Ever since Facebook released its Messenger API in April 2016, developers and marketers from all around the world rushed to use it for creating chatbots to hook into their Facebook pages and into those of their clients.
As you already know - otherwise you wouldn’t be here… ;-) - this tool has already garnered a huge success and it is being used with great results (in terms of leads collected, additional revenue generated and money saved in first-level customer care) by an extremely large number of businesses of all sizes, from real estate agents to small restaurants, local web agencies and big brands like Lego or 1-800-Flowers - and many more.
If you want to create a Messenger chatbot there are currently two ways to do that:
- Use the Facebook API and write all of the bot code from scratch using the programming language you prefer and know best - there are bots written in PHP, Python, Java, C++ and others
- Use a chatbot platform like the one we have created, Chatbots Builder, and build all the replies/triggers and “intelligence” that powers the bot with an online interface
While creating a bot from the ground up has some advantages - in particular you can implement it exactly as you like - using a platform is often a much better solution for having a reliable, complete and powerful chatbot - easily and quickly.
If you keep reading you will discover 5 solid reasons why using an online system for creating (and possibly re-selling) your chatbots is the best thing you can do to start engaging users and prospects with this tool - and offer this same product to your clients.
1. It’s simpler
This is a no brainer. Even if you are an experienced developer, dealing with Facebook Messenger API is not an easy task and you need to always be prepared for edge cases, potential bugs and complex algorithms. Unless you really need something extremely custom - but we’ll see later on that we got you covered also in this case - using a platform like Chatbots Builder is as easy as creating a website with an online tool like Wordpress or managing email campaigns with something like Mailchimp.
2. It’s faster
In addition to being much easier, using a platform for building your chatbot allows you to be online and live much more quickly. Since you don’t have to deal with developers (or you don’t need to constantly be fixing bugs or applying patches and maintaining your codebase) you can focus all your energies on the contents, funnels and overall architecture of the bot, deploying and testing immediately any changes you will make and any new feature / reply you will add.
3. It’s cheaper
This is another easy one: since you don’t have to hire a developer or spend time coding the bot yourself, using a platform is much cheaper and empowers you to produce a positive ROI a lot more easily and quickly for you or your clients. If you check out the market rates, slightly custom chatbots now cost at least $1,500 and up so you see how much you can save by sacrificing a bit of customization while still having a reliable, effective and powerful result.
4. It’s reliable
A chatbot is essentially a software that “hooks” into a page and listens to calls made by Facebook every time somebody sends a message to that page. This means that this software needs to be always available and reachable, hosted on secure servers and ready to withstand bursts in traffic - and I guess you already know or can imagine how complex all this is. Being able to outsource such a heavy burden means saving on costs and worries and being able to focus exclusively on your core business.
5. It’s future proof
The final advantage of using a chatbots builder platform is that you can relax and never have to worry about possible changes in the APIs, future technologies or new requirements. If you use a professional and reliable system like Chatbots Builder you know that the team running it will always keep it up to date with the latest developments, adapting and managing improvements and changes before they could affect your service.
In addition to this, the developers at Chatbots Builder are always available for custom requirements such as integrating with specific databases or CRMs or developing specific triggers and interactions. This way, you will always get the best of both worlds - a reliable, outsourced and fully-managed platform AND custom developments for increasing even more your users engagement on Messenger and offering even more value to your clients.