Chatbots are nothing new. Almost all small businesses have them today. They have become an integral part of marketing and customer support for every industry ranging from retail to ecommerce.
So naturally developers are striving hard to get themselves accustomed to this technology. With tons of tutorials available on the internet, this doesn’t seem much difficult now.
Are you a developer who’s intrigued by the chatbot technology and want to make a bot of your own that can work primarily on the Facebook Messenger? If you do, you need to keep a few things in mind before you go ahead with your job. Let’s go through them without further ado.
- Start with a clear goal
Your chatbot must have a clear goal. Without a goal it is like having a wireless device at home without a wireless antenna.
You should ask yourselves questions like: What’s the purpose of the chatbot that you are making right now? Will it be used for marketing purposes or will it be used for solving customer issues? On what niche will it function?
You need to get answers fast. Only then you should proceed. Otherwise, it can really turn out to be a mess.
I am providing you with a few definitions of these so-called business goals. Check these out:
Publisher goals
- Generation of genuine leads.
- Driving more and more relevant traffic to the website.
- Complete customer support automation by retaining the human touch.
Target consumer goals
- Convenient information access.
- Faster information access.
- Quick support.
You need to take all these factors into consideration for designing your chatbot.
- Select your platform
So the goal’s done and dusted. Now comes the platform. Several chatbot designing platforms are available in the market these days, so options won’t be a problem. You will just need to research a bit and find out which one suits you the best. For that, Google can be your friend.
Some of the most popular chatbot designing platforms are:
- API.AI
- Wit
- Chatfuel and so on.
- Your chatbot should not sound like a bot
Yep, I am talking a paradox here but this is what’s required if you want to make your chatbot a standout among the crowd.
Do you know why the chatbot technology ahs gained so much popularity among the world? To be honest, the concept of bots is nothing new. They were there since ages. The chatbots came as an upgrade where they appear more like human than bots. Now that’s a desirable trait indeed. And you’ll do better if you keep it like that.
Some of the best practices that you should follow for designing your chatbots are:
- An exquisite little introductory message at the start to give your chatbot a more human look. Do NOT just delve straight into business because an attitude like that has the signs of a “machine” written all over it. So start with a bit of courtesy and follow it up with a statement as to how it can aid the user. It works you know.
- The chatbot UX should have a number of pre-designed cards and buttons to fasten things up.
- An easily comprehensible interface that can be navigated easily.
- Avoiding computer terms such as log in, log out etc. Use plain and simple English as much as possible.
- Your chatbot should always acknowledge user inputs first
Your sure has given your chatbot an answer. The first thing that it should do such cases it to acknowledge it first and then move on to other questions.
If it doesn’t do that, it will look very much like a robot. An example:
“Chatbot: Evening! Is there anything you want?
User: A dumbbell.
Chatbot: Great! Glad to see you taking your exercises seriously. Choose among these options.”
So you see the conversation definitely has that human element in it. The bot acknowledges the answer and then moves on with the options. Yours should also be based on similar tactics.
- In case you have no data, come back with suggestions
I will explain this point with an example first for better comprehensibility.
Say, you’ve made a chatbot for an ecommerce company and customer pings into it with a query of his own.
Conversation:
“Chatbot: Hello, how may I help you today?
User: Show me the weather.
Chatbot: Sorry I can’t do that. But I can give you a few choices of weather related merchandise that can come in handy for you.”
So you see the way it turned the conversation to its own playing zone. Use the same tactic in your chatbot development.
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So that’s it then. It’s time I bring this to a close for now. Hope the tips highlighted above come in handy for you. Good luck!
