Chatbots and real-time messaging have really blown up recently. Statistics show that 1.4 billion people are using chatbots on a regular basis. This is just one of many reasons why real-time messaging & chatbots are the key to unlocking customer engagement.

Who hasn't grown up with dreams of wanting a cool robot friend to talk to? Ok, lots of people probably, but I digress.

In this week’s episode, Dan, Miguel, and April explore the fascinating world of A.I. and how chatbots and real-time messaging can be key to increasing customer engagement. What a time to be alive, right?

Be sure to ask the Bees any questions you might have about how to get started using chatbots, and how to work around roadblocks.

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What's New?
We've been seeing an acceleration of digital adoption and the way we communicate is rapidly shifting into this realm, as well. The major players in the industry have been quick to make changes and roll out new features to cater to this new surge in online communication.

Check out the links below to read more about new changes to Facebook Messenger and Google My Business.

If you don't have GMB set up yet, we very strongly suggest it. You can check the first guide of our thorough 3-part walkthrough here.

* Messenger Launches a New Chat Plugin for Business Websites to Reach Non-Facebook Customers
* Google Local Panel Displays When Hours Were Last Updated

The Rise of the Chatbot
Conversations with A.I. are so common now that they almost seem normal. Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google are widespread and popular examples, and just a small slice of the thousands of chatbots we might potentially interact with on a regular basis.

When we think chatbots, though, we likely picture that small widget in the bottom right hand corner of many websites we visit these days.

Chatbots really started to surge in popularity back in 2016, thanks mostly to Facebook allowing developers to build chatbots on the Messenger platform - and within 2 years there were over 300,000 chatbots created.

More and more companies are turning to them to help field standard questions, start conversations, and provide relevant information to customers immediately, any time, 24/7.

Check out the graph below to see how much the market size has grown since just last year. The predicted growth by 2024 is just staggering.

Why Use Chatbots?
Trying to keep up with the demands of customers online can be daunting. Businesses need to be available 24/7 to be able to satisfy every customer inquiry, which means customer service staff is needed around the clock to stay on top.

The global market is continuously expanding and developing new innovations to solve these issues, and this is where chatbots come in.

Just take a look at these statistics on some of the most common complaints about businesses online:

* 34% found sites hard to navigate.
* 31% said they can’t get answers to simple questions.
* 28% said basic details about a business were hard to find.