Creating a chatbot using the free open source Bot Libre chatbot platform
Businesses in today’s world thrive by serving their customers and making sure their clients are satisfied. When it comes to customer service, customers value their time and expect quick responses. Chatbots provide the ideal solution in today 24×7 world to service your customer service on the web, mobile, and social media.
There are many ways to create a chatbot, from using a chatbot platform, to hand coding your own solution. In this article we create a bot using Bot Libre, which is a free open source chatbot platform. Bot Libre makes creating a chatbot and connecting it to the web, mobile, and social media easy. No programming is required, and you can train the bot using natural language.
Here you can learn on how to create your own chat bot in 10 easy steps:
You can browse and chat with public bots anonymously, but to create your own bot you must create an account by clicking Sign Up. Creating an account is free and easy. To create an account, one only need to enter a unique user ID and a password. Your name and email are optional, if you wish to remain anonymous, you may do so.
To create a new bot click New Bot from browse. You can give your bot a name and description.
The bots you create on Bot Libre belong to you. When you create a bot you can specify the license you wish to share it under.
You can create a bot from the default template, or select one of the other predefined templates. Your bot will start as a clone of the template bot, and replicate its entire memory (brain). You can also fork your own bot, using it as a template to create other bots.
You can add tags to your bot, to help classify it, and help other users find it. Some relevant tags include ‘fun’, ‘business’, ‘help’, and ‘avatar’. The tags are entered as a comma separated list.
You can create either a public bot that will be accessible by other users, or a private bot that will be accessible only by you. You can control the users that can access and administer your bot.
You can choose if you want your bot to learn as it interacts with other users. If you disable learning, then your bot will only learn from its administrator when you ‘correct’ it, from chat logs you upload from the ‘Training & Chat Logs’ page in its ‘Admin Console’, or from AIML and Self scripts you add from the ‘Scripts’ page. Caution should be used in allowing learning, as other users may teach your bot offensive responses. Bot Libre provides a profanity filter, but it cannot catch everything. If you are creating a bot for business, such as for customer service, then you should disable learning.
Click 5 — Create
Click ‘Create’ to create your bot.
That’s it, your done, and we still have 5 clicks left.
You can now chat with you bot by clicking ‘Chat’. To find your bot again click ‘Search’ and search for it in ‘my bots’ (be sure to sign in first).
When you select your bot, you can click ‘Edit Details’ it to change any of its information. You can change your bot’s picture or choose an animated avatar from the ‘Avatars’ page under ‘Admin’. You can also connect your bot to Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Skype, Slack, Kik, WeChat, email, SMS, Alexa, or Google Assistant.
You can import response lists or chat logs. You can import data from the web and WikiData. You can browse your bot’s knowledge base. If your are technical, you can script your bot using AIML or the Self scripting language.
To link to your bot you can select it and copy its URL from your browser, this is its unique URL, or you can give it its own subdomain. You can also embed your bot on your website or blog, just click on ‘Embed’ and copy the code to your website.
This is a freeware chatbot that you can edit it’s responses. It can talk using Microsoft speech engine and comes with lots of images. You can replace the images and use your own.
WhatsApp is the new buzzword for digital conversations as the post-pandemic world gets more digital-savvy and contactless shopping emerges as the new trend.
According to a Statista report, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform with more than 2 billion active users outranking Facebook Messenger at 1.3 billion and WeChat at 1.2 billion users. Not only this, it has become the world’s third-largest social networking platform after Facebook and YouTube.
Given the popularity and demand of this new messaging channel, businesses too have started to turn their ships, the WhatsApp way. Also, recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) make WhatsApp more profitable for businesses. AI-powered virtual assistants, also known as WhatsApp Bots have helped businesses engage, support, and serve their customers virtually while igniting a new spark of online sales, known as WhatsApp Commerce. It simply means:
Offering and selling products and services to customers on WhatsApp
Using WhatsApp Bot to assist and personalize customer’s buying journey
Delivering a high-quality customer experience throughout the conversation.
What are the Benefits of using a WhatsApp Bot?
Establish real-time conversations with instant messaging
Help customers to explore the entire product catalog in one place
Provide a secure platform for conversation with WhatsApp end-to-end encryption
Deliver top-class virtual support with personalized communication
Strengthen the trust between the customer and the brand
How to figure out the best WhatsApp Bot?
It should solve the preexisting sales/support problem that the business is already facing?
It should communicate, personalize and empathize like humans.
It should understand the customer’s context and intent.
It shouldn’t ask to subscribe/register/install anything to use a WhatsApp bot.
It should be easy to use without any technical/coding expertise required.
Now that you have already dipped your toes into knowing WhatsApp bots, their capabilities and benefits, let us explore the best WhatsApp bots that can help brands drive their online sales and support, like never before.
In this article, we are covering 6 renowned brands in India that are successfully using WhatsApp bots as a conversational channel for their customers.
Shoppers Stop, one of the leading online shopping brands in India, offers seamless virtual shopping with Personal Shopper. It is a WhatsApp bot that answers all purchase/support-related queries at Shoppers Stop. If you are looking to shop online, you can directly WhatsApp your Personal Shopper with your requirements and they will help you find the best product with the best deals. It also provides a secure payment link via SMS to make instant and safe payments. Once done, your order will be delivered to you without you having to step out.
#2 Dottie by Indigo Airlines
Dottie — a conversational AI-powered chatbot has been designed to help customers with commonly asked queries. With Dottie available at your service, you don’t need to call customer care, you can find answers to FAQs on several topics such as revised travel mandates, baggage related queries, refunds, COVID-19 travel queries, flight cancellation, flight status, change booking, about credit shell, it’s usage and much more.
Not only this, but customers can also book a flight, web check-in, and perform an array of tasks related to their booking using this WhatsApp bot. The bot understands short phrases and keywords in a better way, so it is advisable to keep your query short while interacting with Dottie. In an unlikely situation wherein Dottie is unable to understand a customer’s query, it immediately transfers your query to a live agent to assist you better.
For example — To find out what you carry on our flights, try saying ‘conditions of carriage’ or say ‘baggage allowance’ instead of ‘Can I carry 30 kg as check-in baggage on my flight.’
#3 Mr. Simple by Tata Mutual Fund
Part of the Tata group, Tata Mutual Fund is the most trusted fund house in India offering a range of investment solutions for financial planning and wealth creation. With an investor base of over 3 million, the brand manages funds across the entire risk-return spectrum targeting investors of all ages and risk profiles. In such scenarios, providing top-class instant support to their customers became a critical factor for business success.As a solution to challenges like delayed response and a broken customer experience, Tata Mutual Fund introduced an AI-powered support bot known as
Mr. Simple. It brought a game-changing experience to TMF’s customer support by resolving 90% of queries end-to-end resulting in a reduction of call center calls by 67%.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government of India wanted a solution that would eradicate misinformation and empower citizens with the right steps to take precautionary measures and stay safe. The idea was to offer a 24/7 help desk that can answer all sorts of COVID-19 queries and help prevent the spread of false information.
Haptik, one of the world’s largest Conversational AI companies, accepted this challenge to handle and resolve the diversity of queries coming from millions of users across the country in English & Hindi. As a result, Haptik built the MyGov Corona Helpdesk, a WhatsApp bot that helped users check symptoms and get a diagnosis, provided tips and precautionary measures to stay safe, and shared the latest updates and advisories from the Ministry of Health.
JioMart is an eCommerce venture launched and run by India’s most valued firm, Reliance Industries. It is an offline to online grocery service that allows you to order online and the product is delivered to you from a local nearby store. JioMart offers a selection of 50,000+ products and processes over 250,000 orders per day.
With increasing orders every day, JioMart started experiencing 3x more traffic than expected. Soon, they realized an immediate need to automate and upgrade their customer support. As a result, JioMart built a WhatsApp bot that later emerged as the primary go-to channel for users to shop with JioMart. Also, JioMart observed that the WhatsApp bot is capable of resolving 88% of the queries with a reduction in response time by 62%. Some of the key use cases of this WhatsApp bot are Check Order Status, Delay in Delivery, Replacement Request, Refund Related Query, etc.
HDFC Bank is the second-largest private bank in India with a customer base of more than 19 million. With an objective to be available for customers 24/7 x 365 and provide uninterrupted customer service to everyone, HDFC too reaches its customers — the WhatsApp way, known as WhatsApp Banking.
HDFC WhatsApp bots help customers get information about their cards, important updates, regulatory messages, payment alerts, and a number of other banking queries like:
What documents do I require for a car loan?
What is the available limit on my credit card?
What is my pre-approved loan offer?
5 Reasons why you should use WhatsApp Bot in banking
It is available round the clock and even on holidays.
All the messages sent on WhatsApp are encrypted and remain totally safe.
Non-HDFC Customers can also use WhatsApp Banking for inquiring about the services of the bank.
It is absolutely free. All you need is an active internet connection.
Resolves almost all kinds of queries related to your account and associated cards.
Final Words
As WhatsApp commerce takes the center stage in the eCommerce journey of India, WhatsApp bots will play an extremely important role in shaping the future of Conversational Commerce in India.
So far, we were able to conclude the scope and capabilities of a WhatsApp bot. We also saw leading brands leveraging this AI-driven innovation to scale up their online sales and support performance. Now that you are also clear about the best WhatsApp bots in India, it is time to choose the best one for your business.
Surprisingly, the best part of a WhatsApp bot is that you can get it up and running in very little time. Unlike a website or app, which requires a long development phase, it is possible for a brand to deploy a WhatsApp bot, in as little as 7 days!
Interested to explore more about WhatsApp bots or want a WhatsApp chatbot for your business?
Interested to explore more or want to try out a chatbot of your own?
Chatbots, what are they, and how are they revolutionizing the way we communicate?
Hi, I’m (company)’s virtual assistant, how can I help you?
For some years now, and more and more, chatbots and artificial intelligence are acquiring great importance in those functions that have to do with the interaction between a company and its customers since they are revolutionizing the way we communicate.
Chatbots, what are they, and how are they revolutionizing the way we communicate?
HI, I’M (COMPANY)’S VIRTUAL ASSISTANT, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
For some years now, and more and more, chatbots and artificial intelligence are acquiring great importance in those functions that have to do with the interaction between a company and its customers since they are revolutionizing the way we communicate.
I am working on a project where I have to create a chatbot on a whatsapp number using the postman API’s. Since its my first project related to API I am really confuse how to do this.
If anyone provide me a guidance that will be really grateful.
Job opening (remote in the us)! I have a friend who’s looking to hire an AI dev with Rasa experience. Does anyone know someone who might be interested? Feel free to DM me. I’ll make personal intros.
Their company just took on a solid round of funding and is building a team around some epic conversational AI initiatives.
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