July 2018

Chatbots are everywhere. They’ve worked their way into retail, customer service, airlines, healthcare, banking and finance — there’s even one on the Millennium website. Now it’s time for them to work their way into your business. Chatbots are a helpful tool that will improve business operations and customer satisfaction.

Here are some ways they can help businesses run more smoothly.

Get FAQs Answered

We see it all the time. The same questions asked over and over, jamming the phone lines and interrupting workflow. However, what if there was a more efficient way to deal with the FAQs dilemma that plagues every company? Well, there is! Chatbots provide a channel to answer the burning questions that every customer and client seems to have. Chatbots’ ability to respond to hundreds of inquiries instantly eliminates a lot of the hassle a company’s employees experience daily.

Create an Interactive Experience

Customer engagement is an important piece of the puzzle to running an effective company website and reducing user bounce rates. Chatbots help engage customers by connecting them with someone, or in this case, something, that will instantaneously answer their questions so they can continue roaming about the website. To demonstrate this point, studies have shown that by incorporating chatbots, younger consumers like Generation Z and Millennials will be less likely to leave your site as their attention spans grow increasingly taxed. Adding an interactive feature to your site will only lead to a more engaging user experience for any target audience.

Act as a Personal Assistant

Chatbots can also become a customer’s personal assistant as they journey through your company’s website. They are capable of providing recommendations based on a consumer’s search history or previous communication. Even more, they cater to a customer’s requests during open and close by design. Are you starting to see the potential of chatbots and how they can improve your customers’ experience?

In summary, the future of chatbots is bright and shining. As they continue to lower costs for companies and provide 24/7 aide to customers that regular employees are unable to offer, it’s clear that chatbots are emerging as a major voice in satisfying customer needs. If you are interested in learning more about how chatbots can help with customer engagement, contact Jessica Chabot, Vice President, Client Services at Millennium Agency at www.mill.agency.

About Millennium Agency

Millennium Agency is a nationally recognized, top woman led B2B branding, positioning, and digital marketing firm who knows how to create value that emotionally influences your customer’s buying decision, giving you the competitive advantage. As your trusted partner in B2B software technology and manufacturing, we provide the branding and positioning framework that make an impact – so you can focus on what you do best – run your business successfully. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business.  Visit www.mill.agency or book time here.

Last Christmas, I joined the 21% of Americans who have a voice assistant in their home.

After the initial unboxing and setup, I spent hours taking it for a technological test drive. I set alarms for wake-up times and conference meetings, checked my pantry and ordered groceries for whatever I was low on, I even vainly attempted to stump my new wonder gadget with any number of useless trivia questions. There was no doubt: I was in high-tech heaven. So, when a friend who also has a voice assistant warned me that the novelty would soon wear off, I naturally refused to believe it.

Of course, my friend was right.

These days, the only times I interact with my once-beloved voice assistant are when I groggily shout for it to turn off the alarm clock, or right before I leave when I ask it the day’s weather.

Taking the Voice Technology from Novelty to Necessity

While they may fall a bit short of Asimov’s robotic nursemaids or Tony Stark/Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S, the voice assistants produced by the likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon are undoubtedly remarkable advances in home computing technology. But like everything from the lightbulb to the latest gaming system, the high-tech curb appeal of personal assistants has a shelf life. If these devices (and the third-party apps they communicate with) are going to continue to be relevant players in the market, the onus will be on them to adapt to the fluid needs of consumers.

If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation

According to a report from Publicis Media, the main gripe that consumers have with their voice assistant is the lack conversational capabilities that go beyond simple commands like “how long will my commute take?” or “play Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry,” or as Publicis puts it “When you invite someone to have a conversation, it is very clear in a voice-led world where your content strategy left off.”

While it’s up to the tech wizards at the big companies to improve the functionality of the assistants themselves, marketers and app developers can get ahead of the game by creating intuitive content that takes example of existing trends and technology. For example, music streaming services and podcasts offer a great opportunity to serve consumers an interactive ad experience that can be tailor made to fit the profile of the typical listener. Instead of a cookie cutter 30 second spot that talks at a listener, a food chain can harness the power of a voice assistant to create an ad that converses with the listener – asking what their favorite item on the menu is or conducting a voice survey with a listener in exchange for a free meal.

The integration possibilities are endless, and you don’t have to wait until the technological singularity of the far-off future to take advantage of it.

Whether it’s voice recognition or augmented reality capability, consumers are getting ever hungrier for new and exciting features to be integrated into the services they already know and love. If your business or organization is ready to take advantage of the latest trends in customer outreach, contact Jessica Chabot, Vice President, Client Services of Millennium Agency at www.mill.agency.

About Millennium Agency

Your company’s branding message is what sets you apart from others in your industry. It’s important to maintain a positive connection through technological avenues to establish a strong message that resonates with your target audience.

Here’s how a technologically driven branding message can help to strengthen your brand:

Customer Engagement

It sounds odd, but if used effectively, technology can be used to enhance a human connection to your customers and bring you closer to them as a result. Along with a successful brand strategy, it’s important for your customers to feel like you care about their satisfaction and are proud of your products or services. Through social media platforms and engagement, customers can directly communicate with you about their questions or concerns and receive real-time responses that make them feel as though they are being heard. This is a way to maintain an authentic feel to your brand while still allowing you to maintain an air of professionalism.

Authenticity vs. Artificial Intelligence

Authenticity and artificial intelligence are both hot button topics right now regarding your branding message. These two topics often contradict each other and offer different experiences to the consumer. To some, artificial intelligence feels as though it is disconnected from the human experience. Authenticity is popular amongst Millennials who, as consumers, are especially receptive to branding strategies that feel real and transparent. This also plays in part with the honesty and trustworthiness of a company while dealing with negative or less-than-favorable accusations. Through technology, namely social media, word spreads fast about a company’s actions and practices, and this can have either a positive or negative impact on your brand. Through postings on social media outlets, you brand can be protected, and you can be in control of the messages sent out to the public in a way that is very quick and efficient.

Leveraging a Technological Connection

Technology has many great benefits that can improve your branding message. If your brand is able to utilize social media platforms, engagement with the target audience can become instantaneous and give a personality to your brand that is unique and adaptable. Even the name of your brand can be strengthened through social networks. One way that this can be accomplished is by having a strong business page that has constant updates that allows for target audiences to become familiar with your services or products and subsequently build brand awareness and credibility.

Having a strong technological presence is important to develop a strong branding message that promotes transparency and authenticity. If you are interested in learning about new and exciting ways that modern technology can help your business grow, contact Linda Fanaras, President/Strategist of Millennium Agency at www.mill.agency.

About Millennium Agency

Designing a mobile app for your business was once an optional investment but has now become a necessity to maintain a competitive edge. In fact, mobile searches have exceeded searches from stationary devices such as laptops and desktop computers.

A strong mobile presence is key to both maintaining your current customer base as well as attracting new customers. Designing an app is not always the same as designing a ‘good’ app. There are many different factors that contribute to a successful app design, meaning that consumers enjoy using it and will use it again in the future.

Here are four design factors to consider when creating a mobile app for your business:

Simplicity/Ease of Use

Small screens can be tricky to navigate at times which is why an easy-to-use app with simple design features is ideal. The key is to take as much user input out of the equation as possible. Only the most necessary information should be provided, and the least amount of user action required.

One design feature that successful apps use is the inclusion of larger buttons that aren’t grouped closely together. Remember when designing your mobile app that it should be made for the navigating with the finger and not the mouse. The inclusion of a home screen return button is also important because it provides the user with easy pathway back to home. Navigating through an app should be as simple as possible, you don’t want users jumping from page to page, not being able to find their way around easily.

Visuals

An app should include an enticing visual design in addition to ergonomics. A few factors to keep in mind include:

Consistency with your brand.
Contrast is important, especially for users who are trying to see against a glare. Dark text against a light background is a good rule of thumb to follow.
Less is more when it comes to text. Try to say what you need to in as few words as possible. Consumers on the go may not always have the time or patience to scroll through a lengthy amount of text.
Enticing visuals does not mean including a large amount of graphics and videos. Excessive picture/video elements on an app can be too much for the eye to take in and can cause your app to operate slowly.
Keep in mind that not all users are the same. Color-blindness, a fairly common affliction, can prevent users from understanding color coded directions. Using symbols and other cues that are universally understood is the foundation for a successful app.

Speed

Consumers on the go simply don’t have time to wait for an app that loads too slowly and will likely search for a faster one. One effective way to enhance speed is to minimize clutter (unnecessary icons and text).

If your app has reduced all clutter possible and still takes an extra second to load, opt for a loading icon. Loading icons are an excellent feature to include, they inform users that progress is being made and customers won’t be left thinking that your app is always freezing. This is a great area to be creative in as an interesting load bar/icon will hold your audience’s attention.

Prioritize

The organization of your app should be based on the pathways that users are likely to follow and pathways that would lead to sales. Knowing your audience is key here:

What did they come to your app for?
What is their likely end goal?
How can I structure my app to increase conversion rates?

Ask these questions and more when organizing your app and creating the navigational structure. One tip for effectively prioritizing an app is to include a hamburger menu.

The mobile world is only increasing in size which is why businesses must adapt with the times to maintain a competitive edge. If you would like your business to experience the benefits of a new and exciting mobile app, contact Linda Fanaras, President/Strategist of Millennium Agency at www.mill.agency.

About Millennium Agency

In the world of marketing, it is very common to hear about millennials and the strategies used to effectively resonate with them, but not much is said about Generation Z. While marketing to millennials and previous generations is still important for any business, one should keep in mind that early members of generation Z are beginning to become adults. With this newfound adulthood comes consumerism and spending habits.

It is still early to tell how adult Gen Z-ers will react to marketing strategies in ten years or so (or what strategies will be available in that time), but it is very possible that their current consumerism trends will lay the groundwork for the future. Any business that sells youth products will find these trends helpful and any business that currently markets to prior generations may want to learn these trends now to maintain a competitive edge in the coming years.

Here are a few marketing trends that have been observed for Generation Z in relation to their online engagement and purchasing habits:

Mobile Applications and Presence

As the first generation to have grown up in a time when mobile devices are so commonplace, members of Generation Z are savvy smartphone users. Mastering micro-moments and having a strong overall mobile presence will be an important part of Gen Z marketing in the future.

Web Design with Modern Appeal

Having an up to date website with a modern feel to it is much more engaging to younger audiences. If a website is too cumbersome to use, Gen Z-ers (who have the shortest attention span yet) may jump straight to the next link in their web search. An enticing web design is an effective way to attract younger audiences, who are much more visually inclined than previous generations.

Social Media Presence

When they are online, much of Generation Z spends their time on social media. Seeing as they don’t do as much online shopping as millennials, maintaining presence to Gen Z involves having a strong social presence. Native ads are an excellent example of a successful way to market products to younger consumers through social media.

Individualism and Personalized Content

Much of this new generation has been observed to engage much more with content that focuses on their individualism. This means that members of Gen Z often prefer personalized content that is tailored to their specific interests.

Transparency

Generation Z often don’t respond to flashy sales techniques like previous generations do. With so much information at their disposal, Gen Z-ers do their research which is why it is important for businesses to be as straightforward with them as possible. This is also important from an attention standpoint. As mentioned before, this new generation has the shortest attention span yet when it comes to advertisements. This is why getting right to the point is crucial for younger audiences.

Every audience has specific marketing techniques that are most effective at getting through to them and Generation Z is no different. If your business sells youth products or you would like to begin gearing up for future adult consumerism trends, contact Jessica Chabot, Vice President, Client Services of Millennium Agency at www.mill.agency.