Unlocking potential of an SMS Chatbot with Examples

If you are implementing or re-designing an existing SMS Chatbot, this article is for you. Here, we review all the basic principles of SMS Chatbots and their best applications. We discuss the major differences between SMS Chatbot and a traditional web chatbot. We also show examples of successful SMS chatbot implementations powered by conversational AI. 60.9% of website visits coming from mobile devices so SMS must be a part of your marketing and customer service strategies.

The article will help the reader build effective and hyper personalized SMS chatbot for customer service.

Chatbots: from Web to SMS

Once upon a time, there was a store and it had customers. Those customers had questions that needed answers. So the business hired associates to answer customers’ questions. Then, people invented the internet. The business built a website and added live chat. It then asked its associates to respond to chat inquiries as well as phone calls and in-store customers. Then people invented SMS marketing solutions, so the business asked its associates to answer questions that come in via customer texts, too. There were so many questions coming that the business needed to hire more associates which depleted the store’s profits.

Then AI in customer service made an entrance. People invented Chatbots with a promise of automating customer service. So the business decided to let all associates go and replaced them with a chatbot thinking it will now handle all customers’ questions. But it did not work. Customers grew more frustrated with the chatbot as it was not able to answer all customers’ questions. Business’ profits depleted even more as it started to lose customers.

The moral of the story is that there is no silver bullet that solves your customer support challenges. Chatbot technology is definitely not ready to replace human customer support staff completely.

Chatbots built with love and care can:

1. Provide two-way intelligent conversation
2. Be effective in increasing customer mobile engagement
3. Decrease customer service inquiry volume requiring live agents
4. Reduce operating costs for your business

Rule-based Chatbot targeting the web surfers differs from the one intended for SMS. Let’s review the main differences between the two and go over some examples as well as common use cases of effective SMS text bots.

Main differences between SMS and In-Browser(web) Chatbots

Although an SMS chatbot is closely related to a web/browser-based chatbot, it has some major limitations.

• SMS chatbots must refrain from sending long messages (160 characters max)
• Refrain from asking customers to provide complicated or long answers. 
• SMS Chatbots lose most if not all interactivity and versatility web chatbots provide (interactive form fill, in-line input validation, inline JavaScript execution, interactive cards, and more)
• And a BIG one! SMS Chatbots are NOT PCI or HIPAA-compliant, so you cannot exchange private information via SMS.

SMS Chatbot best practices

Determine user intent accurately and effortlessly or design your text bot for a single intent only.

One mistake to avoid is to have the bot lead the customer on the wrong path. The Bot must determine intent with precision either by analyzing the question via natural language processing or by giving a list of options for customer to choose from.

When asking for a response from a customer, supply all of the possible answers to your questions. Structure your question so the required response is clear and leaves no room for mistakes

Here are some examples of effective question-answer structures:

Make sure your SMS Bot provides an unforced, easy-to-understand value for the user

SMS Chatbots must provide value. Clearly state what customers will gain before commencing an SMS conversation.

Make it fun!

Use emojis and animated gifs.

Use playful language.

Enrich messages with customers’ personal information.

Make customers’ phones work in your favor. Trigger automatic suggestions by using properly formulated questions.

The above questions will all auto-suggest a response for customers if the required information is stored on their phone.

Choose the right Bot platform

Make sure the Bot platform you are using allows building one Bot flow that may be used across all platforms (Web, SMS, Facebook, etc.) It should also be intelligent enough to offer SMS medium to customer launching chat in a web browser initially.

Best SMS Chatbot creation tools

There are currently not many out-of-the-box SMS Chatbot development tools available on the market. In fact, we are only aware of one, the one we use here to develop SMS Bots for our clients at HelpSquad. LiveHelpNow chatbot platform allows building one Bot flow and apply it to both web and SMS chats. Moreover, LiveHelpNow team develops the initial Bot flow free of charge and then helps users in every step of improving, optimizing and enriching the Bot experience. LiveHelpNow Bot can communicate and pull data from any external API which allows for facilitating truly valuable and helpful interactions.

The majority of companies currently develop SMS Bots by hiring developers and building on top of Twilio or Bandwidth platforms which are great options if you have the budget and time available. On average it takes about a $50,000 investment and three months of development and testing before your Bot is ready for prime time. We can do the same in 14 days and with less than a $1k investment in the LiveHelpNow platform.

Examples of Effective SMS Chatbots

The following examples show well-implemented SMS Chatbots that provide value. They serve as a starting point to give you ideas on what your SMS Chatbot could look like and to benefit your business. We organized examples by industry to help you navigate the samples.

Hospitality

E-Commerce

Healthcare

Human Resources

Insurance

The Use of SMS Chatbot

Approach SMS Chatbot development the same way you would treat a development of a most viable product(MVP). Make sure to identify the clear value the Bot provides to your customers with no gimmicks. Build your Bot in steps organized by intents (one branch at a time)

Remember to think like a customer. Analyze recorded live interactions to identify most frequent questions, and develop an SMS Bot to handle those first. Then move to the next branch. Test with a small part of your customers first and track results.

Build a Chatbot that helps the customer and incites them to share their experiences with family and friends.

Have more questions? Need guidance with your chatbot project? Please consider scheduling a meeting with HelpSquad chatbot consultant.