If you’ve kept up with the latest trends in digital marketing, you might have heard the word “chatbots” thrown about quite a bit recently. In fact, chatbots are becoming so popular that most major corporations are now employing some form of automated chat tools in their websites and Facebook accounts. But what are chatbots and how can I benefit?

First, you need a little background in technologies behind the scenes. Chatbots are essentially AI-driven chat tools which use Natural Language Processing (NLP) speech algorithms to carry on what appears to be a natural conversation with a live human. While it’s many times obvious you are not directly talking to another individual on the other end, it’s not always easy to decipher. How is this useful? Well, for starters, it allows you to automated repetitive chat dialogue you would normally need to repeat over and over for each individual. Secondly, it employs chat popups which are proven to be a great way to connect with visitors to your platform in a more fluid fashion.

So how do you get started with chatbots and what are they built in? Good question, chatbots are merely a set of scripts which you can many times put together in 30-60 minutes. You can think of them as flowcharts with different feedback based on how the visitor responds, then the chatbot algorithm can parse and use fuzzy logic to determine the best response.

While we won’t get into the details of how the speech recognition algorithm works its magic, it’s important to know that many tools out there have incredibly matured engines that drive the capabilities of the chatbots you create with your scripts. This is what makes it easy to create a fully operational chatbot in less than an hour.

Selecting a tool such as ManyChat or ChatFuel can help you get started building your chatbot with their visual flowchart-like script designer. From there, you can test it along the way and tweak it as needed and then finally deploy to Facebook or even your website in some cases. I would recommend starting simple with a chatbot that takes yes/no questions and then insert the answers into a Google Spreadsheet.

From there, you can manipulate the data as you wish. Import into your CRM, send emails, etc.

If take a step back and ask yourself what you wish you could automate if you had the opportunity, perhaps chatbots are your answer. Define what it is you are looking to achieve, review your script/dialogue and build it into your chatbot tool. You’ll be amazed how much one hour invested in building a chatbot can save you and your team countless hours!