DIY vs. Custom Chatbots: Which is the Right Fit for Your Business?

Businesses around the globe rely on chatbots to offer better customer service, stimulate customer engagement, and enhance user experiences. The use of these automated chat-based agents allows businesses to provide answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), collect lead data, book appointments, and even fulfill orders. However, with the abundance of both types of chatbots available (custom-built and do-it-yourself [DIY]), how can you choose what works best for your business?

This blog will examine both methods in-depth to provide you with information that will help determine which option will work best for you.

DIY Chatbots are Easy and Quick

With a do-it-yourself (DIY) chat bot builder, you can build and implement a chatbot with no programming language expertise. There are a variety of DIY chat bot building tools available, such as SuperGrowth AI, that provide a drag and drop builder interface as well as easy ways to integrate with the tools you already use.

Benefits of DIY Chatbots

1. Fast Implementation: Create and deploy a chatbot within hours, allowing your customers to interact with your business almost immediately.

2. User-Friendly: An intuitive platform that allows non-technical people to create, manage, and maintain their own chatbots easily.

3. Affordable: Affordable subscription plans make it easy to use DIY Chatbots for small business/startup owners.

4. Basic Support: Good for the most basic of tasks such as answering frequently asked questions, lead generation and simple support.

Disadvantages of DIY Chatbots

1. Limited Customization: The templates do not allow custom workflows or additional business requirements.

2. Average User Experience: The templates can be too generic, lacking a strong brand presence. SuperGrowthAI resolves this problem through excellent personalization options.

3. Limited Scalability: Your organization can outgrow their chatbot as they grow.

4. Limited Functionality: Beyond basic AI capabilities, such as Natural Language Processing, Sentiment Analysis and Back Office Integration is not included with this platform.

Custom Chatbots - Personalized and Effective

Custom designed chatbots are built specifically to solve a problem. They provide complete control over how customers see the chatbot, the features it has and how users interact with it.

Pros of Custom Chatbots

1. Total Control: You can define every aspect of how the custom chatbot fits into your business processes while also reflecting your company’s brand values.

2. Advanced Features: Offers rich capabilities such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), Sentiment Analysis, and Fully Integrated Systems.

3. Superior User Experiences: Enables Customers to have more natural conversations with the chatbot, resulting in an Enhanced Engagement Experience.

4. Complete Ownership: Retain all rights to the data, the user interface design, and all technology related to the custom chatbots

Cons of Custom Chatbots

1. Major Investments Require More Time and Money: The time and money required to develop a custom chatbot are significantly greater than creating a template-based bot.

2. Requires Developers / Technical Partners: You will need qualified developers and/or a technical partner to build the custom chatbot.

3. Development Activities Take Longer Than Typical Development Activities: Because of complex business requirements, custom chatbot development can take weeks or months to complete.

4. Ongoing Maintenance: You are responsible for ongoing updates, optimization, and support for your chatbot.

Choosing the Right Option

Both options above are valid and will work for your specific needs, budget and business goals.

Select DIY if:

• You are a Start Up or Small Business with limited resources

• You need basic chatbot support and want a means of providing FAQ responses

• You want a quick launch and management ease

Select Custom if:

• You need advanced-level Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, in addition to deep integration capabilities with other enterprise systems

• You want a custom chatbot that strongly reflects your company's brand identity

• You expect that your custom chatbot will have a high level of usage and continued growth

Hybrid Methodology - Combining the Best of All Worlds

The most practical way to approach the chatbot creation process is to first build a DIY Chatbot based on what your users have requested. From that point, once you have all the data you need, you will have the opportunity to develop your custom solution.

The Hybrid Model

- Starting out with a DIY Chatbot that will allow you to automate more straightforward and less time-consuming tasks.

- Gathering Data and Feedback from your Users as you build, Manage and improve to build better ways to help your Users.

- Planning Custom Features based on how your Users Use your Chatbot.

- Eventually transitioning to a fully-fledged and custom Chatbot.

The Hybrid Methodology is very effective for saving time and providing a reduced risk of failure, while allowing future growth.

The Final Thoughts

The Benefit of going with DIY, Custom or Hybrid can be the same: to enhance Customer Experience and generate Business Revenue Growth.

It is critical that you evaluate your Budget, Complexity of Needs and Long-term Business Goals to find the optimal Chatbot Solution for your Company and to create meaningful interactions with your Customers.

How SuperGrowth AI Can Assist You

With the help of SuperGrowth AI, you can create a DIY Chatbot from the ground up (no coding skills necessary). You will be able to continually provide Customer Support 24x7, eliminate boring, repetitive Tasks and Scale your Solution effortlessly.

To learn more about the SuperGrowth AI platform, sign up today for a Free Trial and create a Chatbot that will elevate your Customer Experience.

We hope that this overview has helped you in selecting the best Chatbot for your Business!