Building a chatbot

Here's a quick rundown of the most important things you should know about chatbots and how to create one. 

Getting started with chatbots

How chatbots work

You can use chatbots for many things, but we think the best and most effective way to use chatbots are to engage with visitors, asking questions that qualify them to schedule meetings with your team or chat with them further.

After answering some questions, their answers determine whether they’re offered a time to schedule with your team or the opportunity to chat live with them.  

We understand that personalization leads to better engagement in your visitors' experience. You can create a different chatbot for each experience your visitors may have, according to their needs and your business objectives. You can also create one chatbot with multiple paths, taking  your visitors through the best interactions for them with conditional routing. 

This allows you to customize their experience seamlessly, providing the most effective messaging for that specific audience under the given circumstances. It also raises the likelihood of identifying the right prospects for your team to engage with as high-quality leads.

Step 1: Create your chatbot

You can create as many chatbots as you like for different pages on your website.

You can access your chatbot builder by going to Chatbots on the left Create chatbot button. 

Here, you'll find the lobby, where you can create new and manage existing chatbots. You can search through your existing chatbots by typing the name of the chatbot (or, if you're an account admin, the owner's name) in the search box.

Start from scratch: You'll start building your chatbot with a blank canvas. 

Use a template: Choose chatbot  one of our many, ready-made templates. The correct template saves time by providing an example chatbot you'll adjust according to preference. 

Duplicate an existing chatbot: If an already-existing chatbot is similar to what you're wanting, you can duplicate that chatbot and tweak it to suit your preferences. Click the three dots on the right-hand side of that specific chatbot and select Duplicate

Read on to learn more about building a conversation

Step 2: Build your chatbot

Drag and drop interactions into the chatbot's column in the order you prefer. 

Figure 1: Add an interaction to your chatbot builder

You have many interaction options for your chatbot, allowing you to:

  • Ask questions to qualify visitors
  • Send follow-up questions depending on their answer, to personalize the experience further
  • Offer scheduling or live chat to qualified visitors, based on their answers

Routing your interactions

You can route your interactions by choosing conditions and deciding which interaction they should see next. 

Figure 2: Route to interactions based on rules

You can get really specific about the routing logic you want. The logic can depend on how your visitor answers the current question or a previous one. You can also base the logic on a contact field OnceHub already saved to their contact record (for instance, the Company size field).

Offer scheduling with your chatbot

Your chatbot can identify the people your team should speak to further and offer scheduling to them. Once they qualify, route them to a Schedule interaction. 

The entire scheduling experience takes place as they chat to the chatbot.

 You can add scheduling from the Actions tab.

Figure 3: Add scheduling to your conversation

Offer live chat with your chatbot

If you want your high-quality leads to get in touch with you as possible, live chat can provide the experience your visitors desire while reducing your time to engagement. 

Once you qualify visitors through the chatbot conversation, you can choose the right time to offer live chat to them. This way, people seriously interested in your product can ask questions and move to the next level in your funnel.

The entire live chat experience takes place as they chat to the chatbot.

 You can add live chat from the Actions tab.

 Step 3: Configure assignment for your team

In the Assign tab, you can assign new contacts to team members. This means they'll be the owner of that contact in their Activity stream. 

 If an admin has allowed member users to create and manage chatbots, members will be able to see any chatbots an admin assigned to them. Turn this permission on or off by selecting the gear icon in the top right corner → Settings and permissions → Member permissions

1) Assign to a specific team member. If you select multiple people, they'll be assigned the contact based on round robin distribution.

2) If you offer scheduling, you can assign the contact to the team member who received the booking.

Figure 4: Assigning a team member

Step 4: Preview your chatbot

To see a preview, click on the eye icon at any time as you're building your chatbot. You can preview everything as your audience would experience it.

Figure 5: Preview your chatbot

Step 5: Publish and share your chatbot

Once you're happy with your interactions and routing, you can publish your chatbot by toggling it on. 

Figure 6: Publish your chatbot

Share your chatbot

Select the Share tab

Figure 7: Share your chatbot

1. Share as a link

You can share your chatbot as a standalone page which requires no website. Simply copy the link and send it to whomever you like.

2. Share as a page

You can create a standalone page and add a chatbot to it. This option allows complete customization of your chatbot so that you can match it to your branding. Once you have customized the page, you can simply click on Get page URL at the bottom of the screen.

3. Embed on your website

Embedding your chatbot allows you to change the design of your chatbot. Get the code at the bottom right of the screen. You can paste the embed code in the admin area of your site, on whichever page(s) you'd like the chatbot to appear.

More resources to help with chatbots

  1. Browse the chatbot articles: For those who like to read everything ;) 
  2. Integrate OnceHub with Zapier: Track your chatbot campaign effectiveness by sending triggered updates to a third-party app.
  3. Hire professional services: Our expert team members can help you configure everything quickly and correctly.

Creating and managing your bots

On the Chatbots page, you can create an unlimited amount of new chatbots and manage the ones you have. These code-free, intelligent chatbots engage and qualify visitors on your website.

Ask your visitors questions, provide them with messages, and route them through the conversation in a way personalized for them. At the right time, you can offer qualified visitors calls to action so they can engage with you further. 

Create a chatbot

From scratch

When you create your chatbot from scratch, you start with a blank conversation and build all interactions and routing. 

From a template

When you choose a template for your chatbot, you start with pre-built interactions and routing for a specific scenario. You can then tweak it according to your preferences, to fit your organization. 

Duplicate a chatbot

Duplicating a chatbot is helpful if the chatbot you wish to create is similar to another chatbot on your website. Because all interactions and routing are duplicated for the new chatbot, this can save time configuring it. 

Figure 2: Duplicate a chatbot

Publishing your chatbot

In the conversation builder, you can publish your chatbot by toggling it on. 

Figure 3: Publish your chatbot

You'll be able to see the published state on the Chatbots page.

Figure 4: Chatbot status - Published or Draft

Once you've built and published the chatbot, you can take the following steps to go live:

  1. Target an audience with the chatbot 
  2. Install it on your website, if it's not already installed.

Sharing your chatbot

You can share your chatbot in 3 ways:

1. Share as a link

You can share your chatbot as a standalone page which requires no website. Simply copy the link and send it to whomever you like.

2. Share as a page

You can create a standalone page and add a chatbot to it. This option allows complete customization of your chatbot so that you can match it to your branding. Once you have customized the page, you can simply click on Get page URL at the bottom of the screen.

3. Embed on your website

Embedding your chatbot allows you to change the design of your chatbot. Get the code at the bottom right of the screen. You can paste the embed code in the admin area of your site, on whichever page(s) you'd like the chatbot to appear.

Monitor your stats

  • Started - How many visitors engaged with the chatbot, replying one or more times. 
  • Completed - How many visitors either went through all the conversation's interactions or reached an End chat action, as designed for that chatbot.
  • Abandoned - How many visitors engaged with the chatbot, replying one or more times, but did not complete the conversation.
  • Meetings booked - How many visitors booked a meeting.
  • Emails captured - How many visitors provided their email during the conversation. This could be gathered either through an Email interaction or as they book a meeting.

Building a conversation

Conversations have three main components: Reaching out, the consent agreement, and the conversation body. 

Reaching out: The first interaction your visitor sees, prompting them to engage with your chatbot.

  • Can include one or two interactions.
  • Can pop up on the visitor's screen, grabbing their attention.

Consent agreement (optional): A request for the visitor's consent for your use of their personal information.

Conversation body: The rest of your interactions. Visitors can engage with your chatbot with multiple questions, messages, and actions possible.

Your conversation

Your conversation consists of multiple interactions, organized in three parts: reaching out, a consent agreement, and the rest of the conversation. Interactions can be questions, messages, or actions, including offering scheduling to your visitor. 

Reaching out

The Reaching out interaction is the first your visitor will see from you. It grabs their attention and prompts their engagement. When they click on an answer, your widget opens fully so your chatbot can engage in a conversation with them.

Figure 1: Reaching out

You can add up to two interactions to the Reaching out section.

To build your Reaching out interaction, drag and drop an interaction from the Add interaction section. 

Figure 2: Create your chatbot's first interaction: Reaching out

Consent agreement

Some regions, such as the EU, require you to gain consent before using a visitor's personal information. 

To keep things simple, OnceHub provides default text you can use to request their consent. Simply toggle on the consent agreement. 

Figure 3: Consent agreement

Learn more about collecting consent for processing under the GDPR

You can customize your consent messaging by going to your Account (the gear icon) and selecting Chatbot and form privacy

Figure 4: Customize your privacy messaging

Conversation

You can drag and drop the rest of your conversation's interactions into your conversation from the Add interaction section on the right (if you click an interaction, it will add to the bottom of the conversation). They will be routed according to the rules you configure (see below). 

Figure 5: Add interaction - Drag and drop OR click on interaction

Interaction options

Question types 

Questions require the visitor to respond before continuing the conversation. 

You can choose from various question field types: 

  • Single select: Multiple answer options. The visitor can only select one answer.
  • Text question: Let the visitor answer in their own words
  • Email: Request the visitor's email address
  • Number: The question has a numerical answer. You can define a minimum and maximum amount. 
  • Phone: Request the visitor's phone number. 
  • Multi select: Multiple answer options. The visitor may select one or multiple answers. 
  • Date & time: The question has a date and time (both) for an answer. Optional: Require the date and time to be in the future.
  • Date: The question has a date for an answer (for example: a birth date). 
  • Time: The question has a time for an answer. 

Chatbot responses 

Each question can have a defined chatbot response after your customer responds, keeping the conversation collaborative and relevant to their answers. 

When using the single select or multi select fields, each possible answer can have a unique chatbot response.

Figure 6: Chatbot responses

Messages

Messages help you keep your interactions conversational, preventing the visitor from feeling like they're filling out a form. Effectively used message interactions raise the visitor's engagement in the conversation. 

You can include various messages in your conversation: 

  • Text message: Inform the visitor of something in a text message interaction, without requiring an answer to continue. For example, you can provide information you've determined is relevant to them, based on their responses to previous questions. 
  • URL: A URL with preview image, prompting them to visit a specific website. 
  • Image: Display an image. 
  • Video: Upload a video they can watch inside the chatbot widget. 
  • Document: Upload a document they can download from the chatbot widget. 

Actions

  • Schedule: Offer them to schedule with you, without leaving the chat widget. You can offer scheduling to everyone or only route qualified visitors to this action. 
  • Email alert: Send an internal email alert, invisible to your visitor, when they reach a specific part of the conversation. You can alert people on your team about qualified visitors who answer in a specific way. 
  • Contact status: Indicate a status (Qualified, Marketing qualified, Sales qualified, or Disqualified) for the contact so you can set other processes in motion on your end based on that status. You can also use this data to optimize your chatbot flow, determining the efficiency of your campaigns.
  • Live chat: Offer to chat live with your visitor. The chatbot will connect them with a member of your team to chat one-on-one and answer their questions or move them to the next step in the sales process.
  • End chat: End the chat completely. Your chatbot will not send any more interactions for this conversation. You cannot route the End action to another interaction.

Routing the interactions

You can route your interactions by choosing conditions and deciding what to jump to next. 

Figure 7: Route to interactions based on rules

You can get really specific about the routing logic you want. The logic can depend on how your visitor answers the current question or a previous one. You can also base the logic on a contact field already saved to their contact record (for instance, the Company size field).

Ending the conversation

When you're ready to end the conversation, we always recommend using the End chat action. If you do not use this action, the conversation will end abruptly after it reaches its final interaction. Remember, you cannot route the End action to another interaction.

The right farewell message will keep your visitor's experience courteous and enjoyable.

Routing your interactions

You can route your interactions by choosing conditions and deciding what your visitors should see next. Either create your next interaction as you route to it OR route to an interaction you've already created.

You can route to the next interaction in two different ways:

  • Always route to specific interaction
  • Route to interactions based on rules

If you route based on rules, you have three options:

  • Route based on this interaction's answer
  • Route based on a previous answer
  • Route based on a contact field (for example, their company or team size)

Note

You cannot route the End action to another interaction.

How can routing be used? 

Qualify a website visitor during the conversation

To keep your team working efficiently, you may not want to meet with every website visitor, but may place high value on scheduling a meeting with qualified visitors. You can ask targeted questions in your chatbot's conversation, routing them either to interactions that do not offer scheduling if you determine this is suitable, or to a scheduling or live chat interaction if they do qualify to meet with your team, based on your criteria. 

Set the path for the conversation

You can provide the most optimal conversation for a specific website visitor by routing them to the right interactions. This can be based on the options the website visitor selected in a previous or current interaction, or based on information you may already have about them. 

Routing options

Your routing rules allow you to specify what happens next in your conversation. Which interaction do your visitors see after this one? This may depend on their answer to this interaction or a previous one, or based on who they are (a saved contact field).

The interaction you route to next can be one you've already created or you can create it on the spot as you route to it.

You have multiple routing options: 

  • Always route to a specific interaction
  • Route to interactions based on rules
    • Evaluate the response of the current interaction
    • Evaluate the response to previous interactions
    • Evaluate the contact fields

You can access your routing by selecting a specific interaction and clicking on the routing tab. 

Figure 1: Routing tab

You'll determine what comes next for your visitor by selecting from the options for After this interaction.

Always route to specific interaction

If you always want them to see a specific interaction next, no matter the audience's answer, choose Always route to specific interaction

Figure 2: Always route to specific interaction

Route to interactions based on rules

If you'd rather send them down one interaction path if they answer a question a certain way, or another path if they answer differently, select Route to interactions based on rules.

Figure 3: Route to interactions based on rules

This answer

If your next interaction should be based on how they answer the current interaction, select This answer. Choose which answer is relevant and select the interaction they should see next based on this (see Figure 3). 

If you like, you can route to a different interaction for every possible answer provided.

Previous answer

If your next interaction should be based on how they answered a previous question, select Previous answer

Live chat

You can route to live chat based on the availability of the live chat agents on your team. Simply go to the interaction right before you want to switch to live chat. 

In the Routing tab, and specify: If Live chat has At least one agent online. Define the interaction they should be taken to (usually a live chat interaction. 

You should also specify in another rule: If Live chat has No agents online. Define the interaction they should see in that case.

Contact field

If this visitor already had a conversation with your chatbot on a previous visit, you may have saved contact fields from it. You can route to the next interaction based on that saved contact field. 

Examples of routing scenarios

Offer to speak with them in live chat

If you want to get in touch with high-quality leads as soon as possible, live chat can provide the experience your visitors desire while reducing your time to engagement. Once you qualify visitors through the chatbot conversation, you can route them to a live chat action, where they will be asked if they'd like to chat live with a team member. This way, you can answer queries immediately from people seriously interested in your product.

You can make this routing dependent on a specific live chat team's availability, so it only suggests live chat when someone on that team is available for chat. 

Company size

Based on a visitor's known company size, you can qualify visitors for scheduling. 

If you want to schedule an appointment (sales discussion, demo, consultation, etc.) only with qualified visitors, you can ask targeted questions and route them to an interaction where they are offered to schedule with you. 

If they don't meet your organization's qualifications for a scheduled appointment, you can instead route them to an alternative option (recorded demo, help center, etc.).

Figure 4: Offer scheduling to qualified visitors

Schedule with the right team

Perhaps your team distributes prospects through regional teams. In this case, you can detect their location and route them directly to schedule with the relevant regional team. This can be based on their country, state, national region, international region, or any other criteria you define. 

Figure 5: Schedule with a regional team

Send your team an internal email alert

You can add internal email notifications at any point in the conversation so the right people stay updated on your new lead and their engagement with you. The email alert action is 100% internal to your team. Your visitors will not see this interaction on their end and they will not receive any notifications from it.

Route to the email alert action at the right time in the conversation. This may be a critical qualification interaction, such as team size or a specific product they're interested in learning more about.

Route to different URLs

Depending on an answer, you may wish to provide your visitor with a URL to one site or another. For instance, if you'd like to promote an article published about your business, you can add a URL message linking to it. 

Figure 6: Route to a specific URL based on answer

Figure 7: Route to a specific URL - Preview

Assigning a conversation to an owner

On the Assignment page, you define who you'll assign the conversations for all chatbots on your website..

There are three options for distributing the conversation assignment:

  • If you offer scheduling, you can assign the conversation to the team member receiving the booking
  • Assign to one team member out of multiple selected, based on round robin distribution
  • Assign to a specific team member

What happens when a conversation is assigned? 

Filtering the Activity stream

After assigning a conversation, it will show up under the assigned team member's My activity filter in the Activity stream. 

Figure 1: My activity filter

Contact owner

If the visitor is new (based on email address provided), the assigned team member will be assigned as that contact's owner in OnceHub.

Assignment options

When assigning a conversation to a team member, you can select either a single user or multiple users. 

If you select multiple users on your team, OnceHub will assign the conversations based on round robin distribution. 

If you're offering scheduling in your conversation, you can also opt always to assign the conversation to the booking owner (the person receiving the booking). This will override the other team member selection(s) made on the Assignment page. 

How to configure

At Chatbots → Targeted chatbot settings → Assignment, select the User(s) you want to be assigned a conversation.

Figure 2: Select User(s) to receive chatbot conversations

Receiving chat notifications

As you build your conversation, you may add questions or other interactions that are significant to someone on your team. For instance, the visitor reached a certain part of the conversation or answered a question with a specific answer that indicates they're qualified for further sales action on your end, even if they don't book with you during the conversation. 

You can add internal email notifications at any point in the conversation, so the right people stay updated on your new lead and their engagement with you. The email alert action is 100% internal to your team. Your visitors will not see this interaction on their end and they will not receive any notifications from it.

1. Identify which interactions need an email notification. 

This may be a critical qualification interaction, such as team size or a specific product they're interested in learning more about.

2. On the Routing tab, create routing logic to that email alert

For each relevant interaction, you can add a rule that routes the conversation to the email alert action. For instance, you can send an email whenever a visitor reaches that interaction in the conversation, or you can send it only if they answer a certain way. 

3. Create the email alert action

You can create this action from the routing tab (Then route to +Create new interaction) on the previous step or simply create it by dragging a new email alert action into the conversation. 

Be sure you route to the next step on the Routing tab so the visitor has a seamless experience. 

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