Dialogflow with Don III
By: Don D Duong
Tags: Google Assistant, Chatbot Development, Yoga Teacher Training, Marketing Automation, Conversations

Let it flow, Let it flow! (to Frozen)

What happens when you put a salesperson and a software developer into a room?

Well, with the goal of dominating Dialogflow, maybe some interesting conversations!

The salesperson is the visionary. They’re good at seeing the big picture and articulating what needs to happen. The developer is like a lawyer — they know all the rules and loopholes to get you to your goal.

This project might work best as a dynamic duo.

If you combined a business minded psychologist with a badass computer science background you’d have a dream in-house chatbot creator.

If I’m a business / sales guy, and I know a software developer, I’d have us start here to maximize Dialogflow for the business. It’s a pretty good tutorial on how to build a machine learning chatbot with their tools. You can upload validated sample dialogs, have your machine start learning, and start experimenting.

Experiment, experiment, and experiment some more.

You can start a conversation straight from a PPC ad — if it’s a good performing ad. If you understand well the intent of certain keywords, it’s a signal for an opportunity to automate a conversation.

Intents CAN be conquered. Pick one you KNOW you can make work because, well, you know it so well. Because you have the data or experience to validate your confidence. Because you’ve created a repeatable sales or marketing process around it.

Or, make an educated guess on what COULD be the value a user is seeking at any point in the marketing funnel or the sales funnel. Focus on the topics that signal a serious customer. What’s the CTA (call-to-action) of that intent / conversation?

Go nuts with making connections that might not be true. As I learn Dialogflow, I keep coming back to this intro video, and the last two rules are so true: there are so many different pathways to conversations and you just have no idea what might work. Get some interns on this, and tell them there are no wrong answers.

Even if you get wrong answers, it’s okay to offer suggestions of things the user could say.

Don’t be scared to fail — it’s encouraged in this field.

Personas and what you KNOW

My personal yoga guide, Paramashanta Swarupa, tells me to write what I know.

It’s the best writing tip I’ve ever gotten and has helped me with designing conversations. I wish I could turn Paramashanta Swarupa into a Wendy and make billions. She was awesome as Rachel in Mad Men, too. Maybe I’ll make that my side hustle. Or maybe I’ll turn him into a chatbot. A chatbot persona! I know the conversations we had.

And I know I’m a serious beginner. I know my mom never misses a workout. What do all three of us have in common? We all knock out our routine in the morning.

I know the morning person and maybe that’s a persona. Experiment with different personas — both different chatbot personas and different user personas. Who likes to create characters and screenplays? Give them this job of creating personas.

Video is all the rage, and you can fit them into a chat

Video is huge. I got an email response once from a realtor broker I was trying to interview for a market research project, and the dude responded to my email with a personalized video. I was shocked at how well it won me over. How can you incorporate these vibes into chatbots?

Do you have a DOPE video that always gets the user to that next level? Can you make other videos for different milestones? I like videos less than 2 minutes, personally. I’m ADD. Target the ADD persona with a BOMB one minute clip.

Bye lead forms

What are steps leading up to a form fill that can be converted to a natural and pleasing chat conversation?

How can you take a qualified user down your VIP chatbot express lane instead of filling out an old-fashioned form when you know they’re ready? Using a conversation. An easy-to-design conversation.

Go nuts with your offering, too

Why not try a 60 day free trial? Especially if they give you permission to send notifications. I saw Peloton app giving away a 30 day free trial. Most firms only give away a 14 day free trial. But why stop at 30? Screw the competition, go to a price war. Or not. All industries are different. Sometimes you gotta take risks.

Quick summary for SaaS marketers

If you’re in the SaaS business, what’s your killer feature? Or if customers start asking you how to do THIS, you know they’re serious, and it’s time to take them to the next step and you know exactly how that next step goes. What’s that conversation like? Can you automate it short and sweet and delightful for everyone?

Yoga Closing Sequence

How does a yoga instructor know when someone is serious about adopting that lifestyle? If they can hone in on that intent, and they were a coder in a past life, maybe they can create an awesome chat bot by them self.