A number of months ago The Rubicon team decided to examine the benefits of having a ChatBot on our website. I undertook this project without really understanding the complexities and diversities that I would face during this process.
To begin with, it is probably a good idea to try and explain what a ChatBot really is all about. Chatbots – also known as “conversational agents” – are software applications that mimic written or spoken human speech for the purposes of simulating a conversation or interaction with a real person. We have all encountered them on our browser searches and you may or may not have engaged with them at some point. So how can we achieve these interactional conversations and give our clients/customers a good user experience (UX) in the process? I looked at two types of ChatBot options, firstly that of a rule-based ChatBot that is conversationally led and secondly an Artificial Intelligence (AI) ChatBot using natural language process (NLP), that is trying to interpret the questions that are being asked by the client.
Rule-based chatbots are ideal for interactions that are straightforward, and that have no requirement for natural language processing (NLP) or artificial intelligence (AI). An AI chatbot can introduce frustration to the user by misinterpreting user intent. Rule-based chatbots are simpler and much cheaper to implement than AI chatbots. They don’t require a lot of AI training, so they are ready to work at an optimal level from launch. I settled on the Rule-based ChatBot for our purpose, as it was more economical, straightforward and answered the questions being asked (although we led the client to ask these questions).
If you are looking at a ChatBot for your business then I would take the following items into consideration:
- What are your Objectives and Goals for having a ChatBot? Here you need to consider the benefits, savings and client engagement gains for your business.
- What type of User Experience (UX) do you want to deliver to your potential clients. It needs to engage your potential clients and ensure they finish the journey.
- How do you create the Content for your ChatBot? You can try and do this internally (it will take you longer) or you can retain the services of a technical content creator company. We actually built our content in a hybrid model of our team creating the questions and the technical content creator company turning it into useful Chat Bot content
- What is the best platform to use, there are many out there such as Intercom, Drift, Landbot and FlowXO with prices ranging from €20 per month to €1000 per month. I would recommend starting with a low-cost entry option (€20 – €30) that has the capability to scale if you wish to do so.
- Once you have the ChatBot up and running you then have to ensure that you maintain it on a regular basis. Keep it current.
- Disqualification is an area where we spent a lot of time working on. We all have potential clients who contact us, who actually after examination will never become a client of your business. We use our ChatBot to re-direct them.
Finally, I would recommend that when starting a project such as this, to carry out a lot of research to ensure that you understand your requirements. It is important to layout exactly what you are trying to achieve and set yourself company driven objectives and goals. It is also wise to investigate all options available to garner what is best suited to your business model.
