Do Millennials Need Chatbots on Messenger

Latest news feeds are stuffed with the stories about Millennials and their needs and fancies. But there’s no need to be annoyed. In spite of Baby Boomers reserving the top position as the wealthiest generation, Millennials do matter if you are a business and you intend to grow. Here’s a couple of shortcuts to explain what messenger chatbots have to do with Millennials.

 Image Credit: UnSplash.com

Applying to Millennials, Consider that:

1. They pay you. According to Accenture, Millennials will be spending up to $1.4 trillion annually in U.S. only by 2020.

2. They’re picky. Millennials will shift from one business to the other one without batting an eye. However, they can be loyal and even pay more if treated right. If not, more than 90% will just leave a store or close a page with no regret.

3. They’re witty. Apart from being the best-educated generation ever, Millennials also struggle to get paid fairly more than others. It turns them into dexterous spenders. With multiple channels at hand, one Millennial “showrooming” on iPhone and searching for the best deal will outsmart any Boomer.

4. They demand, but don’t trust. It’s interesting how Millennials demand narrowly personalized service, but are not willing to share their personal data and in general trust people to have this service tailored to their needs. What a challenge for a business to balance: not to become too “weird” or annoying with questions and surveys and provide consistent cross-channel customer experience at the same time.

And most importantly…

5. They’re connected. Millennials are digital natives – they have been consuming digital information organically from the moment they learned how to read. Today more than 85% of them use devices staying online for nearly 18 hours a day, 1.7 bln keep on liking stuff on Facebook, with 1 bln staying under the steady domination of messengers as regular communication channels.

What does it mean for a business? That in order to win this target audience one needs to learn how to speak its language. Today this language is digital, and its natural environment is a messenger.

Millennials prefer texting to phone calls, with more than 80% claiming that going online actually brought them closer to their friends and relatives. This generation has built its own ecosystem, where there’s no such issue that could not be sorted out with Facebook Messenger. In a way, messengers host Millennials being the simplest tool to connect people with people and people with businesses around the world.

Do you use this channel for your business already? Think about it: this is billions of potential customers we are talking about.

Now when you know your target, what weapon would you choose?

Do Millennials Want to Talk to a Chatbot on Messenger?

 Image Credit: UnSplash.com

All the positive buzz about messenger  chatbots and Millennials willing to solve their customer needs in a couple of taps through simple human-like conversation suggests that smart talking bots are here to stay. Multiple researches prove that these are not mere futuristic ideas, but real solutions focused on real customer needs and requirements.

1) Millennials are using messenger chatbots already, and as the first digitally savvy generation, they won’t feel frustrated while adjusting to new technologies.

2) Millennials openly express their will to rely on chatbots in simple operations with two out of five trusting bots more than humans according to CARAVAN survey.

Image Credit: CARAVAN Omnibus Surveys

3) It’s the Millennials who kickstarted “chatbot revolution.” Their demand and trust have been the tipping point, for the stars have already aligned:

• the history of chatbots is long, though only now the technology became robust enough to develop into a fully-functional AI-based solution;
• businesses are always hungry for a new cheap technology to keep up with the demands their customers make;
• the canvas of already existing socially endorsed products like messengers is prepared to adopt new features embedded into its ecosystem.

Hold on a sec! Millennials are the generation of Terminator. They are familiar with the SkyNet concept. Is this the moment when we should get worried?

Do Millennials Push Us to Judgement Day
Choosing Messenger Chatbots over Humans?

If Elon Musk is suspicious of AI, then probably we should be too. However, a simple chatbot that sells brands through Messenger is possibly not the one to worry about. The volume of messenger chatbots for businesses grows aggressively, and today any consumer can find at least one that meets his or her needs, for example, on Bot Shop for Kik users or botlist stuffed with the bots for any taste. But there’s no chatbot to take over the world so far. Apparently, they will need much more time to develop.