Chatbots have been around for decades now. Chatbots have come a long way and are still growing. Chatbots is a cost effective way to communicate with potential customers in real time.The capabilities of a chatbot are endless and businesses are yet to unbridle the full potential of chatbots.
Most industries have already integrated some kind of Voice Assistant or Chatbot in their support system. But only an effective conversational design will reflect how successful is your chatbot strategy.
Consider this, your Chabot is the very first layer of your sales or support system that initially increases engagement and also addresses your user’s queries in a matter of seconds.
So, to make your chatbot’s conversational UI structured, flawless, dynamic and lively, here are some tips to consider before embarking on an adventure to develop the perfect chatbot conversations.
The first thing when planning conversations of your customer care chatbot is by defining the goal of your chatbot. The goal should come from both sides of the table - the user and the content creator.
Defining the content creator’s goal -
a. Giving support
This is the ultimate goal of a company - to provide support to their customers. Chatbots are meant to work all the monotonous task and spend thousands of hours per year to handle all the queries . Depending on the level of support you plan to provide and the combination of bot/human resources available, you can create conversations that answer FAQs.
Jot down all the possible conversational part and topics of your chatbot. Then divide and arrange the parts in functional groups - Opening, Cores, Chatters, Extras, Skip, and Ending.
Opening greeting
Cores are Goals related
Chatters are Conversation less
Extras are for additional information
Skip - Fast-forward the conversation to a different script block
This is the section where you have to write the actual script for your chatbot. This portion is the most difficult and requires the maximum focus.
Developing a script becomes quite easier when it is defined in a block section.
OpeningCoresChatterExtrasSkipEnding
The best thing about developing a script is a pen and a paper, or a text editor.
Below are some of the example of writing a script. And as we are considering the example of a B2B website, we can name the bot as - Fred!
Opening
Cores
Chatters
4. Syntax
Defining the syntax helps you create more than one option of a message, which can be replaced one word with others. To create such options, you need to set symbols, such as parentheses, slashes, curly brackets, and whatever your team can understand.
Here’s a sample:
Curly brackets { }: Defines a set of options
Pipes |: Separates the options
Parentheses ( ) : Specifies the condition-related options
Brackets [ ]: Defines user’s input
Example of Syntax Notation:
{ (Hello) | Good morning | Hi }, { I’m | my name is } Fred!
What’s your name?
My name is [only letters]
5. Messages
a. Single Sentences
Displaying of long messages in paragraphs is difficult for users to read and answer.
Reading single sentences are convenient. The best way to converse is to display a combination of single short sentences.
Example:
Chatbot:
Nice to meet you!
What would you like to talk about?
Me, or our Services.
b. Fading out Messages
The most common display method is to scroll up to the previous messages. But a recent survey showed that fading could be a better option. This functionality can be questionable, but such solution can deliver - the real aspect of the conversation.
6. Users’ Answers
For Conversational UI, which is not AI-powered, this is the most challenging option. Its script should let the user provide chatbot with logical answers.
The more real and open the conversation, the more interesting it is for the talker.
There are two types of answers -
Defined
These are easy to handle
Require good anticipation skills
And the user may not be allowed to type
Non-Defined
Difficult to handle
Requires some predefined word databases
Users are allowed to communicate
Some of the non-defined messages will breach the defined standards. Of course, some users will write as they would write to a human, but others will try to challenge your bot by sending swearing or gibberish.
You can use these tips to deal with these messages-
Limit specified use of signs
Define arrays of most popular swear words
Use some dictionary API to recognize if they are actual words
People make mistakes, mumble, and hesitate while speaking. This can also happen when you write. So, to make it all natural we can use conversational non-lexical sounds.
Some of the popular non-lexical sounds include - oh, aum, mmm, uhh, uh-huh, uu, you know, ermmm, yeah, okay, uh.
8. Testing the Content
Testing conversation is not different from what it used to be in the past decade. Lately, there were voice prompts for the phone system and people used to sit around a large conference room with scripts and acted out each prompt. But it is important that you deploy the cot in beta and iterate from there.
Creating a conversational UI script is a challenge, especially when you do it for the first time. That is why it is important that you thoroughly check your script, and even monitor the conversation even after it goes live, for much more updations.
Amit is the Co-Founder of Signity Solutions. A tech-evangelist, he has an uncanny ability to synergize and build associations, thriving teams, and reputable clients. His vision to grow his decade-old company as per global standards, and his deep analytical skills to foresee market trends, as well as global challenges, has enabled his company to come up with products and services best suited not only for local, but global markets as well. His sharp skills and first-class business acumen have helped him in building successful sales and product management teams to ensure increased brand awareness and demand generation.
