#chatbot app developers

Hire Expert Chatbot App Developers

Hire Expert Chatbot App Developers

Hire Expert Chatbot App Developers

I covered steps to developing a conversational chatbot in my previous many few posts. Like submission guidelines on respective app stores on mobile platforms: iOS and Android, chatbots platforms like Messenger too have strict guidelines regarding which chatbot gets published, which doesn’t.

Moreover, there are prerequisites over what you need to do in order to get your chatbot published on Messenger. For example, you must own or admin a Facebook Page to get started. Otherwise, you have to create a new page.

1. A Facebook Page is mandatory

The bot is accessed through a Facebook Page. If your Facebook account neither have a page associated with it nor is an admin of a page, you must create a new Facebook Page. Once created you must copy the page ID from the About page.

The name and image of your Facebook Page is what the bot will be recognized by. So create a Facebook Page while keeping your patience level to create a bot in check. You just add basic info. The rest of the info you can add later.

2. Create a Facebook App

Facebook for Developers is a separate website dedicated to people developing apps using Facebook APIs or one of the platforms, including Messenger.

You’ve to become a developer to access the website and generate an App ID. To create a new App ID, click Skip and Create App ID on the right top.

Create App ID and you’ll be asked to add a product. Since we are building a chatbot for Messenger, click Set Up button below it.

You’ll be presented with the App Dashboard. You have to generate Token. Under Token Generation, select the page and popup will emerge. Authenticate your Facebook profile and click continue, Page Access Token will be beside the page name. Click to copy it.

3. Create and Enable Webhook

To set up Webhooks, you need a Callback URL and Verify Token. Facebook uses Webhooks. Webhook endpoints are URLs defined by users to which Facebook sends events. A single event may be sent to many webhook endpoints.

To have a working endpoint that responds with a 200 code and calls back some info in order to validate your bot with Facebook.

To proceed with the step, I am going to clone this Github repository by hartleybrody

git clone [email protected]:hartleybrody/fb-messenger-bot.git

Then, cd into it and install python dependencies:

For simplicity, I’ll deploy this to Heroku and recommend you to do so too.

I have the Heroku CLI Toolbelt installed, so I run

heroku create to get your new chatbot setup. I will verify the thing on a local serer with Heroku. heroku local

Then, in your browser, visit http://localhost:3000/ and you should see “Hello world”. http://localhost:3000/facebook/receive : should be your Facebook Webhook URL, except Facebook only accepts public URLs.

Interrupt the local server with Ctrl+C. To deploy this endpoint to Heroku git push heroku master open in your browser heroku open

Now you’ve got a “working” webhook URL that you can use to setup your bot.

Enter it under Callback URL

Verification Token is a secret value that a bot receives to validate the origin of a request. Whatever value you enter under it, you assure it reflects in your Heroku environment using heroku config:

add VERIFY_TOKEN=your_verification_token_here

4. Chat with the bot Your just created bot should appear as any of your friends on Messenger. Otherwise, you can click Message on your Facebook Page to chat with the bot.

heroku logs -t

will give you chatbot logs. You should see the POST data that Facebook is sending to your endpoint every time the bot receives a new message

An instance of JSON POST body that I receive when I send “does this work?” to my bot

The bot is programmed to respond to everything with “got it, thanks!”

5. Submit chatbot to Messenger for review

While you’re testing your bot, only admins of the Facebook Page can message the bot directly. To make the bot available to everyone over the Messenger Platform, it has to go through a review process.

Facebook seems to be highly systematic in their review process, and for a noble purpose. The code for a Messenger chatbot runs on your own servers and could change at any time, without Facebook learning about.

They appear to be trying hard to assure you’re a policy abider, and not submitting a chatbot for the sale of submitting, only to change it at some point into a spam bot. Imagine the bot that used to give you horoscope alert every day selling you some random Chinese electronics.

Of course, Facebook can always revoke API access tokens to a spam chatbot, but Facebook want a clean platform with their Messenger

Go to Messenger App Settings page. Under “App Review for Messenger”, click “Request Permissions.”

Seek permissions your bot requires. You’ll enter the “Review Status” page. This page requires you entering a lot of information to make sure you as a developer will not abuse the platform.

It requires you to do the following:

- check several boxes confirming that you’ve gone through their policies and rules - promise you won’t get involved in uninvited, outbound messaging - define how your chatbot will coverse with users - provide a test case for the review team - upload a screencast of your chatbots conversation flow - draft a privacy policy

On this page, you can also request to be allow extra info about users, like their electronic mail or personal information.

Chatbots are a form of automated services, a chat-based interface that clients can interact with. AI Chatbots are getting popular day by day and becoming more human-like as well as automated. Nowadays various chatbots have been used for the quick customer support in numerous businesses.

Chatbots have been accepted by the audience because customers are getting the fast and relevant customer…

Chatbots for Banks – Here’s How Banks Can Cater Customer Needs Better with Chatbots

One thing that surprises me most nowadays is that a plenty of businesses are still too busy to incorporate trending technologies into their business model. I am talking about chatbots here.

My friend who just built a three-page website for his wedding added a chatbot in there that acknowledges visitors about the wedding date, layer-by-layer list of functions, and all the delegate who are going…

The chatbot revolution is here, and having a bot that can talk to your customers online is key to your brand’s success and future growth. Chatbots scale quite easily, and can handle hundreds of conversations at a time. That makes them the perfect candidates for tasks with a predictable and well-defined conversation flow.

We’ve created a little cheat sheet with an essential checklist for you, so you don’t have to wonder where to start. Take a look, and happy building!

1. Start Small

Start with something small as your chatbot version 1.0 and then iterate for a version 2.0 after you’ve collected enough data to know what’s working well and what needs polishing.

You can learn a lot about your users’ behavior with simple functionality, which will also help you tweak future versions of your bot. But first, build your infrastructure. To test your chatbot more easily, always set the part you want to test as default. That way you avoid going through the whole flow.

To-do:

– Take a piece of paper and draw a mind map – If you don’t like paper find mind mapping software – First, create your folders – Then add the flows – Set-up a persistent menu with a “Start again” option

2. Consider Your Chatbot’s Personality

Poncho the Weather Cat makes jokes, has a story, and sometimes talks in memes. He’s also reliable and accurate with the information he provides.

Think about creating a personality for your bot. How should it address your users? Does it say hi, what’s up, or how do you do? Does it have a name?

Develop a character with a distinct style and stick with it, because if you start mixing different speaking styles, your customers will feel like they’re interacting with some random customer service rep, instead of the chatbot you’ve spent hours developing.

To-do:

– Choose a name for your chatbot – Prepare the greeting: Hi, Hello, Salutations… – Find an image that represents your chatbot

3. Manage Expectations, and Don’t Try to Fool Anyone Don’t try to fool your customers into thinking your chatbot is a human agent. What you can do is give the bot human-like qualities, such as a sense of humor. It might also be a good idea to explain to customers the scope of activities the chatbot can help with.

Once you’ve established the tone of voice, think about the type of content you want your bot to deliver. Preferably this is a combination of text, photos, emojis and videos. Make it rich!

To-do:

– Write the chatbot’s introduction line – Explain the scope of your chatbot’s capabilities – Find a set of pictures that you want to use in communication

4. Compose a Greeting Message You have 160 characters in the greeting text to communicate your bot’s purpose and set your customer’s expectations. Once the greeting text is set up, it will override the description that was pulled from your Facebook company page.

The greeting text isn’t the same as the first message or conversation. The first message comes right after a visitor engages. It’s the first conversational text or media. Your greeting text adds specificity and sets visitor expectations.

To-do:

– Write 2 or more greeting messages for variety

5. Specify Your Customer’s Interests

Help customers find what they need by offering a simple selection of choices. You should use a menu bar when building your flows. Think about the structure of choices you want to give your customer. To help select your choices you may choose a gallery accompanied by pictures.

If you don’t want to use a gallery or a simple message + button, another way to offer clients more options is to create a menu with up to 3 buttons. The limit is 3 buttons, so keep that in mind while creating a menu. The difference between the menu and the gallery is that the buttons are vertical rather than horizontal.

To-do:

– Define the decision trees your customer will go through – Decide which decision tree will be better as a horizontal menu with pictures, and which will be displayed as a simpler vertical menu

6. Personalize the Experience–Use Variables

You can personalize the chatbot’s messages with a customer’s name. Depending on your chatbot’s purpose and the nature of your business, a first-name basis might not be appropriate. A financial company may do well to engage with a more formal greeting, and likewise for complaint inquiries.

– Decide if you are using first or last names – Pick 2 other variables you’d like to use – Do you need to know the customer’s location? Ask for a ZIP code

7. Don’t Let Your Customers Wander Around

Throughout the conversation, ensure that your visitor never has to guess what to do next to get the information they need. Give clear options based on the service your chatbot provides. You can include bubbles, buttons, quick reply texts, images, audio, video or files.

It’s important to be very specific. Use the medium that best works for directions. A short video is excellent for showing how to get started with a product, but it’s too much if you’re searching for a specific product.

To-do:

– Gather the media you want to share with customers – First choose the essential ones – Find them a place in you chatbot structure Buttons Chatbots allow the customer to pick the next step by showing a maximum of 3 buttons per bubble. Buttons have many characteristics and functions, including:

– 20 characters – Opening a URL – Calling a phone number – Opening a shared dialog in Messenger – Forwarding to another flow

The shorter you make the text on the button, the better.

Quick Replies Quick Replies help guide customers to better outcomes. This consists of a button presented in response to a message. Quick Replies can include up to 11 choices per query. Once a choice is selected, the others disappear. It’s important to show what your chatbot is capable of helping with, and it’s easy to do that with Quick Replies. A little something extra you can do is add emojis wherever possible. This makes your bot more friendly and fun. Emojis also provide visual cues that compliment the Quick Reply text.

Quick Replies can contain text or emojis. A Quick Reply can have:

– Up to 20 characters – Up to 11 Quick Replies per instance

8. Think About a Response Bank–Use a Variety of Answers

When building a chatbot, avoid designing it to provide the same sentence repeatedly as an on-topic answer. This breaks the illusion of sentience, so it’s a good idea to prepare a whole list of responses the robot can choose from. These should be based on customer queries. It’s a quick and effective way for the robot to appear intelligent.

To-do:

– Pick 2 or 3 messages–welcome and goodbye messages, for instance. Write two varieties for each – Upload them into the chatbot builder and have them alternate

9. Watch and Learn Testing your bot in the real world is essential. Make sure your project plan includes a test rollout to a closed group — staff, friends, and customer ambassadors. Collect last comments and failed responses to tune your matrix of keywords and phrases. Iterate frequently and… remember to have fun!