Chatbot Development: Important Things to Know

When companies have a greater reach and larger audience, it might become difficult and costly to manage customer queries on the website or applications. Rather than relying completely on service agents, businesses can seek an to leverage chatbot technology and keep up with their customers throughout the day, keeping them satisfied with ease.

Chatbots Explained

Chatbots are basic bots which possess the ability to receive questions from customers in normal languages such as English, reformulate those questions into a language which is understandable for other software systems, and then finally come up with the suitable responses to give to the customers.

The most common form of chatbots is the Instant Messaging(IM) Bot which can be implemented across different platforms by the users. Here are the various uses of IM bots:

Responding to general repeated questions.
Ticket booking or seat booking.
Appointment Scheduling
Ordering food or other goods.
Guidance for new customers on a website.
Scheduled management for employees.

Chatbots: Why Do We Not See Them Everywhere?

Even with so many useful functions enabled through the chatbots, the question that arises is why haven’t they become dominant everywhere. The main reason which deters the fame of chatbots has something to do with skepticism. Companies which believe service agents don’t provide quality response to their clients think the same for chatbots as well.

The sceptical eyes may also be quite evident because they show a partial truth. Although the complete picture is quite different, skepticism regarding the chatbots can be associated with the earlier generations of IM chatbots, which you may have also found troublesome in the past. The problem with early chatbots was that they responded to a stricter set of queries and took a lot of time to respond. So, to believe that chatbots can actually have a positive impact on user experience on any given website can be hard, especially for those who have encountered problems with earlier generations of IM bots.

However, the other side of the story is quite the opposite, thanks to the drastic improvement in technologies. Now chatbots come with enhanced capabilities and adaptability to human dialog. Be it imitating human language or dealing with a plethora of queries simultaneously, chatbots have become an overall well balanced and useful tool for all websites and apps, providing ample benefits while being cost-effective. Moreover, some powerful AI based chatbots can hold long and meaningful conversations with customers, making them a powerful tool for all.

Chatbot Implementation: Understanding the Procedure

Chatbots development can often get tricky, regardless of your website’s niche. You can use platforms such as Amazon Lex, Dialogflow, Botpress, or Azure Bot Service for creating a chatbot that your website or application requires. We provide you with some essential tips to help you build the perfect chatbot that delivers and never disappoints:

Slow and Steady Development

You might have heard the catchphrase “Slow and steady wins the race”. It is exactly the same for chatbot development. You can start with assigning simple tasks to the chatbot for an interval before proceeding with complex queries. With a gradual inclusion of complex tasks, you can avoid creating a useless tool and get the maximum out of your chatbot. You should also keep in mind that the more data your chatbot receives, the more progress it can make.

Adding Deep Learning and NLP (Natural Language Processing)

Chatbots become self-improving when you introduce deep learning and NLP to the process. You can see tremendous progress when your chatbot talks to a customer, as it uses the experience from each conversation to provide better results in the next conversation.

Assign Complex Tasks Frequently

With the introduction of NLP, you should now try to take your chatbot through as many new situations as possible. This will trigger a reaction based improvement in your chatbot to make it more efficient with time. Complex tasks don’t necessarily have to be related to a conversation based query, but can also include providing basic information and plans to the customers.

Keeping Your Chatbot’s Powers Limited

Even though chatbots are meant for reducing your load and saving time, you shouldn’t let chatbots handle complex functions such as booking an appointment or payment related transactions. High-risk tasks should always be authorised by a responsible person to avoid any fatal mistake.

As we mentioned earlier, making a chatbot on your own might be tricky and getting the optimum result would also be an uphill task. If you are searching for chatbot development services, , or anything else, contact us!