Find out how Boost Juice is ramping up its digital strategy with its first ever chatbot

Jody Murray-Freedman, Boost marketing director, spoke with QSR Media about the brand's very first Messenger Chatbot while discussing the role of digital initiatives in the QSR industry.

The Bot which celebrates ingredients from Boost's Tropical Matcha Smoothie sees users being matched to their perfect fruit or veg, where they need to "woo" the fruit personas to score themselves a Boost voucher and ultimately a trip to Japan where they "marry their perfectly matched fruit".

Murray-Freedman said the retail space is competitive and as a brand we need to be challenging ourselves to find new ways to engage with customers that fit into their day-to-day lives.

QSR Media: Can you tell us more about the chatbot? How does it engage customers?

We’re constantly looking to find new ways in which we create engaging content on platforms that our customers are familiar with. Too often brands get caught up in advertising, expecting it’ll drive customers in store but the reality is that customers are busy and are using technology to engage with the world around them and stay in touch. The Matcha Chatbot is all about creating conversations with our customers on a platform they are comfortable with and that rewards them with a voucher for their engagement. The engagement with our Chatbot is not there to tell them more about our product, but more so to interact with them with a person using fruit and veg as the drivers for those personas. On the other hand, we’re also breaking the rules of customer engagement strategies because our Chatbots are choosing when they want to speak to the user just like a real life conversation.

QSR Media: How has been the reaction so far?

The feedback from customers has been great and with over 110,000 unique users thus far and more than 60,000 competition entries, proving that users are embracing the bot. Our Facbebook page has been flooded with customers tagging their partners apologising for flirting with a piece of fruit – it has been great to see users getting behind the campaign.

QSR Media: What can you say about the role of digital initiatives like this in the quick service and restaurant industry?

The world of digital is really changing the retail landscape and how brands communicate in this space is really beginning to set one brand apart from the other. On the other hand, it’s just as important that brands don’t innovate for the sake of innovating, rather they ensure that it adds value to the customer and overall branding strategy. For Boost we’re often looking for initiatives that allow our brands voice and personality to come through. We need customers to feel that its familiar without being heavily marketed to, which we have found helps to drive engagement.

Beyond just that of using digital to market to consumers, it has also helped grow our insight into our customer, who they are and what they buy. Having such insight in the QSR industry means that we’re able to communicate to our customers in spaces and times that we know get the best cut though. It’s really interesting to see where digital is taking QSR and as a brand we are committed to always innovating and keeping with the ever-changing customer.

QSR Media: What were the challenges in implementing the chatbot? Opportunities?

With anything new there are challenges and hurdles that you need to get through. The Chatbot in particular saw us using technology that is still very new to our customers, and hence the communication strategy around the Bot and what it does was vital to the success of the campaign. However, on the flip side the advantage of the Chatbot was that it was built on the Facebook Messenger platform, a communication platform our core customer is very familiar with which.

Now that we’ve got the bot technology available to us we’re looking into how we can implement this into our other digital platforms such as the App. What the bot will allow us to do is to offer customers with more bespoke online experiences when and where they need it.

QSR Media: Any other big plans for the year?

The next 12 months are going to be huge for Boost, our innovation is not just going to be in the digital space but also, we’re looking at our products, stores, teams and customers - ensuring that we take all stakeholders into the new generation of Boost.

Photo credit: Boost Juice website