Facebook M and the Importance of Customer Reviews

Facebook M and the Importance of Customer Reviews

Facebook M

Credit: Facebook

Facebook launches Siri, Cortana competitor

A select number of users were greeted this week with a new feature when they opened their Facebook Messenger: a virtual assistant. Called “M”, the new tool allows you to make restaurant reservations, shop online, suggest and then book travel getaways – among other uses.

So, how is M different from Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana? M actually utilizes both artificial intelligence (like the others) as well as people, called M trainers, who work behind the scenes to ensure requests and questions are correctly answered. If successful, Facebook’s Messenger app will obtain more traffic and may even eventually take a cut of transactions it helps obtain. Right now, the feature is only available to a small number of people but, if successful, will begin rolling out to a wider audience. Wired has a great article on M you can check out here.

Customer reviews are more important than you probably realize

We all know that it is important in this day an age to cultivate good customer reviews and ratings online, but did you know that a whopping 87% of potential customers won’t even consider a business with low ratings? That’s according to BrightLocal‘s 2015 Local Consumer Review Survey.

Also notable is that the survey reported 92% of respondents saying they read online reviews when it comes to local businesses. Stats like these continue to drive home the importance of good customer service and a good online presence to help curate brand advocates.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report is that 73% of those surveyed indicated they still read reviews on their desktop or laptop. That’s compared to 38% who read reviews on mobile.