The Bot Forge

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Stitch AI, a startup that provides a number of digital engagement solutions. Essentially, we provide AI bots and messaging solutions to our clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bot Forge?

We needed a partner to develop a web portal to allow us to sell multiple chatbots to our end clients. Our bot is based around linking calendar availability of team members to a bot, enabling quick website inquiry-lead allocation. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bot Forge has worked on one main project—a platform to manage the chatbots for our customers. In the portal, we can set up a client’s chatbots, using a template that The Bot Forge created. The portal allows us to roll out similar bots for multiple clients without having to create them on an individual basis.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with The Bot Forge?

We met with a few different firms, but most of them required that we provide a detailed outline of what we wanted and how we wanted it built. The Bot Forge, on the other hand, just listened to our idea and said they had the technical capabilities to build the solution, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about £10,000 (approximately $12,700 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in September 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

We haven’t started testing yet, so we don’t any metrics. However, we’re happy with their work, and they’ve fixed any bugs in a timely manner.

How did The Bot Forge perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re responsive and organized, providing all the necessary information to track project progress. The team is incredibly easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took our idea and made it into reality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In reality, we'd love to have reduced the project timescales, but this would have come at an increased budget. It would be hard to mark The Bot Forge down on this matter. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you're working on a bot-related project, consider partnering with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Help for Heroes is a UK-based charity that helps injured and sick veterans and their families. We offer full recovery, from physiotherapy to psychological support. We also have a recovery college.

I’m in charge of digital marketing for the organizations. Anything to do with social media, the site and online acquisitions falls under my remit.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bot Forge?

Because of the lockdown in 2020, a lot of the face-to-face activities we were doing with veterans had to stop. More and more of them were coming to our site, and we had a challenge with navigation.

We wanted the ability to direct people in a quick, effective, and easy manner.

The other challenge we had was with our supporter care team. They were getting quite a lot of phone calls, asking questions about the site. We wanted to free up their time by making the site content a bit more accessible.

After a bit of analysis and research, we came to the idea that a site bot was what we needed. We spoke to quite a few suppliers and eventually chose The Bot Forge.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bot Forge scoped, designed, and built a bot for us. They also helped with the scripting. They gave us example scripts explaining how it all worked, and they proofed the scripts we provided, making sure we were going down the right routes and weren’t wasting time.

The site is built on Umbraco. The Bot Forge provided us with a bit of code for the bot, which our developers added to the site.

What is the team composition?

We’ve only worked with Adrian (Director).

How did you come to work with The Bot Forge?

We looked at 6–7 bot providers, and I spoke to a few people responsible for digital at charities using bots.

I came up with a shortlist, looked at all their sites, and The Bot Forge seemed to be what we wanted. They’d worked with other charities and kept things really simple. I had calls with 3-4 providers, and Adrian made everything seem simple and pain-free.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent under £5,000 (approximately $6,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with The Bot Forge in June or July 2020, and they’re providing ongoing services.

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

I’m really pleased with the bot and services we’re getting from The Bot Forge. Since we started working with Adrian, he completely lived up to his promises. The end-to-end process has been very slick.

On average, we’re having 15-18 people per day engaging with the bot. This isn’t just opening it up, but actually typing a question or pressing a button for one of the preset ones. We’re really pleased with how it’s going.

I’ve spoken to Adrian last Monday about the bot and a couple of other potential projects.

How did The Bot Forge perform from a project management standpoint?

Adrian was fantastic in explaining and managing the work. We’ve used Google Docs to collaborate, but this was a straightforward project.

There was no need for Asana or other big project management tools. We’d have probably spent more time loading things into something like that than actually getting them done.

That’s what I liked about The Bot Forge: there was no fluff in the cost, timeline, or anything else. The time we paid for went into actually building the bot, and it’s going into improving it on an ongoing basis, rather than into account or project management on their side.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was very straightforward to deal with. It was very much about them looking at how they could deliver in the quickest amount of time, with the least amount of investment required.

The Bot Forge understood our pain as a charity with a small team, and they took away a lot of the mystery and fluff from the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. They were very good, and we’re still working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d tell them to speak to The Bot Forge about the challenge rather than going in with a set of preconceived ideas. They’ll come back with a bespoke solution.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO and founder of a CX, Marketing Analytics and Growth consultancy.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bot Forge, and what were your goals?

We hired The Bot Forge to develop a proof-of-concept for a retail client. The custom development of a virtual agent, built on Dialogflow CX was designed to illustrate the potential use case of conversational AI in the digital customer journey.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Via the Google Cloud Partners directory, motivated by domain specialism and website appraisal.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

A live, functional POC of a intelligent virtual agent deployed on Google Maps utilising the Google Business Messenger API and Dialogflow CX.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked directly with Adrian.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The solution was designed, developed and launched on time. The live experience is functional with a high-level of rich functionality (cloud functions, rich media carousels, knowledge cards) that effectively showcases the early potential of the medium. I'm pleased with what was achieved in the time. Given that this is a POC we have not yet gathered data on usage but hope to do so in due course with a deployment.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Adrian took the time to dig into the domain and the brief very attentively. I was confident we initiated the work based on a shared understanding of the goal. My experience working with Adrian was great and I'd do it again. During delivery, the work was delivery on time in very focused fashion. The communication style was enjoyable, collaborative and easy-going.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I like working with small teams and deep subject-matter experts. Working with Adrian was an informative and enjoyable experience. Adrian certainly knows his stuff when it comes to conversational AI. The project did call on Adrian's creative problem-solving on several fronts which I think is a strength of his given several constraints we faced with Google and working around the client's internal systems and processes. I appreciated the creative approach because speed and lean focus are the order of the day for POCs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Overall, it was a very positive experience.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're here to improve access and awareness for the early detection of skin cancer. My role is Founder & CEO.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bot Forge, and what were your goals?

We worked with The Bot Forge to develop a messenger service to help people navigate through the often complicated and intimidating skin check experience. It was called the SPOT BOT. A friendly, personable character who combined animated GIF's with copy written as if it was your 'niggling' friend. Comprising of multiple, well through through message trees, SPOT BOT has helped thousands of people to:

• Find a skin check clinic
• Make an appointment
• Turn up on time via calendar integration
• Be equipped with useful information
• Be armed with questions to get a thorough screening
• Have a follow up engagement to see how they went
• Have patient pathways depending on their diagnosis

We also incorporated a skin cancer risk quiz and a powerful sharing functionality to encourage friends and family to get checked too. Ultimately... to save people from skin cancer.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Bot Forge were highly recommended them by our digital partner Reny Digital. After one or two meetings we were very comfortable with their skill and expertise, and were not let down as the project grew. Brilliant people!

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

• Idea generation
• Message architecture
• Legal considerations
• Medical review
• Partner engagement
• Funding secured
• UX design
• Character development
• Copy development
• Hosting
• Back end framework
• MVP
• Testing
• Refinement
• Final testing
• Partner sign off
• Launch

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Just the one! Adrian was the lead developer extraordinaire

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

SPOT BOT has generated a few thousand unique users since it's launch without any paid advertising or promotion. Every user is completely organic, spread (as designed) through shares and word of mouth. leading to thousands of skin checks booked and tens if not hundreds of skin cancers found. A great first dip into the Messenger Bot pool which we're really excited to build on with Bot Forge as a vital partner.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

It's really lovely to work with them. Very clear communicators. Quick and efficient responses. Strong experience - well applied.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Adrian wis a really great partner, setting us up for success at all turns. Can't recommend him and his team enough.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No all good. Looking forward to working together more!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a luxury beauty brand selling product online, via retailers and independent stockists.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bot Forge, and what were your goals?

We worked with Bot Forge to create a chatbot that could work on a multisite website and that could also provide a product selector / quiz option for website customers in different languages

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We spoke to a number of providers and made a decision based on the company we felt bets understood our needs.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Create Chatbot with a product quiz function for onsite use which also enables email updates for customers and connects with Whatsapp

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have seen an increase in web conversions for web visitors who complete the quiz and we have seen an improvement in communications with our customers and resolutions.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Video conferencing Email Shared documents Product management and reporting systems

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was impressed with their understanding of our needs. Flexibility Friendliness and approachability

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

NO

Please describe your company and your position there.

RegTech platform

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bot Forge, and what were your goals?

Compliance chat bot to sign post our platform features and benefits and provide compliance guidance to our customers

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found Adrian and Bot Forge post using another third party who had provided unsatisfactory services

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

All systems were transferred to Bot Forge, Adrian and team mapped out the journey to transfer the system onto their preferred system and code. Once completed the chatbot was beta tested and once happy we went live and Botforge are our chat bot partners. Very happy with the services provided.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 person

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Excellent very happy with the personalised services, accommodation of our specific needs within financial services

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Hands on and highly personable and flexible with creative ideas

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their personable and innovative approach was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No we are extremely happy