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Miguel Neves, CMP
We’re inundated with emails — in the time it took you to open this article, you probably received a few new messages. But according to Miguel Neves, CMP, head chef at digital engagement firm Social Media Chefs, that’s all about to change.
Apps Become Business-Appropriate
For starters, apps will become more widely accepted as a vehicle for formal commununication. “Email is going to slowly go away as the more formal and contractual way of communicating,” Neves explained during an educational session at VisitBritain’s first MeetGB event April 19-20. “I think a lot of us are already internally communicating with things like WhatsApp and other apps, like Slack. There’s no reason why we can’t do contracts and more official messages through WhatsApp.”
Event organizers will begin confirming meeting details and even conducting contract negotiations through such apps, Neves predicts. “The thing about [apps] is, we’re getting more notifications [from apps than from our inbox]. Does your phone buzz every time an email comes in? You probably eventually switched all that off and control what you want, how you want your phone to buzz,” Neves said. “When it comes to things like WhatsApp, you still respond to those quite quickly.”
Let Chatbots Answer the Easy Questions
Another way to cut back on email communication about events is the chatbot, Neves said. Chatbots are easily connected to an event’s Facebook page and can be programmed to provide details about the event, he added, letting event organizers off the hook for to answering basic questions.
“If there’s a lot of people calling or emailing you —’What time does it open? Where can I park? Where’s the hotel?’ — just those really simple questions, if you have a chatbot [tied to] your messenger, it can answer those things very, very easily,” Neves explained. “[Chatbots] can detect questions even in different languages. And it doesn’t really matter how people ask the question, as long as they say [keywords] — ‘parking’ or ‘opening time’ or something like that — it’ll get to the question, and then you can always jump in a have a human person jump in and if they can’t answer the question, or at least send them to the website.”