BotsCrew

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Global financial service company with locations in over 20 countries. My position is Web Development Manager, responsible for delivery of internal and outsourced projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BotsCrew, and what were your goals?

We were looking to add one more engagement channel for a particular market, that would allow potential customers to get basic info about and register for our service with minimum effort and no prior knowledge.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking into several platforms. BotsCrew's solutions appealed to us the most, and then the timelines in their offer were the best.

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

This was a new channel for us, so we relied on BotsCrew experience and proposals. We were able to provide outline of the customer profile, and BotsCrew's suggestions were very helpful in building the experience/personality of the bot, make it engaging enough without requiring too much interaction, or demanding long sessions to deliver what our prospectives would be looking for.

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

We worked with a backend developer that covered the integration with our API, a specialist that customized the bot's behavior, a project manager and a customer success manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BotsCrew honored their every timeline, their MVP was so encouraging we decided to add work planned for the second phase in the launch product. Their first demo took the audience by storm. We were ready to go Live after minimal polishing just a week after said demo.

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

During our interactions BotsCrew was distinctive in being open and transparent, and excelling at managing their customers' expectations. We did not have to remind them about deliverables them at any time.

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

Open communication style and the fact they confirmed their understanding of the requirements prior to proceeding with implementation, then delivering what was expected.

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

To me the project we undertook with BotsCrew can be a model for all our future endeavors.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director and founder of www.gourmaze.co.uk Gourmaze is an enigmatic, immersive adventure hitting the streets of London, gamifying the best of food & beverage with mystery. We send our challengers through a stream of puzzles and clues using AI powered conversation, leading them to discover the finest food items at each milestone of the Maze! This is the perfect cross between an escape room and food walking tour.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BotsCrew, and what were your goals?

I needed Botscrew to create the whole backend automation of the chatbot. The whole maze runs through their systems connecting up with my stories and of course linked in with my booking system. They were able to automate this completely E2E.

SOLUTION

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

I found them online while searching for potential vendors. I had numerous options, however the main deciding factor was Botscrew were able to provide a proposal and assurance that they could handle the whole project E2E and that it would be a relatively hands off process for me, which was great.

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

Initial scope was to build a chatbot for 1 maze that was programmed based on the logic of my walking tour. We ran through a number of iterations and at every stage Botscrew were careful to price up any extra costs before executing. This started with a specific scope detailing the maze, but also integrating this into a manual exceptions handling process.

As iterations went on, I simplified the scope and have since built the 2nd maze out. Logic is drawn out on Whimsical, and then the chatbot and support centre is run through their own Botscrew platfrom, which sends messages through to Whatsapp.

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

The co-founder for sales and commercials. The Project Manager for general day to day activities and then conversation specialists and devs on and off (probably 3/4 of them over the course so far).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went through rigorous testing so once launch came along the only high level measurable outcome was how many tickets/queries I raised to fix issues since launch and this was minimal (maybe 2/3 minor tasks).

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

We used Slack which made the project very smooth. I also only really needed to speak to the PM but it was nice to have access to the rest of the team too. I would get responses very quickly and sometimes even on the weekend during urgent queries.

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

Having access to the whole team was a great confidence boost. Any new team member was introduced asap and quite a lot of the time when we hosted zoom meetings there were 3+ people from the team which allowed for blockers to be solved much quicker.

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

I think cost was the only real factor for me that could have been improved. The tech they built was brilliant, however being a start up I often hoped the payment structure could have been different (although i'm not sure what this could have been!). Also adding a contingency in for absorbing some costs as sometimes having to cost up every new feature I asked for did slow the process down slightly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a mobile app development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We needed help with chatbot design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They supported us on a number of projects around the design and development of chatbots for different clients. They use various technologies and platforms to create chatbots. This includes Microsoft Bot framework, Google Analytics, Cosmos DB, GitHub, and other various code repositories.

Typically, we work with clients to design a particular chatbot that will address their specific challenges. After that, we work with BotsCrew to support us in the actual technical development. Their role is to develop custom functionalities and features that the clients require. We then collaborate to actually build those features in those chatbots together.

What is the team composition?

We work with project managers and developers from their team.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

This partnership predates my involvement in the program, but I’m assuming we found them through networking.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re reliable and efficient, and they’ve performed well for us. Furthermore, they’re very committed, investing time to make sure projects are delivered on time and within industry standards.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style has been good despite being in a fast-moving and dynamic environment. They adapt well to changes in requirements. 

We collaborate via Microsoft Teams conference calls, emails, Skype, and whatever platform is appropriate for the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have to be flexible as our clients’ requirements tend to change because they work in a progressive area of technology. The BotsCrew team has always been responsive to that — they work flexibly and are always willing to keep on working until their outputs meet the client’s standards. They’re also very reliable, and they provide creative value to the project delivery.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need to continue working on the discipline of their development and the accuracy in their QA assessment of codes, so that it's more reliable and robust.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend time in establishing a close working relationship with them, so that both sides can fully understand how each other works.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an IT services company, and we create journey and movement tools for brands. I’m the COO of the company, and I oversee all the organization’s operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

BotsCrew has a conversational AI platform that we leverage as part of our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have a SaaS platform that we have been building around using their managed services because their SaaS platform has an open backend. We’re also working with BotsCrew’s software engineers, project managers, and other team resources on a contract basis that is building on top of the conversational platform — and then independent of that platform to interact with it. So far, we provided BotsCrew with the Statement of Work (SoW) on our three different projects. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 10 people at the height of our product implementation, which includes the project manager, conversational designer, system architect, QA lead, frontend engineer, two backend engineers, and more. However, we’ve pared that down to a couple of people until we continue scaling again.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

BotsCrew had a conversational offering platform that could kickstart some of our MVP. My co-founders found them online. We did look at different potential vendors, did reference checks, and BotsCrew shone through as a company that could work in a collaborative fashion in a test and learn framework without being too rigid around the scope of work. They were also very interested and invested in our product’s success.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve done a terrific job delivering our projects, and based on our first launch, they’ve been really cognizant of the direction we’re going. They definitely feel like a part of our team. As an example, we had an eight-week initial implementation, and BotsCrew 100% delivered on our project plan in a timely manner. They also put in extra time to get the project to the finish line.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re extremely collaborative, and they’ve been really great at maintaining high-quality documentation. In addition, they’ve been on top of everything; they’re attentive to our needs and have been able to use their resources very well. Their communication has also been excellent and prompt. For example, when we brought on a designer and started sourcing for additional engineers outside of their existing bench, they were able to anticipate our needs and challenges. In doing so, they were able to work with us in a rapid manner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

BotsCrew has a can-do attitude. They build on a platform basis here so they have tools in their wheelhouse from a conversational AI perspective that are unique to their offering platform, which makes things really go fast.

As a result, they’ve done a great job of building features into the platforms that would’ve been a harder extension for us to build out for our use case. The team has also been extremely versatile, and they have an open mind on how to accomplish goals — they don’t just think of a project as something that they could nail a hammer with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, I don’t really have any comment in terms of how they could improve since they’ve been hand-holding us the whole time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Learn BotsCrew’s platform early on. They gave us a lot of documentation on how to use their platform so we didn’t have to task engineers or conversational designers to do all the pieces. Once you understand the features and functionalities of their platform, you’ll be able to find efficiencies there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of cultural tourism at Choose Chicago, which is our organization’s public name. Our official name is Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau. Our group promotes the city of Chicago as a leisure destination regionally, nationally, and internationally. We also book meetings and conventions for the business side of tourism in the city. 

I work in our marketing department. My job is to ensure our culture is represented in all of our work across our digital platforms, advertising, and general marketing campaigns. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism and hospitality industry was completely devastated like other industries. When we thought about reopening our city and inviting visitors back to our city, we studied digital solutions. People were at home engaging in many technology platforms to find information. With that in mind, we wanted to bring a new, interactive, and engaging way for people to interact with our website and content. Our goals were to keep people informed about the COVID-19 pandemic and help them find information about the reopening of Chicago as quickly as possible. To do that, we hired BotsCrew. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to build an AI chatbot solution to be implemented on our website. The first part of BotsCrew’s process was the discovery phase, so we provided them with our vision and documentation. There was a back-and-forth collaboration between our teams. To elaborate, we had a core team of three people working with BotsCrew resources to identify how our vision could come to life and how chatbots worked in the tourism industry. It was a six-week process where we thought about the persona of the chatbot and how it would engage visitors. Then, the development phase started. 

Moreover, the BotsCrew team was involved in the visual design of the chatbot. When we developed the chatbot’s persona, we partnered with a graduate-level class from Northwestern University. Once the persona was approved and started coming to life, BotsCrew worked on the design elements that came with the technology they were building for us. The team also designed the chatbot’s widget based on Cloud Gate, an iconic piece of artwork in Chicago.

At present, BotsCrew provides monthly support services for us. They constantly analyze the chatbot conversations we build. Moreover, they create custom scripts that help us analyze our major KPIs for the chatbot. Our teams meet regularly to analyze such data and come up with updates together to get the best results out of the platform. Ideal results include more users, lower drop-off rates, and greater engagement. 

What is the team composition?

BotsCrew has a core team of five people, including Max (Managing Director & Co-Founder). Their senior developer works with our web team to ensure their system could “talk” to our database. We’ve also worked with a conversational designer for the flow of the chatbot’s conversations. Meanwhile, an account supervisor makes sure everything’s in order and running on time. 

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

With our board of directors, we went into a strategic planning process in December 2020. We identified many groups that worked on technology and new solutions, and our team moved forward with four of them. Out of those four, BotsCrew was chosen as the leading company for chatbot solutions. 

We also talked to a couple of their prior clients, and the team was heavily recommended. In the end, our team and the consultant we worked with identified BotsCrew to be the most agile team that could deliver a quality product in about eight months. As a result, we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

Our total investment in BotsCrew for 2021 is around $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with BotsCrew in March 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. We did a soft launch for the MVP in August 2021, and then we did a large press launch in the first week of September 2021. Our team put out a press release to draw more attention to the product. Meanwhile, we’ve signed an agreement with BotsCrew to continue the partnership until 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have three major KPIs, and those are to make sure people can find events in Chicago, to help them find information about our tours and attractions, and to help them find restaurants in the city. We’ve performed well across those KPIs right off the bat.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen a high drop-off rate among users, but we’ve also been able to reduce that by about 2%. We’re hovering around 35%, down from 37% previously. That reduction doesn’t seem huge, but we’ve seen a dramatic increase in engagement after the chatbot’s first month. We’ve also made quick changes to the chatbot that have helped us reduce the drop-off rates consistently. 

Moving forward, our goal is to continue lowering the drop-off rate. Other KPIs are performing at a high rate. In fact, end users rate the chatbot favorably, and we’re hovering around 4 stars out of 5. 

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

BotsCrew has done a great job in managing the project. Everything has been completely mapped out even before we signed them on as an official vendor. They also map our processes out every week, so we know what we’re going to work on and what deliverables should be submitted at the end of the week. Overall, they have a detailed workflow system from the discovery phase all the way to the product launch. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail and constant follow-ups differentiate them from other providers. They’ve made sure the product is developed on schedule. If there are any delays, they bring in additional resources to help them deliver on time. In other words, the BotsCrew team is willing to put in extra work to stay on schedule.

Their overall responsiveness is also impressive. There’s an eight-hour time difference between our teams, but they make sure that we can have meetings on time. Simply put, their flexibility and dedication to the project are great; we’ve been extremely pleased working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. I’ve been happy with their work, and I’ve had no complaints during the whole process. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with BotsCrew upfront in the discovery phase to identify the goals and persona of the chatbot. That’s been key for our partnership’s success; the discovery process has helped us finalize our vision and the functionality of the product. Given that, you should prioritize having a plan so that the development process goes as smoothly as possible. We’re in the tech world, and there will always be hiccups here and there, so the discovery process is truly key to success. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a service marketing and technology company. I’m the COO. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We needed custom development of a chatbot.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a conversational chatbot for automotive scheduling services. Their bot works within the confines of SMS and Facebook messenger, interacting independently with consumers to gather specific information. It then packages this data and passes it on to the end client.

What is the team composition?

I believe 1,000 members of their team were working on this project.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

I conducted extensive online research and ended up identifying their team as a leader in their industry. After exploring them in conjunction with several of their competitors, I felt most comfortable moving forward with them. They were the most responsive company we spoke with, and their previous experience with similar projects made them the best fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$50,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Unfortunately, I don’t have any metrics or anecdotal feedback to share. The project is still very much in the development stage, but they’ve impressed me so far. My biggest worry was jumping into the project without properly understanding any potential risks or opportunities. From early on in our partnership, though, they were able to assuage all my fears. I’m confident in the extent of their skills in their field.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done well. We communicate via email and Google Drive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a great deal of familiarity and expertise in the chatbot space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them. They do a very good job. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and curriculum developer for HeyCollege, a mobile app that helps students of all incomes prepare for university admission and success.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BotsCrew, and what were your goals?

We wanted to develop a chatbot for our mobile app. We tried building the chatbot with other providers before deciding to look for a specialist (BotsCrew).

SOLUTION

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

Research led me to BotsCrew. The company's portfolio and our conversations demonstrated they were well qualified to fulfill the project's requirements.

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

They built a chatbot for our mobile app, to guide students and answer their questions on a variety of topics related to the university admissions process. The team helped with conversation design, built our conversation flow on their platform, and trained the chatbot on our frequently asked questions, and integrated the chatbot with our mobile app.

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

People on the team included the project manager, conversation designer, graphic designer, quality assurance engineer, and I think a couple of developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So glad to have gone with a specialist like Botscrew based on how well the project has turned out.

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

Very proactive, accessible, and responsive. On-time every step of the way. Super easy to work with.

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

The whole process was great. I never had to worry about their team.  And when issues have come up with other vendors involved with this project, Botscrew has been flexible and accommodating.

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

I haven't experienced any problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of support and services at LIQUIDTOOL, a company dedicated to industrial automation solutions with a focus on machining.

At the time, we’re developing a solution for automatic coolant management. If you’re machining, you need coolant so that the tools don’t break or wear fast. If you’re machining metal, the tools get very hot and coolant is needed to avoid that.

Our solution is a coolant management automation solution. It is an IoT solution, a combination of a cloud-based platform and a sensor device to measure coolant data and notifies the platform about this current measurement data. The user has an app where they can retrieve the current state of the coolant so that the user knows when something needs to be done. There’s also an alarm feature included in the system. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We aim to maintain a small organization but needed to still provide good service and support for our customers. That was a challenge because we serve customers from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, and more. 

We needed to make sure the clients are served if they have an issue. We wanted a chatbot solution to serve as first-level support but needed help developing it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BotsCrew developed a chatbot solution for us. They helped us with every aspect of it. The project started with designing the scope of the MVP we developed. We weren’t in the market yet but wanted to build a chatbot that’s able to answer support questions. We had to to anticipate what kind of support questions we’d be facing once we entered the market.

First, they did a discovery phase with us to figure out what could be the topics. Now, they are implementing the whole thing. They have a platform and the chatbot’s name is William. They also helped us with designing the personality and persona of the chatbot. They also did our visuals. 

They do development work for specific features and functions that we want and support the integration with other systems. For example, we integrated a CRM system for ticketing. They also integrated it with our webshop so that the chatbot knows about the subscriptions our clients have and can tell the user about it if there’s a question. 

We work quite close together to identify new ideas and functions. They also have a lot of experience and help us with their input. We will continue to develop this solution more and more. If new products come, we want to include more AI cognitive services.

What is the team composition?

They provide a project manager who steers the whole project.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

We researched for a suitable partner and found BotsCrew. We chose them because we got the impression that they were the most flexible and the best fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020 and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m really satisfied. They’re working well and the quality is good. What I appreciate especially is that if they find bugs, they deduct them from the invoice and make it transparent.  They don’t only do what you tell them but they also think about what you need and make suggestions. I like that they’re proactive.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m overall satisfied with the project management. Sometimes there are misunderstandings that can happen. It’s only minor things where we didn’t understand each other since we’ve never met in person yet.

They work in an agile approach, which is good for us because our situation is changing very quickly. Sometimes we just don’t know what will be in a month. It helps to be able to react to new insights and decisions. The project manager holds it all together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I especially appreciate their flexibility and the way they get the work done. We have quite a complex organization. Even though we’re a small startup, we have a development team in Slovakia, for example. The project manager and the team communicate directly with their contact in our development team and it works. I like that very much because it saves time on my side.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know if they can do better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Involve them in the process and share with them what you’re doing, how your business works, and treat them well. It’s important to collaborate with your partners to get the most out of it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior digital strategist for a 360° agency—we do everything from strategy, development and consulting, to content creation, web development, mobile app development, and chatbots.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BotsCrew?

We’ve worked with BotsCrew on a few different projects. We usually bring them on if a client wants to investigate how to use conversational commerce and interfaces in their content strategy, or if they’re looking for new and innovative ways to engage with their consumers. BotsCrew has deep experience and technical experience in chatbots.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this project in particular, we were hired to develop an instant messenger chatbot to raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases in Singapore. The audience is quite young and the topic can be embarrassing and private, so we wanted to create a less formal way to provide information.

We designed a friendly and conversational chatbot, and they developed the program using a Java-based framework, a cloud-based, service, and a content management platform that they developed. The format is question and answer, with different options to get information on the condition.

With their guidance on how to conduct split-testing, we ran a test campaign to see if the product would be more successful in English or a local Singapore dialect. Based on the results, we decided to launch the chatbot in English on Facebook Messenger and webchat.

In some of our other projects, we’ve implemented natural language processing and machine learning so a user can input free text and ask questions while the chatbot interprets the information and responds.

How did you come to work with BotsCrew?

I wasn’t involved at the beginning of our partnership, but I continue to work with them because they’re extremely knowledgeable. On top of their technical implementation, they understand UX, conversational design elements, and how to market the information.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about £5,000 ($6,500).

What is the status of this engagement?

This project specifically lasted 3 months, but our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client is very happy with the end result. We promised to deliver a new innovative tablet solution, and BotsCrew helped deliver. With split-testing, the project became very data-driven, so it’s been a successful partnership.

How did BotsCrew perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re friendly and are really easy to work with. They’re very collegiate in that they’ll try to understand client pressures and will work to meet tight deadlines. They’re flexible and are willing to jump onto a project or scale up when needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

 They’re solution-oriented. When faced with a challenge, they see it as something to overcome instead of a roadblock. Coming up with different ways to address the issue, they’re very constructive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. We’ve worked with a lot of other suppliers, and they’re definitely the best.

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.