8 Tips to Build an Interactive Chatbot

Chatbots have emerged as one of the most significant innovations of the last decade. After initial struggles, chatbots are now readily used by businesses. Various advantages offered by chatbots have ensured their usage across different industries. One of the most useful applications of chatbots has been in customer care and engagement. For every business that deals with customers, chatbots are becoming indispensable. Chatbots deliver an exceptional customer management system. According to Edison, about 15% of Americans have used chatbots at some time or the other while 16% own smart home services.

As a result, many businesses have already started using chatbots while many more are in the process. Chatbots engage customers through their intelligent conversations. However, in certain situations, companies do not adequately invest in training a chatbot, thereby resulting in pointless conversations with customers. Such interactions result in unhappy customers. Therefore, it is highly essential that AI chatbots deliver results as per customer expectations.

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots are advanced computer programs that converse with humans over the internet. They are also called virtual assistants or conversational agents. When divided, chatbots constitute of 4 parts namely:

• Natural language processor
• Dialog manager
• Chatbot content
• External data or custom integration

The success or failure of an AI chatbot depends entirely on the quality of conversation it can have. Better is the quality of conversation, and higher could be customer satisfaction.

Are you emulating existing Chatbots?

It is possible that you like chatbots used on some other platform. They might be intelligent, sophisticated or both. In such a situation you might want to emulate certain aspects of such a chatbot. You can avail chatbot development services from bot development companies for this requirement. But while emulating certain aspects of a particular bot, some aspects need consideration. While training such a bot, it must be kept in mind that a new kind of query can be made. If the bot is not trained effectively, it might stop replying.

Customers prefer short answers. An answer to solving their query instantly is always preferred. The database must have solutions that are simple to understand. Customer must be satisfied and return for any other queries.

For a copy of a particular existing chatbot app development, there are certain points to be kept in mind:

1. Precise lines with abundant empty spaces.
2. Use of simple words for easier understanding.
3. Lesser character count for reduced confusion.
4. Avoid using gibberish words. Also, prevent unnecessary short-forms.
5. Avoid lengthy paragraphs in texts.
6. A bot should be adaptive to customer’s language.
7. A bot should be empathic and understand the customer’s issue.

The last point is important as empathy induces human touch. A customer who feels connected is bound to engage with the business irrespective of issues. The chatbot development company must be able to customize the bot to make it relevant for the customers.

How to build an interactive Chatbot?

It is important for entrepreneurs to realize the potential of interactive AI chatbots. Here are some useful tips that can help to build an interactive chatbot:

1. Proper empathy and interaction between bot and user

A chatbot can connect with a user only when it starts speaking in customer language. It doesn’t mean that the bot should be able to speak Hebrew or Spanish. The intent of the chatbot should be to understand the mood of the user. If the bot can talk like a friend, it will keep the user engaged. It shall improve brand credibility and greater repeated customers.

2. Improvised beginning and end to the conversation

A healthy conversation is the one that is formal but not to a choking extent. The bot can start with a “Hi,” “Hello” It can ask about the day spent or plans for the rest of the day. It will develop a feeling of being cared, in the users. While the conversation ends, the bot can wish for a good day while bidding farewell.  That’s a suggestion to create a great user experience.

3. Identify frequent users

We prefer ourselves being called by our names more than a formal greeting. The personal touch is appreciated everywhere. User experience is no exception. Customers will be happier when the bot shall recognize an earlier relationship with the company and address the customer accordingly. The companies undertaking chatbot development in India are training bots to establish a virtual relationship with users by connecting with them emotionally.

4. Ask for more details

If someone asks us a question out of the blue, it might be difficult for us to answer. We need a proper reference to which the question is asked. Similar is the case with chatbot app development. To give a perfect answer, the chatbot must have certain information. Therefore, it should be trained for asking details as and when required. Remember, a better answer means better service. It is the most important factor deciding to building trust among customers.

5. Easy accessibility

The bot must be guiding in nature. It should guide users to specific call to action buttons for answering their queries. They should be unaware of the action their click might cause. In this way, they will be helping themselves out and reaching their desired results.

6. Use Emoticons

Look at any of your Whatsapp chat. Doesn’t it look interesting with those colorful emojis? Emojis are the successors to smileys we used way back on T9 keypads. Emoticons can induce interest of the customer in chatting with a friendly touch. However, their over-usage can hamper the seriousness of chat. They must be used judiciously. They must be avoided in the case of formal B2B interactions.

7. Train bot to answer different queries

The bots cannot be trained for answering every question. They will stutter at some question or other. Such moments arise in some of the best-trained bots too. At such instances, database access comes to help. The bot development company must train the AI chatbot to handle such situations tactfully instead of panic.

8. Humility is a Virtue

A gentle and humble bot is sure to take your business a long way. Humans are prone to mistakes and machines are made by them. So, you can get the idea. There can be instances when the bot fails to answer. At such moments, the bot should accept its mistake and ask for an explanation. It might be possible that the AI chatbot can solve after explanation.

Chatbots are being readily accepted across industries and by customers. The global market for chatbots is also expanding substantially. According to a report by Global Insight, the global chatbot market in 2016 was valued at $7.0 billion. Such is the popularity of chatbots with users that you would be surprised to know that about 56% of people prefer using a chatbot than a customer-service call service.

Therefore, if you are looking to develop an interactive chatbot for your business, you need to put in your best efforts. You must reach out to a credible chatbot development company and use their expertise to meet your business goals efficiently.