ChatterOn Review

ChatterOn is chatbot software for chatbots on Facebook Messenger, websites and Workplace. They even have their own AI & NLP engine. They say it is “The best AI platform for building chatbots”, but is this true? And is this software worth it to invest in? Let’s find out!

For this review of ChatterOn, I used the criteria in my post “How to choose the best chatbot software“.

User Interface

If you log in at ChatterOn, you see an overview of all your chatbots:

And when you are going to build your actual chatbot, ChatterOn makes use of a Visual Flow Builder.

The Flow Builder consists of individual “Modules”, which consist of two elements:

• A “Bot Says” element in which you determine what the bot says
• “User Says” element in which you determine what the user says

This Visual Flow Builder works, but from the Builder itself, it doesn’t give a really good overview of your messages. This is because you need to click on every individual module to see what the content of each module is. Flow builders of other chatbot software are generally easier to use. Because you need to get to know the Flow Builder at first, it takes some time to set up your chatbot.

Furthermore, it is not possible to test your chatbot flows, which is a disadvantage. With ChatterOn, you cannot test your chatbot flows before they actually go live.

• Visual Flow Builder

  Create chatbot dialogs with a visual flow builder.
• Test chatbot

  Is it possible to test the chatbot before putting your new flows or changes live?
• Interface easy to use?

  Is the chatbot platform easy-to-use?
• Easy to setup a chatbot?

  Is it easy to set up your chatbot with this chatbot platform?

Chatbot elements

With ChatterOn, you can use five elements in your chatbot flows:

1. Text (with buttons and quick replies)
2. Carousel (i.e. a Gallery)
3. Photos
4. Video
5. Files

• Delays

  Use delays between messages in your chatbot
• Images

  Can you send images via your chatbot?
• Video

  Can you send video via your chatbot?
• Audio

  Can you send audio via your chatbot?
• Attachments

  Can you send attachments via your chatbot?
• Gallery (Horizontal list)

  Show a gallery of cards inside your chatbot. A card consists of an image, title, subtitle and button.
• Vertical list

  Show a vertical list of items inside your chatbot
• Emojis

  Can you use emojis inside your chatbot?
• Persistent Menu

  Can you add a persistent menu to your chatbot?
• Quick Replies

  Can you add quick replies to your chatbot where users can click on?
• Buttons

  Can you add buttons to your chatbot where users can click on?
• Free text input

  Can chatbot users freely type text to your chatbot whenever they want to?
• Location sharing

  Can users share their location inside the chatbot?
• Email validation

  When a chatbot user gives their email, can the platform validate it's a correct email address?
• Phone number validation

  When a chatbot user gives their phone number, can the platform validate it's a correct phone number?
• Date validation

  When a chatbot user gives a date, can the platform validate it's a correct date?

Users

This is a big drawback of ChatterOn.

You cannot add custom fields or tags to users.

Likewise, you cannot make user segments based on custom fields and tags, because they do not exist within ChatterOn.

• Custom fields

  Store information from your chatbot users inside fields. For example, you can ask for someone's email and store it inside the "email" custom field.
• Tags

  Add tags to users in your chatbot flows to organize and categorize contacts.
• User segments

  Can you create user segments based on custom fields and tags?

Messages

With ChatterOn, it is not possible to send broadcasts or sequences, so this is a disadvantage, because these are the main ways to get users to your chatbot.

On the other hand, you can use conditions in your chatbot flows, but these are pretty limited. Because you cannot use custom fields or tags, it is only possible to condition on messages, intents, API responses or basic user information (like the first name):

Moreover, you can only make a chatbot in English.

• Broadcasts

  Send a message to all or a part of your chatbot users at a specific date and time
• Sequences

  Send messages on a pre-defined schedule with a certain time interval between those messages
• Conditions

  Make checks in your chatbot flow based on if-then logic. For example, if the user has not given their email, ask for their email.
• Multiple languages

  Is it possible to create a chatbot in multiple languages?
• Easy to translate

  Can you translate text to other languages without using a third-party platform and without creating duplicate flows?

AI & NLP

This is the best part of ChatterOn, because they have a built-in AI & NLP engine.

So, with this engine, it is possible to capture the intent of the user:

And you can even create your own entities:

Ultimately, you can test whether ChatterOn provides a good answer for a specific user input, right from the interface:

So, the AI & NLP part of ChatterOn is actually really good and easy to use.

• Keywords

  Trigger chatbot flow based on certain words or phrases a user says to the chatbot.
• Intents

  Trigger a chatbot flow by understanding the intent of the user.
• Entities

  Capture specific information from sentences. For example, if a user says "veggie pizza", the chatbot can understand it's not a regular pizza, but a veggie pizza.
• Dialogflow integration

  Does the chatbot platform provide a direct integration with Google's AI Platform?

Channels

ChatterOn provides three channels to put your chatbot on: Websites, Facebook Messenger and WorkPlace (also from Facebook).

So, if you want to create an omnichannel experience for your users, this could be a disadvantage.

What I did notice with Facebook Messenger, is that after a few hours, the chatbot stopped working. I do not know whether this was a one-time thing or there is something wrong with the integration… So this could be important to take into account.

• Website

  Can you publish your chatbot on your website?
• Facebook

  Can you publish your chatbot on Facebook?
• Instagram
• Whatsapp

  Can you publish your chatbot on WhatsApp?
• Telegram

  Can you publish your chatbot on Telegram?
• SMS

  Can you publish your chatbot on SMS?
• Slack

  Can you publish your chatbot on Slack?
• Skype

  Can you publish your chatbot on Skype?
• Email

  Can you publish your chatbot on email?

Integrations

ChatterOn has a built-in live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot software. But I must say, it is extremely limited. With their live chat, it is only possible to send a message to the user. So there are a few disadvantages:

• You cannot stop the chatbot from saying anything (stop automations). So when you use live chat and the user responds, the chatbot will immediately take the chat over.
• It is not possible to send notifications to a live chat agent. For example, you want to send a notification when the chatbot doesn’t know an answer to a user question. But with ChatterOn this is not possible. So, I think the live chat agent must intervene self to check?

Because the live chat is so limited, I don’t know if it’s any good to use it at all. At the end of the day, it comes down to helping the user. And when you cannot stop automations or send a notification to a live chat agent when necessary, why should you use it?

Furthermore, ChatterOn has multiple APIs so you can create your own webhooks to connect with other software.

• Livechat

  Direct integration with live chat, either via a built-in live chat functionality or a third-party live chat platform.
• Zapier

  Direct integration with Zapier, one of the largest integration platforms in the world.
• Make (formerly Integromat)

  Direct integration with Make (formerly Integromat), one of the largest integration platforms in the world.
• Google Sheets

  Direct integration with Google Sheets, to store or retrieve data from sheets.
• Webhooks

  Can you call a webhook inside your chatbot flow to send data to other applications?

Marketing

With ChatterOn it is only possible to put a native widget on your website, have a landing page and to create “Send to Messenger” buttons, so your users will go to your chatbot in Facebook Messenger.

With their native website widget, it is possible to change the website widget entirely to your needs and website’s branding, by changing colors, avatars and logos:

It is, unfortunately, not possible to connect your chatbot with Facebook ads, use the One-Time Notification, automatically reply to Facebook comments or create custom URLs to your chatbot.

• Facebook website widget

  Embed your chatbot as a Facebook Widget on your website.
• Native website widget

  Embed your chatbot as a native widget (your own branding & colors) on your website.
• Landing pages

  Can you create a simple landing page to drive users to your chatbot?
• Facebook Ads

  Start a conversation with your chatbot when someone clicks on a Facebook Ad
• One-Time Notification

  Send one-time notifications via Facebook Messenger for a topic that a chatbot user has opted-in for
• Facebook comments auto-reply

  Automatically reply with your chatbot to users who comment on your Facebook Posts
• Button creator

  Add a button to your website to drive users to your chatbot
• Custom URLs for your chatbot

  Generate a simple URL that can be shared anywhere to send users to your chatbot

Pricing

ChatterOn is extremely cheap.

First of all, they provide a free plan which stays free forever, as long as you are staying under 15,000 messages per month (which is a lot). This plan provides all the features of the platform, which is pretty unique for a free plan.

Then, their first paid plan only costs $0.0010 per message. So, let’s say we send 15,000 messages per month, you only pay $15 per month!

• Free trial

  Does the chatbot platform provide a free trial?
• Free plan

  Does the chatbot platform provide a free plan?
• Price per month

  What is the lowest price per month for creating a chatbot on this platform?
  15
• Monthly pricing available?

  Is it possible to pay monthly?
• Money back guarantee

  Is there a money-back guarantee in case you are not satisfied with the platform?

Analytics

ChatterOn has pretty advanced analytics.

They provide a dashboard in which you can see the number of users, number of messages and number of sessions:

Moreover, you can analyze user retention:

And ultimately, you can see the user input that the chatbot didn’t understand. With this overview, it is extremely easy to improve the answers of your chatbot:

• Dashboard

  Dashboard that provides general analytics of your chatbot.
• User input

  Get the input from users that your chatbot didn't understand.
• Sent messages

  The number of messages that were sent by your chatbot.
• Open rate

  The percentage of chatbot users that opened a message inside your chatbot.
• Click rate

  The percentage of chatbot users that click on a button inside your chatbot.
• Conversion rate

  The percentage of users that converted through your chatbot. For example, the percentage of users that gave their email address
• Fall back rate

  The percentage of interactions where the chatbot did not know an answer to a question.
• Custom dashboards/reports

  Can you create your own dashboard or reports?

eCommerce

Unfortunately, ChatterOn has no eCommerce integrations.

• Payments

  Collect payments inside your chatbot
• Shopify

  Direct integration with Shopify to get products, order information and cart data.
• WooCommerce

  Direct integration with WooCommerce to get products, order information and cart data.
• Buy directly within the chatbot

  Ability for chatbot users to buy products or services directly from a chatbot
• Cart abandonment

  Trigger messages in the chatbot when a user abandons their cart on a website or inside the chatbot

Templates & Cloning

ChatterOn says it has 4 templates, but when you are going to install these templates, only one works.

Furthermore, it is not possible to create templates yourself and share these with others.

On the other hand, it is possible to duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements, so you can reuse them.

• Templates

  How many pre-built templates does the chatbot platform provide?
  1
• Make template

  Can you make templates yourself?
• Share template

  Can you share self-created templates with others?
• Duplicate chatbot flows

  Is it possible to duplicate chatbot flows, so you can easily reuse them?
• Duplicate chatbot elements

  Is it possible to duplicate chatbot elements, so you can easily reuse them?

Optimization

With ChatterOn, it is not possible to do optimization, such as A/B Testing.

• A/B Testing

  Can you optimize your chatbot flows by performing A/B tests?

Support

ChatterOn provides really basic documentation regarding their platform, but it’s enough to understand how it works.

Moreover, they have 4 Youtube tutorials in which they explain how you can use ChatterOn.

They also provide support over email.

• Tutorials

  Does the chatbot platform provide tutorials on how to use its platform?
• Documentation

  Does the chatbot platform provide documentation on how to use its platform?
• Customer support

  Does the chatbot platform provide customer support?

Conclusion

ChatterOn uses a Visual Flow Builder, has the necessary chatbot elements, has a built-in AI & NLP engine (which works really good), advanced analytics and it is extremely cheap.

But should you buy ChatterOn to build your chatbots?

No, I wouldn’t recommend that.

And that is mainly because of one reason: their live chat. They do offer a live chat feature, but it is too limited. It is not possible to stop the automations of your chatbot and you cannot notify the live chat agent. So this makes it unfeasible to use this feature, especially with a large volume of users. And as I always say, the live chat is the most important integration of any chatbot software. Because when your chatbot fails (and it will fail), you need a human to ensure a good user experience.

If they would improve this feature, I would definitely recommend them.