Chatbots for business: what they are and why they are needed

Chatbots are programs for automating processes within the company. They help businesses effectively communicate with the audience: they answer popular questions, close sales, conduct consultations, offer to take advantage of promotions and solve many other tasks. And most importantly, bots are always in touch and ready to help your customers at any time, without the physical involvement of managers.

Bots are attractive not only for companies, but also for customers. Analysts at Twilio found that 85% of users prefer to contact support via text over voice, and 51% of them expect an instant response from business representatives at any time of the day or night.

All this suggests that the trend of demand for chatbots in the market will continue to grow, and if you are thinking about implementing such a tool now, then this article is for you. We develop bots for most of the existing interfaces and offer to talk about how they can benefit the business. We will also touch on some technical points so that you understand how the implementation process of such software is organized and form expectations about further steps.

Who needs chatbots?

Bots can be used successfully in many areas of business — from online stores and service providers to manufacturers and food delivery services. And in order to list them, we decided to describe the situations in which such a tool is practically indispensable:

• To attract customers, you actively use the site, social networks and messengers, but manual processing of requests takes too much time of the staff and automation is needed.
• Bulk and trigger mailings cost customers too much and give poor results.
• You're in sales and want to close more deals with a well-crafted pitch based on effective reminders and customer incentives.
• You sell a complex product or service that requires customers to have qualified and continuous technical support.
• You want to improve your audience's experience with your brand to increase your competitiveness in the market and gain more loyal consumers.

If at least a few of these points are directly related to your company, using a chatbot can be a good solution.

What tasks do bots solve?

Chatbots can solve various tasks depending on the specifics of the business and customer needs. Here are some of the most common ones:

• Providing information. Bots can automate answers to popular questions from your customers, such as about products or services, prices, promotions, delivery terms, and more.
• Customer support. Chatbots help customers with problem solving, handling complaints, providing technical support and instructions on how to use products or services.
• Processing of orders and reservations. Bots are able to accept orders for goods or services, help with the selection of products, calculate the cost of the purchase, and issue reservations without the involvement of managers.
• Conducting surveys and collecting feedback. Using a chatbot, you can ask customers questions, collect feedback about products or services, and conduct surveys to research the opinions and preferences of your audience.
• Providing personalized recommendations. Based on the analysis of data about customers and their preferences, the bot is able to give consumers personalized recommendations for buying goods and services.
• Messages and mailings. The chatbot allows you to quickly and free mass mailings to the client base, which can be used to popularize loyalty programs, maintain contact with the audience, and sell individual groups of products.
• Integration with external services. A bot is not a stand-alone tool. To increase efficiency, you can integrate it with third-party software, such as payment gateways for receiving payments, CRM system, accounting software or ERP. Thus, each lead from the chatbot will be processed as efficiently as possible.

What is included in the chatbot development service

The technical implementation of a chatbot is a complex process that includes several stages:

• Analysis of business needs and goals. This stage includes the study of business processes, business goals and tasks that the chatbot should solve. Developers must fully understand what functions the product must perform in order to best meet the needs of the company and its customers.
• Functionality and interface design. Based on the results of the business analysis, the main functions of the bot are determined and its architecture is created. Developers also design UX, the list of commands available to the user and integration with external services. Next, the finished prototype is approved with the client and the technical documentation of the project is drawn up.
• Creating triggers and sales funnels. In this step, specialists create templates and banners for automatic messages, triggers for sending messages based on events, and also develop, test and optimize sales burst scenarios. To achieve an optimal result, the customer is involved in these processes.
• Technical implementation and integration of functionality. When all the questions regarding the logic of the chatbot are solved and agreed with the client, the developers start writing the code that implements the business logic of the project. They create a custom functional part, configure the interaction of Cosmos with databases, create a bot menu and perform external API integrations.
• Testing and debugging. After the completion of development, the product undergoes testing to identify errors and shortcomings, which includes checking the operation of all chatbot functions, its feedback from various teams and usage scenarios.
• Deployment and technical support. The bot is deployed on the target platform, such as Telegram, Viber, Facebook or on the client's site, and then configured to work effectively. Next, post-release support begins, in the framework of which developers maintain the stability of the bot and develop it by introducing new functions.

How much does it cost to develop a chatbot?

The cost of developing a bot is always individual and depends on many variables. Functionality has a great impact on the final price - the more individual capabilities developers need to implement, the more expensive the result will be. The number of required integrations, the level of personalization and the technologies involved in the implementation also play a role.

The best way to find out the cost of implementing a bot for your company is to contact us. After a thorough study of your request and requirements, we will be able to calculate the price of the work as accurately as possible.

Why you should order the development of a chatbot from Avada Media

Our team develops chatbots for most existing interfaces: Telegram, Viber and Whatsapp messengers, social networks Facebook, Instagram, websites and mobile applications. We have also done a decent job of implementing innovative solutions in many areas of business and have extensive expertise that we can apply when creating a bot for your company. If you are ready to act - fill out the feedback form, and we will start discussing the task.

Answers to popular questions

• What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a program that automatically interacts with users through a chat interface. It can perform various tasks, answer questions, provide information, process orders and much more. For the convenience of users, such a bot can be integrated into popular messengers and social networks.

• Which platform is best for hosting a chatbot?

The choice depends on which social networks and messengers your target audience prefers to use. Plus, you need to take into account the technical integration capabilities of each platform, as they are individual and constantly changing. If you need help in this matter, you can contact our specialists.

• What programming language do you use to develop chatbots?

When creating bot functionality, we can use various technologies, including Python, JavaScript, Java or PHP. The final choice depends on the complexity of the functions, the deployment platform and the specifics of the project's integration with third-party systems.

• How to ensure chatbot security?

Our specialists use authentication and authorization, data encryption, filters to detect and block malicious requests, as well as built-in protection mechanisms for messengers and social networks. Collectively, this allows you to create the most secure space where you can comfortably interact with your audience.

• Need technical support for a chatbot?

Yes, a chatbot may require technical support for updates, bug fixes, development and adaptation to changing business needs. To solve these problems, we offer post-launch project support.