Chat bot - how to write convenient and useful?

Chat bots are one of the most controversial trends. The simplest bots can be written and “sewed” to the site in a few hours, but how useful is this quick-made product? Does he really open up new opportunities for the audience and solve those problems that other tools do not cope with? Or will it lead to another epic file ? I have been interested in this topic for some time and I want to share my observations about my "good practices" in the development of chat bots. I hope these observations will be useful both to developers and customers of chatbots.

When evaluating bots, I use two groups of factors:

• Usability (usability);
• Creating value for the user.

Later in the article I will tell you how I rate chat bots for these groups.

Usability

The first group of factors helps to understand the article by Kevin Scott on the application of heuristics usability to the interface of bots. But with reservations. Let's criticize one of the authors' examples, which they consider exemplary. For example, good old Poncho :
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I see the following improvements:

1. If the user has already installed the bot and launched it, no need to require additional confirmations ("Let's do it"). If possible, the bot should start offering its services as early as possible, eliminating the need to click on the screen.
   
   
2. Now the user is forced to enter his address with the text - this is long and inconvenient (not all use voice input). Instead, I recommend making the input process more interactive (for example, send a location, get an address from metadata, give a choice from the 7 most popular cities, etc.).
   
   
3. After entering the city name, the user has to spend another click on confirmation. Instead, if the address is well defined, you can immediately show the result (after all, the poor fellow worked so hard).
   
   
4. If the user made a mistake, the bot inexorably requires you to enter a new address. In a good way, the bot should offer the user close to the entered text addresses.

Of the improvements, three rules emerge:

Pushing on gold weight

This rule is nothing new for usability specialists. The operation should occupy the minimum number of clicks / entries. The longer you perform the operation, the more time users lose and the more love your chat bot loses. User interaction is essential with a very limited interface. Use all the available tools to help the user: audio recognition, contextual controls, user menus, and other elements.

The fewer messages, the better

This rule intersects with the previous one, but it is often ignored, including our Poncho. Instead of the user scrolling up and down during the operation ( and what did I enter in the previous step? ), It would be more convenient to perform one operation in one message, changing its text and controls. In this case, of course, you need to keep in the message all the context the user needs so that he confidently makes decisions.

Offer solutions

Under ideal conditions, a bot should understand a user without words: analyze user operations, observe the user and help the user just when it is needed. For example, instead of the already well - known scenario about buying sneakers , the bot will jump out of nowhere at the right time and say: my friend, well, stop searching for crosses, I found everything for you: by rating, by price, and by convenience of delivery, and comments I read everything; Here you have a choice of green and blue (although I know which ones you choose) . So far we are far from ideal, but in real-life conditions, the bot should still be active:

• If the user does nothing, give him more information;
• If the user has started doing something, try to help;
• If the user is wrong, suggest an adjustment;
• If the user has completed the operation, suggest an attendant.

Fuf, we figured out usability, now a couple of words about user value.

Creating value for the user

Techcrunch says that the purpose of chat bots is to connect business and customers. But is it now? If we look in the catalog of Telegram bots , we will be slightly surprised, because on the top positions there:

• Making money;
• Text Poker ( Text , Karl!);
• Weather forecast;
• Virtual friend.

I am ready to believe that making money in any of its manifestations may carry some value for users, but the rest? It is much more convenient to play poker in a mobile application, weather forecasts 9000+ in any application store, but a virtual friend - do not open this topic.

Where is the business?

My hypothesis is that not every business has that value that would be interesting to users. But, in my opinion, it is never too late to acquire this value, if you follow these simple tips.

Use multi-step scripts

Do not copy the functionality of the mobile application and site. Typically, a website or application is optimized for the basic functions that the user performs. If you have a mobile application, on which everything is already well with the basic functions, why copy its functionality into the chat bot? This is likely to be:

• Inconvenient for the user - because the chat bots interface is not as flexible as the interface of the mobile application.
• It is not clear for the user - he had previously successfully performed operations in the application, why should he relearn?

Instead, try to cover multi-step scenarios that involve alternatives and offshoots. They are not easy to fit into a mobile application, but they are literally created for chat bots. For example, if you are a bank client, do not duplicate the transfer from card to card. Instead, let your chat bot help your users connect automatic payments for utilities.

Save user time

Recently I heard from several different places about the idea of ​​replacing an IVR menu (interactive answering machine) on numbers 8800 with a chat bot. And indeed, the IVR menu is structured in such a way that the user must listen to a lot of unnecessary information in order to finally select an item. If he did not hear the desired item or was mistaken, then he again will have to listen to the details of each item. Instead, the chat bot will offer the user the same information, but in text form, and will help if necessary. The result: saving time and higher quality of service. Think for your bot, if it saves users time compared to alternatives.

Take a closer look at group opportunities.

Perhaps the most incomprehensible advice, but nonetheless. One of the main things that distinguishes chat bots from mobile applications is the simplicity of multi-user interaction. Do not limit the user experience to a user-help pattern, you may have scripts in which you can involve several users at once. One such example is a chat bot for filtering information in groups: it will show you the tags, and the content by them, or, maybe, will come up with something useful.

If your bot follows all these tips, it has every chance of becoming useful and convenient. If not, do not approach the tips too strictly, this is my personal view on the vector of development of chat bots. Good luck with the boto scripts!