How to build a Facebook Messenger Chatbot

If we talk about new marketing channels, Messenger bots would definitely come up as a clear winner and a lot of brands have been consistently leveraging them for offering better end-user experience. If you are not well versed with what a Messenger bot actually are, they are simply autonomous digital messages that offer automated responses programmed with simple AI.

A Messenger Bot is more like launching an entirely new channel and comes as a learning curve for many businesses. And the best part about it is that many consumers are turning towards them for contacting businesses with questions, comments, and complaints. Plus there are more than a lac bots available on Facebook Messenger today. Did we got you much excited about Facebook Messenger bots then read on.

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Three Ways to Send Out Your Messages 

In a bid to automate consumer interactions Chatbots put in major efforts to deliver right answers to the end customer. While there are several tools that can help the influx of messages on social media but sometimes Chatbots work the best.

Customer Service AI Agents:

When businesses turn to social media, the main concern of end consumer is timely responses and that’s what exactly Messenger Bots do as being customer service providers. If your customer service gets redundant queries then opting for a Chatbot is a great way to put things better. Certainly, your corporate image depends upon the kind of customer service you provide. And one of the best ways to do that is in the form of AI Chatbots.  

Also Read: Essentials of an AI Chatbot

The bots based on AI can be extremely rapid and can handle high volumes of requests with similar types of responses. Also, they can proactively strike up conversations with any consumer about any issue at any time of the day and simultaneously take care of a range of simple transactions. One good example is Clare.AI which qualifies as a Messenger bot for banking services. It combines machine learning algorithm and natural language processing to respond to customer service FAQs.

Specialized Services:

Generally, businesses do have their own mobile app when it comes to offering their automated services. But most of the businesses now are taking a step ahead with the implementation of bots as well. The bots employed are intelligent enough to deliver in the Facebook Messenger app itself.

One good example would be Remit Radar that is automated service for money transfer. The users are allowed to send money, pay internationally and even request exchange rates through the intelligent chatbot. And whats even better is that all the services are extremely streamlined and easy to use.

Custom Messenger CTR Bot:

Custom Bots can go insanely popular based on your business vertical. For instance, messenger bot for a growth hacking legend, Josh Fechter improves marketing funnel and helps a business convert. Bots like these can help create a chat subscription list and highly benefits your core marketing efforts.

Josh Fechter’s bot has a chat list of over 5000 subscribers and he uses it to send out quick messages every week that are convenient to read than an email.

How do Messenger Bots function?

For creating a Messenger bot there are certain parameters that go in the entire nitty-gritty of it. There would be a requirement for two endpoints, Facebook Page for your bot and a Facebook App Id. Now, let's dig deeper to figure out how these parameters work in conjunction with each other.

Webhook URL : This is basically required for Facebook initial verification. The main purpose of the Webhook URL is to verify the bot with Facebook and keep it in sync with the response and gives information on the verification process.

Creating Facebook Page: A Facebook page is a gateway where your users will find your bot and start the interaction.

Creating an App Id: One major step for your bot is to create a Facebook App Id. All you will be required to do is provide a name, email, and category for the bot.

Connecting Webhook with Messenger: For this process, you will be needing to generate a token so that it will authenticate your requests while sending a text or replying. This token confirms that the requests are coming from Facebook. Apart from this, you will have to set up a subscription field to inform Facebook of the messaging events.

Also Read: How do Chatbots work? : A Layman Guide

Key Considerations for a Messenger Bot

Before you jump on to make decisions for your bot, it becomes highly crucial to do your research upfront, because if you change things midway there are chances that you will end up losing on the subscriber base that you might have worked so hard to build. So here we jot down some key points that businesses need to take care.

The Objective

Bots generally initiate conversations based on previously collected data and information. But before any of it you need to ensure what would actually the primary goal of your bot and what will be the end purpose of building it. Once you are clear with what your goal is you can definitely start with it.

Platform to Choose

Bots are applications that can send and receive messages and can be sometimes as good as human counterparts. But building a smart one definitely is a task and you will have to opt for a platform that actually works for your needs. BotKit for instance can come really handy as it gives developers the necessary tools for bot development. It focuses on creating novel applications and experiences instead of dealing with API endpoints. Even Botsify is one good platform as it offers free integrations, unlimited messages, and get access to analytics.

Businesses should choose a bot building platform that makes it possible to build something that customers will love and will also take care of the innovations and other enhancements.

Also Read: Top 5 Chatbot Platforms for creating a Bot

Bot Personality

Another area of focus should be being sure of the bot personality and its overall usability. Businesses need to consider how to add context and personality that causes their end user to respond. All this actually ensures that a friendly conversation is established with the end user and also helps decide which users will convert in the future.

Also Read: Master Guide on Chatbot Architecture

AI Functionality Balance

The mainstream thinking of AI being the prime driver of Chatbots isn’t actually true. It is actually NLP (Natural Language Processing) that is an essential part of Chatbot development and in most of the cases NLP decides the entire bot. However bots can even be designed without the use of NLP and can function with a pre-fed info and buttons instead of understanding. So whatever be the technology that goes behind the Chatbot, it is actually crucial to maintain a balance so that the user engagement is maintained.

Also Read: Reasons why Chatbots are important for Businesses

Data Distribution

With EU starting to enforce heavy fines against GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) it becomes a concern whether your bot is GDPR compliant or not. Your chatbot will essentially have to comply with the new set of regulations. Businesses will need to consider to provide the chatbot users with clear policies and agreements of data storage and usage. A consent will be needed for the users to clearly understand what data is collected and how will it be used by the chatbot of your organisations.

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