7 Easy Steps to Create Chatbot Flows for eCommerce

An eCommerce business owner should decide the conversational flow of a chatbot and create chatbot flows. If you want to optimize a customer-friendly eCommerce site, you should develop a good relationship with customers with chatbot flows. Chatbot conversation flow should sound natural like how a sales rep will talk to customers in a physical store.

Conversational flow in chatbots will be the first impression of your brand to visitors of the website. An eCommerce chatbot should engage website visitors in the conversation and give them a relevant response. Many eCommerce businesses develop their own chatbot to give personalized experiences in chatbot interaction.

Here is the overview of the content:

• How to Write Bot Script?
• Find Your Target Audience
• Create Flow Diagram
• Bot Persona
• Chatbot Objective
• Learning From User Input
• Adding Visual Elements

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots are AI-powered computer programs that converse with website visitors and automate the tasks on the website. Chatbots without Artificial Intelligence technology will map out the conversation with pre-defined intents. In simple words, a chatbot is a software that is an excellent alternative to the live chat option on websites.

What is Conversational Flow in Chatbots?

Conversational flow in chatbots is mapping out the interactions and creating user scenarios. Many eCommerce business owners create conversational flow in chatbots with the business objective and user perspective in their minds.

By creating a flow in chatbots, the conversation replicates human interaction and becomes the foundation for your customer-centric business. Before looking into the 7 steps to create chatbot flows, let us understand the difference between Rule-based chatbots and AI-powered chatbots.

What are Rule-based Chatbots?

Rule-based chatbots are simple chatbots that work without Artificial Intelligence technology. These chatbots use FAQs and questions that flow like branches. When a customer visits the website, the chatbots pop up and show a series of questions in the chat widget. Website visitors can choose one of the questions from the list and find the solutions quickly.

Rule-based chatbots are also known as flow chatbots that have predefined responses in conversations. When you are visiting a website, you will get a series of messaging options to choose from. One of the obstacles in using rule-based chatbots is when a website visitor asks an uncommon question to rule-based bots, they struggle to respond.

What are AI Chatbots?

AI-powered chatbots make decisions instantly by understanding user questions through Natural Language Processing (NLP). Natural Language Processing in chatbots will help the bots understand the language of users. Chatbots with Artificial Intelligence technology and Natural Language Processing technology interact like real humans. NLP-based chatbots can easily understand what a customer is trying to say. Machine learning technology in AI-powered bots will understand user questions based on previous conversations.

eCommerce site owners don’t have to worry about blunt responses when they implement chatbots with NLP and AI. Chatbot flow in the AI chatbots should have both business goals and user perspectives to encourage the users to take action. NLP-based bots will also enhance customer experience on the eCommerce website.

Also Read: Rule-Based Chatbot vs Conversational AI: Which is Best for eCommerce?

Chatbot Platform

An online business owner should have a framework for their eCommerce store to increase sales organically. There are many chatbot development platforms that provide integrations on different eCommerce sites.

eCommerce site owners should set up a chatbot with multiple integrations to reach out to the customers on different channels. Ochatbot integrates with three big eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify and it is also a Facebook Messenger chatbot. Ochatbot also allows you to train your bot with your business goals and has an easy interface. In this article, let us look into the 7 steps to create effective chatbot flows.

1. Create Conversational Flow Chart- How to Write a Bot Script?

Online business owners should create a conversational flow chart from the perspective of users. Website visitors converse with chatbots to know about the products and services of an eCommerce store. When your chatbot instantly understands and answers users’ questions, customers will find the answers and take action immediately.

When an eCommerce merchant designs a conversational flow chart for the website, they should start it from the user intent. The procedural flow in lead generation bots will help B2B businesses to gain more potential leads with lead qualifying questions. When an eCommerce business owner writes scripts for the chatbots, it should follow the business requirements and boost customer retention.

2. Find Your Target Audience for Chatbot Flows

The first and foremost step an eCommerce business should take is to find a target audience. When online businesses find a target audience for their websites, they can easily optimize the chatbot dialogues based on them.

Let us take for example when you are selling electronics on your online store, you should understand the basic requirements of your website visitor, such as what kind of electronics and how they will be used.  A customer who repairs electronics will be looking for specifically different items than a person looking to buy headphones, for instance. A chatbot should develop a conversation and engage the customers with relevant questions. Understanding the potential customers of an eCommerce site will make the chatbot conversation more real and engaging. Many AI chatbots will also use page targeting strategy i.e., popping up on the product page and asking related questions to sell products to customers.

3. Create Chatbot Flows Diagram

Mapping the ideas that a chatbot should follow is one of the significant things an eCommerce business should start before creating a chatbot conversation. A chatbot should first greet customers and ask them “what they’re looking for?”. The conversations with chatbots should help online business owners to understand customers’ preferences. While creating a chatbot flow diagram, online business owners should keep both purchase intent and user intent in mind.

Test and Tune the Conversation

Now that you’ve created a chatbot conversation, what is the next step? eCommerce businesses should test the conversation and identify whether the flow is efficient and appropriate.

Chatbot conversation flow should not end abruptly. Sometimes, the conversation inside your script might sound good, but when you actually implement it in the eCommerce websites, it may not end well. This is the reason why eCommerce websites should test and tune their conversation before implementing it on the website. The conversations should not sound too mechanical!

Adding Triggers in Conversation:

When chatbots have to perform repetitive tasks, adding triggers in a chatbot flow is the best way to make the customers take action quickly. You can add a trigger and select a dialogue that will drive sales for your website.

4. Bot Persona

While implementing conversational bots on the website, eCommerce site owners should determine the bot persona. A bot personality is significant to make users feel like they are talking to a human agent. Inducing the human persona in the bots will replicate a human agent in the current trend.

Many eCommerce sites use fun bots to converse with trendy dialogue to customers. Determining the gender of the bots is another interesting way to captivate customers. Recent research revealed that the famous bot Alexa’s skill count has increased exponentially last year. Chatbots with Artificial Intelligence technology behind them collect customer data and preferences through the conversational messaging strategy. eCommerce site owners can set a bot persona by giving an interesting name to the bot and determining its gender.

5. Chatbot Objective

When a sales team deals with the customers’ questions, they will ask questions with objectives. If you want to convert your website visitors into customers, your chatbots should tell customers about products with offers and discounts.

Customer engagement is necessary to take them through the sales funnel and complete a purchase. If you are implementing chatbots on B2B sites, your bots should ask lead qualifying questions and collect leads. Chatbots should set appointments quickly for B2B websites and generate leads effectively in the conversation. In the same way, if your eCommerce sites’ goal is to make customers purchase products, your chatbot should develop conversation in a way that intrigues your website visitors to take action.

Chatbot Script – Chatbot Flows

• Greeting the customer: Imagine visiting a physical store and a sales rep welcoming you with warm greetings. How welcoming that would be! In the same way, your chatbots should also welcome customers with messages like ‘Hi there! Welcome, we offer products with a 20% discount’.
• Relevant Answers: A chatbot should give relevant answers to customers’ questions. If a customer is asking questions about a product, chatbots should answer them with conversational texts, images, and videos. Chatbots can also ask effective questions to engage customers in conversation.
• Product Recommendation: Ochatbot uses upsell and cross-sell strategies to recommend products to customers. When a website visitor doesn’t find desired products on the website, chatbots can recommend relevant products and boost sales.
• The clarity in Texts: Chatbots should send messages in a way that users can easily understand. Even if the users ask the same question multiple times, chatbots will answer tirelessly.
• Redirecting to Live Chat: When your customers want to converse with a live chat agent, chatbots should redirect them to the live chat agents.
• Ending the Conversation: As mentioned above, chatbots should end conversations naturally. The conversation with chatbots should replicate human interaction.

Chatbot Script Example: How to Outline a Chatbot Conversation Flow?

6. Learning from User Input

AI chatbots easily understand and answer user questions by learning from previous conversations. On the contrary, customers cannot always get immediate responses from human agents as your website visitors may have to wait for a long time to get their answers. With the user inputs, eCommerce site owners can create user scenarios in the conversation flow.

Chatbots gain decision-making attributes from Artificial Intelligence technology. User inputs play a huge role in instant replies. Apart from user inputs, eCommerce sites can implement chatbots by testing and tuning the conversations. As a result, even if the customer asks complex questions, chatbots will understand how to tackle them.

7. Add Visual Elements

Adding conversational elements like voice notes, videos, and images about your brands and services will trigger an engaging conversation with the customers. By incorporating visual elements in chatbot conversational flow, eCommerce business owners will map out the interactions easily. Chatbots can also use brand emojis to boost the conversation flow.

Chatbots can also present carousels and GIFs in the conversation. If you are planning out a conversation for your eCommerce business, you should first decide whether it should be formal or casual. eCommerce merchants can create conversational flow with a simple diagram by taking every possible conversation into consideration. Adding product offers and discounts in the initial greetings will encourage customers to know more about products. A website chatbot can share discount templates in the conversation and redirect them to the product page.

Building a Chatbot for eCommerce Store

If you want to build a chatbot for your online store, you should first understand its specifications and how it can help your business. The first and foremost step in building a chatbot is finding the type of chatbot you want to implement.

Many successful businesses reduced their support ticket costs with eCommerce chatbots. Implementing AI chatbots is effective compared to rule-based chatbots. As mentioned above, chatbots with Artificial Intelligence technology behind them will handle multiple tasks and reduce the work of your support team. Conversational flow in chatbots is one of the important factors that will create the first impression on your business. The above steps will allow eCommerce businesses to create an effective conversational flow in chatbots. Starting from the welcome message, chatbots can develop a conversation and encourage users to take action in the end.

Bot Builder

Building a bot on the website doesn’t always require excellent coding skills. Ochatbot is a code-free chatbot that provides flexible options for eCommerce sites from letting customers build their own chatbot to building a chatbot by analyzing data for them.

If you don’t want to build a chatbot by yourself, Ochatbot will build you a bot and maintain the chatbot by compiling data from FAQs and survey questions. Maintenance of the chatbot includes educating the bot and defining its goals in the conversation. The support team of Ochatbot will also monitor chatbot activity and rectify errors. If you want to implement a chatbot for your website and reduce additional customer service costs, you should definitely check the amazing pricing plans of Ochatbot.

Final Word

When you are creating a chatbot on your website, the first question you would have is ‘How to create chatbot flows?’. In this article, we have looked into the 7 easy steps to create bot scripts while implementing chatbots on websites. A real-time chat script is significant to provide a personalized experience for the users. Chatbots on websites have various benefits and they work better with Artificial Intelligence technology.

Implementing chatbots on your eCommerce websites is the best way to reduce your additional tasks. Advanced chatbots will allow integration with thousands of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. By integrating chatbots with CRM systems, eCommerce websites will increase operational efficiency. If you want to drive sales of your eCommerce website, adding a bot to your eCommerce website is a good idea!

Suggested Reads:

• Chatbot Survey: How Does a Chatbot Do Market Research?
• How Do Chatbots Qualify Leads for B2B Sites? – Nurturing Leads with LeadBot
• Chatbot vs LiveChat: What is the Difference?
• How to Increase Your Shopify Conversion Rate with AI Chatbots?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a UX design in chatbot flows?

UX design in chatbot conversational flow is nothing but designing a conversation from the perspective of users. Many successful eCommerce businesses increased their sales as customer-centric businesses. Online websites implement chatbots to enhance customer satisfaction, to develop the business around customers, online business owners should keep the target audience in their mind.

Is a chatbot connected to a database?

Yes, chatbots are connected to a database. Chatbots provide information and respond immediately to the users by collecting the information from the database.

What are the main functions of chatbots?

Answering the questions quickly, handling multiple and repetitive questions, and providing customer support are the three main functions of chatbots.

Can I make money using chatbots on websites?

Online business owners spend a lot of money on the support team. If you implement a chatbot on your eCommerce website, it is cost-efficient and you can increase your sales with automated tasks.

What are the famous eCommerce chatbots?

Ochatbot, Hellofresh, Sephora, and Chatfuel are some well-known eCommerce chatbots.