{"id":17275,"date":"2022-05-30T07:39:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T07:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/?p=17275"},"modified":"2023-04-12T07:27:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T07:27:37","slug":"the-complete-guide-to-preparing-for-an-ai-chatbot-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/blog\/the-complete-guide-to-preparing-for-an-ai-chatbot-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Guide to Preparing for an AI Chatbot Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Why Preparing is Important<\/h3>\n

\"\"Preparation is an essential step in any project, AI chatbot projects are not an exception. Planning will help you think about what you need to do before the project starts and make sure that everything is in place for it to go smoothly. A good preparation process will also help you understand what kind of resources are needed in order to create a successful chatbot, how much time it will take, and if there are any legal implications that need to be considered.<\/p>\n

Chatbots with conversational AI are helpful when they\u2019re used correctly, but they can also lead to problems if they\u2019re not planned properly, for example it is not adapted and upgraded according to customer behavior and search. Firstly, you need to identify the business objectives of your chatbot. What are the desired outcomes? What is the desired ROI (Return on investment)? What will it take to achieve these goals? Next, you need to determine your chatbot’s target audience. Who is going to be using this chatbot? You also have to decide on your chatbot’s features. How will it work? What features does it need to meet its objectives? Answering all these questions and many more that will be shared in this blog post will help the business to better plan its AI chatbot project and implement it successfully after that.<\/p>\n

According to a study by Salesforce, 77%<\/a> of customers say that chatbots will transform their expectations of companies in a positive way in the next 5 years. And according to another report from April\u201922 about the top 12 customer service technologies, published by CBInsights, AI-enabled chatbots were placed on the top as the first choice<\/a> of a technology that businesses prioritize today to stay competitive. Leaders in all industries are already doing it. This means that the software solution will continue to be one of the main tools for automating the overall customer service and assisting with sales and marketing. If it is planned well, it will help the business to grow and meet its goals easier and quicker.<\/p>\n

The following steps will help you plan your chatbot with conversational AI. If you plan to start with a smaller project, with a basic chatbot (without AI), you still shall consider most of these steps. Even the basic chatbot that provides information through information cards, images, buttons and links, requires planning of the customer journey in it to be an effective business tool.<\/p>\n

AI Chatbot Project Planning – What are the Steps to Consider?<\/h3>\n

\"\"When you are planning a chatbot, there are certain topics to discuss internally with your team, decisions to make and steps to take that are related to the specifics of your business and your customers:<\/p>\n

1. Define what will be the main purpose of the AI \u200b\u200bchatbot<\/h4>\n

Having an AI chatbot shall not be justified by just because other businesses have it already, or because customers want it, or because you have heard it will save time and resources and increase sales. The very first thing the business must do after deciding to implement an AI chatbot is to define what its purpose will be<\/strong> \u2013 an AI chatbot for customer service and support, for marketing and sales, for customer engagement, for internal activities like new employees onboarding and HR, or other. Chatbots can be used also as questionnaires, FAQ tools, making orders and reservations, for collecting customer feedback, for entertainment, games, and many other purposes. The business should choose what their main purpose is and after that continue with the next steps as they depend on what will be the general function of the chatbot.<\/p>\n

Another thing is to determine the<\/strong> type of the chatbot<\/strong>: if the chatbot will be a basic one with predefined images, texts, and forms, a chatbot with conversational AI, or a hybrid model with many functionalities. The functionalities of each specific chatbot depend on what the business assigns it to do, where it will be implemented, and with whom it will communicate \u2013 with clients, partners, or staff.<\/p>\n

The languages of the chatbot<\/strong> shall be also decided at this stage to assign later team members to the project who know these languages. It is essential to know what language the target audience speaks and to provide equal assistance to them through the chatbot.<\/p>\n

2. Who is going to be using this chatbot?<\/h4>\n

The target group’s<\/strong> needs<\/strong> also help determine the main purpose of the chatbot \u2013 who are they, what they search for and need, what the business wants to sell\/provide to them and how.<\/p>\n

Customers:<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the business wants to give 24\/7 customer service and support<\/strong>, then an AI chatbot is the right solution but the business should keep in mind that the target audience will accept this way of communication and adopt it only with the help of the business \u2013 to direct the customers to the chatbot at all touchpoints, to promote it, to teach customers why and how to use it.<\/p>\n

Another way of using an AI chatbot is for selling products and services<\/strong> and advertising them in a more interesting and engaging way to customers. For such chatbot, keep in mind if your customers are digitally savvy and prefer talking via messaging instead of other ways. Nowadays, fortunately, even the older generations have adopted messaging as a way of communication \u2013 starting from the chat with the grandkids and moving to online shopping and service inquiries that the pandemic forced on them. Statistics show that businesses who use online communication via chatbots and messengers are preferred by customers because the past 3 years increased the need of digital services and sped up the adoption rate of such, and the trends are staying even after the pandemic. According to Accenture, nearly 6 in 10<\/a> executives said chatbots can improve their organization\u2019s ability to handle customer queries, and that they can deliver personalized attention to website visitors by being more conversational.<\/p>\n

Employees or business partners:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Employees can use an AI chatbot when they are new in the company to learn everything about it, for on boarding and useful information. HR can use an internal chatbot to keep employees updated about policies, benefits, new training or education options and other relevant information to keep employees motivated and loyal to the company. HR can have a chatbot also as a recruitment tool where the chatbot offer information about available positions and makes the first level applicant scanning through a customized application form for each position saving time both to applicants and to the HR team.<\/p>\n

Potential and existing business partners can use the AI chatbot for learning about the business products and services \u2013 new and existing ones, or as an instrument to give additional service to their clients and provide more value to them.<\/p>\n

3. What do you need to achieve the chatbot goals?<\/h4>\n

When deciding to implement a project for a chatbot, budget, team and time must be considered. Calculate the cost associated with chatbot platform fees, chatbot elements creation (images, video, VR, or other that your business doesn\u2019t have and shall spend on the creation), which team or person will be assigned to the project (not only during the chatbot planning and creation but for maintenance and further development purposes too) and the time needed to work on the chatbot, to implement it and to maintain it. Do you plan special educational and promotional campaigns to bring awareness about the chatbot among the customers? What else? In general, the business resources needed depend on the size and the scale of the project – a basic chatbot, an AI chatbot, or a mixed one, what functionalities it will have, and if it will have integrations (when is technically possible). With a lack of resources start small, and plan gradually to upgrade and develop the chatbot to a fully scaled project. The expected return of investment should be higher than the budgeted expenses for the chatbot implementation and maintenance and must be planned in a long term (at least a couple of years) to have at the end a fully working chatbot that achieves the defined goals and brings the expected benefits.<\/p>\n

4. When the AI chatbot should be implemented?<\/h4>\n

The business needs to decide not only what the type of chatbot will use but also when to implement it. For example, a basic chatbot with images, texts, and forms may take a day or two to a week to create it and implement it. If a conversational AI will be included, the implementation will take more time to train it well and it should be trained every day to have a fully working AI chatbot in several months (1-3 months to start with a few hundred trained topics, but after launching the bot it should be continue being trained and retrained every day as it learns from every customer interaction). Is there any specific event that you want to use to launch and introduce your chatbot to your customers? Do you want to see a change in your business expenses, customers, and employee satisfaction next year? Plan to start on time.<\/p>\n

5. Where the chatbot will be implemented?<\/h4>\n

According to Juniper Research, 43%<\/a> of the chatbots are located on the business website<\/strong> and this trend will grow the upcoming years. The website of the business shall be the center of its digital universe to which all digital paths lead. It is crucial to ensure that all customers’ questions are answered at any time, inquiries are accommodated, and first-party and zero-party data are collected<\/strong>. The AI chatbot helps with all of that. Implementing a chatbot on the website directly and not using some messenger widget means having full control of it and not depending on third parties\u2019 requirements and restrictions. The business can have access to all functionalities and can create, maintain and train the chatbot at any time without the need of knowing the specifics of the messenger-based platforms, having instant access to collected data about customer behavior and customer feedback to understand customers better. Also, the business will have a 24\/7 digital brand representative to talk to customers and engage them which will help with customer retention and increase website traffic. Customers won\u2019t leave the website so easily when a proactive chatbot encourages them to stay, learn, find what they need, interact with, and do other actions that the business wants customers to do. Also, having a chatbot on the website<\/a> doesn\u2019t mean the live support is eliminated or impossible. When an AI chatbot can\u2019t do the job due to questions is not yet trained or the topic being too specific or complicated, it always can offer the customer to leave a message to the staff to follow up or redirect to live chat if available.<\/p>\n

A chatbot is implemented on a website very easily \u2013 a short code must be placed in the website\u2019s code and it will appear in the right corner \u2013 ready for chatting. The code can be placed by the business itself if it maintains its own website or gives it to the outsourced company which supports it to implement the chatbot\u2019s code. The process usually takes just a few minutes.<\/p>\n

The rest of the chatbots globally are in messengers (48%) and mobile applications (9%)<\/strong>. They have their pros such as covering the omnichannel approach to customer service and making sure the customers’ needs are met in these channels, also keeping the customer chat history accessible. \u00a0Here are the cons. Messengers have restrictions related to content and communication; price is based on the number of messages or number of customers who chatted with the chatbot (harder to plan the monthly expense) and some even have a package of minimum conversations required that make them expensive for small businesses; adding conversational AI may require integration with open-source AI platforms (learning to use one more platform or hiring someone to do it for you); there are GDPR policies that need to be taken in consideration to ensure no rule is broken; what happens in the messenger stays in the messengers (no traffic to the website, unless you redirect the user to the website but is there a chatbot to continue the conversation?), less data for customer behavior and needs and other. Facebook Messenger introduced an incognito mode to users with automated deletion of the chat after 24 hours, so benefits are gone. Mobile apps are a great instrument for customer retention and communication, but do your customers want to download, install, learn and keep one more app on their mobile device?<\/p>\n

There is a workaround: automate the messengers\u2019 chat to go to the website AI chatbot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each part of the AI \u200b\u200bchatbot on the website – an information card, carousel, or a form, has its own unique link and QR code that you can share anywhere online and offline. So, with 1 click or scan your customers will get directly to where you want them to be.<\/p>\n

The link can contain the exact place in the AI \u200b\u200bchatbot and the specific page of the website where you want the client to go. For example, a product or service page with a chatbot that opens an application form, a button to download instructions or watch a video, or something else related to that product or service.<\/p>\n

How does this help automation from messengers to AI chatbot on the website?<\/p>\n

You do basic automation in the messenger, in which you include the most frequently asked questions, and in the buttons for more information, you put the links to the answers on the “website + AI chatbot”.<\/p>\n

6. What will be the chatbot functionalities?<\/h4>\n

The functionalities of the chatbot depend on the business specifics and needs and what the main purpose of the chatbot will be. The chatbot can have inquiry forms, redirects to different sections of the bot, direct links from online and offline (with a QR code) to a precise place in the chatbot to redirect customers from anywhere to it, gathers live statistics about customer behavior, it can be with or without conversational AI, with voice recognition and commands, on many languages. All these and many more can be chosen by the business based on what it assigns the chatbot to do. For example, a small business, an online car parts store – Danexo in Bulgaria, has a chatbot, made on the Umni platform, that helps potential business partners request an account, and individual customers to place an order for a part \u2013 mainly forms are used, without AI. A large 5-stars hotel with many customers, and different services and departments like Casa di Fiore SPA & Medical, has also a chatbot on the Umni platform that offers many functionalities and conversational AI to fulfill all customers\u2019 needs. Some key functionalities of the Umni platform: integration with ChatGPT for faster and easier AI chatbot creation still with business-controlled content, voice recognition for more convenient online communication, clickable texts, buttons with CTA and images on the website that open a concrete element (a form or carousel with cards with more information) in the AI chatbot and many other to help the business improve its online customer service, marketing and sales and overall business processes.<\/p>\n

7. Who will oversee the AI chatbot project? To implement it, train it, maintain it, further improve, and develop it according to customers and business needs<\/h4>\n

Building your team of developers and designers for your chatbot project \u2013 do you really need all of that? The answer is yes only if you want a custom-made AI chatbot with many integrations and unique functionalities.<\/p>\n

When you use a chatbot service provider<\/strong>, look for a no-code platform to build and maintain such technology by the business itself. It does not need to assign developers and professional designers for this task \u2013 team members can make such chatbots with or without conversational AI without no technical knowledge and skills. Such chatbot service provider is Umni with its platform to implement, train, maintain, further improve, and develop a chatbot according to customers and business needs.<\/p>\n

If the chatbot will be a basic type, the team or a staff member assigned to the project will need to update it only with new information. For a chatbot with conversational AI, keep in mind that it needs to be trained regularly due to each customer interaction makes the chatbot smarter or result in the need to train new topic in the chatbot or add additional information in it to meet the needs of the next customers with similar question or inquiry. In both cases, someone on the team shall keep an eye on the customer behavior statistics and analyze them to use this data for improvement of business products and services.<\/p>\n

Therefore, one more question about the team\/person assigned to the chatbot project is who will oversee the stats analysis, of the inquiries received through the chatbot? When deciding to put an inquiry form, reservation form, or any other form in the chatbot, it should send the collected information to the right department and team member to deal with customer questions and needs. For example, if a form for reservation is submitted, it must be assigned to the email of the Reservations department. Are there proper procedures established for the team to not miss any inquiry that comes through the chatbot? Do all team members understand and support the implementation of the chatbot and know what is their part in its development and success?<\/a><\/p>\n

8. Promotion of the AI chatbot<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When launching the chatbot, it must be promoted in all social media accounts of the business, offline, or anywhere else so customers know about its existence, have immediate access to it and start using it. The business can direct customers to it via emails, Google ads, social media posts, QR codes online and offline, and other ways and locations so the chatbot will start helping with customer service and support, with attracting customers attention and drive them through the marketing and sales funnels. Good practices and ideas<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for the business to promote its AI chatbot are:<\/p>\n