How to build a ChatBot?

We already read what ChatBots are and how they work. A ChatBot is a program based on artificial intelligent capable of answer predetermined questions automatically also have a coherent conversation with a person. Knowing that, we can take the next step and start learning how to build and implement the min our business strategy.

Why to build a ChatBot?

ChatBots have gained importance because they are always available for the attention of users; hence they are a tool that interacts automatically, it can solve user doubts or even attract potential customers, guiding them towards the desired action at any time of the day which leads to more pleasant user experiences and interactions with customer service faster and easier. ChatBots great advantage is they are not downloaded unlike applications, `they do not need to be updated and they do not take up space in phone memory. Another advantage is that several of them can be integrated into the same chat, in this way we avoid having several applications depending on what we need at all times.

Service level and quality are the great intangible benefits. They provide functionalities that significantly favor the user experience improving customer service by eliminating long waits for online service. It facilitates the purchase or conversion processes since this information can be sent without human interaction need. The improvement of the user experience is encouraged with the use of a personalized communication for each user, since the interaction is personal and specifies what increases the chances of ending the desired action.

In order to build a ChatBot is very important to be clear about why and what for we want to create it, also the solutions that we are going to provide as added value. The first thing to consider when building a ChatBot is to define intentions, skills and competencies that we want it to have. This will help us to know how far we want to go with the interaction between it and the user. To determine which competencies will have the ChatBot we want to build, we must answer the following questions:

• What is your overall purpose?
• What problems will it try to solve or to where we want it to guide the user?
• What list of functions it specifically has?
• What problems are outside of the solution scope in our ChatBot?

Now that we know what problems our ChatBot is going to solve, next thing we must do is design a conversational experience; for this to be achieved we have to determine what kind of ChatBot ours will be. Its questions should not be general, open or ambiguous, in this way we will prevent the user from being distracted by other topics that do not interest us. Conversational artificial intelligence technology allows to create advanced dialogue systems using personal preference data and memories of users own contextual understanding to provide a realistic natural language interface.

According to its design and programming

According to its design and programming a ChatBot can be:

• Rule-based: is the most straightforward option. This works based on a series of commands and keywords previously prepared. These bots simply provide a pre-defined answer to some specific questions. If users ask a question without using a recognized word, the bot will not be able to understand it and will respond by inviting to ask another question.
• Intelligent: it has a higher level and complexity since it is based on artificial intelligence concepts. It does not work based on questions or keywords but it uses machine learning to learn from information and request of users. They are trained to understand specific words and phrases that trigger a reply, and teach themselves to understand more questions and deliver better answers.
• AI-powered: it uses a combination of natural language processing and machine learning to understand customers and solve their problems. It combines the benefits of rule-based with the power of intellectually independent programs, and it can remember conversations contexts and understand user preferences. It is a step further by offering a wide dialogue variety and providing a more natural and human experience.

ChatBots communication

ChatBots communication can be via text or voice, some models have started to use text-speech converter programs. It can be more or less complex or number of questions to execute an action depending on our needs. So, now we just have to choose one option among the many companies that offer APIs and other platforms for its creation, many of them works for Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, among others. Here are some of them:

• Chatfuel can be integrated into social networks, it provides features like broadcasting updates and adding content cards to followers automatically.
• Leadaki platform offers various solutions for SMEs such AdWords campaigns, websites, etc.
• Botsify includes easy integrations via external plugins, analytics integration and machine learning features, and it is based on a drag and drop interface to create bots.
• Flow XO provides over 100 integrations and have a visual editor easy to use with many pre-built templates for a quick start.
• Cliengooffers customized plans and functionalities such as intervened chat, supports various languages ​​and has a CRM for customer management.
• The Bot Platform is a platform that is processing millions of messages by being a well-trusted SaaS solution for automation experience.
• Beep Boop provides easy ways of creating slack bots and end-to-end developer experience.
• Chattypeople has some predefined chatbots ready to start-off, also has templates focus to support, e-commerce, etc.
• QnA Maker create bots from FAQ web pages and structured data in a few minutes using their information.
• ChatterOn helps to build a flow and setup the artificial intelligence by entering few examples of the expected conversation between user and ChatBot.
• Bottr gives an option to embed a bot on a website. Also data can be added from a WordPress, Wikipedia among others sites for better data coverage.

There are so many platforms that provides tools and APIs to create well behave ChatBots. Although we do not have knowledge of code or artificial language ourselves, we can build one with these tools, some even allow us to create simple conversational chats without actually writing a single line of code. Now that we know how to build a ChatBot it just remains to give them a try! With the great advance of artificial intelligence and analytical capacity that they can offer, it has gone from understanding only keywords to provide responses adapted to all kinds of needs and possible situations in the relationship between the machine and the human being.