Introduction 

In today's digital world, businesses need to be where their customers are - online. An important way to engage and support customers online is through chatbots. Freshdesk chat bot offers a powerful, user-friendly chatbot builder that helps companies provide 24/7 automated customer support on their website, app or messaging platform.

What is a Chatbot?

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) system that simulates human conversation through text or voice interactions. Chatbots are used in customer service to provide quick answers to frequently asked questions and perform simple tasks like checking order status, scheduling appointments etc.

Chatbots can be based on rules or artificial neural networks. Rule-based chatbots follow predefined rules and keywords to understand requests and give relevant responses. AI-powered neural chatbots are more advanced and can understand natural language, have conversations and complete tasks.

Benefits of Chatbots

Here are some of the key benefits of using chatbots:

• 24/7 availability - Chatbots can engage customers anytime, anywhere without staffing limitations. They take over conversations seamlessly after hours.
• Fast response times - Chatbots provide instant responses compared to human agents who may take a few minutes to reply to queries.
• Increased efficiency - Chatbots save human effort by handling common and repeat queries. Agents can focus on solving complex issues.
• Consistent information - Chatbots are programmed to give the same accurate answers repeatedly ensuring a consistent customer experience.
• Scalability - Chatbot interactions can be scaled up or down easily to meet changing customer demands.
• Multilingual support - Chatbots can be programmed to support conversations in multiple languages making them ideal for global businesses.
• Valuable customer insights - Data from chatbot conversations provides insights into frequently asked questions, customer pain points, keyword usage etc.

Key Features of Freshdesk Chatbot

Freshdesk provides a powerful chatbot builder with various capabilities to create AI-powered chatbots. Here are some key features:

Drag and Drop Bot Building

The visual drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for anyone to build, edit and test chatbots without coding. Various blocks for messages, questions, conditions, variables etc can simply be dragged and arranged.

Conversation Flow Management

Complex bot workflows are simplified through an intuitive flowchart style interface to visualize and manage conversations as sequence of events.

Bot Training

The bot can be trained with sample conversations comprising questions and ideal responses. This training data is used to improve its understanding.

Integration with Channels

Once built, the Freshdesk chatbot can be seamlessly integrated with your website, mobile app, Facebook page and other messaging platforms.

Customer Handover

When the bot is unable to answer a customer query, the conversation can be seamlessly handed over to a live agent for further resolution.

Analytics and Reporting

The bot builder provides insightful reports on chatbot usage, conversations, resolving rates and more to continually improve the customer experience.

Omnichannel Conversations

Customers can switch between various channels like your website, app, WhatsApp etc while continuing the same conversation with the bot.

Role-based Access Control

User roles and permissions can be assigned to allow collaboration between multiple bot authors, testers, admins etc for large enterprises.

API Integrations

Webhooks and APIs allow integrating the chatbot with internal tools like CRM, support desk, ERP for unified customer data and workflows.

HIPAA Compliance

For privacy-sensitive industries like healthcare, the chatbot builder allows creating HIPAA compliant bots meeting necessary data security standards.

Cloud-based Infrastructure

The chatbot is hosted on secure and reliable AWS infrastructure instead of your own servers for maximum uptime and scalability.

Building a Chatbot with Freshdesk

Let us go through the simple steps to create your first conversational chatbot on Freshdesk:

1. Sign up for Freshdesk

First, sign up on Freshdesk to create your free account. Subscribe to the appropriate pricing plan later based on usage and requirements.

2. Create a New Bot

Go to the bot management section and click Create Bot. Give your bot a name and choose the channels you wish to deploy it on.

3. Build the Conversation Flow

Use the visual interface to build your conversation flow. Drag and drop various blocks to design dialogues, questions and logic.

4. Train the Bot

Upload sample conversations with customer questions and ideal responses. This training data will teach your bot to handle similar questions.

5. Test the Bot

Do thorough testing by having conversations with your bot and simulating customer queries. Refine the bot flow based on results.

6. Deploy the Bot

Finally integrate the tested chatbot with your live website, Facebook page or other channels to start serving customers.

7. Analyze Performance

Review chatbot analytics on key metrics like conversations, resolving rates, customer feedback etc. to identify areas for improvement.

Chatbot Use Cases

Here are some common use cases and scenarios where Freshdesk’s chatbots can be utilized:

Customer Support

Service chatbots can handle common support queries on order status, shipping, returns, refunds etc. freeing up agents for complex issues.

Lead Generation

Sales chatbots can qualify leads by asking questions and route promising prospects to sales reps.

FAQ Answering

FAQ chatbots respond to frequently asked questions on your products, services, business hours etc.

Appointment Scheduling

Bots can help customers easily book appointments, classes, reservations etc automatically.

Survey Administration

Quickly gather customer opinions and feedback through intuitive conversational surveys.

Event Registration

Allow attendees to register for webinars, workshops and other events via automatic chatbots.

Product Recommendations

Suggest relevant products and services to shoppers based on past purchases and preferences.

Onboarding Assistance

Guide new users through account signup, product tutorials, onboarding workflows etc.

24/7 Support

Seamlessly continue conversations after hours using bots integrated with messaging apps.

As seen above, chatbots have diverse applications across industries to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.

Advantages of Freshdesk Chatbot

Here are some notable benefits of choosing Freshdesk chat bot for your business chatbot needs:

• Intuitive visual interface minimizes bot development time
• Omnichannel delivery lets you engage customers on any platform
• Seamless handover to agents for complex queries
• Consolidated platform also provides helpdesk, call centers etc.
• Availability of live support to troubleshoot issues
• Role-based access for easier team collaboration
• HIPAA compliant bots for sensitive data security
• Powerful analytics dashboard to track ROI and usage
• Scalable underlying cloud infrastructure managed by Freshdesk

So in summary, Freshdesk makes it easy for any organization to quickly create intelligent chatbots, deploy them across engagement channels and continually improve them using data insights.

Conclusion

Chatbots are becoming critically important for brands to engage and support the modern digital customer. Freshdesk offers an enterprise-grade and user-friendly chatbot builder to help companies stay competitive.

Key features like omnichannel delivery, handovers to human agents and analytics allow you to create seamless conversational experiences. Intuitive visual interfaces mean no coding skills are required.

Whether you wish to improve customer service, generate more leads or drive greater marketing ROI, Freshdesk chatbots are a smart choice. Sign up today to start delighting your customers with automated yet human-like conversations 24/7.