybe if LinkedIN had bot, they would be on-board.
Airlines
Delta has the busiest Messenger channel. No chatbots!
Restaurants
Domino’s had the busiest channel by far, followed by Starbucks, then McDonald’s. There were no Messenger Bots.
Conclusion
Like the UK, the US has few chatbots connected to major brand pages. But for Telco’s and Banks, Messenger does appear to be an important communication channel. Finally, as per UK, experiments with Bots seems to be happening off the main brand pages. This is probably sensible due to current limitations with Natural Language Processing, and the early troubles with AI driven bot’s such as Microsoft Tay.
With little outward facing AI for major brands, I wonder whether the door is currently open for more nimble companies that can make sense of, and harness AI advances.
