In China, Bots Are Chatty Online Shop Assistants
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China, the world’s biggest ecommerce market, knows what its consumers want: super-friendly customer service. That’s why its ubiquitous chatbots, working in tandem with real customer services agents to drive sales online, are a chipper lot. On Nike’s and Apple’s shops on Alibaba Group ecommerce platform Tmall, chat bots say “Hello,” out themselves as robots and offer to answer questions or pass customers on to a human.
Apple’s smart assistant introduces itself as TIMI and then adds, “I serve you wholeheartedly!” (Incidentally, it says it doesn’t know when the iPhone 8 is coming out.)
China’s emphasis on real-time customer service is something that sets it apart from the West. It was a factor in Alibaba Group’s ability to make China comfortable with ecommerce, and a reason why Alibaba beat out eBay in the early days of online shopping in China, said Michael Zakkour, VP of the China and Asia Pacific practice at consulting firm Tompkins International.
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