In today’s reality, people value time more than anything. Technological progress allows us to save time on routine processes.
Chatbots are well-liked by users because they help save our important time. Using their help, users can instantly get answers on their questions, order various services, and immediately pay for them. Large companies, like Airbnb, Starbucks, and Facebook, have previously developed chatbots that help customers and improve user experience. In this specific article, you’ll find out about advantages and pitfalls of chatbot development and figure out the price to build a chatbot.

Great things about Chatbots
We’ll start our journey to the world of chatbot development using their benefits for businesses.

Better Customer Experience
The ultimate chatbots’ advantage is the fact they’re available 24/7. That means your visitors can get an answer to their questions without delays and anytime of your day. It causes improved customer experience and the growth of brand loyalty.

Taco Bell is a well-known use case. This fast-food company developed a TacoBot for sales automation. Now, customers don’t have to make calls and await an operator. They can use TacoBot to clear all the problems.
Sales Automation
Chatbots are useful not only in answering questions. In addition they allow users to order and purchase the goods right from the messenger.

In addition, chatbots engage customers to buy things. The machine suggests goods predicated on the client’s browsing history. Thus, chatbots help companies to market faster and effectively.
Personalized Services
Another chatbot benefit is that they support users on every stage of the customer lifecycle. They offer detailed information about the merchandise, help clients to help make the right choice, and evidently describe the payment process.

Cost-Efficiency
Recently, JPMorgan Chase & Co, one of the major banks in america, gathered a group of researchers that had to create a concept to optimize the expenses.
The solution was floating on the top. The team of developers built a chatbot that handles security issues, such as granting usage of internal software and resetting employees’ passwords. According to JPMorgan Chase & Co’s estimates, this software processes around 1.7 million requests and equals to the quantity of work performed by 140 people.

Thus, chatbots bring a lot of advantages to businesses. Still, their integration may be expensive and time-consuming.
Main Types of Chatbots
Chatbot developer usually single out two main chatbot groups – rule-base and AI-powered. Let’s figure out what’s the difference between them and which one suits you the most.
Rule-Based Chatbots
A simple version of an chatbot that doesn’t require developers to make use of AI algorithms. It usually follows a predefined behavior pattern and answers only with ready-made questions. Still, you can form different scenarios, which means that your chatbot will manage various tasks.
After the start of the conversation, clients can easily see the set of possible questions and operations. When users trigger some action, the bot responds with a remedy or an action in line with the instruction. Thus, these bots will help only with the issues they’re acquainted with.
These bots suit companies that often get repetitive questions and need an FAQ solution.

AI-Powered Chatbots
AI chatbots will be our next stop.
By using machine learning algorithms, chatbots analyze an individual requests to come up with new responses.
At first, answers may appear confusing. That’s not really a cause for concern, because before generating the responses, the machine has to study from somewhere. The more requests it analyzes, the more accurate and individualized will be the answers. So, to launch an effective chatbot, you have to provide it with the original base of questions.
Despite the fact that the AI-powered chatbot might cost you a fortune, the personality and customer care it gives to your brand worth it spent.

What Chatbot Does Your Business Need?
Without regard to the chatbot’s complexity, both types of chatbots are suited to certain tasks. Prior to the development, you have to investigate business requirements, choose the issues you’re going to resolve, and carefully estimate the budget. If you’re short on budget as well as your project is meant release a your call center’s workload, FAQ chatbot is your choice. On the other hand, if you’re buying a complicated solution with a personal method of every customer, you is going with AI-powered chatbot.

Chatbot’s Architecture and Work Principle
For the present time, you have a standard picture of chatbot types. Now it’s time to get a closer go through the chatbot’s internal structure.
Chatbots’ Architecture
Whatever the chatbot’s complexity, the entire structure stays the same, give or take. The picture below shows a typical chatbots’ architecture. Mind that some components to get more natural communication can transform the architecture and make the architecture more challenging.
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Just how do chatbots work?
Rule-based chatbots usually use click actions inside messengers. If we’re talking about the e-commerce niche, the rule-based bot will offer you customers to see the goods. Then, the bot has several click options in charge of the characteristics of the merchandise. Eventually, the client will have a buy option.
When you see, rule-based bots are called so for a reason. They follow a strict group of rules and never break the sequence of actions.
AI-based bots, in their turn, don’t rely upon rules. They analyze information and make decisions predicated on the gathered data. However, they want some time to understand the sentence structure.

Five Vital Steps to Create a Chatbot

We’ve outlined the main principles that chatbots follow. But what are the steps to build up a chatbot, and where in the event you start? Let’s figure it out.
FIND OUT the Customers’ Expectations
As you know, chatbots are designed to increase the user experience. That’s why you have to understand their requirements clearly.
A clarity in customers’ demands gives you to create a precise feature list. Thus, you will meet your users’ needs and won’t spend extra cash on useless features. For example, when clients order a taxi with a local cab service, they need to send their location via the messenger and know the estimated arrival time. So, you have to use maps and develop algorithms that will predict the common path time.
Decide on the Platform
Today, the majority of top-tier messengers support chatbots. In the event you can afford the development for a number of platforms, you’ll gain more overall flexibility and win new customers.
However, if you’re going for a single messenger or a site chatbot, you have to select the platform your clients use the most. Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Skype will be the most well-known platforms for chatbot development.

Look for a Reliable Team of Developers
An individual programmer can’t develop a superb solution with complicated features. That’s why you have to take into account hiring a skilled team of developers.
However, don’t go for the first company you discover on Google. First, you have to conduct research. Below are a few services that will come in handy while looking for developers:
LinkedIn
Clutch
Indeed
GoodFirms
Discover the Tech Stack Necessary to Build a Chatbot
Usually, developers have two options during chatbot development – frameworks and chatbot development tools.
Frameworks allow developers to unleash the chatbot’s potential and create useful features. Chatbot development tools, in their turn, are easier to master, however the final version of the merchandise will be less than features.

Ensure that you Deploy
Testing is essential through the development process. Bugs and vulnerabilities ruin an individual experience and can even lead to significant problems, like data leaks. So, quality assurance helps to ensure that your product meets all certain requirements.

The majority of software development companies include QA services in the ultimate price for his or her services. In the event you’re hiring a freelance programmer, chances are you’ll have to test the software on your own. In addition, unfair freelancers could even charge you more money for fixing their bugs. That’s why you have to make inquiries about the testing stage before hiring developers.