The recent F8 conference offered a slew of amazing updates and promises. One of the highlights for online entrepreneurs is the Messenger upgrade. The update looks to elevate the experience for business and casual users alike.
Facebook introduced marketing and business tools. These tools are here to create a better connection for consumers and companies. Apart from this business-centered updates, F8 also highlighted great news for everyday users.
New Messenger Business and Marketing Tool for Appointments
First from the list is the Messenger’s Appointment Booking Tool. The new marketing tool is currently on its beta stages and is expected to roll later this year.
This new tool for businesses is going to utilize the calendar apps. Users can now choose the best date for their appointments. It doesn’t stop there, the tool will also constantly remind you of your appointment. It’ll be sending you timely notifications so yo wont forget.
One of the neat features of this new Appointment Tool is the fact that you change your schedule as well. It provides the flexibility of changing the time or date if the users deemed it as necessary. On a side note, it also lets you cancel any of your appointments.
Companies, such as dentists and barbers, are currently running the beta version. It was announced that the feature will be open for all business in the future.
Messenger Adds New Lead-Generation Templates
Arguably, one of the best innovations that Facebook Messenger has for businesses are the chatbots. If you aren’t familiar with them, then here is a bit of a backstory for you.
These were introduced two years ago. Their main function is for businesses to add automated responses for inquiries. Well, not just inquiries, but messages in general.
According to the F8 announcement, they are looking to curb out some of the flaws chatbots had. One of which is the inability to answer open-ended questions. A new nifty feature involves new lead generation templates to help fill this void.
The template will also enable bots to ask general questions from the users. This gives the user the ability to give standard responses for the bots. More of these said templates are expected to be implemented later this year.
These new updates are aimed create intelligent chatbots that can understand multiple responses. Apart from the new responses, it will also help in collecting user info and intent. Well, just what lead generation tools do.
It was announced that there are at least 300,000 developers that are working with the new templates.
More updates from Messenger are as follows: the announcement of Messenger Desktop, Project Lightspeed, and Co-watching.
