SOCi has met the moment with its latest release: an AI-powered chatbot. Known as SOCi Chat, it lets its users (multi-location businesses) offer their users (consumers) streamlined ways to ask questions and interact. Sitting under SOCi’s CoMarketing Coud, it replaces the existing SmartBot feature.
With that replacement comes a more advanced conversational AI agent that can operate across several platforms where businesses may be present. That list includes Facebook, websites, SOCi pages, and SMS. Businesses can set up SOCi Chat across these channels and manage it all in one place.
As for the user experience, SOCi Chat is designed to answer users’ questions about a given business. That can include business details like opening hours, specials, products/services offered, or any number of questions that users will often pose to search engines, chatbots, or directly to the business.
“Localized customer engagement is crucial for multi-location businesses,” SOCi CMO Monica Ho told Localogy Insider. “With SOCi Chat, we are taking this to the next level. Our enhanced AI-powered chatbot provides immediate, hyper-local responses that resonate with customers on a personal level.”
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The Handoff
With a conversational AI agent in place, SOCi also hopes to free up its users to focus on higher-value activities. Those users can include business owners, franchisees, or dedicated marketing folks at a given business. The latter can be centralized brand marketing execs or location-specific marketing managers.
It’s important to note here that AI isn’t a silver bullet. It’s best applied when it offloads rote interactions to free up all the above personas. But it should also know to hand users off when questions are more complex or require nuanced human support. SOCi Chat will be trained to do just that.
As for other features and functions, here are the finer points of SOCi Chat.
- Omnichannel Chatbot: Deploy SOCi Chat across all locations for immediate, AI-powered responses on Facebook Messenger, SMS, and local pages.
- Authentic Conversations: Combine AI and localized data to create natural, personalized, and engaging interactions with customers.
- Dynamic, Location-Specific Responses: Provide location-specific answers with one chatbot setup using dynamic fields.
- Unified Customer Experience on SOCi: Seamlessly integrate SOCi Chat with other SOCi products like Pages and Surveys for a more brand-aligned, impactful, and efficient experience.
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Lots to Offer
In addition to the above benefits, SOCi Chat’s strengths lie in its integration. Given that SOCi is a robust platform for marketing and social media management, new conversational AI functions have a lot to work with. Any AI integration is only as good as the data it has to work with… and SOCi has lots to offer there.
For example, training data will focus on individual business locations. This will ensure meaningful user experiences that aren’t met with generalized information about a given brand. The customer exchanges will zero in on location-specific information – a unique edge that SOCi’s location-specific data unlocks
Another benefit is its versatility with several consumer touch points. As noted, it can be plugged into a business’s website, Facebook Page, and other places where it already interacts with customers. This allows SOCi Chat to piggyback on a given business’s existing presence, rather than force new behavior.
Speaking of new behavior, SOCi Chat is well timed as consumers are increasingly being conditioned to expect and benefit from AI-fueled features. As that behavior continues to evolve, businesses that can offer functional chat agents will have an edge. SOCi is ensuring its partners have that edge.
“By understanding and addressing the unique needs of each location, SOCi Chat not only improves customer satisfaction but also ensures seamless integration of AI and human support, said Ho. “This is a game-changer in delivering tailored, efficient interactions across all platforms.”
