Collect.chat Review

Collect.chat is a chatbot builder for creating chatbots on your website. But what are the pros and cons of this chatbot builder? And should you use it to create your chatbots?

Let’s dive in!

User Interface

If you log in for the first time at Collect.chat, it provides a tutorial on how you can get started with the platform, which is really useful:

When you are going to build your chatbot flows, Collect.chat uses a drag-and-drop builder where you can drag elements form the left to the conversation on the right:

Moreover, you can also test the chatbot inside the interface before the changes actually go live:

In general, the interface is easy to use and it is also easy to use to set up a chatbot.

But, there is one drawback: Each chatbot can only consist of one chatbot flow (called a Script in Collect.chat). This means that for each chatbot flow, you need to create a separate chatbot.

This is not really scalable. For example, if you want to change the design of your chatbot (how it shows on your website), you need to change the design of all of your chatbots manually.

• 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

Collect.chat provides all the chatbot elements you need to create your own chatbot.

They lack some elements, such as Delays, Audio and Attachments, but these are certainly no deal-breakers.

• 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

In Collect.chat there is no complete overview of all the user information that was collected through your chatbot. But it is possible to see all the responses in one overview, which is covered in the Analytics section.

Moreover, you can just ask a question to a user and the response to that question will automatically be saved in a custom field.

Again, this structure is not really scalable in my opinion. Let’s say we have two separate chatbots: one on our Home page and on our Contact page. A user comes through your website and leaves his name in the Home chatbot. Then if he talks to the chatbot on the Contact page, we cannot use the name that is provided to use in the Home chatbot, which is a drawback.

• 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 Collect.chat it is not possible to create broadcasts, which is a small drawback.

Also, it is not possible to send sequences to your users. But this is also logical because Collect.chat only provides chatbots for websites.

Fortunately, it is possible to use conditions in your chatbot flow by using the Logical Jump feature of Collect.Chat:

Moreover, it is possible to have a chatbot in any language, but it is not possible to have one chatbot in multiple languages at the same time (then you have to create two separate chatbots).

• 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

With Collect.chat, you cannot automatically reply to questions. It is not possible to recognize keywords or understand the intent of the user.

So this is a pretty big drawback for a chatbot builder.

• 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

Collect.chat provides only one channel to create chatbots for Websites.

• 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

Collect.chat doesn’t provide a live chat integration, which is a bummer, because this is the most important integration of any chatbot platform.

Fortunately, they do have an integration with Zapier, that allows you to connect to almost every software application on earth.

Moreover, it is possible to send data from Collect.chat to Google Sheet using their direct integration.

If this is not enough for you, you can also choose to create your own webhooks.

• 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 Collect.chat, you can put a widget on your website, embed the chatbot in one of your website’s pages and create a landing page.

These three options for your website are pretty advanced. You can change the avatar, appearance and colors of the widget:

And with the website widget, you can also change its behavior. For example, you can choose to only show the widget when the user leaves the page after a certain amount of time:

Moreover, you can choose to only show the widget on specific pages of your website:

There is only one drawback to this. As said before, one chatbot has one chatbot flow. But this is also true for the website implementation. One chatbot could either be one widget, one embed on a specific page of your website or one landing page, but not multiple things at the same time.

• 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

Collect.chat provides a free trial that allows you to test out their Lite plan (first paid plan). Also, they provide a Free plan that comes with unlimited chatbots, 50 conversations per month, analytics and appointment booking.

Their Lite plan comes with 500 conversations per month, all the features in the Free plan, conditions and webhooks:

The two additional plans each come with more features and more conversations 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?
  18
• 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

In Collect.chat, you can see a table with all of the responses that are provided to the chatbot:

Also, you can see the responses to certain questions of your chatbot:

Lastly, they provide a dashboard showing the number of interactions over time:

This is not much, but I think these analytics provide enough insight to improve the structure 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, Collect.chat does not provide any direct 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

Collect.chat provides 50 templates that can help you to get started with your chatbot right away.

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

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

• Templates

  How many pre-built templates does the chatbot platform provide?
  50
• 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

It is not possible to do any optimization with Collect.chat.

• A/B Testing

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

Support

Collect.chat has a help desk with lots of tutorials and documentation on how you can use their platform.

Moreover, they provide support via live chat and 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

So, should you buy Collect.chat to create your chatbots?

No, I wouldn’t recommend that.

And this is because of three reasons:

First of all, Collect.chat does not provide live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot builder. If your chatbot fails (and it will fail!), you can always forward the conversation to a human that can ensure a good experience. However, when you don’t have a live chat, you cannot ensure that experience.

Secondly, each chatbot in Collect.chat consists of one chatbot flow. But this also means, that it is only possible to have one widget per chatbot flow and you can only see the analytics of one chatbot flow. As you can imagine, this is not really scalable. For example, if you want multiple chatbot flows on your website, you need to manually create them one-by-one and also analyze them one-by-one.

Thirdly, it is not possible to automatically reply to the questions of users. And isn’t that what chatbots are all about?