I am not a bot, so please ask me anything

I've been called a few things in my time but this is the first time I've been called a bot and a b*tch in the same week.

I've never really thought of our chat system on our website and inside our platform as a "bot" but this week I learned that others do.

At the time I just thought it was some unpleasant person at the other end messing with me but now I'm assuming the person on the other end from Oakland wasn't expecting an actual answer because they thought they were talking with a bot.

Then I had a really good chat with a new customer about her setup and how we could help with a few things. She just happened to ask me whether the chat bubble inside the platform was a bot or not. She hadn't really used it yet because although the messages were coming from me she wasn't sure whether it was the best way to get in touch with us, so instead, we'd been chatting over email.

Then I thought way back in the day when I had my first experience with a chat system on a website. A little hello popped up and I actually asked the question "Is this a real person?". At the time I don't even think I knew what a bot was, I just figured it was all too clever to be a real person talking to me at the other end.

Anyway, I thought I'd take the time to explain our the messaging system works so our existing and potential new customers don't miss the opportunity to ask us when the need help or have questions.

Firstly I don't want to turn this into a debate about what constitutes a bot and what doesn't, I'll leave that argument to the propellor heads. Some of the initial messages happen automatically but I'm at the other end to reply. Bot's will typically carry out a conversation on their own using artificial intelligence where as we are the ones who decide what the initial messages are and reply to them all manually.

Back when we first started Training Tilt we had no easy way of talking with our customers. We had email, but that can be slow and cumbersome to go back and forth and it could take days of emails before our customers got the information they needed.

We wanted our customers to be able to ask for help easily, but we also wanted to be able to help them proactively.

Some things we wanted to achieve.

• If a customer had a question we wanted them to be able to ask it without going to their email inbox.
• If a new customer signed up we wanted to send them some messages to welcome them and help them get setup. There are a lot of features in Training Tilt and it can be overwhelming without guidance.
• If someone visited a page for the first time we wanted to message them and tell them about the page they were on while they were on it so they had some help getting started.
• If someone used a feature in the platform we wanted to thank them and ask their opinion on their experience.
• If someone hadn't used a really good feature (in our opinion) after a while wanted to suggest to them to try it.
• If someone visited our website and had a question we wanted them to be able to ask it quickly.
• We wanted to be able to say hi to everyone who visits our website, that's what they do at stores and restaurants. It's polite, so why should it be different on a website?

We stumbled on a new platform called Intercom, probably inside of another software platform we subscribe too (I don't remember which one as we have dozens we use to run the business).  Intercom looked like it would do all these things for us! phew! I was stressing about how we were going to build all that on our own. When building software when to build and when to buy is one of the most important types of decisions we make. This was a good one. It freed us up to build more features that our customers wanted.

....Insert long pause here while I chat using Intercom

Had to take a long break from writing this blog just now. Had a good long chat using intercom with someone with lots of really good questions about Training Tilt and how it might be able to help his business. We know some of the same people even though he's on another continent. It was a great chat, and whether or not Steve (not his real name) signs up or not, the chat feature is something we'd never do without. It makes things personal (unlike bots) and we love that.

....back to the blog. I am not a bot!

In an increasingly impersonal online business world the ability to have personal conversations and develop real and long lasting relationships can be rare. The software platforms I like to use the most are the ones where I have a little chat bubble in the corner and I know that Ruariri from Intercom, Kelly or Janine from Support Crew, Josh from Baremetrics or Erik from Refersion are only a quick mouse click and a few keyboard strokes away. They won't always be there to answer me straight away but I know a reply will come soon enough.

I'd love for all of my customers to feel the same way about the chat bubble in the corner of this screen too and the one that our coaches see while they are logged into the platform. Got a question about how to do something? having some issues? need help with marketing? or just want to reach out and say hi? Then please use the bubble and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Chat beats email any day of the week.