Chatbot : What, Why & How ?

Jennifer Thomas
9 oct. 2018
4 min de lecture

Dernière mise à jour : 12 oct. 2018

What is a Chatbot and How to Use It for Your Business. That's why I have tried. To understand how it works. Quite fun & easy. Here is the link to see mine : see Jenn's bot.

What is it ?

According to Oxford Dictionaries, a chatbot is

“A computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.”

It is an assistant that communicates with us through text messages, a virtual companion that integrates into websites, applications or instant messengers and helps entrepreneurs to get closer to customers.

The main factors that motivate people to use chatbots are:

Productivity. Chatbots provide the assistance or access to information quickly and efficiently. 24/7.
Entertainment. Chatbots amuse people by giving them funny tips, they also help killing time when users have nothing to do.
Social and relational factors. Chatbots fuel conversions and enhance social experiences. Chatting with bots also helps to avoid lonliness, gives a chance to talk without being judged and improves conversational skills.
Curiosity. The novelty of chatbots sparks curiosity. People want to explore their abilities and to try something new.

It exits different types. Simple and quite advance.

Depending on how the specific bots were programmed, we can divide them into two large groups: working according to pre-prepared commands (simple chatbot) and trained (smart or advanced chatbot).

- Simple chatbots work based on pre-written keywords that they understand. Each of these commands must be written by the developer separately using regular expressions or other forms of string analysis. If the user has asked a question without using a single keyword, the robot can not understand it and, as a rule, responds with messages like “sorry, I did not understand”.

- Smart chatbots rely on artificial intelligence when they communicate with users. Instead of pre-prepared answers, the robot responds with adequate suggestions on the topic. In addition, all the words said by the customers are recorded for later processing. However, the Forrester report “The State of Chatbots” points out that artificial intelligence is not a magic and is not yet ready to produce marvelous experiences for users on its own. On the contrary, it requires a huge work

What can they do ?

Improve customer service. It is the best option for those who don’t want their customers to:

Wait for operator’s answer — “Stay on the line, your call is very important to us” is always annoying, isn’t it?
Search for an answer in the FAQ — as a rule users don’t have time for scrolling dozens of pages with instructions.

Streamline the shopping process. It only takes to write what you want to the chatbot and the bot will send the information to the sales department. You don’t need to repeat several times “I need the same, but with metal buttons”. Besides, the chatbot remembers your preferences and uses this information when you return.

Personalize communication. A chatbot answers the specific questions of visitors instead of displaying a long list of information. The more attention a customer gets the greater his desire to buy something.

Improve a response rate. About 90% of questions sent from Facebook business pages remain unanswered. Chatbot responds to 100% of messages and converts more visitors into buyers.

Automate repetitive tasks. Most customers want to get answers on the same questions — When do you work? What is your location? Do you make deliveries? In order not to write the same answers every time, make a chatbot. It reduces your employees’ workload.

How to build one ?

If we managed to inspire you to create your own chatbot, here are some tips to help you get started. There are 4 main stages:

1. Define the goals. What should your chatbot do? Clearly indicate the list of functions your chatbot needs to perform. 2. Choose a channel to interact with your customers. Be where your clients prefer to communicate — your website, mobile app, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or other messaging platform. 3. Choose the way of creation. There are two of them: using readymade chat bot software or building a custom bot from scratch. 4. Create, customize and launch. Describe the algorithm of its actions, develop a database of answers and test the work of the chatbot. Double check everything before showing your creation to potential customers.

Now let’s look closer at 2 approaches to building chatbots:

Creating from scratch. If you are not a programmer yourself, you will need to hire a software development company as this method requires work with code, manual integration with messengers and customization. Among the advantages of this approach are:

full compliance with your needs,
control over data the bot receives,
the possibility to make corrections easily,
best for a customer-facing chatbots.

This method may require significant financial and time investments.

Using chatbot builder platforms. You can create a chatbot with the help of services providing all the necessary features and integrations. It can be a good choice for an in-house chatbot serving your team. This option is associated with some disadvantages, including the limited configuration and the dependence on the service. Some popular platforms for building chatbots are:

The challenge of creating chatbots

The main challenge is in teaching a chatbot to understand the language of your customers. In every business, customers express themselves differently and each group of a target audience speaks its own way.