The number of active messenger users is constantly growing. According to statistics, in 2017, messengers were used by 1.82 billion people. In 2018, the active audience of these applications may exceed 2 billion, which will account for 80% of smartphone users. People complete tasks without leaving the messenger, with chatbots helping them. According to Bloomberg, the chatbot industry is growing faster than the mobile app industry during its heyday.
In Kazakhstan, the development of this area also does not stand still. In February 2018, the IT company DAR introduced the robot assistant DAR VIS, which works in the messenger interface. In addition to DAR VIS, the ecosystem includes the DAR Bazar trading platform, the DAR Business application for entrepreneurs, the DAR Logistics logistics solution for online stores and the DAR Play streaming service.
№1. What are chatbots?
A chatbot is an interlocutor program that imitates human communication using text or voice. Chatbots help automate tasks by working according to a given algorithm. They conduct a dialogue with the user, fulfilling his requests, answering queries or entertaining with their answers. The first programs simulating human communication appeared back in 1966. The virtual interlocutor Elisa quite convincingly parodied the dialogue with the psychotherapist. With the rise in popularity of messaging apps in the 2010s, chatbots took on a new life. Most work on popular messenger platforms: Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, VKontakte, Skype, Slack. Bots can work as separate applications or be built into the functionality of search engines.
№2. Why do I need a chatbot?
Chatbots are multitasking. At the user's request, they provide useful information: weather forecast, exchange rates, posters, word translation, latest news, help to choose a suitable flight, book a ticket and order a taxi. Helper bots remind you of upcoming events. Postal service bots track the parcel using the track code. Chatbots make it easier to search and download books, movies and music. The media use chatbots to deliver materials and news to readers via instant messengers. Such large publications as the BBC, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Meduza, and Kommersant have their own chatbots. With the help of chatbots of banks and payment systems, you can make financial transactions, money transfers and check your balance.
No. 3. Impressive. What else can a chatbot do?
Medical bots like the Melody app from the Chinese search engine Baidu can interview a patient, make an appointment with a doctor, and send a list of symptoms to the specialist to make a diagnosis. Educational chatbots help you learn foreign languages. Many popular chatbots can entertain. They work as online games, quizzes and puzzles, send funny photos, gifs, quotes, jokes, tell fortunes and make up horoscopes. You can have long philosophical dialogues with interlocutor bots.
There are also multifunctional bots, such as the chat bot in the interface of the Kazakh messenger DAR VIS. It provides weather forecasts, encyclopedic information, and event listings in several cities in Kazakhstan. The bot can translate any word or phrase into 100 languages of the world. By connecting a bank card to the chatbot, you can pay for mobile communications, top up your Onai card, buy virtual currency in online games, order flowers (ordering food and paying for parking will be available in the future) and make a money transfer.
№4. Can chatbots replace humans?
A bot is not capable of replacing a person, but it can automate many routine operations, replace technical support services and call centers, instantly answering popular requests and providing reference information. A bot can help a business by working as a sales consultant. During the dialogue with the user, the program suggests the most relevant products and services, gradually narrowing the list of options. Bots do a good job of providing legal advice. Inside companies, chatbots can take over some of the functions of HR and legal departments. They are able to accept applications for vacancies and interview candidates, plan employees’ schedules and remind them of important tasks, organize business trips, enroll in courses and receive standard reports.
No. 5. Impressive. How it works?
Chatbots can be divided into simple and self-learning. The former can interact with the user through buttons and pictures or accept text commands. The bot recognizes text or speech, highlighting keywords and translating them into commands. It then responds according to the given program. Most often, such chatbots have instructions with a list of commands and keywords. DAR VIS also belongs to this type of bot. The second type of chatbots works on the principle of artificial intelligence, learning in the process of communicating with users, analyzing dialogues and adapting to the individual characteristics of users. The voice assistants Siri from Apple and Alice from Yandex work on this principle. With such chatbots you can conduct dialogues on abstract topics.
№6. Why are chatbots better than mobile apps?
Chatbots have a number of advantages:
- Convenience of working in one window. No need to switch between different menu tabs.
- Chatbots consume little traffic and can work even at low Internet speeds.
- Bots work on all messenger platforms. Chatbot creators do not need to develop new applications for Android and iOS, and users do not need to download them.
- You can transmit information through chatbots: phone numbers, images, geodata, track codes, photos and video files. By processing them, the bot can perform many tasks, for example, find the nearest cafe or hotel in response to a sent geotag.
- A group of people can work with a chatbot at the same time. The DAR VIS bot has a unique function - “Common boiler”. Users can chip in money and pay for joint purchases or expenses.
№6. Where can you find chatbots?
The largest and most convenient English-language library of bots is Botlist. Here are bots (not just chatbots) that work on all major platforms and instant messengers. They can be searched by platforms, categories and ratings. More than 10 thousand chatbots for Facebook Messenger can be found in the Chatbottle directory. They have their own ratings and even a “bot of the year” award. You cannot search for Russian-speaking bots in these directories.
For Russian-speaking countries, the Storebot catalog of Telegram bots is more relevant. The directory also has a bot that helps you search for bots. The corporate messenger Slack has an official bot store. In Facebook Messenger, bots can be found using search. You can focus on many selections of the “most convenient” and “most interesting” chatbots for this messenger on Google. Many chatbots can be found in the form of separate applications in the corresponding tabs in the application stores. The DAR VIS application is available for download in the App Store and Google Play .
№7. How to create a chatbot?
You can create a bot from scratch, but to do this you need to understand the code, but it is still easier than creating an application. A simple chatbot that can provide users with help information or send them alerts can be created independently without any programming skills. To do this, you can use one of the free designers. Chatfuel is the simplest chatbot builder for Facebook Messenger, where you can create the simplest bot in 7 minutes by linking it to a Facebook page and gradually filling out blocks with questions and answers. Telegram chatbots can be made using the Manybot bot, which has a step-by-step algorithm of actions. There are also more advanced resources with free and premium versions. On the Dialogflow platform, you can create bots based on natural speech recognition. On the Meya.ai platform you can develop bots for all major messengers.
№8. How are things going with chatbots in Kazakhstan?
In Kazakhstan, business and government agencies are gradually mastering chatbots as a channel of communication with citizens. For example, “Duty Service 109” in Astana has its own bot. Through it you can send appeals on issues of a public utility nature. The Kazpost bot allows you to track parcels using a track code and sends notifications about their status. Through it you can also get information about the nearest post offices. Several Kazakh banks have their own chatbots in Telegram and Facebook Messenger. The @KZPhoneOperatorBot bot allows you to find a mobile operator by phone number.
The universal bot DAR VIS has added to this list. When developing it, the peculiarities of national mentality and speech were taken into account. It can be linked to Kazakh bank cards and phone numbers. The chatbot has stickers in Russian and Kazakh languages and postcards in the national style. In the future, all functionality of the application will be localized in the Kazakh language. Now the interface has already been partially translated into Kazakh, and the chatbot can conduct simple dialogues in Kazakh.
A chatbot is a virtual online consultant that can easily replace a technical support employee, administrator, manager, and even a salesperson, which means it can save your budget from unnecessary expenses.
Essentially, this is a service that conducts a dialogue with the client using text or voice messages (commands). It can be integrated directly into the website, but it is better (more effective) to use instant messengers and social networks.
The chatbot works 24/7. A potential client enters a request and immediately receives a response. In this way, the behavior of a live consultant in a chat is imitated.
If you are promoting a business, but have not yet used this tool, it's time to find out what a chat bot is and how to use it. Go!
Chat bot - what is it in simple words?
A chatbot is a virtual consultant (or robot), whose main task is to perform routine, monotonous tasks for you, for example, helping customers choose a product, providing them with technical support, sending a series of letters for you, etc.
Visually, it looks like a regular chat in which the user communicates with artificial intelligence. But there is no arbitrariness; communication occurs according to a pre-created scenario, or, more precisely, according to a given algorithm.
Working with a chatbot can be carried out:
- On the site. To do this, you need to allocate a separate section for it, integrate it and provide it to users as a link.
- Based on social networks and instant messengers.(Telegram, Facebook, Vkontakte, Viber). To start a dialogue, you need to add the robot to your contact list.
Once again, for reinforcement. Bots communicate with people (your potential customers) through messages. The virtual assistant “understands” what the interlocutor is saying thanks to a prescribed algorithm (code).
The bot responds to the request:
- By reply message. In this case, the assistant prompts the client to enter a new command to continue the interview;
- Performing an action(filling out an application, displaying information).
At the beginning of 2019, more than 33,000 bots “live their own lives” on Facebook Messenger, but in Telegram there are slightly fewer of them - about 15,000 thousand.
Chatbots for business - what are they?
Experts believe that in the next 5-10 years, modernized chatbots will completely replace e-mail marketing and put sales managers and technical support specialists out of work.
And here's the thing...
Every day people spend more and more time on their phones. As Pavel Durov says, friends are now on social networks, and partners and clients are on messengers.
Now the culture of perception and processing of information is changing dramatically.
Customers open mail less and less, study websites less, call and visit offline points less often. Consumer interest has swung strongly towards social networks and instant messengers such as telegram, viber and whatsapp. They want to receive the necessary information in a couple of clicks in a fraction of seconds, and not wait for a long time to send a proposal or call a manager. This is where chatbots are designed to help.
So why do you need a chatbot for business?
- Save your budget from unnecessary expenses. By shifting a number of standard responsibilities to a virtual assistant, you can save your employees’ time and use it in more useful ways, or simply reduce your team and your expenses.
- Increase sales. Just imagine, the client receives an answer to any question in a split second by communicating with a bot. This increases his loyalty.
A wrong thought may arise in your head, like “Such bots are very limited in functions,” or, more simply put, stupid. Let's figure out what share of intelligence virtual managers have.
How “smart” is a chatbot?
Let me remind you that in many ways it is you and your budget that determine how “smart” your bot will be. After all, the process of communicating with a virtual assistant is built solely on the basis of clearly developed logic and a given algorithm (which is written in the form of code).
Yes, robots are not people, so, undoubtedly, stupid situations can arise. But you shouldn't be afraid of them. After all, real sales managers make mistakes too, don’t they?
In general, I can distinguish two types of chatbots:
- Limited. Such a virtual assistant responds only to a limited number of phrases and only if the user’s request exactly matches the request specified in the algorithm;
- Self-learning. In this case, we are talking about a complex system, the operation of which is based on a self-learning neural network (with human corrections). Such a robot can capture the entire context of a conversation.
What can a chatbot do?
In principle, you can program a virtual assistant for any task. Most often it is used for marketing activities and technical support.
Marketing bots
They are used to collect leads, warm up clients before purchasing, help in choosing a product, send commercial offers, organize a series of letters within the messenger, and more. Their effectiveness is assessed by factors such as sales conversion, user engagement and, of course, profit.
Technical support bots
Technical support bots are more commonplace for customers. As a rule, they provide consulting assistance on certain issues. To evaluate the effectiveness of this service, parameters such as customer satisfaction, response speed, and a reduction in the total number of calls to the call center are used.
11 main areas of application of a chatbot for your business:
- Providing technical support;
- Consulting on various issues;
- Providing contact information;
- Sending a commercial proposal;
- Product cost calculation;
- Help in choosing a product;
- , or collection of leads (contact information);
- Warming up potential customers until the moment of purchase;
- Placing orders;
- Entertaining and educating clients;
- Other actions.
Chat bots - what they are with illustrative examples
As they say, it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times. Therefore, let's look at a few examples of chatbots from large companies with a detailed indication of the purpose of creation.
Chat bot of the popular taxi "Maxim"
- Platform: Telegram.
- Goal: quickly order a car without calling the operator and without an application.
In the near future, it is planned to add functionality to the service that will allow users to be informed about the status of an order directly in the messenger.
Aviasales bot
- Platforms: Telegram and corporate messenger Slack.
- Goal: search for tickets and hotels with discounts without having to install the application.
Company representatives claim that alertbots that work most effectively are those that keep customers informed of current prices (upon their prior request).
Interaction is carried out using special commands /fly and /hotel.
Now this chatbot looks like this:
YouDrive car sharing bot
- Platform: Telegram.
- Goals:
- Reduce the number of calls to the call center;
- Simplify and speed up the process of reporting potential problems;
- Speed up data processing speed and reduce waiting time for the client.
The scenarios and functions of this service were set by the developers based on frequent customer questions: from the basic “how to start a car” to the more significant “what to do if you get into an accident.”
In addition, such a virtual assistant distributes requests from users to the appropriate department, which speeds up the resolution of customer problems.
Many examples can be given. But I think now it’s roughly clear to you, a chat bot - what it is and why.
Benefits of chatbots
Some business owners consider the introduction of such tools unnecessary, arguing that working with users using an application, website and mail, so to speak, the old-fashioned way, is quite normal.
But let's face it.
There are already so many applications that users are already fed up with their abundance, and therefore install them reluctantly. Also acute is the issue of memory that each such application occupies.
- According to statistics, about 80% of smartphone owners actively use only 3 applications, including social networks and instant messengers.
And this is not surprising. After all, the main advantages of instant messengers are reliability and speed of information, as well as interactivity.
Thus, reaching the target audience through some new application is quite difficult. While getting to it through already installed ones is quite possible. In this case, a chat bot will come in handy.
5 advantages of bots:
- Interactive (give precise answers to precise queries);
- Does not take up memory on the phone;
- They do not require additional installation on a smartphone or PC, unlike a third-party application;
- Allows you to exchange data with the user in a split second;
- Reduces client waiting time.
It is planned that robots based on neural networks will become popular in the near future, capable of constructing answers to the topic of a question based on its context. This is a more complex concept that does not involve the use of typical canned response templates.
How to create a chatbot: preparation
Chatbots are an extremely fashionable trend, at least at the time of writing this article.
However, do not rush to dive into the pool headlong. First, really assess the situation and think about whether such a tool can really bring you more sales, save money and time. If not, then it is stupid to blindly follow the general trend.
Step-1 Selecting a goal and assessing profitability
How to understand whether you need a bot or not? Consider whether there are any routine tasks in your business process.
Perhaps you need to warm up the database, conduct a survey, or automate the receipt of applications. Or, for example, you want to relieve the technical support department and create an interactive knowledge base. Or maybe you need a virtual salesperson who can skillfully handle typical customer objections.
Start with simple diagrams and chains.
Think over the logic of the service. It's best to do this on paper. Describe what functions it will have, how it will interact, what options for the development of events exist. Make sure this hypothesis is relevant and will be in demand among customers. Conduct a survey if necessary.
Step-2 Selecting functionality
Modern virtual assistants are implemented on the basis of three basic functions, which are further adapted for a specific purpose.
3 popular types of chatbots
- Bot menu. The person himself receives the information he needs by pressing buttons. This is true for support bots. So, you can create a directory with answers to the most popular questions that customers will return to again.
- Bot dialogue. Communication with the user occurs by entering requests (commands), as in the example with the Aviasales service. The response to a command can be a response message or some action (for example, displaying information). This option is suitable if you need to identify the client’s needs, place an order, etc.
- Bot automatic series of responses. Somewhat reminiscent of a mailing list. Most often used to warm up clients. Using such a chatbot, you can inform users about new services and products by automatically organizing a series of notifications in the messenger.
Chatbot development: just the main points
A chatbot is a service that has a backend and a frontend.
Backend (bot filling)
The backend is the software part that is directly responsible for the behavior of the virtual assistant. Simply put, it sets the very algorithm of actions that the robot adheres to.
The word "software" is associated with programming. And here you are right. To write a bot from scratch, you will need knowledge of any programming language that supports the creation web API. Thus, most bots work based on PHP and Node.js, as well as libraries in Java or Python. Now we will not delve into coding; this will be discussed in a separate article.
It is important for you to know one thing. You can launch a bot without programming knowledge.
Special services have been developed for this purpose.
They work based on ready-made chatbot templates. For comparison, this is how to do it on a landing page designer without knowledge of programming or Photoshop. If you've ever tried it, you'll understand.
- Each service provides its own set of chatbot templates with its own capabilities (backend). Some allow you to create only menus or only dialogs. Therefore, be careful.
To be honest, if you have not encountered something like this before, difficulties may arise. No, I will, of course, draw up instructions, and you can try to do everything yourself, step by step, by hand. As a last resort, you can always turn to professionals and order the development of a chatbot.
Popular services for creating chatbots:
- manychat.com;
- manybot.io/ru;
- onsequel.com;
- botmother.com;
- zveno.org;
- chatfuel.com;
- botsify.com;
- motion.ai.
Ultimately, the backend (created manually (by a programmer) or using a service) is “screwed” to the frontend of the bot, with which the user actually interacts.
Frontend (bot's face)
Bot setup and promotion
Remember that making a good bot is not enough; it still needs to be properly configured and promoted. Given the current realities, this will require money, but this is a topic for a separate article.
If you want to do everything yourself, get ready to dive into the information. Of course, modern services have somewhat simplified the process of creating interactive assistants, and it is not at all necessary to learn programming languages for this. But, unfortunately, everything is not so simple. You will have to spend time and effort to learn how to choose a service, how to configure it, how to connect to the messenger.
If you have money, it is better to entrust the work to professionals and get the expected guaranteed result. If you don’t have money, but have time and enthusiasm, it’s better to dig deeper yourself.
And at the very end...
So, now you know what a chat bot is in simple words. We will talk about the detailed creation of a virtual assistant, its configuration and other interesting things soon. So be sure to subscribe to our group
The technology began to gain popularity back in 2016, when Facebook launched the process of developing bots in Messenger. Telegram and Slack started working in this direction back in 2015.
Chatbots are still popular today. In 2018, they continue to develop and confidently introduce themselves into various areas of our lives. They are presented in different formats, on different platforms, but the principle of operation is more or less the same. They answer customer questions, invite users to subscribe to your blog, notify about the availability of train tickets, etc.
The main advantages of chatbots are their versatility and speed of providing answers. Often, chatbots are used by companies to work more effectively with customers or for entertainment purposes. However, progress does not stand still and with the help of ordinary messengers a person can already order sushi, learn a foreign language and even get medical advice.
What are chatbots and how do they work?
A chatbot is a computer program designed to communicate with users and capable of imitating human speech.
The purposes of creating such bots can be very different: promoting a business through newsletters, answering customer questions and offering to connect them with the right manager if necessary, entertaining content (including videos), etc.
Chatbots are usually launched through instant messengers, especially popular on Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, Slack, etc.
The first prototypes of virtual interlocutors could only parody human speech. A key moment in the history of chatbot development is the transition to a user recommendation template. The ability of a computer program to select appropriate answers and try to select the best one makes it valuable.
A chatbot can be a relatively simple program based on simple templates that provides users with answers to keywords in a database.
The second option is a chatbot based on artificial intelligence, which allows the bot to learn in the process of communicating with users, remember new information and work more productively in the future.
The field of natural language processing (NLP) also plays a significant role. Recent developments make it possible for computer programs to choose the best options to respond based on the context and nuances of human communication.
Types of chatbots
The functionality of these programs is diverse, and the scope of use of chatbots does not stop growing. And, although these factors complicate the classification process, it is still possible to distinguish 4 main types of chatbots according to their intended purpose.
- Entertainment – generate memes, conduct text games, quizzes, etc.
- Consultants are commercial bots designed to communicate with clients.
- Assistants - perform tasks, including those on a schedule. For example, they show weather forecast or order a taxi.
- Business chatbots are often developed with the ability to integrate into CRM systems. They can serve both the internal needs of the enterprise (a worthy example is given inarticle about the CROC chatbot ), and help clients perform certain operations, for example, make money transfers.
Order pizza in Facebook Messenger without being distracted from commenting on photos, automatically receive quotes and news about your idols (from real personalities like Robbie Williams to characters from the cartoon “Rick and Morty”), find photos and pictures by description - this is only a small part of what chat bots can offer today. Existspecial resources , which display existing chats by rating and messenger, and also provide a search function.
Where are chatbots used?
Traditionally, new technologies used in the entertainment sector are associated exclusively with games and relaxation. In fact, progress does not stand still and the same chatbots are expanding their horizons. Let's look at several areas of our daily lives in which chatbots will be able to firmly penetrate in the near future.
Nutrition
Once upon a time, favorite recipes were carefully written down in notebooks and passed down from generation to generation. Then they began to be replaced by printed publications with the secrets of cooking dishes from any cuisine in the world, which in turn gave way to culinary sites. Now chatbots are taking over the baton.
A lot of resources have already been created in messengers to helpcook like god, treat friends exquisite cocktails and master the cuisines of other countries and peoples.
The advantage of chatbots in this industry is obvious, because cooking is much more comfortable when you have quick access to interesting recipes on your phone. The instructions are brief and usually accompanied by pictures. There is no need to download separate applications or flip through website pages, everything is in your favorite messenger and always at hand.
Well, for those who don’t have time to cook, food delivery services are already preparing chatbots for super-fast ordering.
Education
In the field of education, chatbots are mostly presented in the form of quizzes, newsletters of interesting facts, etc. This concept has long been adopted by foreign language teaching services. The popular Duolingo project did not stand aside and introduced virtual assistants into its free application on the App Store.
A good example is the Boston Company. AdmitHub , creates virtual assistants in the form of a messenger. Chatbots for colleges send students timely reminders about registration deadlines, important news related to the educational process, and also answer questions quickly and collect the necessary data from students themselves by conducting surveys. 
Health and medicine
The healthcare sector is one of the popular areas for introducing new technologies. Examples include not only complex software for serious medical equipment. Smart alarm clocks are constantly being developed to promote a soft and pleasant awakening, as well as special watches and bracelets that synchronize with a mobile application and transmit information about a person’s important vital signs.
Chatbots have also not ignored the issue of health. Some of them, for example MedTime, Florence and myNursebot serve as organizers and remind you of the need to take medications or a scheduled visit to the doctor.
A number of applications have been developed that provide advice on medical topics ( Medical Assistant, Your.MD ). Of course, information taken from such sources is rather suggestive, and a real diagnosis can only be obtained by visiting a real doctor. Still, having access to quick health information at your fingertips can be useful in some situations. For example, there are chatbots that give advicefirst aid .
Do chatbots have a future?
The implementation of chatbots in various areas of life is still ongoing. Experts express different opinions about the efficiency and further development of this industry, voicing optimistic forecasts or noting the primitiveness of most chatbots on the market.
We cannot discount the possibility that chatbots will be able to perform some simple functions and relieve humans of some of their work. For example, they are able to replace call center operators by processing user questions at the initial stage, and then redirect clients to specialized specialists based on the complexity of the request.
It is still too early to talk about complete or partial replacement of personnel with chatbots. After all, any automated or semi-automated process requires human control.
If the topic of chatbots interests you, then there is an opportunity to try them out yourself. Creating a simple chatbot does not require much effort or special programming skills. You can easily find a number of resources equipped with templates and designers that will help you make your own electronic assistant. For example, Chatfuel allows you to create chatbots for Facebook Messenger for free in just a few minutes.
Ksenia Samotkan
A chatbot is the result of human interaction with artificial intelligence: a robot that automatically responds to messages entered by the user in a chat.
Chatbots can be used for many purposes: from performing everyday tasks to entertainment, and they are posted in instant messengers and social networks - Facebook Messenger, Telegram, VKontakte, Slack, etc., but most often on the first two platforms.
Why use chatbots?
Chatbots make people's lives much easier - you can now order pizza or a taxi, book tickets or buy a dress without leaving the messenger.
Their use, on the one hand, is useful for clients, because they can get the necessary information or perform any actions in a simpler and more convenient way, and, on the other hand, this is beneficial for companies that, with the help of chatbots, can promote their brand, collect the necessary information from the target audience and increase their loyalty.
On the effectiveness of using chatbots Mark Zuckerberg told at the F8 conference in 2016 - in his opinion, they significantly reduce customer service time and are one of the most current trends today.
Types and functions of chatbots
In general, there are 2 types of chatbots:
1. Primitive chatbots
These bots are limited, they only respond to certain commands stored in their memory. If you enter the wrong phrase for which the chatbot is programmed, you will not receive the desired answer.
2. Advanced chatbots
They have artificial intelligence, and their work is based on machine learning. You do not need to specifically select phrases in order to be understood. They understand live speech, not just commands, and are constantly learning, gaining new knowledge from dialogues.
Examples of using chatbots
Nowadays, many brands use chatbots to notify customers about promotions, discounts, updates, to accept payments and for many other purposes. Let's look at different types of chatbots and examples of their use in Facebook Messenger and Telegram. Foreign brands most often work with Facebook Messenger, and Russian companies tend to use Telegram.
1. Chatbots for sales
Chatbots can be created to sell tickets (to a movie, theater, concert, transport), clothing, cosmetics and other various goods.
For example, the popular flight ticket search engine Skyscanner has a chatbot in Facebook Messenger. To buy a ticket, you just need to enter your travel dates and departure city, and the service will show you the cheapest destinations.
And on Telegram, the site’s bot – @OneTwoTrip_Bot – will help you find air tickets.
Chatbots are often used by online stores and individuals offering their services (for example, cosmetics) - in chats they help customers in the purchasing process, notify about promotions and discounts, hold sweepstakes, etc.
Telegram has a chatbot whose work is based on the Pomodoro technique - @pomodoro_timer_bot.
6. Chatbots for media
Chatbots are used by many newspapers, magazines and TV channels.
For example, a bot from CNN shows articles on a user-selected topic, and when subscribed, it pleases the reader with news and the latest publications every day.
On Telegram, one of the most popular “news” chatbots is the bot from Meduza - @meduzaprobot.
Chatbots can also be used to distribute your content. If you have a blog or create any type of content (videos, podcasts, etc.), you can announce it using a chatbot in messengers - it’s very convenient to follow new releases, and besides, users will have access to all recently published materials and company news and it will be more difficult for them to miss something.
7. Interlocutor bot
There are bots that act as a friend or a psychologist; you can vent to them and get up-to-date life advice.
In China, Microsoft created a girl bot called Xiaoice, with whom more than 20 million people share their experiences. This chatbot constantly learns from its dialogues, and its speech and chat behavior are very similar to those of humans. It’s amazing how sensitive Xiaoice is to the feelings of her interlocutors - so, if something happened to a person, in the next dialogue she can ask how he feels.
Despite the fact that communicating with such a bot can bring a therapeutic effect (by simply expressing what is boiling in the chat), listening to its advice may be unsafe. People should remember that they are dealing with a robot.
8. Bot teacher
Chatbots are also created for teaching - they provide educational material on the taught discipline (small texts), “communicate” with students and evaluate their knowledge using tests. The creators of such bots try to make the speech of “teachers” as similar to human speech as possible.
Thus, the Leslie chatbot helps to learn English - it talks with the user on certain topics, explains the rules of grammar, gives synonyms/antonyms, conjugates words, etc.
9. Doctor-bot
The chatbot doctor can recommend treatment based on the user’s symptoms or find the nearest hospital, and he takes his knowledge from medical reference books.
One such chatbot is HealthTap. To get an answer to your health question, you need to ask it in the chat, and the bot will try to find the answer.
Telegram has a chatbot from the Mail.ru Health project - @zdorobot. Right in the chat, you can read instructions for various medications, order medications, identify the disease by symptoms and make an appointment with a doctor.
Of course, the advisability of using such services should be questioned - after all, it is better to see a doctor as soon as possible than to look for your symptoms on the Internet and beat yourself up.
10. Personal stylist
Such a bot will help the user in creating an image - it will tell you what suits him and what doesn’t, how to combine certain colors in clothes, what is best to wear for certain figure flaws, what makeup and hair color will suit the user’s color type, etc.
A good example of such a chatbot is @EpytomBot. Here you can find out what is trending now, how to choose and combine clothes correctly, etc.
11. Weather forecast
Another one of the most popular and convenient chatbots in everyday life is a bot that provides weather information. In the Poncho chat you can find out the weather forecast in just a couple of seconds - to do this you need to enter the name of the city.) and many others.
So, the choice of chatbot type is limited only by the focus of your business and your imagination.
Why do you need to create your own chatbot?
Even though more and more new chatbots have been popping up lately, this niche is still in its infancy. So now is your great opportunity to become one of the pioneers.
Here are more reasons why you should create your own bot:
1. Chatbot is another marketing channel for your business and another way to distribute content.
2. With the help of a chatbot you can automate your work.
3. Using bots can make customer support easier and free up your employees' time for more complex tasks.
4. You can get users' emails or ask them to subscribe to your newsletter without much effort.
5. You can use incoming information from users to segment your target audience and create targeted content for each segment.
6. People tend to share much more information in one-on-one interactions than in comments, for example, so using chatbots can significantly increase CTR, engagement, and brand loyalty.
7. Many people (if not most) would rather write to you via chat than call you - it is much faster and more convenient and does not cause any psychological discomfort.
There is a lot of noise around chatbots, but it will take a lot of time to understand what they are, how to classify them and what to use them for. We spent this time and decided to write a general review material that will help you navigate the purpose and features of some platforms without rummaging through a bunch of articles and documentation.
The chatbot itself is a program that uses the messenger interface to operate. Its main function is to recognize the interlocutor’s request and respond to it correctly. Chatbots are attractive because they do not require installation of additional applications or registration - they are located in messengers familiar to everyone, and it is very easy to contact them.
In this review:
See also: Part 2, Part 3
How do you know if you need a tool like a chatbot?
It’s worth considering a bot if at least one of the following descriptions applies to it:- there is already a large amount of communication between customers and operators
- a lot of messages via email, social networks and instant messengers
- if the company’s activities involve simple routine operations on which managers spend time (checking availability, calculating prices, etc.).
- there is an idea for a special niche product that will be convenient for the client to call via messenger
Formats of interaction with a bot
The first classification feature that we will highlight is the formats of interaction between a bot and a person. We have identified the following for ourselves:- bots that work using commands and buttons;
- bots with human speech recognition;
- inline, or embedded bots.
Push-button chatbot
The first level is a bot with buttons and commands; it also has a messenger interface, but instead of the ability to write to it in text, the person is offered a choice of categories (or questions/suggestions) that may interest him.“Communication” occurs by pressing buttons, and the bot responds to them as if they were commands. This chatbot is most similar to a regular mobile application, the only difference being that it does not have its own interface and uses a messenger to work.
Text chatbot
The next format, more progressive and functional, is a chatbot that, to a certain extent, understands live speech. Communication with such a bot is close to a real human one, but has additional functional features. A bot of this type can recognize human speech, analyze the request, and give a reaction to it - an answer, in a dialogue format. Such bots rely on speech recognition systems to communicate with users.
Instead of answering pre-prepared questions, the robot can understand what is being said based on a set of words, and the dialogue takes place in the format of communication between two people. For example, a person writes to an insurance company’s chatbot: “how much does CASCO cost for a car XXX year xxx?”, the bot can understand what product the user is asking for a price for, make an approximate calculation and respond as if it were an operator: “Good day, price information for this product….”. Such bots can also display buttons for faster navigation, for example, if a person writes “what types of insurance are there?”, the bot can offer him insurance options to choose from, in the form of buttons, or provide a link to the corresponding article on the company’s website.
Embeddable bots
The third common format is an inline chatbot, also called embedded. Here comes a convenient opportunity to call a chatbot in any dialogue by simply writing “@nickname of the bot we need”, the bot will open right in the dialogue and offer actions to choose from, and the result can be immediately sent to the interlocutor with whom you are talking now.
For example, you are communicating in a dialogue with a friend and want to share an interesting video with him, in this case you need to write: “@youtube and part of the video title,” the bot will offer you options, and you can immediately send the selected one to your interlocutor. Such a bot greatly simplifies the purchasing process - why search for a pizzeria’s website, open a map, if you can enter the name of the pizzeria directly in the dialogue, and find where to eat pizza in a minute? Now, Telegram has such bots, and there are not so many of them yet, but other messengers have also announced their readiness to implement the inline format.
Messengers on whose platforms bots live
The next classifier depends on the messenger where the chatbot is located. All popular platforms have announced support for bots. The most popular chatbots by platform:We will talk further about the features of chatbots for different messengers, depending on their platforms. And now, another classification parameter, the most important when choosing a chatbot for your company.
Types of bots, according to their purpose
Chatbots are divided into two categories according to their purpose: communication and functional.Communication chatbots
Communication bots are designed to speed up the process of communication between clients and the company. One of the functions of such bots may be “answering frequently asked questions.” The client is offered a list of questions to choose from, and when selecting a question, the answer is displayed.If the client writes a question manually, the bot may or may not recognize it. If the bot does not understand the question and does not have a prepared answer, there may be two scenarios:
- The bot invites the client to call the call center, or order a call back.
- The dialogue is automatically redirected to a chat with a competent manager who can give all the answers, unless, of course, the company provides an active chat with managers.
A bot as a communication channel can initiate feedback, since communication with a bot is by default a dialogue, and free for both parties. You can ask a question or make a mini-survey in the text of your newsletter message, and give the client the opportunity to quickly answer directly in the same dialogue, if he is interested. Nowadays, very few marketing bots use this opportunity, but in vain - the newsletter is not perceived as spam if it is possible to respond to it, or even make a purchase of a promotional product without leaving your messenger.
Functional chatbots
Functional chatbots act as a replacement for mobile applications or websites.Now, messenger platforms provide every opportunity to fully implement the functionality of a mobile application or website in chatbots. Bots in messengers can replace applications that exist for searching, ordering, booking, doing basic banking transactions, and more. Chatbots in instant messengers are built according to user requests, so this format can be much more convenient than applications. Websites and applications exist with a pre-designed design, some are more convenient, some less so, but you still need to get used to them. The bot adapts to the request - the client writes what he needs, the bot produces ready-made results. The bot acts as a kind of assistant-consultant directly in the messenger.
Chatbots have a huge number of possibilities: select goods according to characteristics, book, sell, check availability, provide various types of information on requests, make payments, and much more. All this can be done through the API. The functionality of chatbots of different instant messengers is described in more detail in the next section.
The next part is about the technical features of messenger platforms.
I hope that the review turned out to be interesting and useful! I will be glad to answer your wishes and questions in the comments.
Elizaveta Kudelya
You can help and transfer some funds for the development of the site
