on boarding tips for your slack bot
TRANSCRIPT
On boarding tips for your Slack bot
My name is Keith Armstrong. I work at Abe.ai
Building a bot is easy. Introducing your bot is harder.
Active users of your bot is the hardest.
Slack is making app submission
super easy.
April 2016
Bot Discovery
(how people find out about your bot)
Cool bot, no users …
How does a team know
about your bot?
April 2016
Your bot has options …
DM this is where upon
integration, your bot will automatically send a direct message to all Slack team members.
User Exposure this is when other Slack
team members adopt your bot and expose to
other Slack team members happens
naturally through usage.
Bot Intro this is how your bot shows
it has joined a #channel, through automatically
generated activity or an actual introduction from
the bot itself.
Make it easy for the Slack admin or owner
to share
Nice post-integration
CTA
April 2016
Bots will be listed in
#channels
April 2016
Conversational Copy
(how your bot is scripted to talk)
Several people are typing …
It’s a cool moment in the world of design where words rule all, arguably called “conversation UI”, so your bot’s first words
matter a whole lot.
Use the following guidelines to carefully consider the words you choose for the first moment of interaction between your
bot and users.
Your first message should always define context.
Your bot should explain who turned them on, who they are, what they do, and why they are
messaging the user.
Make sure to provide tutorials.
Your bot’s command lines and functionality are not seared into a user’s brain yet, and users might not know
your bot can even process natural language requests.
There will be an initial period of bot-to-user education taking place. Make sure your early messages contain links or instructions on how to actually use your bot.
I like how @statsbot
segments “help”
May 2016
You’re bot will need to earn a user’s attention.
Unless your bot is adopted by other team members or made mandatory to use, there’s a strong possibility the user won’t engage with your bot the first time around.
Each message sent from your bot should build credibility and offer direct value. Make sure you clearly
explain how your bot makes life easier, experiment with real-world testimonials of existing users.
Be honest about what your bot doesn’t understand or can’t do.
If you’re a new and untested bot, the odds of you passing the Turing test aren’t great.
In the beginning, your bot will need to control the conversation.
Your Bot should give a very specific call-to-action with each message if they are requesting information
from the user.
