How to create a chatbot for free- 5 Simple steps

Want to create a chatbot? That’s a good idea. This powerful tool can take your business to the next level.

That’s why so many businesses are using chatbots to increase efficiency, save costs, and improve customer satisfaction. 

In fact, chatbots can handle 80% of routine customer questions and save up to 30% of the customer care budget. Impressive, right?

What’s more impressive is that creating a chatbot is easier than ever. You can use third-party chatbot platforms and design the perfect chatbot for your business without writing a single line of code.

In this post, we’ll show you how to create a chatbot from scratch in just 5 minutes. 

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How to create a chatbot for free: Follow these 5 steps

Chatbots are the conversational interface that’s changing how you interact with your customers. This simple step-by-step guide will help you launch your own AI agent without any coding. It’s going to be so much fun.

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1. Choose the right chatbot platform

The first thing you have to do is find the right chatbot platform. For that, you need to define your business goals and be clear about why you need a chatbot. 

If you only want to answer basic FAQs, rule-based chatbots would be enough for you. But if you want the bot to be more intelligent and do human-like conversations, you’ll need an AI chatbot.

Also, decide what chatbot features you need. For instance, if you want the bot to support customers with personalized responses, generate leads, and automate sales, you can go for a platform like Chatsimple that supports all those features.

Next, define where you want to integrate the chatbot- your website, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. The chatbot platform should support those integrations.

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2. Train your chatbot

To create a chatbot, the most important step is to teach it about your business. This is what helps the bot provide accurate and helpful responses to your users.

We will take the example of Chatsimple’s AI sales chatbot to understand this better.

So, once you log in to the platform, you have to go to the Training Materials tab.

Here, you can simply paste your website URL and click on Fetch URL. 

Then, you can select website pages you want to use for training purposes and click on Train Selected URLs. 

That’s it. Now, your AI agent will study those pages and learn about your business in and out. You can also use other training options like adding files, sitemaps, or simple text.

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3. Set business goals

Your chatbot is trained, but it doesn’t know what it has to do. And without specific goals, your AI agent is like a lost ship in the vast ocean.

So, to create a chatbot that brings results, you have to give it some goals. It can be anything like scheduling a meeting, visiting a page, watching a demo video, filling out a form, following you on social media, etc.

You can do that by going to the Business Goals tab. Here, you can add your goals in the form of a call to action (CTA).

For instance, if you want to book more sales meetings, you can set a goal like this:

“If users show interest, request to schedule a meeting at [Calendly link].”

Now, the agent will try to drive the conversation to this CTA so that you can have more and more conversions. Cool, right?

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4. Make the chatbot consistent with your brand

Now, we’ll give the chatbot a touch of your brand’s personality.

Let’s start with its appearance. 

Go to the Appearance tab and provide an agent name that reflects your business. 

Upload a profile avatar, which could be your company’s logo or your mascot. Also, customize the chatbot color to align with your brand’s color scheme.

Now, let’s give the chatbot some personality. This will help the chatbot speak your brand voice, and chatting with it will be more engaging and fun. 

Go to the Advanced Tab. Here, you can give your agent a name and character.

For instance, if you have a pet supplies store serving pet owners or you are a fashion brand that sells funky t-shirts, you can give your agent a humorous brand voice. 

Then, Chatsimple will suggest a prompt, which you can edit and save. 

Now, the agent will be funny and make conversations more tempting, helping you increase your website engagement.

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5. Try your chatbot

Now that you have almost made your chatbot, you can see how it responds. 

Just go to the Try My AI Agent tab and throw in some complex questions. This will help you understand where it needs improvement.

If you want a specific change, you can command the chatbot on the Advanced Tab.

Now, you can embed the agent on your website. You just have to paste a code snippet into your website’s HTML file right before the closing body tag. 

You can also integrate the AI agent into platforms like WhatsApp, Gmail, and Facebook Messenger to connect with customers where they are.

Congrats, you just created your first chatbot. Keep checking the dashboard to see how your chatbot is performing. You can also analyze the individual conversations to better understand your customers. 

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Want to go beyond chatbots?

Now, you know how to create a chatbot from scratch. You can use the chatbot to support your customers 24/7 and reach your business goals. 

But what if there’s a tool even better than AI chatbots?

Chatsimple’s AI Nav is a good example that offers all the benefits of chatbots and takes things a step further. 

AI Nav is a sales agent that lives right on your website as a search bar, inviting visitors to type in their questions and get personalized answers. Its bold design encourages people to interact with it, boosting engagement and conversions.

This AI-powered sales agent is a master of sales. It can find new leads, promote your products, schedule meetings, and even find chances to upsell existing customers.

So now, you can automate your sales process and increase profits. Visit this page to learn more about AI Nav.

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