Conversocial, the leading digital customer experience platform, is acquiring Assist, pioneers in messaging automation, to offer scalable, conversational customer experiences that strike the right balance between adaptive automation and human support.
Assist’s focus on smart, next-generation automation and chatbots coupled with Conversocial’s unified approach to new service channels sets a new industry standard for creating meaningful customer interactions that drive value.
The deal comes as a growing number of consumers (62%) say they are more likely to be repeat customers to brands they can connect with through digital means.
“Conversocial’s customers have seen the volume of conversations taking place over messaging channels grow by more than 900 percent in the past few years. For brands to continue delivering a great experience to consumers at that kind of scale, automation is required,” explained Conversocial CEO, Joshua March. “With Assist, we are now able to combine the best aspects of messaging automation and human interaction to make connecting with a business as easy as messaging a friend.”
As part of the acquisition, Assist’s CEO’s Shane Mac, who launched the company with Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens, will become Conversocial’s Chief Automation Officer. Conversocial will retain all of Assist’s current staff and will immediately begin hiring for additional positions.
“The future isn’t about downloading another app. We are moving into a world where you can do everything with a brand with simply a conversation. A conversation that remembers your preferences, learns over time, and creates the best customer experience: a conversational customer experience. We now have the resources and an end-to-end solution to own the customer experience from marketing and sales all the way to service,” said Shane Mac, Conversocial’s Chief Automation Officer. “The truth is humans don’t scale and bots don’t build relationships, but when working together optimally the benefits are exponential and the ROI significant. Our clients see, on average, open rates eight times that of email and a 36 percent uptick in revenue.”
Research shows nearly two-thirds of consumers have stopped doing business with brands because of a poor digital customer service experience. By combining with Assist, Conversocial can reinforce its commitment to commerce-through-care. Additionally, brands have the opportunity to revolutionize their businesses with messaging, through seamless, relationship-focused customer experiences and continuous, device agnostic conversations.
Both Conversocial and Assist already serve numerous Fortune 500 companies and name brands across e-commerce, retail, hospitality, and sports including Google, Sephora, Tostitos, Aer Lingus, and Audi, among others.
Global gourmet food and floral gift provider, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., was one of Assist’s first customers. According to Chief Information Officer, Arnold Leap, “Innovation is in our company’s DNA and we are committed to always being at the forefront of where consumers are going next. Assist pioneered the intelligent automation that has helped us successfully streamline and get to common platforms for our many conversational commerce initiatives. Customers choose the channel through which they want to engage with us and we are able to create meaningful interactions on a personal level, at scale. With change comes new opportunities and we look forward to working with Conversocial to tackle the next set of challenges in our efforts to continually enhance the shopping experience.”
Conversocial maintains that the next winners or losers will be determined by brands that successfully build meaningful, personal relationships with customers. The future of customer service, sales, and marketing teams isn’t man vs. machine; it’s man or woman powered by machine.
About Conversocial
Conversocial helps brands develop meaningful relationships with their customers at scale. Tapping into the unique nature of messaging, and combining human agents with adaptive automation, Conversocial enables brands to deliver conversational customer experiences that delight consumers and transforms customer service, marketing, and sales. In 2019 the company acquired Assist, a leading enterprise chatbot platform, providing its customers with an advanced, integrated experience across bot and human support. Partnering with hundreds of forward-thinking brands such as Google, Sephora, Tesco, British Airways, Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Alaska Airlines to help them deliver a better customer experience, Conversocial has offices in London, New York, and San Francisco.