Platforms For Creating a Chatbot: How to Choose?

In the previous articles, we reflected the basics of chatbot architecture and taught you how to create a chatbot from scratch. Check them out to make sure you can proceed to the next part — platforms for building chatbots. Today we`ll review the most popular options and help you make the best choice. And, additionally, we`ve prepared a list of common mistakes you should avoid when developing.

Factors to consider when selecting a platform

Before analyzing the platforms, let`s consider the main factors:

User-friendliness

One of the main advantages of chatbot platforms is quick launch and development. So it`s important to pick an option that has a clear interface and is easy to use. Particularly, if you`re a rookie in chatbot development, give a preference to user-friendly platforms with transparent guidance.

Performance

Depending on your startup`s requirements, you may need different functions and performance level. For simpler chatbots, it`s enough to use platform with basic functionality and mediocre performance while for AI-based ones you have to look for more powerful alternatives.

Learning curve

Most chatbot constructors not only enables you to build a chatbot from scratch, but also helps you learn throughout the development cycle. This is especially important if you`re just starting to get the hang of bot architecture. So make sure the platform provides some space for independent learning and acquiring new skills. Find out if there are virtual assistants or support service you can address in case of any difficulties.

CRM

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a software system for interacting with customers, based on their database, to move them through the sales funnel. It allows businesses to automatize communication strategies, boost sales, and optimize marketing. Therefore, we recommend selecting a platform with a built-in CRM to reach a better customer experience.

Pricing

Each company has its own capabilities and pricing policy. Therefore, the cost depends on the functionality, performance, user-friendliness, and brand popularity. In some cases, you need to calculate the final price individually based on your requirements.

Platform features

Now it`s time to take a look at the features you might need when developing a chatbot.

Natural language & Machine learning

In order to quickly solve users' tasks without human intervention, a chatbot requires a huge amount of training data. And the main bottleneck in the chatbot development is obtaining realistic, task-oriented dialog data using machine learning methods.

Thanks to NLP (Natural Language Processing) and machine learning, chatbots can interpret data received in natural language and self-learn. Dialog systems help to decipher this data into meaningful bites and respond to the request. The accuracy of this data interpretation depends on the NLP components offered by a platform. Well-trained chatbots can recognize slang, jokes, and grammatical errors.

Context and coherence

These features enable the chatbot to keep up long conversations without losing cohesion. This means it can easily stick to the context while talking by memorizing and structuring the previous messages. Such chatbots are particularly helpful for educational purposes.

Prediction

Smart chatbots can define communication patterns and forecast users` needs based on the previous interaction. They use predictive and analytical abilities to personalize conversations, study the user's preferences over time, provide recommendations, and even anticipate needs. Examples of predictive data-driven and consumer-oriented chatbots are Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa.

Payment request API

This function provides necessary payment, shipment, and contact information about the user. You can add payments to the chatbot of a messenger (Facebook Messenger, Viber, Telegram), which will be carried out inside the application and processed on its servers. This is easier than integration with the API of a payment system or bank, but this feature is available only in some messengers and does not work in all countries.

Advanced reporting

The bot collects necessary data about users and provides you with access to it. These reports help businesses discover their customers`needs and wants, adjust the marketing strategy, improve product/service range, and enhance interaction with buyers. By making advanced reports, the bot reflects deep statistics and additional insights about your customers.

Platforms for chatbot development

After getting familiar with basic characteristics of chatbot constructors, let`s analyze them and compare by common criteria.

Chatfuel

Supported platforms: Facebook Messenger, Instagram

Functions: dashboard for setting conversational rules, templates to develop chatbots for various purposes, keyword detection, personalization, CRM module, AI option.

Pros: beginner-friendly, many plugins, detailed statistics, ready-to use templates.

Cons: platform limitations, doen`t support personal websites.

Price: $0 - $199 per month

The platform has a built-in speech recognition tool that can situationally respond to requests. The service provides chatbot templates for different organizations, from online stores and real estate agencies to publishing houses. If you don`t want to create a chatbot by yourself, you can also delegate it to the platform`s assistants. The free tariff can hold up to 50 users. In case you need to serve more customers, you have to pay for the premium plan.

Botsify

Supported platforms: Facebook Messenger, Slack, websites.

Functions: statistics for customer interaction, answer templates, scenarios, machine learning, NLP, voice recognition.

Pros: beginner-friendly, reasonably priced, education bots, basic machine learning options.

Cons: works only online, outdated software, limited to auto-responses to keywords.

Price: $50-$300 per month

This is a multipurpose chatbot builder that allows you to create chatbots for any website or popular messenger. Integration is carried out through plugins with RSS feeds or JSON API. It doesn`t require any technical knowledge, so you can use it even without programming experience.

Flow XO

Supported platforms: Facebook, Slack, SMS, and Telegram.

Functions: templates for creating a chatbot, payment API request, removal of service branding, data export, e-commerce options.

Pros: no coding skills required, omnichannel, various platforms.

Cons: limited functionality, a need for third-party tools, no AI/machine learning.

Price: $0 - $30 per month

The platform enables you to create a standard greeting for your website or teach the bot to understand requests and common phrases from customers. For developers, the service offers to receive and transmit data using the HTTP API, collect user information, and link processes.

On the other hand, its flow system limits the functionality and design of your chatbot as it requires third-party integrations to develop more complex and powerful bots.

Motion.ai

Supported platforms: Facebook, Slack, Smooch, websites, SMS, email

Functions: SMS text messaging, microphone input, AI.

Pros: beginner-friendly, machine learning, a variety of platforms and purposes, reasonably priced.

Cons: limited functionality, time-consuming.

Price: $0 - $20 per month

This is a cross-platform builder that allows you to create, configure, and implement chatbots for different social medias and web services with the help of visual tools. In the free version, you can create two chatbots for 1000 messages per month. This help users visually develop, train, and deploy bots to for various purposes, from taking food orders and accepting payments, to running customer service chats.

inqoob

Supported platforms: Telegram and Viber

Functions: loads of templates, compatibility with google sheets, personal assistants, Java Script editor, advanced analytics, CRM integration.

Pros: good for teamwork, beginner-friendly, very affordable, lots of commands and variables, offline work, quick data import.

Cons: few platforms supported, limited adaptivity.

Price: $0 - $10

This is an easy-to use chatbot builder for startups. It offers various templates for creating products and a marketplace for saling them. On top of that, inqoob provides its own marketing network to promote businesses and support new talents. In case you need more complex solutions, you can use JS right on their platform. Go to inqoob to try it yourself!

Key takeaways

Whatever platform you like, it all depends on your startup`s needs afterall. Define the purpose of creating a chatbot, whether it`s support optimization, lead generation, LTV increase , or marketing improvement. Determine the platforms where the chatbot will be used, services you should integrate, and a list of functions you need. Set a budget and deadlines. All these will make the choice of chatbot builder much easier and smarter.

Common mistakes when creating a chatbot

As soon as you`ve picked the platform, learn about the main mistakes many chatbot developers make and see how to avoid them.

No customer focus

Many chatbot beginners use this tool for effective lead generation, increase conversion, or improve customer experience. However, they forget that the chatbot should be user-oriented to make their life better.

Companies get so carried away with the possibilities of chatbots that they forget about the original goal. They make a virtual assistant that does not solve customers`problems, but maintains an unnecessary secular dialogue or just makes jokes, which eventually leads to the disappointment of customers.

To avoid this problem, keep focus on customers throughout the chatbot development cycle and answer the following questions:

• What problem are your users facing?
• How can a chatbot solve this problem?
• What can prevent this?

Unclear chatbot capabilities

Greeting is one of the most important parts of the user conversational interface as this helps you immediately inform the customer on what the chatbot can do. This way you manage the user's expectations and minimize the negative experience from communication. There is no need to talk about everything in detail right in the chat, wasting the user's time. You can fit necessary information into a couple of bits.

Non-compliance with basic communication principles

In most cases, a chatbot should interact with users and simulate the process of communication. Therefore, it is better not to use template answers or copied text from the Q&A section of your website — rewrite the available information into an appropriate style for your target audience.

By the way, the use of emoticons and GIFs can also be a great element to make the conversation more human-like. Especially if we are talking about bots in messengers, where emoticons are an integral part of communication. At the same time, your bot will look a little friendlier, and with the help of GIFs, you can generally add a sense of humor to it. The main thing is not to overdo it.

Ambiguous questions

This mistake is related to the previous one and even contradicts it in terms of developing dialog scripts. Yes, it would be great if chatbots understood everything we write to them. But that's still a long way off. And in the meantime, efforts should be made to avoid misunderstandings with customers. Therefore, despite the conversational style of communication, it is better to use the rule — ask a simple question and get a specific answer.

Doing everything on your own

Now chatbots have become very popular and you can hear from everywhere that it's fast and easy. Yes, chatbot technologies have changed beyond recognition recently, and different designers and platforms can help you create an affordable virtual assistant without programming skills.

But developing a good chatbot with the ability to connect to a specialist's dialogue is time-consuming. Of course, it is also possible to create a really good bot by yourself, especially if you need a solution in a short time. But in case you want to make a more complex bot that will be a great channel for lead generation and customer support, don`t hesitate to address specialists.