If you're looking to build a chatbot for your business, you're probably considering hiring a developer who can bring your vision to life. But if you don't have a technical background, it can be hard to know where to start. Don't worry — we've got your back! Here are some tips on how to find the right developer for your chatbot project.
Table of Contents
- Understand What Kind of Chatbot You Need and Why
- Prepare Your Content
- Make Use of Freelance Websites
- Build a Chatbot Yourself with No-Code Tools
- Conclusion
Understand What Kind of Chatbot You Need and Why
Before beginning the search for a developer, it's important to understand what kind of chatbot you need and the features that it should have. The more detailed you can be about the requirements of the project, the easier it will be for potential developers to provide an accurate quote. Understanding exactly what type of chatbot you need will help narrow down your search and make sure you find someone with experience in that particular area. So, here are some tips on how to figure out exactly what you need:
Choose a Channel
You need to understand which channel you want to deploy your chatbot on. It can be a website, or a messenger like Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger.
Decide on The Type of Chatbot You Need
Choose between two general types of chatbots:
Rule-based — these bots can't understand what your customers say, since their workflow is based on a pre-defined set of rules. They are equipped with Quick Response buttons that allow visitors to communicate with the bot. If you need to handle just simple conversations, such as providing FAQ answers or product information, a rule-based chatbot is all you need.
AI-driven — such bots are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies. They can recognize your customers' intents conveyed through free text and give a proper reply. AI chatbots can be equipped with Quick Response buttons too, that's why sometimes they are referred to as hybrid chatbots.
Define Your Chatbot's Purpose
You should have a clear idea of why you need a chatbot, and what marketing tasks it will have to perform. We define five marketing purposes:
- Boosting Engagement and Sales
- Segmenting Traffic
- 24/7 customer interaction
- Providing data for analysis
- Lead qualification
Of course, nothing prevents you from creating a superchatbot that will perform all these tasks.
Give Your Chatbot a Character
And the last thing — to decide on your chatbot's character, its tone-and-voice. Of course, a chatbot can be a neutral, soulless machine. But it's much better if its personality resonates with your customers.
When you have decided on all of the above, write a brief for the developer. The more clearly you convey to the developer what exactly you want, the higher the likelihood that they will
create the chatbot of your dreams.
Prepare Your Content
Be ready to provide the developer with content for the chatbot as much as possible. For instance, if you're ordering a FAQ bot, then prepare a list of questions and answers. However, don't worry if you don't know exactly which phrases to load into your bot. A qualified, experienced developer will help you figure this out.
Make Use of Freelance Websites
Search for a chatbot developer on freelance websites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com — these sites offer access to thousands of experienced developers from around the world who are available for hire at competitive rates. On these sites, you can easily browse through profiles and portfolios until you find someone whose skills match your needs.
Benefits of hiring a freelance chatbot developer:
- You can save money as freelancers often have lower costs than traditional employees, and may offer competitive rates for their services
- Freelancers can bring a fresh perspective to a project. This can help ensure that the final product, i.e. your chatbot, aligns with the latest trends
- Hiring freelancers can offer flexibility as they are often available to work on short-term or project-based arrangements, which can help you with changing needs or unforeseen workloads
- Freelancing itself gives you an opportunity to work with top-notch talents from anywhere in the world, breaking down geographical barriers
It seems like hiring a freelancer is a big plus, isn't it? Now let's have a look at the downsides:
- Due to the nature of freelancing, there can be less control over the work of the developer, which may result in a lack of communication or missed deadlines
- There may also be concerns about quality control
- Freelancers may not have the same level of dedication to a project as a full-time employee, and may also be less invested in building and maintaining relationships with your business
- There can be a risk of confidentiality issues, especially if handling sensitive data
But hold on a second. Maybe you can build a chatbot yourself?
Build a Chatbot Yourself with No-Code Tools
Actually, you can make a chatbot on your own using TruVISIBILITY’s Chat application. And that's better than hiring a developer. Here's why it's so:
- Cost-effective. Hiring a developer can be quite costly, especially if you are looking for a custom-made chatbot.
- Flexibility. No-code tools can offer a high level of flexibility, as you can easily modify the chatbot to fit your requirements without having to go back to the developer.
- Learning experience. Building a chatbot on your own using no-code tools is a great learning experience, allowing you to gain insights into the process and principles of chatbot development
But is it hard to create a chatbot with TruVISIBILITY's Chat application? Not at all! Chatbots are now easy to build! No coding or programming knowledge is required as all the job is done inside a visual drag-and-drop editor. In addition, we offer you templates, so you don't have to create your chatbot from scratch. However, starting from scratch is also possible.
With TruVISIBILITY's Chat, you can build both rule-based and AI-driven chatbots. If you are not sure what type of chatbot suits you, just start with a simple one and upgrade it later as you grow. It is also possible to integrate live chat so that your chatbot could pass the conversation to a live agent.
What else can TruVISIBILITY's chatbots do?
- Work with spreadsheets
- Integrate with third-party software through the API
The pricing is very simple, it's based on usage over the free monthly allotment. Thus it is extremely affordable for small to medium businesses. You can adjust the number of conversations your chatbots can have, the number of emails and SMS that can be sent per month, the number of websites you can deploy, and the capacity of your cloud storage. Simple and flexible!
Conclusion
Hiring a developer for your chatbot project doesn't have to be difficult or overwhelming — there are plenty of options out there! However, before placing an order with a freelancer, you should learn the basics of chatbot science and be clear about your needs so that everything runs smoothly and efficiently once development begins.
But it's even better to just make a chatbot yourself, with the help of TruVISIBILITY's Chat. Thus you will save money, have the opportunity to tweak your bot as you wish and when you wish, and get an amazing experience or chatbot development!
Still not sure whether you should hire a random guy to help you with business or just do things on your own? Just sign up with a freemium TruVISIBILITY account and try building your chatbot!
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