Voiceflow Review

Voiceflow is a chatbot builder that allows you to design, prototype and launch voice chatbots. With a few clicks, you can create your own voice chatbot and put it on Google Home and Amazon Alexa. But should you use Voiceflow to create your chatbots?

Let’s find out!

What is Voiceflow?

Voiceflow is a tool that you can use to design and prototype voice & chatbots.

Also, you can use Voiceflow to design your voice chatbot and launch it on Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. However, after talking to the CEO of Voiceflow, he would not recommend doing this unless you are a large enterprise, because it often requires programming if you want to do it right.

Currently, Voiceflow is mostly focused on the design and prototype of chatbots, and less on the launching of chatbots. Because of this, they do not provide specific features, such as:

• Live chat
• Integrations with other systems, such as CRMs
• Analytics

User Interface

When you are going to create your chatbot design in Voiceflow, you can choose from several channels:

Then, when you are going to create your chatbot flows, Voiceflow provides a really clean interface with their visual flow builder:

The visual flow builder consists of Blocks and you can just click on any block and edit the contents of it:

Also, what I really like, is that you can add speak variants. This means that you can add multiple variants of the same message, and Voiceflow just randomly chooses one of the variants and sends it to the user:

When you’ve created your voice chatbot, you can automatically test it inside the interface of Voiceflow:

So, in general, the interface of Voiceflow is really easy to use and it is also easy to set up your voice chatbot.

Also, an advantage of their interface, is that in the right corner they provide a button for support. Right from the interface, you can get help from their support team. Really useful!

Another plus for the interface is that you can easily share your prototype with others so that they can test it out:

If you work in teams, this feature comes in pretty handy!

Although their interface looks pretty good, often the system is loading for several minutes:

This doesn’t stop until you delete the cookies from your browser. Moreover, when I update my chatbot and try to test it again, it is often giving an error:

Unfortunately, these errors happen all the time, making it almost impossible to efficiently create your voice chatbot. Also, the chatbot is not updating because of the errors, so I was not able to test new versions of my chatbot.

• 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

In Voiceflow, you can send 4 elements with your chatbot: Text, Audio, Images and Cards.

With a card, you can also add a background image to it, which looks like this on Google Assistant:

 

Unfortunately, it is not possible to use Galleries (Horizontal Lists) or vertical lists with Voiceflow, which is a drawback, because these elements are possible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

Also, I know that with Google Assistant, you can ask for permission to get the location or email of the user (that is associated with their Google Account). These kinds of actions could really help to get a Return-On-Investment on your voice chatbot, but Voiceflow doesn’t provide these elements.

This is probably because they are focused more on the design/prototype of chatbots, and less on the launching of chatbots.

Furthermore, it is possible to use conditions in your chatbot flows, so you can create a personalized experience:

Moreover, you can also use Components, which are reusable chatbot flows that you can use at the end of a conversation. For example, at the end of every conversation you could ask “Is your question answered?”.

• 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 Voiceflow, you can ask a question to a user and automatically store their answer in a custom field, by using the Capture element:

However, it is not possible to see all the users that interacted with your chatbot in Voiceflow itself (and their custom fields), which is a bit of a drawback.

Because of this, it is also not possible to create user segments.

• 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 Voiceflow, it is not possible to send broadcasts and sequences. This is also logical, because they only provide Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa as channels, and on those channels, you cannot send broadcasts and sequences.

Also, it is possible to create a chatbot that handles multiple languages at the same time, but it is not so easy to translate it.

• 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 Voiceflow, you can understand the intent of the user by adding training phrases (called Utterances) to your voice chatbot:

Also, as you can see from the image above, you can use entities (called Slots) in your voice chatbot.

So on the subject of AI, Voiceflow is performing pretty well!

• 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

With Voiceflow, you can create voice chatbots on:

• Google Assistant
• Amazon Alexa

Also, you can create prototypes for several other channels:

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• General chatbots
• Mobile apps

• Website

  Can you publish your chatbot on your website?
• Facebook

  Can you publish your chatbot on Facebook?
• Instagram

  Can you publish your chatbot on 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

Voiceflow does not provide a live chat integration, which is a drawback, because this is the most important integration of any chatbot builder.

Gladly, they do provide a direct integration with Google Sheets, allowing you to create, retrieve, update and delete data in Google Sheets.

Also, you can create send or receive data from other applications by using the API block in Voiceflow:

• 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 an API inside your chatbot flow to send or get data from other applications?

Marketing

The marketing possibilities of Voiceflow are pretty limited, but this is also logical because they mostly focus on Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa as channels.

• 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

Voiceflow provides a free forever plan that comes with 2 free projects for personal use. Also, with this plan, you can launch an Alexa Skill, a Google Action and you have 5,000 messages per month.

When you want more, you need to go with their Pro plan, which costs $40 per editor, per month. This plan comes with unlimited projects and 250,000 messages 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?
  40
• 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

Voiceflow does not provide any analytics, which is a huge drawback. In my opinion, it is also a bit strange that a tool that is so focused on prototyping, does not provide any analytics. Because often with a prototype you are going to test it on users. And with analytics about these test users, you could improve your chatbot more easily.

The only way to get analytics with Voiceflow is to create an integration between Voiceflow and Dashbot.io (an analytics tool for chatbots).

• 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

Voiceflow 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

Voiceflow provides 22 templates that you can use to get started with your chatbot.

Unfortunately, you cannot create templates yourself and share these with others.

Gladly, 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?
  22
• 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

Voiceflow does not provide any optimization, such as A/B Testing.

• A/B Testing

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

Support

Voiceflow provides video tutorials and extensive documentation so you can easily get started with their platform.

Moreover, they provide customer support through 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 use Voiceflow to create your chatbots?

It depends.

If you are interested in only designing and prototyping chatbots, then Voiceflow is a great tool to use. By using their easy-to-use interface, you can create chatbot designs in minutes and share them easily with others.

But if you want to create a complete chatbot with Voiceflow, I would only recommend using it when you are a large enterprise, because it requires programming to make it actually work (and connect it with other systems, such as your CRM).