CRM company Salesforce today launched LiveMessage, a tool that helps customer service representatives manage massive messaging traffic by calling bots to their aid. The new functionality was made possible with the help of technology that came from HeyWire’s acquisition in September
Initially this new tool will only support SMS/MMS and Facebook Messenger, but it is expected to add support for other messaging apps in the near future as well.
Interestingly LiveMessage has two different approaches to messaging; first is talking to a human and second is communication using bots. To make things simpler, companies could use a combination of both, like starting with bots for simple interactions and later transferring to humans for more complex questions.
LiveMessage offers two-way interactions between consumers and companies. For example, we all have had the experience of receiving a confirmation text after placing an order online, from the company or service provider, but we have never had the luxury to reply back if we had a query.
For that we would have call on their toll free number and wait for long for a customer care executive to get connected. With Salesforce’s LiveMessage we could reply to the company and expect an interaction either with an automated response bot or a human.
According to Meredith Flynn-Ripley, VP of product-messaging at Service Cloud,
We don’t view this as bots [versus human] agents. This can be bots for simple rules-based approaches, or it could be a real-time conversation or a combination of both.
Flynn-Ripley is of the view that one of the advantages of this messaging service is that there is a sharp drop-off in phone traffic on enabling such a service. She further explained that customers seem to prefer to interact using messaging over picking up a phone.
Live messaging becomes 15-20 percent of [customer service] interactions in a matter of weeks.
Flynn-Ripley said that customers want to communicate on their terms and texting is proving to be a popular way to contact companies with customers service issues. Considering this, Salesforce newest addition could really help customer representatives transfer some load off their backs and onto bots.
