10 Questions To Ask When Planning a Chatbot Project
By Alessandro Botticelli -- January 02, 2022
Congratulations you've had that lightbulb moment and you have an idea to create the best chatbot, or maybe you've heard so much about chatbots lately you feel you should explore the idea of using one for your company.
Chatbots have advanced significantly due to Natural Language Processing developments in voice and text interfaces. Careful project planning is essential to getting it right.
1. What is the purpose of your chatbot?
Organisations should clarify why they're building a chatbot and how it achieves business objectives. Having a clear purpose from the outset guides every subsequent decision.
2. What are the key goals of your bot project?
Main aims might include driving sales, providing round-the-clock customer support, or gathering customer feedback. Defining these early helps measure success later.
3. How will you measure your success?
Success metrics could include click-through rates, correctly handled inquiries, or feedback statistics. Without clear metrics, you cannot evaluate performance.
4. Who is going to use your chatbot?
Understanding user demographics influences the chatbot's persona and design. Knowing your audience shapes every aspect of the conversational experience.
5. Where will your chatbot be deployed?
Deployment options include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Microsoft Teams, custom website implementations, and IoT platforms. Each channel has its own requirements and opportunities.
6. What will your chatbot do?
User stories format helps capture functionality requirements, such as checking event times or collecting customer reviews. Be specific about what actions users need to complete.
7. Will the chatbot have a character?
Organisations decide whether their assistant should be polite only or carry distinct brand personality traits. A well-defined character creates more engaging interactions.
8. How will the chatbot create value?
User experience design ensures customers return and use the chatbot as their primary contact point. The chatbot must deliver genuine value at every interaction.
9. How will people find the chatbot?
Discovery strategies include website links and Facebook advertising. A great chatbot is useless if your customers cannot find it.
10. How will you look after your chatbot?
Once the chatbot is launched this is just the start of your journey. Essentially you are at the start of the optimisation phase. Ongoing monitoring of interactions, unanswered requests, and continuous training are essential.
Conclusion
We recommend working through all questions with team members. The Bot Forge offers a downloadable chatbot checklist and free consultations to discuss your project.
Want to build with conversational AI?
Book a short call and we will help you choose the right approach.