In this article, we cover how to start conversations on your website using the MessageDesk chatbot.
Watch the full video below or keep reading:
How the MessageDesk Chatbot Works
The MessageDesk chatbot lets you start SMS conversations with your website visitors
Customizing the Chatbot
The Messagedesk chatbot consists of 3 elements:
All 3 elements can be customized by navigating to "Campaigns" -> "Chatbot" -> "Edit Chatbot" in MessageDesk.
The Welcome Message (Unopened State)
Once the chatbot is added to your website, the "Welcome Message" will appear at the bottom right corner.
The Welcome Message, image, and chatbot icon can all be customized based on your preferences.
It will look something like this:
The Opened State
When visitors click on the chatbot they will see the "Opened State"
The Open state contains:
A heading
A form
A submit button
All of these can be customized to meet your branding and desired messaging requirements.
The Chatbot Form
You can collect information from your visitors using the Chatbot. You have full control over which information you collect and the order it's presented in.
This way you can customize your chatbot experience to your liking 👍
Form Submission State
This is what the contact sees after they submit the form on the chatbot. You can change the message text by editing it in Step 2 of the chatbot edit sequence.
How to Put the Chatbot on Your Website
To put the MessageDesk Chatbot on your website you'll need to access to your website developer or the platform your website is currently built on.
First, go into MessageDesk -> Chatbot and go to step 4 "Installation". Here you'll see a <script></script> tag that can be embedded directly onto your website.
Your Web developer will know what to do with this, just copy the script tag and send it to them via email or invite them to your MessageDesk account as a user.
If you don't have a web developer and instead rely on CMS platforms like Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress or others - I've linked how-to guides for how to manually put the chatbot on your website.
Starting Conversations with the Chatbot
Every time visitors submit your website chatbot the following happen:
A contact in MessageDesk is created or updated
A message is sent to the contact automatically
Contacts will receive an immediate SMS from your MessageDesk phone number once a chatbot is submitted.
What it looks like in MessageDesk:
What it looks like for your Contact:
Show Chatbot Submissions in the Inbox
Anytime the chatbot is submitted, the following will happen:
The "message" entered by your contact will appear in the Inbox.
The automatic reply sent to the contact will appear in the Inbox.
The details of all Chatbot Submissions will be logged as comments.
