Attentive Concierge: AI, Live Agents and Shopper Replies

How Attentive Concierge combines AI and live agents

Attentive presents Concierge as a conversation service in which conversational AI and AI-assisted live agents work together. Its Attentive Concierge product page describes round-the-clock replies, using subscriber purchase history and real-time browsing behavior to help recommend products, upsell or cross-sell.

Brand voice, tone and product catalog are part of the setup described on that page. Attentive also describes feedback loops and conversation insights for refining responses. These are useful buying questions: what information must your team supply, who maintains it, and how does a product or policy change reach the people and automation answering shoppers?

The page also presents LiveSMS as an SMS conversation entry point in place of on-site chat. If you want that entry point as well as replies to campaigns, put both workflows into the scope you ask Attentive to quote. A feature mentioned on a product page still needs to be included in the package you buy.

The separate Concierge message setup guide, updated in June 2023, explains routing and persona introductions. Use that documented flow alongside the current product description, then check the settings that apply to your account.

Where a reply goes when Attentive Concierge is on

The rule that matters most for operations is the routing. Attentive says it sends all subscriber responses to your Concierge agents except for support keywords and conversational keywords, which are handled by their own settings. With Concierge active, a subscriber can answer any campaign or journey message and reach an agent (Optimize messages for Concierge).

Before launch, list every keyword your program uses and decide which ones should reach a person or an agent. A keyword that bypasses Concierge does not follow its usual reply route. Check where those messages are handled in your account. Our checkout reply policy template helps write those decisions down.

How Attentive suggests introducing the Concierge persona and inviting replies

Attentive's guidance is to make the conversation obvious. It recommends introducing your agent persona by name, using a macro or writing the name into an introduction, in the first text of a journey or in any campaign. It suggests prompting replies with a direct question, a call to action or an offer of help with shopping, and it provides Concierge message templates for a sale, a product launch and a VIP message that name the agent and invite questions (Optimize messages for Concierge).

For cart recovery specifically, Attentive suggests that a cart abandonment journey can invite subscribers to ask Concierge agents questions while reminding them of the product, and can potentially offer an incentive to complete the purchase. That puts two decisions in the merchant's hands before the first reminder is sent: who may offer a discount in that conversation, and on what terms.

The AI launch and the current Concierge service description

Attentive announced AI-powered Concierge on 20 April 2023. That dated announcement introduced AI responses, SMS support, product recommendations and ways for brands to give feedback.

The current Attentive Concierge product page is more useful for understanding how Attentive presents the service today: AI and AI-assisted live agents working together, with purchase and browsing context and around-the-clock responses. Ask how that division of work operates in the package you are considering, including when a conversation reaches a live agent and when your own team steps in.

If you are comparing the wider platform, see Attentive alternatives for Shopify, Postscript vs Attentive and conversational SMS platforms.

Questions to settle about your Attentive Concierge package

Because Concierge is part of an Attentive contract, the useful comparison happens on a sales call. These questions turn the help center's description into terms you can hold the contract to.

Follow a sizing question from cart recovery to the next order

Suppose a shopper leaves a pair of trail shoes in the cart, gets the store's cart abandonment text, and replies asking whether the size runs small. With Concierge active, that reply is not a support or conversational keyword, so Attentive routes it to the store's Concierge agents, who answer as the named persona. Whether the answer comes with a discount depends on how the store set up the journey.

Now follow the same shopper forward. Ten days after delivery they ask whether the shoes can be washed. Two months later they are due for new insoles. Those are two further jobs to plan: a support question and a later add-on recommendation. A store choosing a conversation product should decide whether it wants those moments handled as separate messages or kept in the one thread the cart reminder started, with the earlier answers still in view.

When a store wants Concierge-style cart recovery run as one ongoing thread

Attentive already describes personal replies informed by purchases and browsing. The useful comparison with Zobi is the workflow you want to run: who writes the first recovery message, who approves it, how channel selection works, and how the conversation continues after the order.

Zobi texts shoppers like someone from your team. Its concierge reads the cart, writes the message for that shopper, and you approve it before it goes out. It starts on iMessage where possible and uses RCS, SMS, WhatsApp or email when needed. When the shopper replies, Zobi handles the reply in the same thread, with the cart, the last reply and what they bought in view. The same thread then answers the where is my order and will this work for me questions, nudges a reorder before the customer drifts, and suggests the add-on that finishes the setup. Every conversation is on record for you to read (how Zobi works).

If your store already uses Attentive with Concierge across its journeys and you are happy with who answers, keep it, and use the questions above at renewal. Zobi fits the store that wants cart recovery written for each shopper, approved by the merchant, iMessage first, and continued into support and reorders in one thread. If you keep Attentive for list growth and broadcasts alongside Zobi, decide which tool sends the cart reminder so a shopper gets one, and make sure every shopper you text has given consent.

Apply to have Zobi run your cart recovery and follow-up conversations. Free to apply.

Sources

Attentive Help Center, Optimize messages for Concierge

Attentive, Announcing Attentive Concierge, now with AI (press release, 20 April 2023)

Zobi, Zobi for DTC brands

Attentive Concierge product page