The key to a successful bot is thorough planning and thought. The team at The Bot Platform have been making Messenger bot for years now so we've compiled a list of our top tips to make your bot planning and building a little bit easier.
Here is a list of things to make sure your bot is up to scratch before launch:
Tips for message design
Delay times between parts of a message seem appropriate
Quick replies and buttons are used correctly according to their purpose. Remember quick replies disappear once a new interaction is launched, so it's preferable to use buttons over quick replies (unless you are building a quiz or need more than 3 options)
No dead ends
Persistent menu helps user navigate the bot – ‘help button’ or ‘main menu’ and ‘manage subscriptions’
Where possible interactions are short
Mostly structured through menus, buttons and quick replies to keep the flow moving
Default response is randomised to keep it from going stale, and should have buttons or quick replies back to the main points in the bot
Does not pretend to be a real person
Bot has personality and is on brand
Emojis are used wherever possibly relevant
There are no spelling or grammatical errors
Every button works and every link is connected to the right place
A range of media has been used to keep users engaged – image, gif, video etc.
Media should not take too long to load. Make sure it's the correct size for a better user experience.
The bot doesn't send more than five messages in a row in between user interactions (ie there a five message parts or less that make up a message)
Images for carousels are 1:1.91 ratio or square, and 1200*630 in size
Videos are as compressed as possible
Carousels have the same number of buttons on each item and roughly the same amount of text so that they all line up well
Videos are downloaded and used natively in the bot where possible
Consistent use of 1st, 2nd or 3rd person ‘I’, ‘we’, or ‘The Bot Platform’
Bot has a clear purpose
Conversation is personalised using {{first_name}}
Keyword ‘stop’ goes to subscribe options
Keyword ‘help’ offers suggestions of how to interact with the bot
Keyword 'hello, hi, hey' to launch the conversation again for anyone returning to the bot
Tips for broadcasts
Sign up for broadcast options in the opening sections
When signing up to broadcasts, users are added to a bucket even if that bucket name is ‘general’ (this will make it easier to manage buckets in the future)
Provides confirmation when a user signs up for broadcasts eg. ‘great you’re signed up to broadcasts’
When a user unsubscribes, it’s obvious that they will no longer receive broadcast messages
Make sure the bot user always has the option to ‘opt out’ of broadcasts so you don’t annoy them
When broadcasting, the appropriate notification type is being used and broadcasts are selective