There are two key principles to understand with regards to driving adoption - these are push and pull adoption. Push adoption is where you send a message out to a user by using broadcasts or drip campaigns. This means that the user will receive a message in the Microsoft Teams Chat inbox without triggering it. Pull adoption is where the user finds and triggers the bot message themselves - usually by searching for the bot or by being linked to it. Here is a bit more information about each form of adoption:

Broadcasts

Broadcasts are one of the most effective ways of driving mass awareness and usage of your bots and digital assistants on Microsoft Teams.

Schedule and send broadcasts to staff based on Teams permissions, profile attributes or create entirely custom segments by uploading email or user ID lists. Introduce your bots via broadcasts and use Nudges to automatically follow up with people a few hours or days later.

Pinning Apps

Customize Teams to highlight bots that are most important for your users. Pinning apps lets you showcase bots and work tools that users in your organisation need to be aware of. Apps are pinned to the app bar, which is on the side of the Teams desktop client and bottom of the Teams mobile clients.

Learn more about managing app setup policies in Microsoft Teams here.

Channel posts and promotion

Share promotional assets to Teams Channels that introduces the bot, what it’s used for and how to access it.

Pin posts to the top and notify Channel members to the announcement to drive further awareness.

Short Links

Each bot has its own short link which can be included as a link in any posts, emails, calendar invites or any other electronic communications.

Create vanity URLs that redirect to your bot’s short link and include these in any images, posters or offline documentation.

Company Announcements

One of the best ways to increase awareness and usage of your bots is to actively talk about them and promote their use cases in company announcements and comms.

Mention them in department meetings, all hands or company wide town halls.

Internal Champions

Identify internal champions and involve them in talking about and promoting any relevant bots and digital assistants being launched.

Provide them with messaging guidelines, assets to share, or ways to send on feedback they’re hearing from their colleagues.

New Starter Onboarding

Remember that any new employees that join the company after your initial awareness campaign may not be aware of these tools.

Ensure that onboarding materials and company resources are updated to include mentions of and links to your bots.

Physical Posters and Materials

Include posters that promote your bots in high traffic areas of your offices and physical locations such as entrances, canteens, hall ways, back office and communal areas.

Include short links, QR codes or discovery instructions to link staff to the bots from their mobile devices.

On Site Screens

Include visual prompts and introductory videos on interactive screens in high traffic areas such as receptions or hallways.

Celebrate Success Stories

Promote the success stories that have come from your bots and automation tools.

Celebrate ideas submitted, survey engagement, new starter feedback, peer recognition - and use these stories to generate more awareness and usage from staff.

Ignored Messages & Ongoing User Feedback

While some bots act as standalone automation tools, others have the ability to adapt and evolve over time.

Monitor your ignored messages for new keywords or content ideas that could improve future usage. Integrate user feedback into future iterations and feature ideas.