Choosing a chatbot: how do you do it?

You are spoilt for choice when you decide to buy a chatbot. The technology behind the digital employee has come on in leaps and bounds, so the bot can be shaped in all sorts of ways. The various types of chatbot, the different functionalities that are possible, and the growing number of chatbot providers can make the search for the perfect chatbot difficult. How do you make the perfect chatbot choice? In this blog we lend you a hand with choosing!

How do you choose a chatbot?

Let us say this up front: there is no single ‘perfect chatbot’. What is the perfect chatbot for one company does not by definition mean it is the right choice for another. All sorts of factors make a chatbot ‘perfect’, and they differ from company to company.

What should you take into account?

Before you choose the perfect chatbot for your company, it is useful to answer a number of questions first. This immediately brings more clarity to your search for the right chatbot for your business. For example: what is the goal of the chatbot? Who is mainly responsible for the chatbot? And what budget can be freed up for the bot?

Step 1: Set goals and determine KPIs

The goal of a chatbot is not ‘answering customer questions’; that would simply be too blunt. What is the goal of the chatbot, once it answers the customer's question? Is the chatbot's goal to lead on to conversion? Is the chatbot there to generate leads? Or do you want to improve your customer service by deploying a chatbot, and if so, what improvement is needed?

By determining the goal of the chatbot and linking a KPI to it, you can also measure the success of your chatbot. Think of the automation rate, for example, or the cost reduction. Or can your chatbot shed more light on your NPS or CSAT score?

Step 2: Which type of chatbot is relevant for you?

You have probably worked out by now that there are different types of chatbot. Once you have determined the goal of the chatbot, you can also choose more easily between the different types that exist. There is, for example, the difference between a rule-based chatbot and a chatbot that works on the basis of artificial intelligence. The rule-based chatbot works on the basis of the rules it knows, and the AI chatbot, thanks to artificial intelligence, also learns to answer questions it was never taught. When it comes to building the chatbot there are different options too: think of the custom-built chatbot or a chatbot platform. The choice between these two options will mainly be determined by the budget and the amount of time available.

Step 3: Choose a chatbot supplier that suits you

Once you know what the goal of the chatbot will be, what the budget is and how much time you can free up for it, a number of chatbot suppliers will surface naturally during an online search. When you choose a chatbot supplier, there are a number of aspects worth keeping an eye on. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Can you connect the chatbot to the channels you want to be present on? Think of website, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and so on.

• How does the chatbot work? Is artificial intelligence involved?

• Is the supplier's customer service easy to reach? And, should you build a Dutch-language chatbot: is Dutch-language service available too?

• How long does it take for the chatbot to go live, and does that fit your planning?

• How easy is it to make optimisations once the chatbot is online?

• Is a trial, demo or example chatbot available from the party in question?

• As for budget: pay attention to the way the costs are calculated. Are costs charged per chat, for example? Is there a catch?

• To what extent does the supplier make it possible to view statistics, so that you can measure the chatbot's success?

Go looking for reviews

It is of course also advisable to go looking for reviews of the various chatbot suppliers. We recommend taking a look at G2 for this: the reviews posted there are checked in advance. Do pay attention to the date of the reviews. Technological developments follow one another quickly, so an old review soon loses its value.

Want to know more about chatbots?

Are you curious what a chatbot could mean for you? Then read the whitepaper below. In it, various companies explain how they have successfully deployed chatbots in their organisation. Download the free whitepaper about it.

Then take a look at our website: https://watermelon.ai/. Here you will find more information about our AI chatbot and the added value of this chatbot for your company. We also let customers have their say: in our success stories you can read how the chatbot has had an impact on our customers' work floor.