Providing round-the-clock customer support for global gamers with Facebook Messenger

Client

Developer

Their Story

A good time for all

Island King is a casual social game created by game developer Forever9 Games. Since its release in May 2019, it has gained a very active community on Facebook. Players in need of guidance would often turn to Messenger to contact Forever9 Games with their questions about Island King.

Their Goal

Managing customer support and player retention

Forever9 Games did not have a dedicated customer service team and relied on one full-time employee and volunteers to answer players’ questions regarding Island King on Messenger. Because of this system, the gaming company could not provide 24/7 support. As the game gained popularity, the small customer service team found it challenging to provide timely feedback to players worldwide.

In addition, Forever9 Games had plans to expand internationally and was exploring innovative ways of attracting new players and re-engaging with people who had stopped playing the game. However, managing the operational costs of acquiring and maintaining communities of new players was a hurdle they needed to clear.

Their Solution

Making efficiency a priority

To build a more efficient customer service system and player engagement channel, Forever9 Games partnered with Chatopera, a local Messaging chatbot company. As an alumni of Facebook’s startup program: Accelerator Shanghai, Chatopera was able to implement learnings from the program and advise Forever9 Games to build an optimal Messaging experience. After consolidating a list of common requests made by Island King’s players, Forever9 Games and Chatopera created “Luna”, an automated experience for Messenger that was capable of answering frequently asked questions.

Luna was built with natural language processing, persistent menu and quick replies to provide timely responses to questions from players. Whereas each customer service volunteer could serve around 50 people a day, Luna could respond to thousands daily, and used a handover protocol to transfer players with complex queries to a live agent seamlessly. Luna also used its machine learning capabilities to learn new questions and expand its knowledge pool, automatically broadening its supported FAQs.

With Chatopera’s expertise, the automated experience for Messenger, was developed, built and launched within one month.

Forever9 Games also tested one-time notification (OTN) as part of Island King’s September 2020 Beer Festival marketing campaign . The game publisher saw the limited-time, annual in-game event served as a great opportunity to attract lapsed players back to the game, and designed ads that click to Messenger to direct people to sign up for OTN services. On the day the Beer Festival began, the OTN message was sent to players who had subscribed, reminding them to login to the game for the event.

Their Success

Scoring big with automation

By working with Chatopera, Forever9 Games integrated an automated Messenger experience that greatly enhanced the customer experience for its players and the efficacy of the customer service team. The gaming company could support all of its global players immediately and achieved the following results:

“Before implementing the automated Messenger experience, we were struggling to provide feedback and answer the questions of our steadily growing fanbase. With Luna, most of our players received answers to their questions without the assistance of a live customer service provider, which greatly improved their customer experience and improved operational efficiency. Additionally, by using the one-time notification, we have successfully recalled lapsed players back to Island King. We look forward to working with Chatopera to bring more high-quality connections to our global community of game developers and players worldwide.”

- Renee Zhu, Head of Island King Studio Operations, Forever9 Games

“Thanks to the product training and mentorship we received under Facebook’s Accelerator Shanghai program, we are better able to serve local businesses wanting to leverage tools like Facebook Messenger to expand their presence internationally. Facebook Messenger is a key communication channel for businesses and consumers alike, and we’re happy to help companies build personalised Messaging experiences to connect with their customers around the world. We helped Forever9 Games launch Luna, a Messenger-run digital assistant that provides Island King players with prompt responses to their questions. Messenger’s myriad features, such as persistent menu, quick reply and one-time notifications have also contributed to a richer customer experience.”

- Hai Liang Wang, CEO, Chatopera