Chatbots are already part of a generation of applications that are allowing brands to find A new way to contact its users through artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Users who, just like they use apps to talk to their friends, can also talk to bots to communicate with a brand. Chatbots promise to be a new communication channel that will complement the rest of the brand's content strategy. So much so that they are already used and promoted by giants such as Facebook, Google, Apple and IBM.Any company that has a strategy-based message to communicate will need a scalable solution to achieve it. Chatbots They allow companies to converse with thousands of people in an automated, personalized and instantaneous way.
Why create a chatbot?
Do you know the potential that can be represented by contacting a audience equivalent to the more than 1.81 billion users who use messaging applications on a regular basis? There is no doubt that chatbots are useful and will be of great benefit to companies that manage to establish much closer ties through popular messaging applications such as Facebook or WhatsApp. Users do not need to download new apps since chatbots are available through existing applications and in which they already have an account. In addition, they do not need to adapt to a new user interface because they already know how to use that application. A market for chatbots that is growing by leaps and bounds. JustFacebook Messenger now has more than 100,000 bots available, enabling interaction with the user.
Types of chatbots
There are different types of chatbots depending on their functionality and the way in which they interact with the user or the value they are able to provide:
Transactional: allows the user to make a purchase or exchange through electronic commerce, place and track their orders.
Customer Service: allows a total rapprochement between user and company, providing a solution to a problem or doubt. For example, check-in for an airline or information about changing flight details.
Theme: presents the latest news or information on topics of interest.
Entertainment: Offers content that is intended to be funny or humorous, such as returning memes based on a user-written text or talking to a character from a comedy series.
Examples of how a chatbot can be successful
Uber's chatbot on Facebook Messenger allows users to Take a trip or register for Uber without having to download the appThey have made booking a ride even simpler. Simply open a Facebook chat with Uber and tap the brand icon to get started. The social aspect of Facebook gives Uber new social powers. Plus, being within a social platform like Facebook, it can be combined with the use of group chats on Messenger where users can send information about rides to their friends, coworkers and family. Requesting a ride in a group chat allows other participants to immediately see all the transaction information, so the group organizer can stop worrying about informing the rest of the group.
After the first wave of successful personal assistants like Siri, Google Now, Alexa and Cortana, users have the perception that Artificial Intelligence will have reached a higher point of maturity when it offers truly relevant answers to their simple questions. In a way, we can figuratively say that Artificial Intelligence has the ability to feel, think and act:
Feel – collect information (user interaction).
Think – store and analyze information (database).
Act – converts stored information to interpret the environment and evaluate it to arrive at a response or make a decision (algorithms and scripts).
What sets a bot apart is its ability to gather and store information, make decisions based on that information, and provide relevant responses quickly and efficiently. Successful chatbots will be those that enjoy a versatile platform, tailored to their needs, and designed to solve a specific real-world problem.
Useful practices applied in the development of chatbots
Knowing your audience
While this statement is a reality for any product, this becomes especially relevant when we talk about chatbots. We cannot make a bot for all messaging platforms, so We must choose the one that best suits the profile of our target audience.Slack users are more professional and generally more mature. Facebook users are also older, but are using the social network primarily for recreational purposes. Telegram users are more mature, while Kik users are predominantly teenagers.
Simple and concrete utility
A successful bot will respond to a clear function. We can't try to make it do everything. A bot must be created for a specific reason and solve a specific problem effectivelyIf you do too many tasks, the user won't find what they were looking for and the bot will lose its usefulness. Dankland, a Facebook Messenger bot that turns photos into memes, is a good example of this. The experience is clean and doesn't pretend to be anything other than a meme generator.
Provides solutions
After a nice introduction: “Hi, I'm Tripto, your hotel booking assistant.” You have to Educate the public on what your bot is capable of doing: “I can compare prices, find deals, and book your hotel.” When you finish one task, be proactive and offer to run another one. Let your bot become a recurring tool.
Be social
A chatbot will boost your success if you apply elements of social interaction. When a user in a group mentions a chatbot, it appears directly in the group chat and all participating members discover it. This type of implementation can exponentially increase its use. The future of chatbots is still uncertain, but everything points to it being a technology that will be increasingly used by brands and users. The development of Artificial Intelligence based on learning based on its interaction with the user will contribute to making our relationship with these virtual minds increasingly more natural and more common.
English 
Español 
Português do Brasil 
Français 
Italiano 
Deutsch 
Русский 
العربية 
हिन्दी 
Bahasa Indonesia 
Nederlands 
日本語 
简体中文 
Polski