Creating a chatbot: challenges and best practices
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2025 9:28 am
A chatbot, also called a conversational agent, is a computer program designed to simulate a human conversation and interact with users through an instant messaging interface.
So, how does it work in practice? Chatbots use artificial intelligence techniques (such as natural language processing) to understand questions and commands from humans.
chatbot, websites, conversation, customer relations
The main goal of a chatbot is to respond to users' queries automatically and in real time . It must provide them with relevant information or help them solve specific problems. Chatbots can therefore be used in different contexts: replacing customer service or technical support, booking services, ordering products, etc. The use depends on the features you add to your chatbot, and by extension, your objectives!
Indeed, chatbots are developed from pre-established rules . The most advanced tools can also use artificial intelligence models capable of learning to improve their understanding and response capacity over time. Some chatbots are, in fact, able to memorize past interactions to personalize the responses provided to the user.
Why use a chatbot?
Chatbots have become popular and indispensable tools for businesses looking to improve their interactions with users.
24/7 availability
Chatbots are a real asset for improving the quality of the user experience. Available at all times, they allow users to obtain assistance regardless of the hour. They can therefore "interact" with your business, even outside of normal business hours. This significantly improves your accessibility and, by extension, user satisfaction.
Instant response
A chatbot provides users with immediate answers. This eliminates the wait times often associated with traditional support (email or phone), such as when a prospect or customer requests customer service. This helps improve the user experience and customer satisfaction.
0196eda2 6235 4f7c a650 39b719502422
High volume management
Unlike humans, chatbots are capable of handling a large number of requests simultaneously without capacity limitations. They can therefore respond to multiple users at the same time without compromising the relevance of support or the quality of the online experience. This is especially beneficial for better managing peak demand or busy periods (if your business is seasonal, this is a real asset).
Cost reduction
Creating a chatbot is certainly an investment, but it can reduce certain operational costs. In particular, they require fewer human resources to manage user interactions: your employees can focus on higher-value tasks. Thus, chatbots can generate significant savings in the long term, especially in the area of customer service.
ba6abddb c579 4335 8a0a 70f1d30f80e5
Improved user experience
Chatbots offer an enhanced user experience by providing quick and accurate answers to frequently asked questions. Some models can even personalize interactions based on user preferences, ensuring an even more engaging experience.
Technical Support and Troubleshooting
Chatbots are useful for providing basic technical support by guiding users through troubleshooting procedures or providing answers to common issues. By offering immediate technical support, chatbots allow users to resolve their issues faster. They avoid the wait times often associated with phone or email support, improving user experience and satisfaction.
In the event of a complex issue, or one that requires additional human assistance, chatbots can also redirect the user to a live agent. This seamless transition between chatbot and human support ensures that the user receives the necessary help while optimizing the efficiency of the support process.
customer relations, customer service, assistance
User Data Collection
Depending on the specifics of your chatbot, it can be used to collect valuable data on user interactions, such as questions asked, preferences, and trends. This information can be used to improve the chatbot itself, personalize responses, and anticipate user needs. You can also use it to optimize your website content or, more broadly, your marketing strategy.
For example, if you notice that questions are coming up frequently, it's worth incorporating this information into your content strategy. This means that the information you're currently sharing lacks clarity on this specific point.
Tools for creating a chatbot
The tools for creating a chatbot vary depending on the platforms you're deploying your chatbot on. Two of the most popular messaging platforms for easy chatbot creation are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is one of the most widely used instant messaging tools in the world, with millions of daily active users. It provides a fertile environment for developing interactive chatbots for businesses.
To create a chatbot on Messenger, you can use the tools provided by Meta (we recommend using the services of a web development agency). The Messenger API platform allows developers to create more advanced chatbots using programming languages such as Python, Node.js, or PHP. You can then offer your audience a chatbot capable of receiving and sending messages, personalizing its responses, and much more.
Meta also offers a Messenger chatbot development platform. It's a simplified tool, accessible to less experienced users, for creating a chatbot using pre-designed templates. This tool allows you to quickly set up a conversational agent based on pre-established rules. It's a cost-effective, simple, but limited solution: you won't be able to integrate advanced features.
WhatsApp
WhatsApp is another popular messaging platform, typically used as a mobile app (though a web-based tool is also available). It allows businesses to create chatbots to interact with their prospects or customers, thanks to its WhatsApp Business API solution.
WhatsApp Business API allows businesses to automate their communications with their audience via WhatsApp. This is useful for faster customer inquiries, providing information, and many other actions through a familiar tool. By using WhatsApp Business API, an experienced web developer can integrate advanced features, such as payment options. This ensures businesses can provide more efficient and personalized customer service to their WhatsApp audience.
d71e36dd adbf 4a06 87b6 401f60664677
Other advanced solutions for developing a chatbot
Other advanced solutions are available for chatbot development, aside from Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. These include tools such as Google's Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, and Amazon Lex. These solutions offer more advanced features and are often used by experienced developers.
Choosing the chatbot solution best suited to your specific needs is essential. To make an informed decision, it may be wise to work with a specialized web development agency like Axiom Marketing. Our experts can assess your requirements and advise you on the most appropriate solution for your digital project, taking into account the features, integrations, and costs associated with each solution.
By working with a web development agency, you can benefit from their expertise and experience in creating advanced chatbots. They will guide you throughout the development process, from design to implementation, to ensure your chatbot meets your project objectives and provides an optimal user experience.
Contact us to take advantage of a free 30-minute telephone interview!
57d844e5 de60 4ebf 8f3f 49957b9a04a5
Creating a chatbot: what are the challenges?
To understand the benefits of chatbots, you also need to understand the challenges that such a marketing and sales lever brings to your business.
The chatbot's purpose and use case
Before you start building a chatbot, you must first define its purpose and the scenario (or context) for its use. Just because your main competitor has added a chatbot to their website doesn't mean you should too: make informed choices based on your goals and the expectations of your target users.
If it's relevant, then you'll need hungary phone number data to identify the specific tasks the chatbot needs to accomplish. In other words, ask yourself what user questions it needs to be able to answer (clearly!). This phase of reflection is crucial for designing a suitable chatbot, and by extension, an effective and profitable one.
Natural language processing
Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the heart of how chatbots work. It refers to a machine's ability to mimic human intelligence to perform specific tasks. In the case of chatbots, AI allows for the creation of systems capable of interacting with users automatically and intelligently.
When we talk about chatbots, we should mainly be talking about natural language processing (or NLP ) . It's a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on understanding and processing human language. In short, this allows chatbots to understand what users say or write, even if they use informal, vague, or ambiguous terms, in order to provide them with appropriate responses.
For example, a user might ask the chatbot, "What's the weather like today?" The NLP model must be able to understand that the user is looking for information about the weather and provide an appropriate response based on their location.
Developing NLP models requires collecting and processing large amounts of text data to train the algorithms. This information helps learn natural language patterns and structures so the chatbot can accurately interpret questions and respond appropriately.
For your business, this mainly requires choosing a conversational agent capable of understanding the specific requests of users.
So, how does it work in practice? Chatbots use artificial intelligence techniques (such as natural language processing) to understand questions and commands from humans.
chatbot, websites, conversation, customer relations
The main goal of a chatbot is to respond to users' queries automatically and in real time . It must provide them with relevant information or help them solve specific problems. Chatbots can therefore be used in different contexts: replacing customer service or technical support, booking services, ordering products, etc. The use depends on the features you add to your chatbot, and by extension, your objectives!
Indeed, chatbots are developed from pre-established rules . The most advanced tools can also use artificial intelligence models capable of learning to improve their understanding and response capacity over time. Some chatbots are, in fact, able to memorize past interactions to personalize the responses provided to the user.
Why use a chatbot?
Chatbots have become popular and indispensable tools for businesses looking to improve their interactions with users.
24/7 availability
Chatbots are a real asset for improving the quality of the user experience. Available at all times, they allow users to obtain assistance regardless of the hour. They can therefore "interact" with your business, even outside of normal business hours. This significantly improves your accessibility and, by extension, user satisfaction.
Instant response
A chatbot provides users with immediate answers. This eliminates the wait times often associated with traditional support (email or phone), such as when a prospect or customer requests customer service. This helps improve the user experience and customer satisfaction.
0196eda2 6235 4f7c a650 39b719502422
High volume management
Unlike humans, chatbots are capable of handling a large number of requests simultaneously without capacity limitations. They can therefore respond to multiple users at the same time without compromising the relevance of support or the quality of the online experience. This is especially beneficial for better managing peak demand or busy periods (if your business is seasonal, this is a real asset).
Cost reduction
Creating a chatbot is certainly an investment, but it can reduce certain operational costs. In particular, they require fewer human resources to manage user interactions: your employees can focus on higher-value tasks. Thus, chatbots can generate significant savings in the long term, especially in the area of customer service.
ba6abddb c579 4335 8a0a 70f1d30f80e5
Improved user experience
Chatbots offer an enhanced user experience by providing quick and accurate answers to frequently asked questions. Some models can even personalize interactions based on user preferences, ensuring an even more engaging experience.
Technical Support and Troubleshooting
Chatbots are useful for providing basic technical support by guiding users through troubleshooting procedures or providing answers to common issues. By offering immediate technical support, chatbots allow users to resolve their issues faster. They avoid the wait times often associated with phone or email support, improving user experience and satisfaction.
In the event of a complex issue, or one that requires additional human assistance, chatbots can also redirect the user to a live agent. This seamless transition between chatbot and human support ensures that the user receives the necessary help while optimizing the efficiency of the support process.
customer relations, customer service, assistance
User Data Collection
Depending on the specifics of your chatbot, it can be used to collect valuable data on user interactions, such as questions asked, preferences, and trends. This information can be used to improve the chatbot itself, personalize responses, and anticipate user needs. You can also use it to optimize your website content or, more broadly, your marketing strategy.
For example, if you notice that questions are coming up frequently, it's worth incorporating this information into your content strategy. This means that the information you're currently sharing lacks clarity on this specific point.
Tools for creating a chatbot
The tools for creating a chatbot vary depending on the platforms you're deploying your chatbot on. Two of the most popular messaging platforms for easy chatbot creation are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is one of the most widely used instant messaging tools in the world, with millions of daily active users. It provides a fertile environment for developing interactive chatbots for businesses.
To create a chatbot on Messenger, you can use the tools provided by Meta (we recommend using the services of a web development agency). The Messenger API platform allows developers to create more advanced chatbots using programming languages such as Python, Node.js, or PHP. You can then offer your audience a chatbot capable of receiving and sending messages, personalizing its responses, and much more.
Meta also offers a Messenger chatbot development platform. It's a simplified tool, accessible to less experienced users, for creating a chatbot using pre-designed templates. This tool allows you to quickly set up a conversational agent based on pre-established rules. It's a cost-effective, simple, but limited solution: you won't be able to integrate advanced features.
WhatsApp is another popular messaging platform, typically used as a mobile app (though a web-based tool is also available). It allows businesses to create chatbots to interact with their prospects or customers, thanks to its WhatsApp Business API solution.
WhatsApp Business API allows businesses to automate their communications with their audience via WhatsApp. This is useful for faster customer inquiries, providing information, and many other actions through a familiar tool. By using WhatsApp Business API, an experienced web developer can integrate advanced features, such as payment options. This ensures businesses can provide more efficient and personalized customer service to their WhatsApp audience.
d71e36dd adbf 4a06 87b6 401f60664677
Other advanced solutions for developing a chatbot
Other advanced solutions are available for chatbot development, aside from Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. These include tools such as Google's Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, and Amazon Lex. These solutions offer more advanced features and are often used by experienced developers.
Choosing the chatbot solution best suited to your specific needs is essential. To make an informed decision, it may be wise to work with a specialized web development agency like Axiom Marketing. Our experts can assess your requirements and advise you on the most appropriate solution for your digital project, taking into account the features, integrations, and costs associated with each solution.
By working with a web development agency, you can benefit from their expertise and experience in creating advanced chatbots. They will guide you throughout the development process, from design to implementation, to ensure your chatbot meets your project objectives and provides an optimal user experience.
Contact us to take advantage of a free 30-minute telephone interview!
57d844e5 de60 4ebf 8f3f 49957b9a04a5
Creating a chatbot: what are the challenges?
To understand the benefits of chatbots, you also need to understand the challenges that such a marketing and sales lever brings to your business.
The chatbot's purpose and use case
Before you start building a chatbot, you must first define its purpose and the scenario (or context) for its use. Just because your main competitor has added a chatbot to their website doesn't mean you should too: make informed choices based on your goals and the expectations of your target users.
If it's relevant, then you'll need hungary phone number data to identify the specific tasks the chatbot needs to accomplish. In other words, ask yourself what user questions it needs to be able to answer (clearly!). This phase of reflection is crucial for designing a suitable chatbot, and by extension, an effective and profitable one.
Natural language processing
Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the heart of how chatbots work. It refers to a machine's ability to mimic human intelligence to perform specific tasks. In the case of chatbots, AI allows for the creation of systems capable of interacting with users automatically and intelligently.
When we talk about chatbots, we should mainly be talking about natural language processing (or NLP ) . It's a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on understanding and processing human language. In short, this allows chatbots to understand what users say or write, even if they use informal, vague, or ambiguous terms, in order to provide them with appropriate responses.
For example, a user might ask the chatbot, "What's the weather like today?" The NLP model must be able to understand that the user is looking for information about the weather and provide an appropriate response based on their location.
Developing NLP models requires collecting and processing large amounts of text data to train the algorithms. This information helps learn natural language patterns and structures so the chatbot can accurately interpret questions and respond appropriately.
For your business, this mainly requires choosing a conversational agent capable of understanding the specific requests of users.