BotsCrew

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CEO of StarTalers, a B2C FinTech company that’s developing a robo-advisor for helping women gain ownership of their finances and invest sustainably. We have small teams based in Luxembourg and Brussels and were founded a year ago. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We wanted to develop a chatbot messenger, but we didn’t have a CTO at the time, so we didn’t have a tech profile per se. We tried building the chatbot with an external provider, but that basically led nowhere. That vendor was more into apps and website development and was struggling to deploy a functioning bot. We decided to stop working with them and look for a specialist in chatbot development, which is where BotsCrew came in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BotsCrew handles hosting for our chatbot and has developed a number of versions so far. I believe we’re on the sixth version of the chatbot now, which is linked to our Facebook page and is called Donna. It’s a female bot that provides videos, blog articles, and quick quizzes to our users to get them familiar with financial education. People can use it to learn the main concepts through a prescribed learning journey that has been gamified.

BotsCrew has helped us make sure that our conversational flows are smooth and chatbot-friendly. We provided our first specs and they used their expertise from a marketing perspective to determine what worked best—whether certain sentences were too long or whether there were too many steps. They were basically iterating on our initial specifications to come up with a result that they felt was more impactful for the business goals we had.

They’ve also assisted with the design of the screens and buttons, namely the images put in the cards that the chatbot displays on Messenger. Furthermore, their team gives us advice on what’s the best and simplest way to move forward with the functions we want to implement. For instance, the videos have a logical order, but we wanted to give the user the ability to review some of those based on the results of their quizzes. BotsCrew suggested a way of showing a library of videos to users so that they can pick the one related to the content they just clicked on.

BotsCrew has its own platform that we can access online. I have access to an admin panel, which is basically the only interaction I’ve had with the development. The team used Node.js for connecting the bot with Facebook Messenger.

What is the team composition?

We’ve only worked with their business development manager but also have access to the rest of the team through a Slack channel. They assigned us a developer, a graphic designer, and a UI/UX expert.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

They were recommended by another entrepreneur in Belgium that had previously collaborated with them in building a Messenger chatbot. BotsCrew was fast in answering our requests and very straightforward in understanding our needs and answering them. We quickly did a proof of concept with them, which was delivered in less than three weeks.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far has been €15,000 (approximately $16,621 USD). We have a running budget for hosting of €200–€250 per month (approximately $222–$277 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The main development work lasted from late February to late June of 2019. We’ve had a number of releases with a number of functionalities being deployed. Right now, they’re maintaining and hosting the bot for us and we message them on Slack whenever there’s an issue or bug, which they usually fix quickly. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

From getting a proposal until the release of the first version of the chatbot, there was literally a period of only three and a half weeks. That was a key success factor for us because we wanted to release the chatbot in time for Women’s Rights Day. We had a lot of trouble with the previous provider and were really stuck. BotsCrew managed to deliver a great product in a very short period of time.

They’ve been running bi-weekly sprints since then, sticking to a new release every two weeks. They always meet deadlines. We have around 350 users on the platform now. The chatbot was down at one point, and we didn’t know whether it was because of our platform or because of Facebook. It was late at night, but I called BotsCrew and they were very responsive, which I really appreciated.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very reliable from a project management perspective. We use Slack for communication as well as Skype calls. They’re proactive in connecting with us once or twice a month to see if everything is working smoothly and if there’s anything else they can do for us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

BotsCrew is very agile and responsive and has a good understanding of marketing chatbots. They’re quite knowledgeable about this kind of product and its use cases. Additionally, they were inquisitive about our business purpose, our KPIs, and what success meant to us, and always referred back to that when making suggestions on how we should build the product and its subsequent releases. I found that to be very useful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their admin panel could be a bit more business-friendly. Specifically, when we want to visualize conversation flows, we can’t see them in diagrams. This makes it difficult to quickly and easily find the nodes we want to change when there’s a bug. Also, the platform’s functionalities are limited in terms of language processing. It’s suited for short chats and commonly-used conversation starters, which almost everyone has with chatbots. However, I know BotsCrew is working on that.

Furthermore, their admin panel isn’t very mobile responsive, which makes it difficult for me to answer customer support matters. I always have to connect through my desktop, but this is something I want to do quickly while on the go, ideally through my phone. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior manager at a women’s reproductive health company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We were trying to address our patient growth without over-hiring genetic counselors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built out a chatbot workflow, to address our patient needs on multiple products. Eventually, it will grow to encompass all of our patient-facing information sessions. The team built our workflow on their own platform.

Initially, we provided documentation. Later in the process, we started doing some more of the flow diagrams ourselves, with their guidance.

What is the team composition?

We work with six members of the BotsCrew team, one of which is a project manager.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

I found them through an internet search, while I was looking for companies that were building chat bot solutions. I spoke with them a couple of times, and they seemed easy to work with.

Originally, we selected four different companies and we narrowed the pool down based on price. I had someone from our UX technology side join the search as well; based on his recommendation, we narrowed it down to two companies.

We did a proof of concept for part of our project with these two companies. BotsCrew outperformed the other company tremendously, and we decided to do our entire project using them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The whole process has been great. They’ve been really good with communication, keeping us up-to-date, and running the project on time. We’re really happy with the final product, the platform, the product’s ease-of-use, and our ability to tweak it.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great in terms of project management. We haven’t had any issues.

We mostly do video calls and have been sharing documents through Google Docs and Draw.io diagrams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would just like to emphasize that they’ve been very easy to work with and have been very flexible as we’ve tweaked things around.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, none that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m a digital experience analyst for Mars Inc. We’re a candy manufacturing enterprise, crafting products such as M&M’S, Snickers, and Twix.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We were looking for a vendor that could help us build chatbot solutions to enhance our online conversational experience. This project would serve as a test case to test the vendor’s technical abilities and workflow.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We have a very specific formula to calculate time in our company for financial purposes. For example, January would start at “Period 1,” whereas December might be “Period 12” or “Period 13” depending.

BotsCrew developed a chatbot that would help our workers interpret common time periods into “Mars periods.” The AI needed to understand user queries through natural language processing (NLP) and provide answers in a suitable Mars format. It was a simple use case that we had hoped to launch on Skype for business.

Their team was responsible for setting up the language training model and overall coding structure within a .NET framework.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and at least one developer. 

How did you come to work with BotsCrew? 

While searching for a chatbot development team, we engaged a variety of vendors to gauge their technical skills, comparing their performance across the board. Our manager suggested that we also reach out to BotsCrew, so we gave them this project as a test case.

How much have you invested with them? 

We spent less than $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

It was a two-month project that spanned August–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

BotsCrew performed a little above average on the project. The initial communication could have been clearer, especially in terms of the technology stack used (e.g., platform, coding language). We assumed that they would build the solution in .NET, but that wasn’t the case. At the last minute, we had to rewrite the whole chatbot, which was a hassle. While they ultimately delivered the product, we’re still deciding if we’ll pursue a future engagement.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They tended to have a delayed response when it came to the proposal, and their usual turnaround time was about a month. So, if I were to ask for a proposal this week, I’d likely have to keep asking to receive anything. We wish that things were more efficient on this front.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Aside from the .NET issue, they were very clear about their deliverables in their statement of work (SoW).

Are there any areas they could improve? 

We would have liked them to take on more of an advisory role in the project. A lot of the time, we made incorrect assumptions because we had limited knowledge of chatbots, and we didn’t always know what was best from a technical standpoint. We might request one feature when another was more appropriate.

In those cases, it would have been beneficial if they had pushed back and suggested alternative, more viable solutions based on their analysis. Rather than simply asking what we needed, they could have helped us explore our possibilities to find the best course of action.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
Make sure that you communicate clearly and stay productive throughout.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Agent ReVa. We've developed a messaging and AI-powered platform to automate the sale lead qualification and customer engagement process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

Our primary challenge was implementing an integrated chat bot dialogue flow for Facebook Messenger as part of our sales lead qualification and customer engagement process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their crew served as our offshore development team, supplementing our in-house staff. Our first phase involved creating the chatbot integration. We’re now moving into phase two, which involves testing the product in the marketplace.

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager, a few developers, and a tester.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

We searched online and found them through UpWork.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017. The initial phase of the project wrapped up in June 2018 but we’re still touching base with them during the test phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve helped us create a platform that’s viable for the marketplace, which was our goal. We’re about to begin testing how successful the chatbot method will be in terms of sales acquisition in a live environment.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been fantastic to work with. They’re responsive and flexible, even when we made changes to the project multiple times a week, and our communication schedule helped us keep everything running smoothly. We used an Agile team structure, meaning that we had virtual stand-up meetings for 30 minutes every day, at least at the start. Over time, we reduced the frequency to twice a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re responsive and willing to work with us. They also communicate well and the price was fair.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any small company, they’re going to need more growth and stability in order to provide the resources and skills to compete on complex projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re a customer who already knows what needs to be done, you’ll have more success. Since our project required a great deal of creativity and innovation, everything depended on what we came up with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a solution provider for apps and websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We were looking for a team to partner with for chatbot development. A few of our clients, along with some of our in-house teams, needed the technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BotsCrew developed a chatbot for us based on the specific requirements I gave them. They integrated it with Facebook Messenger and our website. Their team created the chatbot using their own proprietary platform.

What is the team composition?

I have one main point of contact who serves as our project manager.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

We researched developers online and noticed BotsCrew had good examples of the work we needed. We looked at other companies, but once speaking to one of the lead teammates at BotsCrew, we knew they were the right fit. They immediately understood our goals and they were friendly from the start.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $210,000 all together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project in January 2016 and we’re continuously working with BotsCrew.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Using the chatbot has helped us capture more leads, engage more users, and communicate more effectively. Our overall productivity improved thanks to BotsCrew’s assistance, and they’ve been a helpful addition.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been in-tune with our goals from the beginning of the project. We’ve made our requirements clear to avoid miscommunications, and they’ve established a good rapport with us because of that. The way their team handles the project makes the engagement feel like a breeze.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team’s promptness and attention to detail make them stand out. They also have strong domain expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any glaring issues with their process—we’ve been growing as partners very well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a member of a solutions marketing team at BMC that focuses on Control-M, our digital business automation solution. We offer speed, agility, and efficiency to tackles challenges in the area of service management, operations, and mainframes. I’m in charge of innovation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BotsCrew?

After evolving for decades, Control-M now simplifies and automates diverse batch application workloads and provides faster application deployment cycle times. We wanted to introduce support for Amazon Alexa Skills (voice-responsive, custom Alexa commands) to demonstrate these new capabilities.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to build a sample implementation of an Alexa skill that enabled users to interact with our product via voice commands.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our research led us to BotsCrew, whose resume and subsequent conversations with us showed they were qualified to fulfill our requirements.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They designed, developed, built, and implemented the Alexa skill for Control-M. They delivered code we were able to publish for anyone to use as a reference template.

What was the team composition?

I worked with a project manager and a technical lead. This was a small project, so I'm not sure how many resources were required.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project had a short time-frame and was delivered on time. We’ve since been able to demonstrate our solution’s unique capabilities for our market segment. This has reinforced our position as a technology leader and innovator.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Since the scope was relatively small and the desired results were clear, there was relatively little project management required. However, the BotsCrew team still managed everything efficiently and effectively. They were available to meet whenever we felt it was required, and we never had an issue with the seven-hour time difference. They were flexible and accommodating.

All our interactions with them were very professional. They were helpful and responsive and continued to assist us in setting up our environment post-delivery, even though it was outside the scope of the engagement.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We exchanged information with them seamlessly and had access to all the correct resources. Fixes and updates that stemmed from testing were turned around almost instantaneously, and BotsCrew adapted to our needs as they changed throughout the project. These alterations never forced us to pause or renegotiate anything. The entire experience was friction-less.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Nothing I saw during this project needs to change.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder of fetchh. We’re a food brand that allows people to order food and drinks through a messenger chatbot.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BotsCrew?

We approached them to build our chatbot, from the prototype to the current iteration.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to change the way people ordered food with our chatbot. Rather than wasting time standing in line, we hoped that our app would encourage more meaningful connections between customers and vendors by expanding the conversation beyond a transaction.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We liked their past project credentials, and they had offered the best value for our money.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They provided end-to-end project support, including the initial concepts, implementation, and technical assistance. They built our two main bots: a B2C bot for food and drink orders and a B2B admin bot for our cafe. Currently, they continue to provide support for any live issues as well as implementing additional ongoing development

What was the team composition?

We primarily worked with two people, though the team consisted of several people behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Their bots have become the core of our business and have had an immense impact. We’ve been able to run several successful events and outlets with the chatbot, with nearly 1,000 orders to date. Furthermore, we’ve secured several educational talks to showcase the technology to university students.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use Slack to manage most of the project and Skype for check-ins. Despite the two-hour time difference, we’ve always felt supported.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciated their level of care regarding the project and QC. The team consistently suggests new ideas on how to improve the chatbots, and they perform extensive tests. Furthermore, they’ve helped ensure that we’re marketing the technology correctly to reach as many people as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a freelance consultant that helps clients with their marketing activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

My client was getting tons of customer support requests and wanted to streamline that through a chatbot.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BotsCrew developed a Facebook Messenger chatbot that answers questions about health conditions. It asks users about their ailment and suggests lifestyle changes that can help alleviate their condition while providing links to articles and resources published by the head doctor.

We provided a description of the UX we wanted as well as the information we wanted to share. BotsCrew handled design, development, and low-level functional testing. We had 50 of our own people perform high-level user testing.

We have access to a dashboard and can add more conditions to the health database on our own, but we still rely on BotsCrew for modifications to the app’s flow.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked directly with a project manager, Max (Co-Founder, BotsCrew), and three other people to a lesser extent.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

I was visiting Lviv, Ukraine at the time we decided we needed a chatbot. Lviv is an IT hub in Eastern Europe, so I looked for teams there that I could meet in person and discovered that there was a cutting-edge, chatbot development agency there. I met with Max and was sold.

I talked to two other agencies while evaluating BotsCrew, which didn’t specialize in chatbots. They looked really foolish compared to what Max had. His presentation was narrowly-focused on just building chatbots, and he has specialists specifically for this type of product, including a conversational designer. I had no reason to go to a general-purpose agency.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was $25,000. We’re on a monthly service plan for addressing any problems.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with BotsCrew in December 2017 and the chatbot was finished by April 2018. We’re still waiting for Facebook to review it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Only our client has seen the chatbot so far. The testers are customers of the client, and they’ve been pleasantly surprised to find out about it. They identified a few bugs that could’ve been found by the BotsCrew team. Overall, though, we’ve mostly seen positive feedback and excitement about its potential.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

I've worked with a lot of software companies and used to be a developer myself before getting into marketing. I’m used to projects costing more and taking three times longer than normal to complete. Max’s estimate was very good, though. We went overtime mostly because they had to wait for my input.

I dealt with their project manager almost exclusively, and the process was very tidy and streamlined. I didn’t have to strike up new communication protocols with different people and I could get a meeting with the developers when necessary.

We have video meetings every two weeks over Google Hangouts and use Slack for day-to-day communication. We mainly use email for talking about billing, big-picture estimations, and so on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re one of the best development agencies I’ve worked with in my 18 years of being in the software and web space. My client had a different developer the year before who tried to create the same product in the form of an iOS app, and it was simply disastrous. It felt great for me to come back and offer a developer that could build a chatbot instead of an app. It was a perfect software experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Had I performed my duties better, I would’ve had more feedback about their gaps. I never got the opportunity to be completely focused. I don’t know if it was even possible to have identified the last few bugs that the client ended up finding on their own. Some things simply don’t reveal themselves until they’re live.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If someone wants to work with BotsCrew, they have to be ready and committed, otherwise, the client will be left behind and the team will have to wait for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business.

We are a startup that is looking to develop automated support and lead conversion for website owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We were looking to develop a minimum viable product [MVP] to introduce to the marketplace, with an on-the-go customer discovery process and validation process. The main goal was to determine the market’s primary needs and demands, and then to ascertain our desired response.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were on board when we were having our earliest conversations about the central problem-solution-fix model – what the market was looking for and the best probable solution – and provided input even at that stage. BotsCrew guided us through the brainstorming process, clarifying which ideas would work, which ones wouldn’t, and what would be worth testing. Ultimately, they were involved in both the design and the development of the chatbot, and we are now working through multiple different iterations of the MVP.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a project manager, a frontend and a backend developer, and a UI specialist, making for a team of about four people, depending on the day.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

We had a strict selection process wherein we researched a range of potential technologies and suppliers. Once we had decided upon the technology that we wanted to use, we decided that BotsCrew would be a good fit based on their experience and skillset.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $10,000 to $11,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It began in late September 2017, and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We are still in the development and testing stage of the process, but our future working partners are impressed. Many of them are already discussing customizations for what we have demonstrated, with the potential and best use cases on clear display in BotsCrew’s work. Additionally, our internal team has been more than satisfied with how quickly the work has been done, in addition to the quality.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

The feedback they provided me during the earliest stages of our collaboration informed me of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding of how to develop these chatbots, which was incredibly useful. For most of our communications, we used Skype, Slack, and phone calls, although we did fly out to meet them at the outset of the partnership.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I look for quality and speed in every working relationship, both of which BotsCrew provided on top of their great technical skill and comprehension of the marketplace. The MVP took far less time for them to develop, optimize, and thoroughly test than we had anticipated, which was exactly what we wanted. Overall, I greatly value their quality of work, speed of delivery, their technical expertise, and their communication skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing on their end, although having the exchange rate be more in our favor would certainly make this type of collaboration more affordable.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what you want for your customers and what outcomes you want to see at the end. BotsCrew will bring their skillset and ability to develop at speed, but you need to bring your end vision to the table in order to fully maximize their talents.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m director of client operations at an entertainment distribution company that supplies content to cinemas via broadband.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We had key independent information held by various individuals, which conflicted with our model to scale up the company. We needed a fast way to provide infrastructure and documentation on various support processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had a clear idea for what I wanted to achieve and their expertise guided me through the development process.

The team created a customized Chatbot tool that served as a bot generator for internal process. The product eliminated the need to send external requests over traditional Chatbot platforms.

Their experience helped match the tool’s design to my requirements.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with a 5-person team including designers.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

Initially, we placed a job listing online, but I found them and reached out.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent close to $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began January 2017 and is tentatively ongoing as new projects are under discussion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

At first, employees were skeptical because people are resistant to robots in the workplace. However, the bots proved advantageous as virtual assistants. Overall, user feedback is positive and people are happy with the tool.

How did BotsTech perform from a project management standpoint?

I said that I could not be involved heavily in the project. They used their expertise to fill in any gaps and delivered without extra demands on my time. We used Skype to communicate, which I appreciated for its convenience.

I was happy with the process and results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism stands out.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t over think Chatbot/AI technology. Present the problem and let them suggest a solution.