This article will take you through the basic steps of getting your first bot up and running on your website.
During the sign-up process you chose a goal for your bots. Your main dashboard and left hand panel in bot build mode are prefilled with a list of bots serving your goal that are already scripted and fully ready to go! Select one of these bots, click Publish, and the bot will appear on your site! It's that easy.
You can also one of Gobot's prebuilt bot templates. Click here to learn more about using a template.
In the image below we are in bot build mode and a bot is selected in the left-hand panel. The bot script elements are shown in the center panel.
If you want to see your bot run against the backdrop of your website before officially publishing it on your site, click the Test button. Note that you can also customize the look of your bot in test mode and also by accessing the Style tab in Bot Settings or by adjusting the style settings towards the bottom of the Test page, as can be seen in the images below.
You can adjust where your bot appears by clicking on Bot Settings and modifying the URL under "Tell us what website you want your bot to run on". You can also adjust when your bot appears, e.g., only for first time visitors or on particular dates, by clicking on the Triggers tab in Bot Settings. To learn more about the Bot Triggers click here. You can also easily edit the scripts of your pre-built bots to tailor them to your own particular needs. For more information about scripting your bot, click here and check out section no. 15 entitled "Script". Also click here for information about Gobot's right-hand panel, which houses all of your script element options.
Using a pre-built bot to get up and running is awesome but the best way to learn about bot building is to get your hands dirty and build a bot from scratch.
Here are the four basic steps to create a bot:
- CONFIGURE: Enter bot dashboard mode by clicking on the bot icon in the navigation bar. Click on New Bot in the upper right hand corner of your bot dashboard. This will open a form that allows you to name your bot, detail what site it will appear on, and choose exactly when it will appear.
- SCRIPT: Script your bot by writing the questions and answers for your bot. Drag and drop one or more of the squares in the right panel, including text lines, buttons and other tools, into the center panel, and then script to your liking by entering text in the right hand panel. Click here for information about Gobot's right hand panel, which houses all of your script element options. Note that you can reorder your bot script elements in the center panel via drag n' drop.
After dragging the Text button to the center panel (as shown above), you can edit the text line in the right hand panel as can be seen below. As you type the text line in the right hand panel the chat bubble for your bot script is populated in the center panel.
Clicking Save in the right-hand panel restores the right-hand tool palette allowing you to drag additional script elements into your bot script in the center panel.
3. TEST (optional): Click Test to test your bot against the backdrop of your website. In Test mode you can see your bot run without actually publishing it on your website. In the example below we have chosen Google as our website. You can see the Gobot chat window appear in the lower right hand corner of Google's search page with the one text line "Welcome to my website!" we scripted above.
4. PUBLISH: Exit Test mode by clicking Save and Close and then click Publish to publish your bot on your website.
Congrats! Told ya it was easy. The next time someone visits your website they will be greeted by your bot! If you would like to go through the above four steps with a bit more hand holding, click here. Once your bots are up and running, you might want to periodically review your bot chat transcripts and tweak your bot script as necessary. Click here for a discussion about accessing your transcripts. If you want to study your visitors responses to your bots in the aggregate, e.g., survey responses, email conversions, etc., click here to learn more about Gobot analytics.
One final note: if for some reason your bot is not showing changes you made to your script, always try clearing your cookies and running your bot again before reaching out for help!
Happy bot building!
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