Chatbots are everywhere now – I use them on this site and on my Facebook page. They are a great way to communicate with potential customers quickly. But as of September 28th, they are also illegal (at least in California) unless you specifically disclose to someone that they are communicating with a bot. (That’s not a problem for me, as I tell people right up front that they are chatting with my automated bot). But the “Blade-Runner_Law” as it has become known, is interesting in that it targets two specific groups: politicians and ecommerce. The law actually takes effect in July 1, 2019, and it may lead to other states adopting similar policies. The law is in response partly to the “computational propaganda” deployed most notably during the 2016 US election cycle, trying to influence a vote, but also covers trying to deceive a person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction. You can view the complete act here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1001. I don’t see anything in there about robo calls, but that is one area I’d like to see enforced, not only for political calls, but those claiming to be with Google, Microsoft, or even the IRS.

Bots are here to stay, regardless of the law, as they are simply a great way to handle customer service, technical support, online sales, and I presume, political ads. I don’t have a problem disclosing the fact that you are communicating with a bot, especially if you have the opportunity to opt out and get to a real person when the bot is incapable of handling your issue or request.  Chatbots in particular are a great way to augment online sales, and I am going to spend some time showing you how to use chatfuel to create you own online sales assistant in my upcoming online course that will be release mid-January. Make sure you are on the list by signing up for my free class at:

https://webstoresltd.com/freeclass

We are going to cover all aspects of running an online business, and bots are only a small part of what you will be learning. Plan on joining us and learning from the hundreds of customers I’ve helped over the past 20 years.

Try out my chatbot by visiting: m.me/WebStoresLtd

GregJameson

Greg Jameson has been writing blog articles on ecommerce and internet marketing for over 10 years. Learn more about Greg at https://webstoresltd.com/about/