Chatbots for messengers: which one to choose for your business?
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Chatbots have long been indispensable assistants in many companies. After all, business chat is a tool that takes customer communication to a new level. For users, it is also a tool that helps save time. At least today, no less than 40% of people prefer to communicate with virtual managers.
There is no precise number regarding the total number of chatbots circulating across the network. In Telegram alone, there are currently 10 million for various needs and tasks. What types of automated conversationalists exist today and which ones have proven most effective for small and medium-sized businesses — read on.
From service — to part of the ecosystem
First, let’s emphasize: different examples of chatbots are found in corporations, government institutions, and even among candle makers. Globally, they are divided into:
- Service bots. It is enough to recall that with the help of such chatbots in Telegram and Viber, part of the population transmits energy meter readings and buys or looks for train tickets.
- Marketing bots. These are most of the bots that help customers buy. They can also collect and systematize information used for further business development.
- Multifunctional bots. If necessary, they also provide consultations, help with payments, and send newsletters. In some financial organizations, chatbots are positioned as “part of the ecosystem”.
Additionally, a business chatbot can be simple — called a button-based bot; or complex with AI elements — such bots can learn. A bot can be created from scratch, but more often they are built on the most popular messengers.
What should be considered when choosing a chatbot
When does an entrepreneur realize that business automation is an investment in their peace of mind and development? When routine work starts taking up too much time.
Yes, at the start, almost every seller is fine with just an Instagram page. If the product is of good quality and in demand, it sells not two conditional units per week but 50 per day. And at this point, it becomes clear that giving personal attention to each customer is a luxury, and it is easier to delegate at least part of this work.
The same applies to specialists who promote personal brands, educational services, exclusive hats, and regress, etc. But if there is demand for the offer, it is the modern approach to sales that will allow for more focus on product development.
It seems the easiest solution would be to integrate an online chat for business directly on Instagram. But this is not always the case. Especially if the plan is to enter a new market, sell to a fundamentally new audience, consider an alternative platform for business, or release a new product.
Therefore, before acting, it is necessary to compile a list of tasks to assign to the bot — taking into account your strategic goals. You do not have to implement all the functionality right away — it is enough to understand that you are creating a tool that can be improved even after a year or later.
An indicative list of tasks could be:
- Processing orders 24/7,
- Payment acceptance in 2 clicks,
- Creating a sales funnel,
- Warming up clients,
- Audience segmentation,
- Carrying out advertising campaigns through the customer base.
Chatbot Features
Facebook Messenger
In Facebook, chatbots can be used to inform clients about promotions, discounts, sales, new products, and so on. It facilitates the movement of leads towards making a purchase. Clients can track the status of their orders and make appointments. Additionally, it can be set up for audience segmentation.
This business chatbot is initially tailored to the features of this network. Specifically, it can automatically respond to comments under your posts — that famous “write in direct” increases the reach of the account and positively impacts the visibility of the page on Instagram.
The chatbot also adapts to the target audience, and it is possible to edit it for each campaign.
The drawback is that it interacts with the user only after they have subscribed to the page, contacted via direct, or responded to a specific trigger word. If the page is private, no contact will occur.
This is the perfect informer. It will know everything about the characteristics of your products and services and help the person choose the best offer for them. It also has a huge potential to satisfy service needs: choose a service, select a delivery time, and more.
It can also request feedback and gather contacts for further interaction with the client on other platforms.
Viber
If you trust this chatbot with your contact database, it will be able to organize customer “warming”: determine their needs, introduce them to your offers, and more. This is just one of the funnel usage scenarios.
It can also filter the audience based on specific parameters like “buys only beige underwear” or “frequently orders a set of spices for mulled wine”. Similarly, the chatbot helps maintain contact with the customer by sending birthday greetings or “cherry blossom day” messages.
Telegram
One of the features of the Telegram chatbot for business is that it can be built using ChatGPT. This makes it one of the most adaptable to unexpected reactions, non-standard scenarios, and new tasks.
Like other chatbots, it can answer standard questions, accept payments, send instant messages to specific segments of the target audience, and more.
Conclusions
For the virtual assistant to work correctly, you need to initially create high-quality and relevant information. This involves collecting the most frequently asked questions from customers. After that, you should turn to professionals who will build a chatbot specifically for your success. They can help you:
- Choose a platform,
- Analyze information,
- Personalize the bot,
- Visually design it,
- Create optimal scenarios,
- Avoid undesirable mistakes.
And most importantly: you invest in the chatbot once. Further improvements rarely require significant amounts of money. The payback period for this investment is from 3 months to half a year, depending on the tasks and specifics of your business.
