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If you work in customer service, you know firsthand how challenging it is to meet high customer expectations. Customers expect timely responses and quality answers, but as your customer base grows and they engage through multiple channels, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up.
Simply expanding your service team isn’t a viable solution — you need to scale support and service efficiently. This is where the Flowbot steps in, offering a smarter way to handle repetitive tasks and streamline your customer service operations.
Surprisingly, only 33% of service managers believe their team members can easily find the information necessary to help customers. This statistic highlights a critical issue: the need for better tools to support your team. The flowbot is designed to improve customer service by automating routine tasks, ensuring your team has easy access to the information they need, and ultimately enhancing the customer experience.
What is a Flowbot?
A flowbot is a specialised type of bot that uses predefined rules and flowcharts to simulate conversations with customers. Unlike traditional bots that attempt to understand and respond to open-ended questions, flowbots guide users through a series of structured interactions, often using multiple-choice options.
This makes it easier for customers to get the information they need and also ensures consistency and accuracy in responses.
💡 Learn more about the differences between chatbots and flowbots in our previous blog.
General functionality of a Flowbot
Flowbots operate based on a set of predefined rules or a flowchart-driven design, allowing them to handle repetitive and straightforward tasks.
For example, they can:
- Direct customers to the right team
- Provide answers to frequently asked questions
- Facilitate self-service options
- Schedule appointments or reservations
- Process simple transactions or payments
- Collect customer feedback
- Assist with troubleshooting common issues
- Guide customers through product or service usage
- Send automated follow-up messages
This flow-based automation significantly reduces the workload on human agents and increases overall efficiency.
Key features of Flowbots
1. Intuitive user interface
Flowbots are designed with an intuitive user interface that requires no programming experience. This makes it easy for your customer service team to set up and customise its Flowbots without needing any technical programming knowledge.
Features like drag-and-drop functionality allow for quick and simple adjustments to your Flowbot's workflow, ensuring it meets the specific needs of your business and its customers. For example, a restaurant can set up a flowbot to handle reservations or manage order inquiries. This relieves the in-house team from these tasks and gives them more time to deliver more personable and quality service to the restaurant's customers.
2. Customisation options
Flowbots should give you a wide range of customisation settings, including:
- Response Paths: setting up different responses based on customer selections.
- Language Options: providing multilingual support to cater to diverse customer bases.
- Personalised Messages: customising messages based on customer data and preferences.
- Integration Capabilities: connecting with various CRM systems to update customer records automatically.
For instance, a flowbot can be customised to handle specific types of customer inquiries, such as billing issues or product returns, by setting up different response paths based on the customer's selections.
3. Automation capabilities
One of the standout features of Flowbots is their ability to automate tasks. Flowbots can easily handle a variety of customer service processes, freeing up valuable time for customer service teams to focus on more complex issues.
For example, a Flowbot can:
- Automatically Update Customer Records: Ensuring all interactions are logged and up-to-date in the CRM system without requiring manual input from agents.
- Manage Appointment Scheduling: Booking, confirming, and reminding customers about appointments.
- Process Payments: Handling secure transactions for orders or services.
- Send Automated Follow-up Messages: Ensuring customers receive timely updates and follow-ups on their inquiries or orders.
- Direct Inquiries: Routing customers to the appropriate department based on their needs.
Benefits of using flowbots
Flowbots can greatly benefit your customer service operations, making them more efficient and improving customer experience. Here's how:
Increased productivity
Flowbots automate repetitive tasks, allowing your team to focus on complex issues. For instance, they can automatically update customer profiles in your CRM or customer engagement platform, eliminating manual data entry.
According to a Deloitte survey, 26% of customer service leaders see automating processes to eliminate repetitive tasks as one of the top opportunities to reduce customer service costs. A process automation bot streamlines operations and boosts efficiency which brings overall costs down.
Improved customer experience
Flowbots ensure faster and more personalised responses to customer inquiries. For example, a Flowbot can handle reservations and confirm details with customers automatically in a restaurant. This reduces wait times and improves satisfaction. This type of guided conversation bot directs customers to where they want to, giving them correct responses without waiting for a human to be accessible to respond.
Enhanced team efficiency
Flowbots reduce the monotony of repetitive tasks, making work more engaging for your employees. In a travel agency, flowbots can handle itinerary planning, allowing agents to focus on personalised travel experiences, which are more creative and interesting. A workflow automation bot, therefore, enables your team to engage in more meaningful tasks, which helps them have a more enjoyable time at work.
Operational excellence
Flowbots streamline processes and reduce handovers, increasing overall efficiency. For example, in a car repair shop, a Flowbot can manage payment conversations and follow-up reminders. The team ends up using rule-driven automation and sequential chatbots, which allow them to get on with other work with the confidence that talks are being well-managed by the flowbot and also reduce the possibility of human error.
Cost efficiency
Flowbots can lead to huge cost savings by automating tasks, modernising IT infrastructure, and advancing self-service solutions. A hospitality business can use flowbots to handle booking inquiries and follow-ups, reducing the need for a larger team. This allows you to save money and scale customer care without increasing headcount.
How to use Flowbots for a consumer service business
Restaurant: reservations
In restaurants, flowbots can handle reservation bookings. For example, a Flowbot can guide customers through available time slots, confirm reservations, and send automated reminders, reducing the workload on your staff and the possibility of booking errors.
Travel Agency: planning
For travel agencies, flowbots can assist with itinerary planning. They can gather customer preferences, suggest travel options, and provide itineraries. This lets your travel agents focus on customising travel experiences while the Flowbot handles routine inquiries and updates. Ultimately, this means each customer gets a better trip tailored to their needs and likes and enjoys their journey much more.
Car Repair Shop: payment conversations
In car repair shops, flowbots can streamline payment processes. They can provide customers with detailed invoices, process payments, and send confirmation receipts. This automation reduces human error and frees up staff to concentrate on technical repairs and more complex customer service.
Popular Flowbot tool for businesses
A prime example of a no-code Flowbot is Trengo's solution, as used by Ferryscanner, a Greece-based search and booking engine for ferry conversation. When customers contact Ferryscanner via WhatsApp, the Flowbot first collects basic information such as the customer's name, country, and booking code. This initial interaction streamlines the process, saving the customer and the customer service team member time.
On Ferryscanner’s website, customers can initiate a WhatsApp chat through a website widget. The flowbot then asks for the customer's name and email address and provides multiple assistance options.
Once the customer selects an option, the flowbot directs them to the appropriate agent who can handle their specific inquiry. This rule-based chatbot approach ensures efficient customer service by reducing the repetitive task of collecting basic information, allowing agents to focus on more complex customer needs.
How to implement a Flowbot in your workflow
Implementing a Flowbot in your customer service workflow is easier than you might think. Many tools like Trengo don't require coding knowledge and have drag-and-drop interfaces that make them simple to set up. Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up a Flowbot using Trengo’s platform:
Step-by-step guide to setting Up a Trengo Flowbot
1. Choose your channel
Decide which communication channels you want to add the flowbot to. Trengo’s Flowbot can be used on some text
- SMS
- Facebook Messenger
- Telegram
- Website chat
- Google Business Messages
2. Define your flow
Determine what tasks you want your flowbot to handle. This could include some text
- FAQs
- Self-service options
- Directing customers to the right team
- Collecting basic customer information.
3. Create your Flowbot
- Log into your Trengo account and navigate to the Flowbot setup section. Create a new flowbot and give it a name that reflects its purpose.
4. Set up starting point
- Define the starting point of your Flowbot. This is where the customer interaction begins, such as a greeting message or an initial question.
5. Add steps and content
- Add various steps that include different types of content between the start and end points. You can add text, images, or files to provide information or ask questions. For example, you might ask for the customer's name and booking details.
6. Use Flowbot buttons
- Implement Flowbot buttons to guide customers through the flow. Each button should have a clear label (Button text) and a designated next step (Selected step). For example, a button might say "Check Reservation" and lead to a step that asks for booking details.
7. Define actions
- Set up actions that the Flowbot will take at the end of the conversation. Regular actions might include attaching labels to tickets or adding customers to contact groups. Ending actions could be marking the ticket as new, closing the ticket, or forwarding it to an email address.
8. Test your Flowbot
Before going live, test the Flowbot to ensure it works how you want it to. Make sure all steps and actions are correctly set up and that the flow provides a smooth and coherent customer experience.
For more detailed guidance, check out Trengo’s help centre article on The Flowbot Explained.
Best practices for using Flowbots
You'd like the Flowbot to help you in your work, not spend a lot of time working on the Flowbot. So I'm sharing some tips to keep your Flowbot in top shape:
- Monitor performance:
Review performance metrics such as response times, accuracy rates, and customer satisfaction scores regularly to identify areas where the flowbot may need adjustments or improvements.
For example, suppose you notice that customers frequently escalate to human staff for a particular issue. In that case, you can refine the Flowbot’s responses or add more detailed information to address that specific concern.
- Map out the customer journey
Before implementing a Flowbot, it's crucial to map out the entire customer journey and identify critical touchpoints where the Flowbot can add value. This involves understanding the different stages a customer goes through, from initial contact to post-service follow-up.
Determine where a Flowbot can handle routine inquiries, provide self-service options, or direct customers to the appropriate resources. By strategically placing the Flowbot at these touchpoints, you ensure it enhances the customer experience without disrupting the service flow.
- Personalise interactions
Personalisation is key to making interactions with a Flowbot feel more engaging and relevant. Use customer data to tailor the flowbot’s responses. For example, greet returning customers by name and offer products based on their previous interactions or purchase history.
- Train your team
Ensure your customer service team is well-versed in how the Flowbot operates and how to handle escalations from the bot to team members. Provide training sessions that cover the Flowbot’s functionality, common issues it can resolve, and the process for taking over from the bot when necessary.
This training should also include interpreting Flowbot analytics to gain insights into customer behaviour and identify opportunities for further optimisation. Empowering your team with this knowledge ensures a seamless integration between automated and human-assisted customer service.
You don’t have to be a developer to build a Flowbot
Flowbots enhance customer service by automating repetitive tasks, improving efficiency, and providing fast, personalised responses. Implementing and maintaining a flowbot using best practices ensures higher productivity, customer satisfaction, and seamless integration with your team’s workflow.
Building your own Flowbot doesn’t have to be complex. With Trengo, you can develop your own no-code bot without using a single line of code.
You can start a free demo today to see how fast and easy it is to build a bot in Trengo. If you need help, our team is always ready to support you.
