Over to chatbot expert Jill

Building and implementing a chatbot can be quite a craft in itself, and many of our customers are doing it for the first time. Over the past few years we have helped a lot of customers implement their brand-new digital colleague, which means there are real chatbot experts to be found on our work floor. As Product Marketer, Jill speaks to customers every day and is in close contact with our customer service department. As a true chatbot expert, in this article she answers the questions we are asked most.

First of all, Jill, tell us: what makes you a chatbot expert?

“I advise our customers on setting up their chatbot. I show them the way around our chatbot builder, advise on building conversation flows and help customers when they run into something,” Jill says. “So I have met a great many chatbots already. Every chatbot has a different personality, goal and structure. One chatbot helps you book a hotel stay, while another helps you choose the right skincare.”

And what, in your view, really makes a successful chatbot?

“A chatbot with a personality that is in line with the organisation's tone of voice. You really have to see a chatbot as an extension of the organisation. A good chatbot can answer all the frequently asked questions, but can also make a joke or hold a casual conversation. When necessary, the chatbot passes the customer on to a live agent to finish the conversation. A successful chatbot knows the right steps to take, so that the customer does not end up in a “loop”.”

What has been the biggest lesson for you as a chatbot expert?

“A chatbot is not made in a day, just as Rome was not built in a day. Building a chatbot means you have to keep optimising constantly. Understanding your customer's needs, adding new content, testing and going live. This circle repeats itself over and over, which lets you help more and more customers automatically. I love seeing how a different optimisation applies to every customer.”

What is the biggest mistake most customers make?

“Thinking that a chatbot cannot be personal. Using something we call ‘free fields’, website visitors can be greeted by their first name, for example. The chatbot can recognise and greet the customer, which makes the chatbot very personal. It gives website visitors the feeling that they are talking to a member of staff.”

What, in your view, is the trend to respond to?

“I think conversational AI is the trend right now. By means of artificial intelligence a chatbot can understand a website visitor and answer the question itself, even when the question is phrased somewhat differently from what it was taught. The chatbot keeps getting smarter. So over time it costs our customers less time to optimise the chatbot. You have to ‘train up’ a new employee, after all, but over time the colleague finds their way around the company better and better. The same goes for the bot!”

Not finished reading?

Read our whitepaper: How companies use chatbots successfully.