With each generation of users, there is a significant shift in how they communicate with each other and with organisations with whom they interact and do business. While much of the community may still rely on Telephone conversations and/or the use of Web or Mobile Apps to interact with an organisation, there is a significant portion of the community where their “on-line” experience is via a chat channel (such as talking to their friends over Skype or the like). Hence while the mobile device has continued to be the “first-screen” they turn to, it is frequently a Chat app that they end up using.
Thus, it is a conundrum of; if we can’t get a user to download your app, how do you reach out to them?
By using the app they already have installed – their Chat Client.
This introduces the idea of using a Chatbot to allow the end user to interact with your organisation, while removing the need for them to either proactively go to your website or download your app to do so.
So what is a Chatbot?
In short, a chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate a conversation with a human, especially over the Internet. By using an interface metaphor that all users are used to, that is, interacting via a conversation, users can quickly and easily access the data and processes being exposed by an organization, using a universal client (the chat client) that they are already using.
Today’s workshop revolves around the Digital Experience functionality of a fictitious Café chain called Café Supremo.
While Café Supremo has a Mobile App, which is used by their most loyal customers, the marketing department is aware that new or prospective customers may not have downloaded the app (or even found it in the many hundreds of thousands of apps in the App-Stores). As such, they are looking to expand their reach to prospective customers through the use of the various Social Chat Channels, in particular Facebook Messenger.
This workshop will walk you introduce you to the CafeSupremo Bot, and then walk you through the various components used to build it and subsequently expand its available functionality.
This Cloud Test Drive Workshop is designed to work with your own Autonomous Cloud Subscription. If you have Activated your account, but have not yet provisioned your Digital Assistant / Chatbot environment, please review the Provisioning Steps.
1: Introduction to the Cafe Supremo Digital Assistant (Start)
2: Building a Bot (Start)
3: Custom Components (Start)
4: Instant Apps for Structured Data (Start)
5: Exposing the Digital Assistant within a Web Page (Start)
- 6: Via Facebook Messenger (Start)