December 4, 2017
Facebook is the world’s largest facial recognition database with 300 million photos uploaded every day. It is no wonder then that Facebook is looking at ways to improve customer service, measured through sentiment, by analysing the expressions on shoppers faces when they visit a brick-and-mortar store.
Facebook has submitted a patent which will enable brands to target people with specific products based on their Facebook profile and facial expressions. Part of the technology is a crowd-scanning ability whose results are relayed to shop floor staff and managers if a customer appears to be unhappy or requires assistance.
The patent, which was filed in November, has also suggested that the tech can be used to send electronic communications directly to a customer’s mobile phone and be used to host text messages, phone calls and video chats between individuals and a store’s staff members to facilitate an effortless and efficient customer service experience.
The AI component of the technology comes into play when utllising the software to predict a customer’s need and ascertain the level of loyalty and trust – all metrics that have been used in the past in more traditional forms of marketing to determine a sentiment score. The difference with this technology is that the information used to inform these outcomes will be derived from a profile “maintained with a social networking system”; i.e. Facebook.
As with any developments of this nature; however, concerns have been raised over privacy breaches and will need to be carefully considered with the impending implementation of GDPR.