Mary Rybakova

Industries

Facebook

<h2>The Brand</h2>
<p>Yash Bhansali and Vikram Kanodia met in high school. Now, they’ve founded a chatbot agency together called <a href="https://talkative.ai">Talkative.AI.</a> Their chat agency’s mission is “to use conversational AI to power ecommerce, create unique customer experiences, and empower brands.” And when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, they saw opportunities to help their clients weather the storm using AI chat bots. This is the story of one such consumer marketing client, a Mumbai bakery called Essange that specializes in stunning cakes and cupcakes.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb0a55deacf1_AI chatbot for bakery.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="1194" width="1618" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AE0mHHJgWNvf4Pv7+wAkAABkPUHPzdHV3eMAPjA0LwAAqpme////YFUS/ITogA0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Essange is known for their beautiful desserts.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>When the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, lockdowns went into effect all around the world. Since gatherings and parties were prohibited, Essange experienced a sudden, major drop in business. “Regular orders slowed down,” explains Yash, “and many people started baking at home for themselves instead by following online video tutorials on YouTube, <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/instagram-messenger-boost-business">Instagram</a>, and Facebook.” To stay in business, the bakery’s owner knew she needed to pivot—and fast.</p>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p>Yash and Vikram knew that a robust AI chatbot would be the perfect solution to help this client keep her business afloat. Their Facebook chatbot agency had already built her a bot for <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-for-customer-service">FAQ automation</a>, but they knew that now was the time to turn that into something even more powerful and engaging. “We decided to use this opportunity to create a unique, memorable experience for all her customers while generating a new source of income at the same time,” Vikram and Yash tell us.</p>
<p>Here’s how the <a href="https://m.me/essangedessertbar?ref=BakeAtHome">Bake at Home bot</a> works:</p>
<ol>
<li>Customers buy a DIY “bake at home” kit from the bakery, which includes everything they need to make their dessert of choice except for milk and eggs. 📦</li>
<li>The customer uses their phone to scan the QR code on the kit, and they’re directed to the Facebook chatbot that Yash and Vikram built. 🤖</li>
<li>The AI bot acts as a virtual baking assistant, guiding the customer through each step of the baking process with instructions and GIFs. 🗺️</li>
</ol>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb8182deacf2_Agency builds AI chatbot.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AKSkpKKjpGtra6qwsgBRS0YkHheTlJTa4OUA4uLir6+vvsLHztXaiTsWL9C/jV8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The AI chatbot for the bakery guides customers through instructions for baking their dessert.</figcaption></figure>
<p>“Not only does the chatbot make the baking experience super easy and fun,” Vikram explains, “but it also retargets the customer a few hours later to upsell other DIY baking kits.” The Messenger bot also invites users to tag the bakery in a photo of their completed creation on social media, which helps the business generate social proof.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbd847deacf3_Customer experience chatbot.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAL0lEQVR4nGP4//9/SnJyakbG////Gf7//29tbCTOzAHi/PjxY9XqdUsXL//x4wcA0xwY2GyHGk4AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The bakery chatbot invites customers to share a photo of their creation on social media once they've finished it.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Yash and Vikram explain that they wanted to use a chatbot for something more than a marketing channel or a <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-for-customer-service">customer service experience</a>. “The client said, <em>Can we make the bot part of the business?</em> And that’s when we figured out that there’s a tandem opportunity to actually make the bot part of the product she’s selling,” they share.</p>
<h2>The Recipe</h2>
<p>“We’ve found that good chatbots don’t need to be complex chatbots,” says Yash. “Some of the most effective bots are those that use only simple or basic features, but are designed to focus on business goals and providing the best customer service experience through smooth interactions.”</p>
<p>That’s why Chatfuel was the right fit for their project. “We feel that the Chatfuel team keeps the end-user in mind while designing the platform,” shares Vikram. “The end-user experience is our relentless focus with every chatbot, so using Chatfuel helps us create more value for our clients.”</p>
<p>Here are a few of the Chatfuel tools and features the Talkative team used to build this baking bot:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Artificial intelligence (AI)</strong>. “We leveraged Google’s NLP to understand user input and respond intelligently. This ensures a seamless, unrestricted, and natural user experience,” says Yash. To apply AI in the simplest way, you can <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/828883-keywords">set up AI rules</a>, which are pre-set messages your bot will send  in response to certain text inputs from users. Or, you can learn how to set up Dialogflow for a more robust user experience with AI. Either way, an AI chatbot can significantly improve the user experience, as it did for the Bake at Home Bot.</li>
<li><strong>Customer Chat Entry Point.</strong> Yash and Vikram used this plugin so that the chatbot would pop up and offer help to anyone who visits the bakery’s website. <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/add-a-messenger-chatbot-to-your-website">Adding a chatbot to a website</a> is an easy way for any brand to get new users.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4e80deacf4_Chatbot for website.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="1390" width="2588" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGP4//dnXW6Op6XFhXMXGK6eOqrAwNBWVtA+ZQkAuvMNJIfb5pwAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The chatbot is ready to engage anyone who visits the bakery's website.</figcaption></figure>
<ul>
<li><strong>Facebook Ads Entry Points.</strong> This feature lets you easily set up <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/sponsored-messages-guide-to-reengaging-chatbot-subscribers">sponsored messages</a> and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">click-to-Messenger ads</a> for your bot, and Yash and Vikram took advantage. “Sponsored messages and click-to-Messenger ads on Facebook <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/use-instagram-ads-to-bring-users-to-your-dms-or-your-messenger-bot">and Instagram</a> were ‘baked’ into the branding and marketing strategy,” they tell us.</li>
</ul>
<p>Vikram and Yash shared that they also made use of <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/925465-media-assets">gallery cards</a>, images, GIFs, and sequences in the recipe tutorials. User attributes and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/a-marketing-automation-love-story-chatfuel-zapier">Zapier CRM integrations</a> helped them with personalization and retargeting. All these features combined helped improve the customer experience for the bakery bot’s users.</p>
<h2>The Results</h2>
<p>The Bake at Home Bot performed extremely well, according to Yash and Vikram. “The chatbot achieved its design goals beyond expectation in terms of lead conversion, increased sales, brand building, and customer engagement,” they tell us.</p>
<p>“Our experience-oriented design <strong>acquired 250% more users in a month</strong> than the automated FAQs version was able to acquire in over a year,” shares Vikram. “User activity spiked to <strong>50x Active Users</strong> and 13x Reengaged Users. Plus, online-to-offline sales conversions also increased significantly, which helped our client jump-start her business amidst the COVID slowdown!”</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4692deacf5_AI chatbot metrics.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="707" width="1600" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGN4/frN959/ymtbJ0yZwzB33qL4pAxtQ8vo+FQA1xANoh6FLuYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The virtual assistant version of the bakery's chatbot acquired 250% more users in a month than the FAQ version did in over a year.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>A chatbot can get your business sweet results 🍰</h2>
<p>The digital customer experience the Bake at Home Bot offers was a game changer for Essange Bakery, as it helped them expand their customer base, increase sales, and stand out from the competition. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with a free AI chatbot, get started with Chatfuel today. <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">Start with a free account</a> to get familiar with <a href="https://youtu.be/D4n6VLQHE5U">the basics of building a Chatfuel bot</a>, then <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">upgrade to Pro</a> when you’re ready for unlimited users, priority support, and other perks.</p>

A marketing agency built an AI chatbot for this bakery to help them stay afloat and even grow during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bakery Uses AI Chatbot to Create New Revenue Stream During COVID-19 Shutdown

Bojana Vojnović

Features

We talked to 8 Messenger experts to get their take on chatbot trends and the future of chatbots for marketing in 2021 and beyond.

8 Experts Predict the Future of Chatbots in 2021 and Beyond

<h2>The Brand</h2>
<p>Direct Relief is an international <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/9-reasons-your-nonprofit-needs-a-chatbot">nonprofit organization</a> that was founded by William Zimdin, a US immigrant from Estonia. In 1945, Zimdin was starting a nonprofit by sending thousands of relief parcels with food, clothes, and medicine from the US to relatives and friends in Europe, who were rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of World War II. In 1948 he made his project official, registering it as a California-based non profit organization.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://www.directrelief.org">Direct Relief</a> has worked to help people around the world recover from everything from disease outbreaks to natural disasters. They continue to follow Zimdin’s tradition of “direct and targeted assistance provided in a manner that respects and involves all people served” to this day. 💙</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb62eddeacc0_history-directrelief.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="History of Direct Relief" height="720" width="1280" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAC4jAAAuIwF4pT92AAAAIklEQVR4nGP49+9fdHS0ubl5amoqw5QpU4qLi81MzRgYGACcSwmWxEzWwQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Direct Relief's operations in their early days</figcaption></figure>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>When people need assistance from nonprofits like Direct Relief, they usually need it immediately—whether it’s food and water after a hurricane or crucial healthcare after an earthquake. Fast response times are absolutely critical to this nonprofit business’s operations as human lives are often on the line. But when disasters struck in the past, the volume of these messages was often more than Direct Relief’s small social media team could handle in a timely manner.</p>
<p>Over the course of the 2017 hurricane season, for example, they received hundreds of messages on Facebook Messenger from people around the globe. Some were wondering how they could rally support for those in impacted communities. Others needed urgent information on how to receive medical assistance. At first, the only solution the Direct Relief team could come up with to handle all the messages was bringing on more people—either temporary staff or training volunteers. And then they discovered chatbots. 🤖</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb39b1deacc1_Direct Relief volunteers aid a community heavily impacted by a hurricane.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Nonprofit chatbot of Direct Relief" height="720" width="1280" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAJUlEQVR4nAEaAOX/AP/+5PT06cu6qu7++QCvrq6DfnY0LSQABgT4RA7YbtC6GAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Direct Relief volunteers aid a community heavily impacted by a hurricane.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p>The Direct Relief team started looking for solutions to the problem of their overflowing Messenger inbox. “As we were weighing options,” explains Tony Morain, Direct Relief’s VP of Communications, “we reached out to our contacts at Facebook for recommendations. They told us about Chatfuel. We signed up and saw how easy it was to create a working chatbot,” he continues, “one that was smart enough to respond to people’s needs and guide them to the resources they requested.” In just a few hours, a team of two people at the Direct Relief non profit organization built <a href="http://m.me/directrelief">a Facebook Messenger chatbot</a> that was ready for launch.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbcf95deacc2_Chatbot Helps Nonprofit Respond Immediately to Emergency Requests_.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMElEQVR4nGNgME5lcCxmEHZgMMxg2Pfq/+kv/xceu3vz/38GBqUgBnl/BodChsg+AB82DzMwn43XAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>At first, the chatbot for this non profit organization focused on <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-for-customer-service">answering FAQs</a> about their emergency response efforts, and providing information about volunteering, receiving help, and donating. But “the bot has evolved since then,” Tony says. “It now converses in <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-a-multilingual-chatbot">a number of languages</a> and routes inquiries to the right internal teams for follow up.”</p>
<p>Though the team has made improvements over time, the Facebook chatbot’s core purpose remains the same: “to help people at scale,” confirms Tony. To make sure the bot is achieving this goal, he explains that its conversations are regularly reviewed by staff members, and that users are also given a <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/849315-live-chat">live chat</a> option if they prefer. Tony adds that, when it comes to how to market a nonprofit, Direct Relief doesn’t spend much on advertising. “That makes it all the more important to maintain relationships with the people who do support the organization, and the chatbot is critical in that regard.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It’s important to maintain relationships with the people who do support the organization, and the chatbot is critical in that regard.” — Tony Morain, VP of Communications at Direct Relief</p>
</blockquote>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbd491deacaf_CTA button #2.png" loading="lazy" alt="nonprofit chatbot for nonprofit organizations " height="281" width="1283" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAABCAIAAAB2XpiaAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAFUlEQVR4nGNwnHOMgddAvXnVqr//AR5ZBdsVGgq6AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<h2>The Recipe</h2>
<p>The Direct Relief team focused on these Chatfuel tools and features to build their nonprofit chatbot:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Templates</strong>. Before they sat down to actually build their Facebook chatbot, the Direct Relief team explored Chatfuel’s bot templates “to understand the platform and learn about what’s possible,” says Tony. Templates are a great way to get familiar with the structure of a well-built chatbot before you dive into the actual building process yourself. <em>Find templates for Automation → Blocks-tab bots by clicking the <strong>Choose from templates button</strong> when you first log in to Chatfuel. Templates for Automation→Flows-tab bots take the form of links. A collection of these is coming soon. (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/chatfuel">Join our Facebook community</a> for updates.)</em></li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb7cb2deacc3_nonprofit template for chatbots.png" loading="lazy" alt="Nonprofit template for nonprofit organizations " height="562" width="1202" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAI0lEQVR4nGNg4JTa+/z/9P3XGASlGTiEmA/8+z/50lcGHikAhjYKeazVmUkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Templates and shared flows can help you get familiar with the basic structure of a well-built chatbot. The one shown here is for bots built in the <em>Automation → Blocks</em> tab.</figcaption></figure>
<ul>
<li><strong>Artificial intelligence (AI)</strong>. If a user sends the bot a custom text message (instead of choosing a button or quick reply), artificial intelligence allows it to still respond accurately. To build their AI chatbot, the Direct Relief team used the <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/json-api-examples">JSON API</a> to integrate Dialogflow (a conversational AI). As Tony explains, the artificial intelligence helps “expand the bot’s contextual understanding and responsiveness.”</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/849315-live-chat"><strong>Live chat</strong></a>. Users who interact with this charity’s Facebook chatbot have the option to pause the bot’s responses and connect with a live agent instead. This functionality is helpful if the chatbot isn’t able to answer the user’s question, or if the user simply prefers speaking with a human agent.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb1db4deacc4_livechat Facebook chatbot.png" loading="lazy" alt="Live chat in chatbot " height="1068" width="1616" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AOfo6fPy8vTy8fXy8QDu7e3W1dXKy9HN1d4A+vj4BgMCJSsy0+XuXQobikXaz6AAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<ul>
<li><strong>Google Site Search plugin</strong> and <strong>RSS Import plugin</strong>. These plugins allow Messenger chatbots to pull information from websites and instantly display it in Messenger for users. The Direct Relief bot gets information from the Direct Relief website and others to share emergency updates with users as needed.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The Results</h2>
<p>Thanks to their Facebook Messenger chatbot, Direct Relief is now able to receive and respond to requests for help more quickly than ever before. <strong>Their response time went from several days to under a minute.</strong> As a result, the people they serve are able to get the resources and aid they need as quickly as possible. To date, the Direct Relief nonprofit chatbot has responded to <strong>over 10,000 user messages.</strong></p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb974fdeacce_Direct Relief Chatbot Case Study Results.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="1168" width="2080" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAIUlEQVR4nGNg0G9mEEyrPfp/4s3/DCCOWOaV//8v/f8PAIOBDKcWd+icAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>The chatbot also assists Direct Relief with their nonprofit marketing. For one, the bot helps facilitate nonprofit fundraising by engaging those who want to donate and directing them to the right place. Plus, the chatbot saves the Direct Relief team “<strong>dozens of hours each week</strong>—time that can be reinvested in our mission to serve those in need,” says Tony.</p>
<p>Tony shares a specific example of how the chatbot for Direct Relief helped an organization quickly get the supplies they needed to provide aid to others. 👇</p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V3aPGnw9GSM"></iframe></figure>
<h2>Changing the world one chatbot at a time 💙</h2>
<p>The Direct Relief chatbot can get users the often crucial and even life-saving information they need immediately. As a result, it empowers the organization to accomplish their mission even more effectively.</p>
<p>Could your nonprofit also benefit from quicker response times, more donations and volunteers, and the other perks of a Messenger bot? Check out <a href="https://youtu.be/D4n6VLQHE5U">this video tutorial</a> to see just how easy it is to build a no-code chatbot with Chatfuel. (After all, the function of Chatfuel is to make bot-building accessible to all!)</p>
<p>👉Then, <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com"><strong>sign up for your free account</strong></a>—no credit card, contracts, or previous experience required. When you’re ready to upgrade for more users and priority service, apply for Bots for Good. It’s our 1:1 matching program where we give approved 501c3 nonprofits double the chatbot users for free.</p>
<p><em>Building a chatbot to help with COVID-19 information or relief efforts? Learn about our free COVID-19 chatbot template for non profit charities.</em></p>

The Messenger chatbot for this non profit organization helps get life-saving aid to people in need.

Chatbot Helps Nonprofit Respond Immediately to Emergency Requests

Angela Skowronek

<p>When you buy a new car, you decide which add-ons you want it to have. From an upgraded engine to a state-of-the-art navigation system, the add-ons you choose make your car more powerful and useful. When it comes to chatbots, the same idea applies.</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr8kmZ-oG_8&t=72s">build a basic chatbot in five minutes</a>. But to make it more powerful, you’ll want to incorporate some add-ons. While many no-code add-ons are available for your Chatfuel bot (like artificial intelligence and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/a-marketing-automation-love-story-chatfuel-zapier">Zapier integrations</a>), there are developer solutions too. The JSON API for your (or your customer’s) chatbot is easily the most popular of these.</p>
<h2><strong>What is the JSON API?</strong></h2>
<p>JSON stands for Javascript Object Notation. It’s one of the most commonly used formats for data transfer for fetching real-time data from one source, bringing it back, and displaying it in another.</p>
<p>Data in the JSON format is passed from place to place via a fetching tool called an API. So the JSON API lets you fetch dynamic data from another server for use in your bot.</p>
<p>Imagine an API, like a phone line, a way for two separate entities to communicate directly. Your bot picks up the phone, calls whatever server it needs data from, and asks for it. The server answers and gives the bot the data they need in JSON format.</p>
<p>In Chatfuel, the API for JSON takes the form of a plugin. Here’s a simple breakdown of how the free JSON API plugin works in a bot flow:</p>
<ol>
<li>A user is chatting with your bot.</li>
<li>The user gets to the point in the flow where you’ve placed the JSON API plugin.</li>
<li>This plugin triggers your bot to use the API to ‘call’ the external server you specified when you set up the plugin. So it can receive the data it needs (in JSON format).</li>
<li>The bot brings that JSON-formatted data back to Chatfuel.</li>
<li>Chatfuel renders the data for the Messenger interface so the user can see or use it for some practical application in the flow.</li>
</ol>
<p>Though it sounds time-consuming, all five steps happen more or less instantly. Note that coding knowledge is required to use the JSON API.</p>
<h2><strong>Why use the JSON API in your bot?</strong></h2>
<p>Simply put: because it allows you to build better bots. Let’s say, for instance, that you have a Facebook chatbot that tells users the current price of 100 different stocks. This functionality is only possible to set up with the JSON API. You’d have to create 100 different blocks in your bot, one for each stock.</p>
<p>Next, you’d have to look up and manually enter each price. Plus, you’d have to manually change the price in your bot when any stock changes, even by a dollar. Since stock prices fluctuate constantly, your chatbot would be outdated.</p>
<p>But with the JSON API, your bot could fetch information from a server that has up-to-date stock prices at all times. That way, any time a user asks your bot for the price of a particular stock, they’ll be getting fresh data on the spot.</p>
<p><strong>With JSON API, your Messenger bots:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Save your time.</strong> It allows them to do even more on autopilot and with less manual work from you.</li>
<li><strong>Are more helpful to users.</strong> They can provide more relevant information to users than a chatbot that only deals with static data.</li>
<li><strong>Provide a more personalized experience.</strong> An everyday use for the JSON API is to fetch the current day or time in a certain time zone (like the user’s). That means it’s possible to personalize any user’s chatbot experience making it extra relevant and memorable.</li>
</ul>
<p>To put JSON in even more concrete terms, let’s look at its key use cases for Facebook Messenger and Instagram.</p>
<h2><strong>Top use cases for the JSON API</strong></h2>
<p>So you’re building a chatbot for your or your customer’s business. If you want to equip it to do any of the following tasks, use the JSON API. Let’s break it down by use cases for eCommerce, sales and marketing, advertising, and others.</p>
<h3><strong>eCommerce</strong></h3>
<p>Once you integrate your eCommerce store with your Chatfuel bot, you can do things like:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Display your store’s real-time inventory</strong>. Using a <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/whisky-brand-triples-conversion-rates-with-gift-recommendation-chatbot">product-recommendation chatbot</a> for your eCommerce store? Imagine the user’s frustration if they went to your site to buy the suggested item and found it was out of stock. A prime JSON API example would be to use the API plugin to link directly to your inventory database. That way, the bot will only show available items.</li>
<li>‍<strong>Show up-to-date product images.</strong> If you have a large inventory of products, manually uploading all the different photos for each to your bot would be seriously time-consuming. But, as another JSON API example, you could link your Facebook bot to your photo database. That way, whenever a user asks to view a specific product, the chatbot will show the latest photos from the database. This use case works great for displaying user-generated content that’s constantly changing and being updated, too.</li>
<li>‍<strong>Enforce a limited-time offer</strong>. Imagine you’re running a short-term sale for your store. The JSON API can track the time, so your bot will stop offering the promotion once it has expired. You won’t have to manually delete those blocks in the bot when time is up, but customers won’t be able to redeem offers when they’re no longer valid.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Sales and marketing</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Add bot user information to your CRM or EMS</strong>. Messenger chatbots make <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/marketing-agency-uses-messenger-bots-to-deliver-high-quality-leads-for-clients">excellent tools for lead generation</a>. So another answer to the question ‘what is JSON used for? ’ would be: sending that lead information directly to your third-party database. If you’re gathering email addresses, you can use the JSON API to send them right to your email marketing solution. If you’re gathering complete lead information for future follow-up, you can use the JSON API to send those details right to your CRM.</li>
<li><strong>Display new content from your site in your bot.</strong> Add JSON API to your chatbot to display the most recent posts from your blog or make the latest news articles available for them to browse. So that your bot can instantly fetch new content from your website and display it to users. Set up a WordPress JSON API if your content is hosted there, for example.</li>
<li><strong>Let users schedule appointments</strong>. You can use the JSON API to fetch information about your availability. Users can only book times that fall within your parameters. For example, you can set your available hours and days, make a mandatory buffer so appointments can’t be scheduled at short notice, and more. Then, of course, you can also use the API to link to your calendar so the user can actually schedule the appointment.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Advertising</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Use JSON API to connect your chatbot with your ads.</strong> That way, you get even better results: generate more leads, collect and export their data, encourage them to purchase, and more. The reason is simple — your chatbot instantly communicates with people who click on your ads and shows interest in your brand and products.</p>
<p>In Chatfuel, you can connect your chatbot to your Instagram or Facebook ads in a few clicks. Check out the video below.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0;"><iframe src="https://www.loom.com/embed/30fdab52f92a4790b79d9e4ca933fde1" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></div>
<h3>‍<strong>Other use cases</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Share score updates for live sporting events</strong>. The Golden State Warriors, a Chatfuel customer, did this for their fan chatbot. As a prime JSON API example, their bot fetches real-time scores for games in progress. That means users can view the most up-to-date news about the game at any time via the Facebook Messenger chatbot.</li>
<li><strong>Display up-to-date stats for coronavirus infections</strong>. Messenger bots have been used for this purpose since the COVID-19 pandemic began. They can connect to real-time information sources using the JSON API to display current infection rates for different cities or countries.</li>
<li><strong>Offer current weather information</strong>. Weather, API, JSON: three words on this topic that commonly go together. Suppose you want your Facebook bot to give up-to-date information about current weather and the latest forecasts. In that case, you can use a free weather API for JSON. Use the plugin in Chatfuel to link your bot to a weather database, so it can always return the most recent information to users.</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong>How to set up the JSON API in your chatbot</strong></h2>
<p>The instructions for setting up the JSON API in your Messenger chatbot vary widely based on what you’ll be using it for. Remember, this is a developer plugin that requires coding knowledge. We recommend visiting our <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/735122-json-api">Help Center</a> or watching the webinar below to get started.</p>
<figure><div><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5_zuJPPY7PA" title="JSON API: Integrating Third-Party Apps with Chatfuel"></iframe></div></figure>
<h2><strong>Use the JSON API to take your chatbot to the next level</strong></h2>
<p>Marketing automation takes on a new meaning when the JSON API is involved. This Chatfuel plugin gives developers the power to connect chatbots to outside data sources, making for a more valuable and automated experience for your business and customers.</p>
<p>It’s time to start building a bot for your business. <a href="https://chatfuel.com">Sign up</a> for your free Chatfuel account to get started with the first 50 conversations on us.</p>

Wondering how to use the JSON API in your chatbot? Look no further for instructions and JSON API examples.

Use the JSON API to build incredibly powerful chatbots

Use cases

<p>“It takes months to find a customer and only seconds to lose one,” in the words of Vince Lombardi. And what’s the quickest way to lose a customer? Through a poor customer service experience. The modern consumer expects 24/7 service that’s fast, helpful, and friendly. But most businesses can’t afford a huge team to provide this kind of support consistently, around the clock. Even if they could, it certainly wouldn’t be an easy-to-manage or cost-effective solution. So what’s a brand to do?</p>
<p>This is where a <strong>Messenger chatbot</strong> comes in. <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/top-9-reasons-your-business-needs-a-chatbot">Businesses can use chatbots for many reasons</a>, to help with everything from lead generation to sales. But one of the most popular use cases for a bot is providing excellent, on-demand customer service. The best part: You don’t need a big budget, a team of engineers, or even any coding knowledge to set up automated customer service via bot yourself.</p>
<h2>Why your business should use a chatbot for customer service</h2>
<p>Because Messenger chatbots:</p>
<h3><strong>#1. Can save you time, money, and resources</strong> 💸</h3>
<p>Let’s get one thing straight first: Chatbots aren’t here to take the place of your human customer support team. However, bots are fantastic tools for automating routine and repetitive inquiries to save your human agents time. A well-built chatbot can automate <a href="https://www.invespcro.com/blog/chatbots-customer-service">up to 80% of routine inquiries</a>, and can be available to as many customers as necessary, 24/7.</p>
<h3><strong>#2. Can provide consistently high-quality service</strong> 🌟</h3>
<p>A chatbot for customer service can handle thousands of customers at once. Day or night, no matter the topic, you can set up your chatbot to instantly provide a consistent, friendly, and <a href="https://www.cloudtalk.io/blog/contact-center-vs-call-center-the-ultimate-comparison">helpful customer experience</a> every time. It’ll never forget anything, or get frustrated at a <a href="https://www.hillwebcreations.com/people-also-ask-related-questions">user asking the same question</a> for the fifth time. Every customer who interacts with it will enjoy the same positive, on-brand experience.</p>
<h3><strong>#3. Can help your business in other ways</strong> 💬</h3>
<p>After your bot has resolved the customer’s concerns, it can offer to assist them in other areas, too. It can <a href="https://youtu.be/dfmQvqtJN9Q">recommend products</a>, share news, <a href="https://youtu.be/mNBeoGF90PY">qualify them as a lead</a>, and handle other tasks that will help or delight the customer and boost your business. Plus, after a user responds once, they become “reachable.” That means your bot can reengage them again in the future <a href="https://youtu.be/vTwdLHar6pI">for announcements</a> or <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/sponsored-messages-guide-to-reengaging-chatbot-subscribers">for promotions</a>.</p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gJuUOcwdGzA"></iframe></figure>
<h3><strong>#4. Are accessible to businesses of all sizes 👔</strong></h3>
<p>You don’t have to be or hire a developer to build a powerful customer support chat bot. Chatfuel is a no-code platform, which means anyone can use <a href="https://youtu.be/HX-zA-DkPaU">our visual, drag-and-drop builder</a> to create a basic help bot on their own in an afternoon—no coding required. 💡That’s why bot-building platforms have become such popular customer service tools.</p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D4n6VLQHE5U"></iframe></figure>
<h2><strong>How to build a customer service chatbot</strong></h2>
<p>The core of most customer service bots is FAQs. If you can set up a Facebook bot to handle the most routine, repetitive inquiries, your human support staff will be free for lots more complex, value-adding tasks.</p>
<p>An FAQ bot can be as simple or as complex as you like; it depends on your brand, your industry, and your unique audience. The simplest FAQ bots display a few common questions in the form of quick replies. When a user clicks one, they receive the answer (or a link to a webpage that has more information). Or, if the brand has a bigger list of FAQs, they might display categories in the form of a gallery, and then have quick reply options for the individual questions linked to each one.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb99fddeac6a_iPhone_11.png" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMElEQVR4nGNgUKjjr1gj1ribQbmRgUGkaOnZ19f+/2eQLGdgUKhzXnjffM5tBoU6AAzoDrxbId1rAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The simplest customer service chatbots offer FAQs for users to choose from, in the form of quick replies and/or a gallery.</figcaption></figure>
<p>On the other end of the spectrum, a business with complex customer support needs might incorporate a specific, <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/ai-benefits-for-business">trained AI</a> for their niche. A help bot like this could accept free-form text input from users and offer useful responses.</p>
<p>There are two easy ways to get started building your own customer service bot for Facebook Messenger:</p>
<p><strong>#1. If you’re building in the <em>Automation → Blocks</em> tab</strong>, use a pre-built flow for FAQs. A pre-built flow is like a ready-made set of blocks you can insert into your bot for a specific purpose (like answering FAQs). A pre-built flow takes care of the structure—you just have to add the content. So first, add the pre-built flow for FAQs to your bot. Then, fill in the question blocks with actual FAQs and answers that relate to your business, and you’re ready to go! (P.S. Start using a pre-built flow now with <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">your free Chatfuel account</a>!)</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbde19deac6b_Untitled.png" alt="" height="622" width="834" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AH5+f7u7vcrKyuvr6wDf3t7c3Nzu7ezv7u4ABRgh7+7u3Nzc397eE+Ibx9mTQWkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>A pre-built flow makes building a basic customer support chatbot fast and easy.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>#2. If you’re building in the <em>Automation → Flows</em> tab</strong>, use the <a href="https://youtu.be/PF_uI1_HCvE"><strong>Facebook Page Entry Point</strong></a> to set up basic FAQs and answers in your chatbot, called Icebreakers. Here’s how Icebreakers work: When a new user arrives at the bot, they normally have to click or tap the <strong>Get Started</strong> button to initiate a conversation with it. But when you set up this Entry Point, you can have a handful of FAQ options appear on that first screen too, as other options for starting the chat.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbbc9adeac6c_Untitled.png" alt="" height="896" width="646" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAMAAAAECAIAAADETxJQAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAM0lEQVR4nAEoANf/ADxARoeGheDh4gD19PRpaWmSkpIA+/z8JycnHR0dAMfHxzIyMp+foJY4E07NZmxKAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>You can type in your own FAQs to display there as Icebreakers, and connect them to blocks that contain the answers.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb6b39deac6d_Screen_Shot_2020-10-05_at_10.28.13_AM.png" alt="" height="746" width="1478" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGPQ0NBISU6uqqqaP38+w/z58xsbGmbMmLF9+3YAhzYMOflxYeYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Fill in the FAQs and answers you'd like your chatbot to offer users.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>#3. If you’re building in the <em>Automation</em>→<em>Flows</em> tab</strong>, you can also use <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqa1FHaUFkcmY5SjI0VnRmR0xjRWpBaFRndnI4Z3xBQ3Jtc0tudmx0Nkt0WE5LSHdUVFJNQjhsaFZueUItSmtjRXRxZ1VNYWZTdGpxSDdWcVowQ1pmWkgzdUdKa2VIam1HbzJXZXd1OUVuaTgycGNOekpQaDdzQnd0N1UxWWJ0ZDI4RkdZa29yZXU5aVlzdi1ScGJkRQ%3D%3D&event=video_description&v=A499Eeq9Lq8&q=https%3A%2F%2Fchatfuel.com%2Fshare%3FflowGroup%3D5f7df73a5853af7acd0fabf9%26flow%3D5f5151cd6198d15b64ef0a95%2F%3Fvideo_ref%3Dautomate-customer-service">our free flow template for FAQs</a>. Here’s a video that explains how to install and customize it.</p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A499Eeq9Lq8"></iframe></figure>
<h2>Tips for improving your customer support chatbot</h2>
<p>No matter how simple or complex your chatbot is, great conversational design and a clear sense of your <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/craft-a-brand-voice-that-converts">brand voice</a> are crucial. Beyond those, how much detail you add to your Facebook bot depends on the needs of your business. If you’re looking for a more robust solution for providing the best customer service, consider incorporating some of these helpful add-ons to a basic bot:</p>
<h3>A menu option for support access any time   🔗</h3>
<p>The persistent menu is a navigation menu that users can access at any point during the conversation with your bot. You can link to your FAQ or customer support flow here. That way, users can get support from your chatbot at any time, no matter what they’re currently doing in the bot.</p>
<p>If you’re building in the <em>Automation → Flows</em> tab, use <a href="https://youtu.be/DWovaAjFOOk">the Persistent Menu Entry Point</a> to set this up. If you’re building in the <em>Automation→Blocks</em> tab, you can edit the persistent menu in the <em>Configure</em> tab.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb7e11deac6e_Untitled.png" alt="" height="415" width="726" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGOwsrKSkZUTEhGvrKpmOHTo0PLlK65dv/H06VMAa+YMIaOnVNwAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Add a link to your customer service flow in the persistent menu, so bot users can get support at any time.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Artificial intelligence (AI) for smarter replies 🤖</h3>
<p>AI can enhance a user’s experience with your customer support chatbot. It helps the bot understand the user’s intent so it can give accurate, helpful responses to free-form text input. You can <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/828883-keywords">create basic AI rules</a> in the <em>Set Up AI</em> tab (under the <em>Automation</em> tab). Here’s how AI rules work: If a user’s typed, custom message includes one of the keywords in your rule, the bot will respond with the answer you’ve set.</p>
<h3>The option to chat with a human instead 👨🏼‍💻</h3>
<p>The debate is not technology vs. human interaction. Instead, the best support experiences combine the two. Chatbots for customer service should as the first line of defense for support teams. Then, if a user has a more complex question, <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/849315-live-chat">set up Live Chat</a> so the bot can pass them along to a human agent. That agent can pause the bot flow to jump in and resolve the user’s query personally. When they’re finished, they can resume the flow so the user can continue their conversation with the bot.</p>
<p>And if you’d like to track these support-team interactions via tickets in your CRM, you can make use of <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/2912153-conversation-handover">Chatfuel’s conversation handover</a>. It lets you integrate your <a href="https://meetfox.com/blog/4-crm-tools-to-manage-your-clients">third-party CRM</a> so the agents on your team can continue to work through that software, even when taking over conversations from the bot.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbcab8deac6f_live-chat-phone.png" alt="" height="393" width="372" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAAECAIAAAAmkwkpAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAPUlEQVR4nGMoqm/28fXNKaoQ0bRl2Ldvf15ujoWVg7qRC8PmLZvFxURTU5L////HkFFY1dre39zaWVbTAgAFfxV1kTrIlgAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>This is how the initiation of a Live Chat session would appear to your bot's users.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Tags for different types of users 🏷</h3>
<p>User attributes, or tags for users who chat with your bot, are a great way to track the effectiveness of your customer service bot. Just set your bot to assign attributes to users based on their interactions: what source they come from, whether they use live chat or not, etc. Then, you can measure how their support experiences may relate to more purchases, a higher LTV, etc. over time.</p>
<h3>A way to monitor and optimize 🧪</h3>
<p>There’s room for improvement in every bot, no matter how simple or complex it may be. It’s important to monitor your chatbot’s performance often and optimize as needed. Here are a few ways to do that:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Inline stats.</strong> These at-a-glance statistics will show you how many users have viewed and clicked on each block in your Messenger chatbot’s flow. It’s an easy way to pinpoint any bottlenecks or drop-off points in the customer support experience.</li>
<li><strong>A/B testing.</strong> The A/B Test plugin lets you show multiple versions of the same blocks to different groups of users. If one version performs significantly better than the other, you can make that change final in your Facebook chatbot for an improved user experience.</li>
<li><strong>Ask your users</strong>. One of the simplest ways to see if users find your customer support chat bot helpful is to ask them! At the end of the conversation, your bot can request that they rate their experience via quick replies. (You can even use the Save User Input plugin if you’d also like to gather text comments from them.) Then, adjust your bot as needed based on the feedback you receive.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb6748deac70_starz.png" alt="" height="204" width="586" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAABCAIAAAB2XpiaAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAFUlEQVR4nGPw8/eXkZEuLy//+OkTABlrBXqUUivPAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>A simple way to find out if customers are finding your bot useful: Ask them!</figcaption></figure>
<h2>How to bring customers to your support chatbot</h2>
<p>You want your customer support chat bot to be available wherever prospects and customers are when they have questions. That’s where Chatfuel’s Entry Points come in. If you think of your chatbot like a freeway, Entry Points are like on ramps. They direct new users to your bot from outside sources. Here are a few Entry Points that are especially useful for customer service chatbots:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/yb2yCJshWV8"><strong>Customer Chat</strong></a> (when your chatbot appears in a small window on your website). There are two support scenarios where this Entry Point is especially helpful. First, a potential customer might be browsing your website and have a question about a product or service. Your bot can pop up and offer help, answering their questions and moving them toward a purchase or lead capture. Second, an existing customer might visit your site specifically looking for a way to contact support. The bot can appear and offer help as your support team’s first line of defense.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4831deac71_Untitled.png" alt="" height="1680" width="2960" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAIklEQVR4nGMozyoWZNB2NAm8d/chQ2FivjyTZmFG5/v//wF2fArNFyvdrAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The Customer Chat Entry Point lets you set your bot to appear on your website.</figcaption></figure>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/PF_uI1_HCvE"><strong>Facebook Page</strong></a> (when visitors are led to a chat with your bot after clicking the button on your Facebook page). If your Facebook Messenger inbox is constantly flooded with questions from prospects or customers, this Entry Point is a great option. It’ll send those who try to contact your page right to your chatbot, so it can assist them immediately. And, as mentioned above (in the <em>How to set up a customer service chatbot</em> section), you can use this Entry Point to automatically set up your first few basic FAQs for you, as Icebreakers.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb811ddeac72_03.png" alt="" height="2191" width="4033" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAACE4AAAhOAFFljFgAAAAI0lEQVR4nGNgkM9j0ChkEApjUMhk6Nj75vn//6fe/1918TcAaF0MXM7MwIUAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The Facebook Page Entry Point will send users right to your chatbot when they click the button on your Facebook page.</figcaption></figure>
<p>And of course, we recommend making use of the Persistent Menu Entry Point too, as mentioned in the previous section. There are also two other Entry Points you might find useful for your support bot in certain cases: REF Links, and Send to Messenger. Learn about them all in this video tutorial. 👇</p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qMG7tI41jNY"></iframe></figure>
<h2>Excellent customer service chatbot examples</h2>
<p>Here at Chatfuel, we’ve seen plenty of major clients build incredibly effective Facebook chatbots for support. First, one of the best customer service chatbot examples is 3D Mats, an online store for car accessories. They built a chatbot that answers FAQs, and uses a product quiz to help customers find the right accessory for their car’s make and model. The result: a 70% reduction in repetitive inquiries!</p>
<p>Another top example of <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/hellofresh-reduces-support-wait-times-with-chatfuel-messenger-bot">customer support chat bot case studies</a> comes from the meal-kit delivery service HelloFresh. Before they built a Messenger bot, their average customer response time was five hours. Once they launched the bot, that time dropped to an hour and eleven minutes—a 76% decrease, despite a 47% increase in total message volume! It’s all thanks to the fact that their bot now handles a large portion of inquiries, which frees up their support team to help customers with more detailed questions.</p>
<h2>Build your own customer support chatbot for free</h2>
<p>What is customer service? It’s more than just a problem-solving conversation. It’s an opportunity to impress your customers, and to build loyalty and LTV. With customer service bots, you can ensure your customers receive this kind of high-quality support every time. Chatbots in customer service is a trend that’s here to stay, because no brand can afford to lose out on business because of long response times or inconsistent support.</p>
<p>👉Ready to get started with customer service software for your business? <a href="https://chatfuel.com">Sign up for a free Chatfuel account</a> to build your first chatbot for support. When you’re ready to scale your support bot to unlimited users (and access lots of other perks), upgrade to Pro. Happy botting!</p>

Find out how a customer support chat bot can help your brand provide a better customer experience.

How to Build a Free Chatbot for Customer Service

<p>Can your chatbot juggle? 🤹‍♀️ If you built it with Chatfuel, it can! Your bot can juggle an almost infinite number of tasks for you, completely on autopilot. It can schedule events, organize lead information, create email contacts, and more, all on its own. All you, the builder, have to do is get your Chatfuel bot set up with Zapier automation software—a quick process that doesn’t require a single line of code.</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with Zapier, think of it kind of like a translator. It makes it so that different software apps can speak to each other so they can work together, like Chatfuel and Mailchimp, Chatfuel and Calendly, or Chatfuel and any of thousands of other apps and services. You can set it up so that a certain action in Chatfuel triggers a certain action in App X (or vice versa). The integration of two apps is called a Zap.</p>
<p>Just think of the possibilities! Give up the tedious, manual tasks and let marketing automation handle the rest. Trust your no-code chatbot to automatically juggle however many tasks you need to <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/top-9-reasons-your-business-needs-a-chatbot">take your business to the next level</a>.</p>
<p>To get you started, we’ll give a bit more context about Zaps to give you a better understanding of how the two free marketing automation platforms Chatfuel and Zapier can work together. Then we’ll share a list of our most popular Zap templates (they’re free and easy to use!) for you to take advantage of. Finally, we’ll explain how to create your own custom Zap, in case you prefer to do it that way.</p>
<h2>Understanding Chatfuel Zaps</h2>
<p>Before we dig into our Zap templates, it might be helpful for you to understand a bit more about how Chatfuel Zaps work. Basically, there are two ways Zapier can help your chatbot communicate with third-party services:</p>
<p>by <strong>importing</strong> data from them. You can set up a Zap to retrieve data from one of those services so your Messenger bot can use it. For example, your bot could send reengage messages, update attributes, or manage subscription settings based on how a user behaves in another app.</p>
<p>by <strong>exporting</strong> data to them. You can set up a Zap that sends data from your chatbot to a third-party service. It tells the app or service to take an action (like adding an email contact or booking an appointment) based on how a user behaves in your bot.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb5849deac33_Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-4.48.46-PM-1.png" alt="chatfuel zapier" height="924" width="1844" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAJUlEQVR4nAEaAOX/APTz8WdyfJCRkf39+QDKysmWmJsACyREUmfV5g4lnvDrEAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>Before we move on, here’s one more bit of lingo you should know that’ll help you in the setup process. In the marketing automation platform Zapier, you’ll have trigger apps and action apps. An event in the <strong>trigger app</strong> causes an event to occur in the <strong>action app</strong>. So let’s say you’re exporting data from Chatfuel to Airtable, for example. Chatfuel is the trigger app (where the process begins), and Airtable is the action app (where the resulting action happens).</p>
<h2>Free Zap templates for you to use</h2>
<p>Now you’re ready to pick a Zap and get started! We’ve built plenty of no-code templates for Zapier integrations already. They’re free for you to use. You just need a Zapier account, a Chatfuel account, and an account with the third-party service you want to integrate. Then you’re ready to get started with your automated marketing solution. 🙌</p>
<p>Below, you’ll find a description of what each Zap template does and a link to it. Click the link to open the template in your browser. Zapier will then take you through a few steps to customize it. You’ll need to link your Chatfuel account, select the correct bot, and run a test to make sure everything’s working. Set up one, two, or dozens of Zaps to get your chatbot juggling tedious tasks for you, all on autopilot! Welcome to the power of automation software.</p>
<h3>Zaps for event scheduling 🗓️</h3>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb0fc4deac2a_Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-5.06.35-PM.png" alt="Zaps for event scheduling" height="768" width="1792" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGP49vUTr5SqpYPnl8+fGI4cPhwdn5yQlHb27FkAr+YNu9s2M50AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p><strong>Let users schedule, cancel, and get reminders for events.</strong> Whether it’s a call, a webinar, an in-person appointment, or something else, these Zaps let the user schedule it themselves through your chatbot. They can cancel the event too, if they change their mind. Any new or canceled events will reflect on your calendar. You can also set up automatic reminders via chatbot that will appear before the event.</p>
<p>👉 <strong>Use this Zap for Calendly</strong></p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/google-calendar/134825/schedule-chatfuel-events-in-google-calendar"><strong>Use this Zap for Google Calendar</strong></a></p>
<h3>Zaps for sending email and SMS to bot users 💬</h3>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb3713deac24_Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-4.57.26-PM.png" alt="chatfuel mailchimp" height="856" width="1806" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGP48vkTA7+kgor61y9fGM6ePZebX1RWUXP27DkAqtMN0vKDLZUAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p><strong>Send SMS messages to chatbot us</strong>ers. You’re already growing a loyal user base for your Facebook chatbot in Chatfuel, so why stop there? <a href="https://youtu.be/fnjvvHS5LK4">This integration uses Twilio</a> to send an automated SMS or MMS message to a Chatfuel user who shared <a href="https://youtu.be/50iBVq6y6LY">their phone number</a>. For example: Ask a user for their phone number in Chatfuel, then text a coupon code to their phone.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/twilio/87480/send-sms-messages-to-chatfuel-subscribers-exported-to-zapier"><strong>Use this Twilio Zap</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Add chatbot users as email subscribers.</strong> Ready for an easier way to get your customers into your chatbot user list? Just set up this marketing automation tool, and when a customer gets to an Export via Zapier trigger in Chatfuel, a new email contact will be generated for them. No more wasted time manually adding subscribers yourself!</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/mailchimp/67548/add-mailchimp-subscribers-for-new-chatfuel-export-via-zapier-trigger-events"><strong>Use this Zap for Mailchimp</strong></a></p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/veeqo/134812/create-veeqo-customers-from-new-chatfuel-contacts"><strong>Use this Zap for Intercom</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Unsubscribe users from a Mailchimp list based on their actions in your bot.</strong> Automatically unsubscribe the email addresses from a Mailchimp list using this integration. When active, it removes contacts from your mailing list each time the Export via Zapier plugin is triggered in Chatfuel.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/mailchimp/70027/unsubscribe-people-from-mailchimp-when-a-export-via-zapier-plugin-triggers-on-chatfuel"><strong>Use this Mailchimp Zap</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Add chatbot users as email/SMS subscribers.</strong> Acquire leads from your Facebook bot flow and send them to your email/SMS client, so you can add them to your email or SMS marketing campaigns.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/convertkit/127381/add-subscribers-to-convertkit-sequences-for-newly-updated-subscriber-attributes-in-chatfuel"><strong>Use this Zap for ConvertKit</strong></a></p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/activecampaign/integrations/chatfuel/127202/create-activecampaign-contacts-for-newly-updated-subscriber-attributes-in-chatfuel"><strong>Use this Zap for ActiveCampaign</strong></a></p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/klaviyo/123901/add-klaviyo-subscribers-for-newly-updated-chatfuel-subscriber-attributes"><strong>Use this Zap for Klaviyo</strong></a></p>
<h3>Zaps for lead generation, handling, and follow-up 🙋🏽‍♀️</h3>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb395cdeac2b_Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-5.09.03-PM.png" alt="chatfuel salesforce" height="836" width="1790" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGP49vUTk6i8hav365cvGM6ePVtWUVPX2HL27DkAsjoOVMUpsHMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p><strong>Create records in your CRM from leads you acquired via chatbot.</strong> Use your <a href="https://youtu.be/TjxhyddugaA">Messenger bot for lead generation</a>. Then use this Zap to automatically send lead information to your CRM for easy follow-up later.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/salesforce/127395/create-records-in-salesforce-from-new-leads-in-chatfuel"><strong>Use this Zap for SalesForce</strong></a></p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/closeio/127389/create-new-opportunities-in-close-from-new-chatfuel-subscriber-attributes"><strong>Use this Zap for Close</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Sen</strong>d phone numbers of qualified leads to your RingCentral calling list. Set up <a href="https://youtu.be/oAxDdHVHIdQ">a lead generation flow</a> in your Chatfuel bot that applies user attributes to those who make it through the process. Then, use this marketing automation tool to send only these qualified leads to your RingCentral calling list.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/ringcentral/127406/generate-ringout-call-in-ringcentral-when-new-leads-are-generated-in-chatfuel"><strong>Use this RingCentral Zap</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Get Slack notifications for new leads.</strong> If your team primarily uses Slack to communicate, they likely won’t check and respond to user messages in Messenger as quickly. Use this Zap to integrate the two messaging platforms so your team can get Slack alerts whenever a new lead is qualified in your chatbot.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/slack/87500/send-slack-message-for-new-chatfuel-leads"><strong>Use this Slack Zap</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Get email notifications for new leads.</strong> Sometimes you’re right in the middle of another task when a new lead comes through your Facebook chatbot. To make sure you don’t forget about it, use this Gmail Zap. It’ll export new bot messages out of Chatfuel as Gmail emails, so you’ll have a reminder to follow up waiting in your inbox.</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/chatfuel/integrations/gmail/156969/send-gmail-emails-for-new-exports-of-chatfuel-messages"><strong>Use this Gmail Zap</strong></a></p>
<h3>Zaps for data handling 📊</h3>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbb69edeac2d_Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-5.10.30-PM.png" alt="chatfuel airtable" height="838" width="1786" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGN4/fKFoLy6d0Dgi+fPGc6ePVtWUVNeWX/27FkAs68OXRKZGRIAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p><strong>Send data from your bot to an organized table.</strong> Sometimes you need to push info from your chatbot interactions to a database tool for organizing. If your Facebook Messenger chatbot is gathering a lot of data from users (like in a survey, for example), try this Zap to help organize it. This Zap will create new records in Airtable when you have new triggers of the Export via Zapier plugin in Chatfuel. No more copying and pasting important information manually!</p>
<p>👉 <a href="https://zapier.com/apps/airtable/integrations/chatfuel/161845/create-airtable-records-for-new-exports-via-zapier-plugin-in-chatfuel"><strong>Use this Airtable Zap</strong></a></p>
<p><em>You can view all Chatfuel-Zapier integrations on our page.</em></p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb5849deac33_Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-4.48.46-PM-1.png" alt="chatfuel zapier" height="924" width="1844" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAJUlEQVR4nAEaAOX/APTz8WdyfJCRkf39+QDKysmWmJsACyREUmfV5g4lnvDrEAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<h2>Creating your own Zap</h2>
<p>If you prefer to create your own custom Zap instead of using one of our templates, get started with the basic instructions below. Your first step is to decide if you want to create an import or export integration. If you want a Zap that exports data from Chatfuel and triggers an action in a third-party app, follow the Export Zap instructions. For the reverse, follow the Import Zap instructions.</p>
<h3>Setting up an Export Zap</h3>
<p>Use an Export Zap if you want to trigger an action in a third-party app when one of your users takes a certain action within the Messenger bot. This video tutorial demonstrates the basic process. ⬇️</p>
<figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kpZ96ix5g3s?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.chatfuel.com" allowfullscreen></iframe></figure>
<p>The exact instructions will vary depending on which app you’re integrating with Chatfuel via Zapier. But the basic guidelines are as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>In the <em>Automation</em>--><em>Blocks</em> tab, <strong>Add the Export via Zapier</strong> plugin from the <em>Add Element</em> menu to your Chatfuel bot. Insert it at the bottom of a block, after whatever user action it’s based on will have taken place (like at the end of a lead-gathering flow, for example).</li>
</ol>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb777edeac2c_image.png" alt="" height="131" width="614" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAABCAIAAAB2XpiaAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAFklEQVR4nGNgEFX99unTi5cvnz19DgAsPgiBfaaYGAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>2. In another window, create or log into your <a href="http://zapier.com">Zapier account</a>.</p>
<p>3. Click the <strong>Make a Zap</strong> button.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb1a46deac1d_image-1.png" alt="" height="157" width="290" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAI0lEQVR4nGN4//Llm8uXv3758uv3bwY2FhZ+Xl4WFhYpKSkA2qMLsk3JZSEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>4. Type Chatfuel into the search box. It will be your trigger app. You’ll be prompted to log in to your Chatfuel account and select the Facebook chatbot you want to use.</p>
<p>5. Choose a trigger event—the action the user will take in your bot that will trigger an event in the third-party app. (You’ll need to select the Export via Zapier plugin you added in step one.)</p>
<p>6. Next, choose a third-party app as your action app. Log into your account with that third-party service when prompted. Agree to its use of test data if needed.</p>
<p>7. Choose an action event—what will happen in the third-party app after the user takes the specified action in Chatfuel.</p>
<p>8. Activate the Zap, and test it to make sure it’s working properly.</p>
<h3>Setting up an Import Zap</h3>
<p>The same basic instructions above apply to setting up an Import Zap. The main difference is that you’ll choose the third-party service as your trigger app, and Chatfuel as your action app. You’ll also want to add the Import via Zapier plugin to Chatfuel, rather than the Export via Zapier plugin. You can learn more in the video tutorial below. ⬇️</p>
<figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kGZzop6MHKQ?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.chatfuel.com" allowfullscreen></iframe></figure>
<p>And if something’s not working quite right with one of your Zapier plugins, consider these tips:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Activate your Zaps.</strong> Previewing them in test mode won’t show user attribute values. To get the full experience of how your Zap will work, make sure to properly activate it.</li>
<li><strong>Expect some latency.</strong> Depending on your Zapier plan, data transfer might not be instantaneous.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Up your game with marketing automation</h2>
<p>If you’re ready to scale your business, marketing automation tools should become your new best friends. One of the key functions of Chatfuel is to help you grow on autopilot, so incorporating Zapier will only supercharge this process.</p>
<p>If you’re ready to get started with chatbot marketing and automation, <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com"><strong>sign up for a free Chatfuel account</strong></a> today. Get familiar with the platform and validate your concept, then <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">upgrade to Pro</a> to reach more users and enjoy extra perks (like priority support and no user limits). Happy automating! 🤖</p>

The secret to taking your business to the next level: marketing automation. Here's how to do it with Chatfuel + Zapier automation software.

A Marketing Automation Love Story: Chatfuel + Zapier

<p>Here’s the story of MyDreamChat — a startup that created a Facebook Messenger mental health chatbot for dream analysis. It grew to over 12,000 users in the first five months with under $5,000 in marketing spend. It brings powerful therapy experience as part of a larger project to create a separate app for this purpose. Tackling the minimum viable product creation, they ended up using the Messenger chatbot practically and creatively.</p>
<h2><strong>The brand helps to start your mental health improving journey</strong></h2>
<p>Sansan Fibri, the founder of the startup, has always believed that our dreams have the power to help us uncover and deal with emotional challenges. However, most of us need the proper guidance to start this mental-health journey. That’s where Sansan’s AI chatbot MyDreamChat comes in.</p>
<p>It’s a guided self-therapy tool that helps users analyze their dreams in a conversational, quiz-like format. The goal is to lead them towards a resolution at the subconscious level for more sound mental health.</p>
<p>While Sansan started on this concept in 2018, it’s become more relevant than ever in the COVID-19 era. Sansan and her team surveyed over 10,000 MyDreamChat users a few months into the pandemic. They found that 40% of customers used words like “feeling trapped,” “hopeless,” or “powerless” to describe their coronavirus-era dreams. But after dream analysis via this mental health chatbot, 82% of respondents reported gaining new insight, which led to feelings of hope and optimism.</p>
<h2><strong>The iOS app for the MVP proved to be way too pricey</strong></h2>
<p>Sansan explains that “effective mindset change and lasting healing occurs when we become conscious of our unconscious patterns and triggers. Those drive 95% of our decision-making and behavior.” Dream analysis is an effective tool on this journey for mental health, which is why she founded a startup called <a href="https://wakefully.io">Wakefully</a> in 2018.</p>
<p>However, to build the complete product she dreamed of, Sansan needed investors. And to attract investors, she knew she needed to start with a minimum viable product (MVP). The purpose of the MVP would be to validate market interest and cultivate a motivated and engaged core audience.</p>
<p>So she started by commissioning an iOS app for her MVP in 2018. But “it turned out to be an expensive user interface that was not really usable and most definitely not scalable,” Sansan shares, since she was doing all the analysis work behind the scenes.</p>
<p>After that experiment, Sansan knew she needed a cheaper and more automated solution for her true MVP. “That’s when I realized that the conversational nature of the app I envisioned and the Q&A in branching logic lend themselves pretty nicely to a chatbot,” — she says. “It seemed like a more affordable and scalable solution to test market interest. Thought at the time, I had no clue that I, the visionary/non-technical founder, would be able to build it myself!”</p>
<h2><strong>Chatbot has it all</strong></h2>
<p>“In the past, I used lead quizzes that would send people to my landing page waitlist. No more! I saw how I could streamline the entire funnel: ad → quiz → landing → dream analysis using a Facebook bot.” She was sold when she learned that she could use chatbot marketing to drive traffic, capture leads, retarget, and deliver value. “Our entire value proposition, all in one chatbot!” says Sansan.</p>
<p>She turned to Chatfuel for this project right away. Sansan tells us: “In my research, Chatfuel kept coming up as the platform that can enable someone like me, lacking any coding skills, to build an awesome Messenger bot. Using just Chatfuel and its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1_z5c5UnMJ0waRJ8Bx1cFg">videos</a> and <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en">help docs</a>, I built and launched the first version of MyDreamChat in about two weeks. I continue to learn, grow, analyze, and iterate due to the vast amount of information and tools Chatfuel provides.”</p>
<p>Here’s how MyDreamChat chatbot for mental health works:</p>
<ol>
<li>The user selects their dream type (being chased, falling, or feeling trapped).</li>
<li>They take a personalized quiz about the details of the dream they can remember and the feelings they associate with it.</li>
<li>The chatbot generates a personalized analysis of the user’s dream. The analysis explains what it “means” or symbolizes in the context of that person’s life experience.</li>
</ol>
<p>“It delivers this dialogue using positive psychology to help reframe their thinking about this and other dreams in a therapeutic, healthier way,” explains Sansan.</p>
<figure><img alt="dream analysis_chatbot_02_fb.png" src="/cms/static/blog/6284e7e20b365968858cadc2_f580c5676729fe3ca1f114506c1cfd8d7f33590b2f1aee2b722fc1c2229b61414bad8bd38b7954c1c8d95c1e166cbd48791a43618caf0c04cd10ae954096a470c13fcd2343c4a59cb4c1e993242181ac0ffde47120e23a184d88e8cbae29babf8e743711.png" height="1168" width="2080" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGNgkIyff/Fv2vJrDJr5DAyq+af+/w/s38YgEgQAi4gKuW+t9roAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Positive psychology in action</figcaption></figure>
<h2><strong>Satisfied customers and high conversion</strong></h2>
<p>Sansan originally built her Messenger chatbot as an MVP for her separate app. She intended the Messenger bot to be a temporary solution but now decided to continue using Chatfuel as the top of the funnel with her own app. “The experience is so optimal for customer acquisition,” she says.</p>
<p>This decision is based on the incredible results she’s seen with her chatbot for mental health and dream analysis so far. Take a look:</p>
<ul>
<li>The chatbot has an 82% user satisfaction rating based on exit polls seamlessly integrated into the chat after an analysis.</li>
<li>The average engagement rate for users is 3 times more in the first week.</li>
<li>30% of users share the bot, and 25% of page likers share MyDreamChat ads, making for a virality factor potential of 50%.</li>
<li>Sansan and her team identify 53% of users as highly likely to convert (to download their separate app) and 33.5% as likely to convert to paid subscribers in the app.</li>
</ul>
<p>MyDreamChat illustrates how the use cases for Messenger chatbots are practically infinite. Most any scenario that would benefit from a personalized, back-and-forth conversation can be created in Messenger. It’s not just e-commerce retailers or brick-and-mortar businesses. As you can see, chatbots that provide mental health care or guidance work incredibly well in Messenger. They are using no-code technology to help people live better. We love to see it!</p>
<p>Wakefully is currently offering a promotion to their Facebook chatbot subscribers: a pre-order discount on membership once their complete, separate app is released.</p>
<p>If you are ready to build your own project in Chatfuel, <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">get started for free</a> to boost your sales.</p>

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Startup blasts: chatbot analyzes dreams and improves mental health

<h2>The Brand</h2>
<p>Bonomi is a Budapest-based startup founded by marketing professionals with a passion <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-for-travel-industry">for travel</a>. With the industry shifting towards alternative accommodations like AirBnbs, “we realized that hotels no longer stand a chance in the race for our digital attention,” say the founders. That’s why they created a solution to help hotels stay competitive. It’s called <a href="https://bonomi.io/en/#subscribe-modal">Bonomi Assistant,</a> a customizable Facebook Messenger chatbot that acts as a virtual assistant for hotel brands of all sizes. It’s “a future-proof solution designed to enhance the guest experience by making hotels available inside popular messaging channels” like Facebook Messenger, the Bonomi team tells us.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb7b2fdeabe1_Startup-Builds-Messenger-Chatbot-to-Help-Hotels-Through-COVID-19-_3-1.png" alt="" height="512" width="1092" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGOQ0LFRtfFqbWyd0NLJwMAts3HP6f+ffyUkZAEAcfoKyTY3iCgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The Bonomi virtual assistant is a Facebook Messenger chatbot for hotels.</figcaption></figure>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s “a future-proof solution designed to enhance the guest experience by making hotels available inside popular messaging channels.” –Bonomi founders</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>The founders of Bonomi recognized that hotels around the world today face two main challenges:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Competition 🏆</strong> Traditional hotels now have to compete with other accommodation alternatives. AirBnb, for example, now has over <a href="https://www.alltherooms.com/analytics/airbnb-ipo-going-public-revenues-business-model-statistics/#:~:text=As%20of%20writing%2C%20Airbnb%20has,and%20around%206.1%20million%20listings.)">6.1 million</a>  listings worldwide. AirBnb stays are typically cheaper than hotels, and direct communication with hosts makes booking them quick and seamless. As a result, <a href="https://skift.com/2018/11/14/airbnbs-growth-is-slowing-amid-increasing-competition-from-booking-and-expedia">47% of respondents</a> in a 2018 survey said they have replaced a hotel stay with an AirBnb—a number that has likely risen in the last two years. To stay competitive, hotels need new marketing tactics that will help them attract guests, convey value, and provide better customer service.</li>
<li><strong>COVID-19</strong> 😷 Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has <a href="https://youtu.be/FQ4y0avqqtc">turned the travel industry upside down</a>. In the US alone, <a href="https://www.ahla.com/covid-19s-impact-hotel-industry">six out of ten hotel rooms</a> sit empty in July 2020. US hotels have already lost more than <a href="https://www.ahla.com/covid-19s-impact-hotel-industry">$40 billion</a> in room revenue this year, and the numbers don’t look much better in most other countries. And even though travel is slowly starting to pick up again in some places, guests are cautious and hesitant. They have new questions about things like safety and cleanliness that need answers before booking. And once they arrive, a low-risk, contactless experience is extremely important.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p>The founders of Bonomi built a tool to help hotel owners stand up to these key challenges. Chatbot technology stood out as the ideal form for this tool to take. “After trying out and building a few chatbots, we were convinced that they are a natural extension of the mobile-first customer experience design we’ve been aiming for since 2013.”</p>
<p>So the Bonomi Assistant is a virtual assistant in the form of a Messenger chatbot. The hotel chatbot’s framework lives in Chatfuel, and can be copied, customized, and <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators#:~:text=We%20also%20offer%20an%20Enterprise%20plan">white-labeled</a> by the Bonomi team for any hotel client. (Bonomi has a demo version of the hotel chatbot so you can see how it works. <a href="https://www.messenger.com/t/bonomi.io">Chat with it here</a>.)</p>
<p>The Bonomi Assistant can help hotels achieve the following goals:</p>
<p><strong>Attract new customers</strong> 👋 Chatbots can provide a personalized conversational marketing experience. They can greet prospective guests by name, tailor information to their preferences, <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-for-customer-service">answer their questions</a>, and remember all the data for the next conversation. The Bonomi Assistant’s demo feature shows this capability in action. The bot for a fictional hotel asks the user who they’ll be traveling with and what types of activities they like. It then recommends rooms and packages that match their needs and interests. The bot can integrate with a hotel’s existing software for booking, too. The result: a frictionless process that leads to more paid reservations.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb13c9deabe6_Startup-Builds-Messenger-Chatbot-to-Help-Hotels-Through-COVID-19-_2.png" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMElEQVR4nGNg4LVhkPJgEHViUA5haN9+e8GZN5P2Pzj9/T8Dg5gzg4o/g5Qrg2Y4AOpyDIihCAH4AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The demo chatbot for Bonomi shows how it can make personalized recommendations for prospective guests to encourage them to book.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>Upsell additional services</strong> 🥂 Once a guest is ready to make a booking, the hotel chatbot can suggest add-ons they might be interested in. It’s a completely automated way for hotels to generate more revenue through things like airport transfers, tour packages, and room upgrades.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbe7d4deabe2_Startup-Builds-Messenger-Chatbot-to-Help-Hotels-Through-COVID-19-_1.png" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMElEQVR4nGNgEHFikHJnkPJhMEhhWH/3/47H/3t2377+/z8DQ2Q/Q85sBrdyhtz5AA4LD4aUpy2EAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>These screenshots show a Bonomi client using the bot to upsell airport transfers to guests.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>Provide a contactless guest experience</strong> 💬 Before COVID-19, attentive in-person customer service from hotel staff was a good thing. But during a global pandemic, contactless is the new gold standard. Hotels can use the Bonomi Assistant to automatically answer most questions guests may have during their stay. This feature helps keep guests and staff at a safe distance, since guests won’t have to approach the front desk for every question or concern. It also gives the staff more time to focus on other tasks.</p>
<p><strong>Follow up with prospects and customers</strong> 🗓️ After a user has chatted with a hotel chatbot once, their basic information and conversation history are saved there. This benefits the hotel in two ways:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>More bookings</strong>. If a user starts the booking process but doesn’t finish, the Facebook chatbot can send them reminder messages <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/5627483-types-of-reengage-messages#h_b8201a2718">within the next 24 hours</a>. If the guest simply got distracted, these follow-ups can bring them back. If they abandoned the process because they had a question, the bot can answer it and move them along the funnel.</li>
<li><strong>Repeat business</strong>. Hotels can pay to contact past chatbot users again later, too. They can send a <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/sponsored-messages-guide-to-reengaging-chatbot-subscribers">sponsored message</a> letting former guests know about deals and promotions. The users can get more information and <a href="https://youtu.be/9jGuWa1sgAw">book right in the bot.</a> That means more repeat business for the hotel, all on autopilot.</li>
</ol>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb3034deabe4_Startup-Builds-Chatbots-to-Help-Hotels-Survive-COVID-19-and-Compete-With-AirBnb--2.png" alt="" height="1168" width="2080" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAIklEQVR4nGNYPKWdIW81g1Qmg0wWw/8/nxlsChkEkxjE0wB4UwhsRYm/FAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<h2>The Recipe</h2>
<p>Bonomi’s founders chose Chatfuel for this project for a few key reasons. First, they wanted a developer-friendly platform so they could integrate their own back-end systems into the bot. Second, the <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">flexible pricing plans</a> were important for them, “as it enabled us to build a startup in a scalable way.” And third, “we must mention the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/chatfuel">Facebook community of Chatfuel users</a> from all over the world; it’s a big plus. It’s great to see so many talented people sharing tips and tricks, exchanging ideas.”</p>
<p>Finally, the following Chatfuel tools and features were crucial in the process of building the Bonomi Assistant:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Synced Cloning.</strong> The Bonomi virtual assistant is a hotel chatbot framework that the Bonomi team will copy and customize for different hospitality clients. Synced Cloning makes this process easy. In one click, the Bonomi team can copy a block or an entire bot to a new client’s account instead of having to recreate each piece manually. Plus, if the team makes a change to the master template, it’ll be updated in all the copies too. That’s why Synced Cloning is a key tool for brands and <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators#:~:text=We%20also%20offer%20an%20Enterprise%20plan">marketing agencies</a> that <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/marketing-agency-uses-messenger-bots-to-deliver-high-quality-leads-for-clients">sell customizable bot frameworks</a>, or that manage chatbots for multi-location businesses.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4e6adeabe3_Group-1522.png" alt="" height="764" width="1034" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AHeDlLC2wdbb4Ozt7gDBw8cAJUYAEzvZ3OEA7Orr4OLj/v7/7u7v03UZ1CUa0rQAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Chatfuel's Synced Cloning feature makes it easy to copy and customize all or part of a bot framework for multiple clients.</figcaption></figure>
<ul>
<li><strong>Customer Chat plugin.</strong> It’s what allows you to <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/add-a-messenger-chatbot-to-your-website">add a Messenger chatbot window</a> to your website in just four steps. Bonomi uses this plugin on their own website, so guests can chat with their bot and learn more about their virtual assistant. Most of their hotel clients also use this plugin (and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">click-to-Messenger ads</a> too) to engage and convert traffic. (<strong>2021 update:</strong> The Customer Chat plugin is now the <a href="https://youtu.be/yb2yCJshWV8">Customer Chat Entry Point</a>, which is even easier to use!)</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4482deabdf_Startup-Builds-Messenger-Chatbot-to-Help-Hotels-Through-COVID-19--1.png" alt="" height="887" width="1498" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAIklEQVR4nGMwdAjkUdDvnjwvtaiRQcXYhYFFOiaz4tP//wBf/QkZVJB68QAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Bonomi uses the Customer Chat plugin so that a chatbot window appears on their website to engage prospects.</figcaption></figure>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/828883-keywords"><strong>Artificial intelligence (AI).</strong></a> AI is another crucial component of the Bonomi virtual assistant. When users type in their own messages (instead of selecting a button or quick reply), AI helps the chatbot understand the intent behind the message and respond accordingly. Bonomi uses the JSON API to integrate this technology (in the form of a custom NLP agent) into their AI-enabled chatbots, but there are no-code ways to do this in Chatfuel as well.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>“We must mention the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/chatfuel">Facebook community of Chatfuel users</a> from all over the world; it’s a big plus. It’s great to see so many talented people sharing tips and tricks, exchanging ideas.” — Bonomi founders</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The Results</h2>
<p>The Bonomi team tells us that “the response from hospitality professionals [to the Bonomi virtual assistant] has been very positive.” You can see a summary of the results from their first six clients in the graphic below. The most impressive of the stats for these Bonomi hotel chatbots include:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>3,367 users who showed intent to book directly through the chatbot</strong> 🏨 It’s a key result because “we emphasize how the Assistant can get more users to book directly through the hotel instead of through online travel agents. For a lot of mid-sized hotels, this is quite important,” the Bonomi team tells us. It means all the profit for the reservation goes directly to the hotel, and the booking experience is fast and uncomplicated.</li>
<li><strong>2,835 automatically answered questions</strong> ❓"That comes in really handy for big and popular hotels,” the Bonomi team explains, as the automation gives their staff more time to focus on other tasks. That benefit is clear in the statistic below that lists how much time the Assistant saved these initial clients: over 140 hours!</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>“We emphasize how the Assistant can get more users to book directly through the hotel instead of through online travel agents. For a lot of mid-sized hotels, this is quite important.” — Bonomi founders</p>
</blockquote>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb6b43deabe5_Startup-Builds-Chatbots-to-Help-Hotels-Survive-COVID-19-and-Compete-With-AirBnb--1.png" alt="" height="1021" width="1199" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AKenrv/3/fbs8+ng6ACepqrm6OjV293IzdIAGyMpDhcfAAgUIigxEfsVUOkraCkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>This graphic shows the statistics for the Bonomi virtual assistant's first six clients.</figcaption></figure>
<p>And when the coronavirus escalated into a global pandemic, the Bonomi team quickly made a free version of their tool to help struggling businesses in the hospitality industry. “We had 10 new customers within a week [of that release], and they keep coming!” It’s a good indication that this type of automation is what hotel owners are looking for during these times.</p>
<p>What does the future look like for Bonomi? Expansion. “Right now we’re close to getting new investment so we’ll be able to work on new integrations with other hospitality technologies, and work on the <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-a-multilingual-chatbot">multi-language feature</a> and the infrastructure to support 100+ clients.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We had 10 new customers within a week [of that release], and they keep coming!” — Bonomi founders</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Chatbots helping brands in a changing world</h2>
<p>Thanks to an evolving hospitality market and a global pandemic, hotels around the world are scrambling to pivot in order to stay afloat. No-code tools like Bonomi’s Messenger chatbot framework are helping them attract new business and delight guests with safe, seamless experiences.</p>
<p><em>It’s not just the hospitality and tourism sectors: <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/top-9-reasons-your-business-needs-a-chatbot">Businesses across industries</a> are turning to chatbots to help see them through the pandemic. To explore the possibilities of no-code Messenger chatbots for your brand, <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">sign up for a free account today</a>, then scale your users (and access priority support and other exclusive perks) with a <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">Pro account</a>.</em></p>

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