In its continued efforts to make Direct Messages more relevant to its users and advertisers, Twitter has now added a new feature that looks to add a personal touch to the conventional chat bots. Twitter is adding custom profiles in Direct Messages that will allow businesses to better emphasize that human element in private conversations, as well as more clearly indicate when a bot is speaking.
According to Twitter’s research, personalized experiences with a human connection can create significant benefits for businesses. Around 77 percent of people are likely to recommend a brand following a personalized customer service interaction on Twitter. Additionally, people are 19 percent more likely to feel like they’ve reached a resolution and 22 percent more likely to be satisfied compared to those who had impersonal interactions with a business on Twitter.
Twitter has launched this feature with T-Mobile as its first partner. While T-Mobile uses custom profiles to highlight the human aspect of its service, custom profiles also create the opportunity for businesses to add personality to automated experiences by incorporating real or fictional characters, like branded bots.
Custom profiles can help people identify when they are speaking to a human versus not, which helps manage their expectations about the types of replies they might receive. This is especially relevant at present because chat bots responses are limited to frequently asked questions, anticipated questions and choosing responses from a pre-set of answers. The response, and the ability to assist, will change when a customer care officer is addressing the user.
