Tweet “The Future of Chatbots” and watch the results. Chatbots are the future of every business. They are everywhere. Very regularly, there is a new technology offering a new solution that pushes chatbots to be more useful and powerful.
Most discussions on chatbots are focused on Artificial Intelligence, and although it is good to build a chatbot, the chatbot is much more than a text conversation.
Imagine yourself entering a mall. You look right and see the man collection. You look left and see the woman’s collection. Now, close your eyes. Can you navigate to the child collection? Although you are familiar with this mall, it is unlikely that you can find your way!
Walking in a mall with your eyes closed is similar to most of the conversation interfaces that are found today. Everything you need is available, but without the proper guidance, discovering information is difficult. Let’s think about what exactly a Chatbot is.
You will probably answer either of these two answers: it is a conversation robot, or it is a computer program designed to simulate conversations with human users. In reality, a chatbot is an e-mail application, sometimes called a chat interface, designed to simplify complex predefined tasks. Chatbots are very useful with regard to simple activities, such as ordering meals or booking a taxi.
Chatbots are becoming more and more sophisticated, and the biggest companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft to Disney, Taco Bell and CNN are using them.
Let’s find the right way to build an effective Chatbot.
1. Find an identity for your Bot
A good robot must be carefully thought out. You have to ask a few questions:
Why should you build this robot?
Who is your target audience?
What problems will the robot solve?
How do you present the robot: as a person or a robot?
These are things you need to define precisely before being absorbed into your bot’s development process. Define basic user cases and stick to them.
Your robot must know his identity and understand what is expected of him. When a user will ask questions such as “What is your name? “,” How can you help me? “,” What questions can I ask you? “, The robot must be able to respond.
2. Create your feed
A structured conversation flow is the core of building effective and engaging conversation interfaces.
Want to build a chatbot for a grocery store? Such a robot should allow users to order food products online and even automate their meal preparation planning. The core of the conversation should focus on buying food. Sometimes people leave conversations, so you should always include the possibility of short conversations. Your robot should trigger specific feelings specific to each user, then create hooks to take advantage of these feelings and make the customer experience better.
The conversation with chatbots is unlimited and your bot will probably not understand everything your users will ask. Plan these situations without breaking the flow of conversation. Even if your robot can no longer provide answers, you must make the experience as good as possible.
It is necessary that the flow breaks when the chatbots can not answer any more, but no matter how. For example, by triggering a message such as “Please excuse us, we have no answer to your question”. You must inform your users that your robot understands and that it is there to help them. Your bots should always drive the conversation forward. They should consider suggesting things to help users discover new features. It is then necessary to use phrases or suggest buttons that can be operated to redirect clients to a location that could solve their problem instead of leaving them with a white screen blank.
3. Attach importance to content
The basis of the chatbots is above all the content. Obviously, you want your robot to be as human as possible. Users need to have experiences with them again. You should use a friendly and inclusive language when you talk to your users to make them think they are chatting with someone familiar and not with a machine.
Is your robot able to correct its own mistakes? When your users are unhappy with the experience, will your robot recognize it and will it work to direct the conversation in a different direction or will it continue on the script like a robot without emotion?
Some chatbots have planned content instead of offering an emotionally appropriate response. Chatbots are there to save you time. Otherwise, they have no more interest than a site or application.When designing content for your chatbots, you must create limits to the conversation either by giving your user buttons commands that are selected and easy to use. Do not let the conversation open to interpretation. Without borders, your users can break their experience with your bot. Also be sure to repeat the information so that users feel more comfortable knowing that you understand them.
For example, if the user requests the robot to remind him of a meeting at 2:00 pm, the bot will send him a confirmation message stating “I will send you a reminder for your meeting today at 2:00 pm”. The chatbot must be able to provide all the necessary information in the messaging application, making it a pleasant experience for the user.
4. Select the correct channels
Once you have developed and coded your bot, you can then take the most exciting step, that is, selecting the desired channels! Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, WeChat .. You must select the platforms according to your target audience and the experience offered to the user. We are moving towards a time when robots have a strong impact on the customer experience. It’s time to create the future of chatbots
The 4 steps of creating a chatbot can seem long and tedious, but they are paramount.