Looking for a Chatbot? Check Out This Octane AI Review

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Unless you’ve been living under a boulder with no wi-fi and human contact for the last few years, you can’t fail to notice the rise in chatbot popularity.

So if you’re running your own online store, you’ll want to jump on the bandwagon. This is where Octane AI comes into its own.

Continue reading to learn more about this solution and see whether Octane AI’s the right fit for your business.

What’s a Chatbot?

Before we go any further, we need to clarify what a chatbot actually is.

In short, these are just computers customers can talk with via messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and SMS.

They can also automatically send responses t shoppers. This works wonders for helping handle monotonous customer support task and delivering engaging content to your audience.

Now, that we’ve clarified that, let’s dive into the specifics of Octane AI.

Whatโ€™s Octane AI?

Octane AI homepage

In its own words, Octane AI โ€œenables Shopify merchants to increase revenue, with a Facebook Messenger bot that customers love.โ€ Founded back in 2016, when Facebook first introduced bots for Messenger, this company has gone from strength to strength.

Octane AI is investor-backed, by the likes of General Catalyst Partners and Evernote founder Phil Libin. Not to mention, Octane AI’s team also comprises the top minds from Klaviyo, Google, Mashable, Lufthansa, CBS, and Huffington Post. So, it’s safe to say this brand can be trusted.ย 

Itโ€™s an eCommerce Chatbox Platform and Shopify Plugin. Using Octane AI allows you to tap into 1.3 billion monthly Messenger users. With Octane AI, you can set up a chatbot within minutes. You don’t need any programming, coding, or web design know-how. Instead, you can hit the ground running!

Not to mention, Octane AI allows Shopify users to run abandoned carts campaigns, automatically answer customer questions, send receipts, create FAQs, send shipping notifications, and help customers find products.

Octane AIโ€™s website tells us that one in nine messages sent via an Octane AI campaign converts into a sale. That’s pretty impressive stuff!ย 

This plugin comes in handy for all kinds of businesses, from smaller operations of 50 to medium ones comprising of 50-1000, and even bigger enterprises consisting of 1001 employees upwards.ย 

The stats speak for themselves

Octane AI sales

53% of customers are more likely to shop with a business they can message. Plus, 63% of consumers admit they message businesses more than they did two years ago, and 67% expect to be able to message companies even more over the next two years.

Not convinced? This applies across the generations. 65% of Millenials and Gen Xers prefer to message rather than call, closely followed by Boomers at 63%.ย 

So, it’s hardly surprising that people are using messaging apps more than social media networks.

Octane AI’s Features

Octane AI features

To help you get a feel for the extent of Octane AI’s functionality, we’ve listed some of its key features below:
  • You can set up and run abandoned cart campaigns.
  • You can send customers shipping and receipt notifications.
  • There’s an on-site messenger chatbox for customers to use with a merchant who responds to them.
  • Website lead capture tools and popups
  • Segmentation and targeting tools
  • Smart responses: These create and send automatic chatty answers to the common questions consumers ask.
  • GDPR compliance, and reviewed by European law firms.
  • Opt-in and opt-out options for messages
  • Businesses can track a customerโ€™s behavior for better marketing and sales targeting.
  • Customizable messages

So now weโ€™ve covered the basics, letโ€™s take a more in-depth look at what Octane AI can do for your business.ย 

Recapture Your Abandoned Carts

Octane AI abandoned cart

Octane AI allows you to send personalized abandoned cart messages via Facebook Messenger to all customers who have opted-in. The same’s true of SMS. Both these forms of communication boast higher conversion rates than e-mail. Plus you can track the performance of your abandoned cart campaigns to fine-tune your strategy.ย 

Custom Drip Campaigns

Octane AI automation

You can also set up whatโ€™s called a ‘custom drip campaign.’ These email campaigns work wonders for targetting and engaging with specific sections of your audience.

So, for example, you could automatically ask a customer 14 days after their purchase, how they like their product. This could lead to a glowing customer testimonial. Alternatively, if the customer isn’t overly pleased with the services they’ve received, this email gives them a chance to air their grievances. All while providing you with an opportunity to resolve the issue before the shopper considers asking for a refund!

These same ‘drip campaigns’ can also be used to launch laser targetted email campaigns. These come in handy for advertising your latest launch, promotion, or competition you’re hosting. As you can see, the possibilities here are virtually endless!

Set up Automated Chats That Can Lead to Sales

Every message you send, even automated ones can be customized 100%. Messages can be written to fit a companyโ€™s brand and in turn, its customer base.ย 

Automated FAQsย 

Octane AI faq

Octane AI uses a fabulous feature called ‘Smart Responses.’ This helps you to write chatty, conversational responses to the most popular questions consumers ask. For example, delivery times and charges, your refunds policy, customer support opening hours, etc. It’ll save your business tons of time. Gone are the days where your customer support agents had to answer the same questions time and again.

If this is something you’re interested in, you can train your chatbot on how to answer incoming messages from Octane AI’s โ€œTrain Your Botโ€ section.

Integrations

Octane AI integrations

With Octane AI, itโ€™s possible to sync data from Klaviyo and whatever other Shopify apps you use. You can compile and utilize all this data to improve both your marketing and sales campaigns as well as your customer support.

Dashboard

Octane AI provides you with an analytics dashboard. This is where you’ll track your revenue and run campaigns. Itโ€™s possible to monitor your: sales growth, average cart value, abandoned cart rate, sales conversions, recovered revenue, open rates, as well as your customer’s most frequently asked questions.

In short, your dashboard’s basically a one-stop-shop for all the info you should know about your store.ย 

Opt-in or Out

No company wants to bombard its customers with messages. Needless to say, this has the opposite of the desired effect. Octane AI allows customers to opt-in and out of future messages with just one click. This is just another way to enhance your customer’s experience and increase shopper satisfaction.ย 

Messenger Ads

Octane AI messenger ads

You can send targeted promotional messages with Octane’s ‘Sponsored Messages.’ This permits you to use info from the custom audience you’ve created on your Facebook ads platform. There are several ways you can use conversational ads, including:

  • Interactive product finders
  • Lead generation by collecting email addresses and phone numbers
  • Discount and new line promotions
  • Sales automation
  • Quizzes and games

You name it; you can use a messenger ad and enjoy an average of two times better performance than a traditional advertisement.

How Does Octane AI Work?

This is how it works.ย 

  1. Create an Octane AI account
  2. Select what you want your chatbot to do
  3. Customize it
  4. Integrate your bot to your Facebook page

Voila, you’re done! Easy, right?

Now, once your bot’s live, you can monitor engagement on your dashboard. And as we’ve already alluded to, this is also where you’ll send messages, polls, and whatever other content to your followers.

Octane AI Pricing

Prices vary according to the number of messages a business sends out each month and the number of active people your company has using Messenger.

By ‘Messenger active person’ we mean someone who’s messaged your bot or has seen a message by it that month.

Thereโ€™s a 30-day free trial you can sign up for, which we recommend using. As with any other business investment, it’s essential to know what you’ll get for your money. However, SMS messages aren’t included.

If youโ€™re unsure which package to go for, you can also request an online demo from Octane AI. Just like the 30-day free trial, this is another way to get a feel for the software. ย 

There are three price plans:

The Basic, from $9 a month

This is aimed at smaller startups, and you get the following:

  • Unlimited Facebook messages – thereโ€™s no charge for sending messages through Facebook Messenger
  • Automated campaigns – including abandoned cart recovery, referral marketing, win-back, welcome series’.
  • Automated customer support – automatic replies to common questions. This makes your customer service task way more straightforward and not to mention, faster
  • Opt-in tools – these help you grow your Messenger list. By ‘opt-in tools’ we mean: pop-ups, comment capture, conversational ads, add to cart checkbox, and more.
  • Ecommerce integrations – Octane AI integrates with Shopify, Yotpo, ReCharge, Smile.oi, Justuno, Klaviyo, Dashbot, and more.
  • Reports – track revenues, opens, clicks, data from Facebook Messenger conversations. This simplifies ROI.
  • Broadcasts – Facebook Messenger has an average open rate of 80%, this is great, especially since Octane AI can send promo offers and updates via Messenger.

As fabulous as the Basic plan is, SMS isn’t included.

Pro, from $209 a month

This package is aimed at businesses who are either growing fast or intend to. Itโ€™s the package that Octane AI pushes the most.ย 

Here you’ll get everything in the Basic plan AND:

  • SMS messages for US and Canadian recipients at $.02 per SMS
  • VIP support – i.e., access to your own support teamย 
  • Expert onboarding – access to trained professionals who will help you set up Octane AI.
  • Advanced targeting and segmentation – based on the customer responses in your Messenger bot, you can create advanced customer segments. This allows you to really break down your customer base so you can better target and retarget consumers in your marketing campaigns.

Premium, from $999 a month

Octane AI pricing

Aimed at merchants that use SMS a ton. If your company plans on sending more SMS than Facebook messages, then this is the plan.ย 

You get everything in the Pro package as well as SMS bulk pricing at $.012 per SMS. This package is by invitation only. At the time of writing, this was pending launch.ย 

Customer Support

Octane AI customer support

Thereโ€™s a useful online Help Center, where you can type in your questions. This should generate an article that provides you with a helpful and actionable answer.ย 

That’s in addition to a pop-up chat bubble.ย  This appears in the bottom corner each time you visit Octane AI‘s website. Just type in your questions and wait to receive a response. Their customer support has been described as ‘world-class’ and operates in the USA, Canada, and Europe, so you’re bound to find an agent working in your time zone.ย 

Octane AI also has a blog addressing a variety of topics including โ€œhow to browse abandonment messages to customers on Facebook Messenger,โ€ โ€œhow to get your first 1000 Messenger subscribersโ€ and โ€œ3 Campaigns to increase Fatherโ€™s Day sales.โ€ย 

There are also video masterclasses led by Octane AI founder and CEO, Matt Schlicht as well as a 39 page ECommerce messenger Playbook.ย 

All in all, it’s safe to say Octane AI’s customer support is pretty good!

Incentives

If you sign up to Octane AI’s Affiliate Program, you’ll earn 20% of the sale when you refer them a paying customer. In addition to that, you’ll also enjoy exclusive gifts, rewards, and cash bonuses if you complete their challenges (we donโ€™t know what these are!).

There are plenty of materials and assets you can use to promote Octane AI as well as an affiliate dashboard to track your successes.

Who Uses or Has Used Octane AI?

Octane AI user reviews

Octane AI’s list of high-profile users is pretty impressive. They include the likes of Lโ€™Oreal, GoPro, Pure Cycles, Khielโ€™s, Warner Music Group, FEAT Socks, Sivana Spirit, and many, many more.

Octane AI Review: Conclusion

One of Octane AIโ€™s biggest USPs is that it’s the official ‘Facebook Messenger Platform Developer Provider.’

If that wasn’t enough to position them as an authority in this industry, they were also recognized as a ‘Gartner Cool Vendor’ back in 2017.

Theyโ€™ve even helpfully compared themselves (favorably!) to other notable platforms such as ManyChat, Recart, and ShopMessage, which is a nice touch! ย 

Have you ever used Octane AI before? If so, we’d love hearing about your experiences and opinions in the comments box below.

Rosie Greaves

Rosie Greaves is a professional content strategist who specializes in all things digital marketing, B2B, and lifestyle. She has over three years of experience crafting high-quality content. Check out her website Blog with Rosie for more information.

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