Get into ChatBots NOW, its what your customers want, but don't know it yet

-

OK, lets cover the basics.  What are ChatBots?  Its a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, typically via messenger apps or chat windows.  I’m sure most of you already got that, but I wanted to make sure that we all on the same page here.

thZV44XYN7

So why should we focus on ChatBots?  No one is asking for them, right? Wrong.  Companies are looking for ways to engage with their customers in a way that their customers are already familiar with.  Customers don’t want to download an extra app for the companies they engage with so in order to engage with your customers in a manner that is convenient to them, you need to use a medium that they are already familiar with.

You may have noticed that chat tools are becoming our clients more natural and preferred way to communicate.  In fact, towards the end of 2016, Facebook announced that they host over 30 000 ChatBots.  These bots can check the weather, order food, organise travel and even play games. China uses WeChat and they have over 10 million ChatBot accounts and lets face it, we are getting familiar with ChatBots thanks to Siri, Google Now and Cortana.

So companies are starting to see ChatBots as the perfect medium to engage with their clients, they are also figuring out that ChatBots are well suited for routine customer queries like:

  • Self Service
  • FAQ’s
  • Onboarding
  • Completing Forms
  • Workflow Approval

So ChatBots should be considered when:

  • Customer requests are in a specific area and the solution is well known and predictable
  • Guided steps and input parameters
  • High volume requests

Just try to avoid using ChatBots in situations where your customers are already stressed.

3059439-poster-1280-why-the-latest-invasion-of-chatbots-isnt-like-the-others

So you get it right?  There's a need for ChatBots, and once your customers figure out that ChatBots are an option, there will be a huge demand for ChatBot development.  So where do you, as a developer, get started with ChatBot development?

Thankfully, Microsoft has made ChatBot development easy via:

  • Microsoft Azure – Bot Services
  • Cognitive Services
  • Louise (Microsoft’s language, understanding and intelligence service)

Here are a few tools that can help you:

  • Microsoft Bot Developer Portal (dev.botframework.com)
  • Bot Builder SDK (github.com/Microsoft/BotBuilder)
  • Bot Emulator (download.botframework.com/botconnector/emulator)
  • Visual Studio Bot Project Template (aka.ms/bf-bc-vstemplate)

chatbots

 Before you begin, you should know that the following platforms are supported:

  • Bing (the bot will appear in search results)
  • Cortana (can be deployed as self service to organisation)
  • Skype and Skype for Business
  • Web
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • GroupMe
  • Kik
  • Slack
  • Telegram
  • Twilio
  • Microsoft Teams bots support 1:1 chats (not group chats yet)

You will notice that I didn't mention WhatsApp.  Yes, WhatsApp does NOT allow ChatBots to use that platform.  Infact, WhatsApp are actively blocking accounts once its discovered to be a ChatBot. 

This is unfortunate because its the biggest and most preferred chatting tool in South Africa, and I am sure in many other parts of the world, and I dont see this changing anytime soon since FaceBook owns WhatsApp, and they are pushing for Messenger (another chat tool owned by FaceBook) to be the preferred chat tool.

If you want to build a ChatBot solution in 10 minutes with no code. Check out QnA maker, https://qnamaker.ai/, a service provided by Microsoft that converts a FAQ page to a ChatBot service within minutes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why there is a shortage of SharePoint experts

-
Image
Microsoft has been very successful to promoting their SharePoint product, even though SharePoint has been around for a while, there 2007 and now 2010 version is something every organisation wants. With Microsoft practically giving away SharePoint licenses to organisations via EA agreements – we are reaching a very unique and rather unexpected situation where the demand for SharePoint developers is surpassing the demand for Web developers. This shift in demand are forcing IT departments and Web Development companies to reduce the size of the web development teams and increase the size of their SharePoint team, in other words, take staff originally hired for web development and get them into SharePoint development. This is currently the "normal" approach in getting SharePoint experts, many IT Recruitment companies still don’t understand this shift in demand, and are not yet focusing in the SharePoint space, some recruiting companies haven’t even heard of SharePoint and...
Read more

The move from Technical Expert to Manager

-
Image
Let me start of by explaining how things were before I became a Manager. I worked my way to a Senior ASP.NET developer with a decent amount of SharePoint exposure; it only took me 7 years. And in those 7 years I was usually poorly managed; • scope was poorly defined and not managed • no clear plan was in place or plan omitted crucial steps • timeframes were unrealistic • no quality checks were in place (faults were discovered during client demo's) • clients expectations were not managed • communications were poor • processes were not followed • resource allocation was poor (I once requested a .NET developer and my Manager believed he solved the problem when he got me a junior network administrator who knew a little HTML) • poor risk management In many cases I had reached a point where I had very little faith (or respect) for my manager that I insist that they present me with the requirements and leave me alone so I can “do my magic”, this involv...
Read more

Please don’t pimp your SharePoint site

-
Image
Look at this picture, someone spent allot of money on a Benz, but decided that they wanted to make the car look like a sports car instead, so with a little extra time and money, they added design elements that made the car look different, the new look gets a great deal of attention and everyone wants to drive it, but later people notice that the car cannot drive faster than 30km/h or drive up an incline without breaking something, the lights didn’t work as well as they use to, you can only enter the car a certain way, sharp turns has not been tested but is not recommended and only people with special training or knowledge on how this new look was implemented will be able to wash, repair, drive or fuel up the car. Sounds crazy doesn’t it, well, that’s what you are asking us to do when you ask for a SharePoint site that does not look like a SharePoint site. Sticking with my Benz example, the Benz comes from the factory in silver, black, white and red, and a special colour can even ...
Read more