{"id":13213,"date":"2017-08-09T16:26:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T15:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intercom.com\/?p=13213"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:57:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:57:53","slug":"announcing-operator-bot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/announcing-operator-bot\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing Operator: the bot for better customer experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Intercom we have always been very opinionated about bots and what they can and can\u2019t do<\/a>. Today we\u2019re launching our very own bot, Operator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Operator is a simple, smart bot that augments many of the tasks you do today with Intercom. By taking over the mundane work (e.g. collecting contact information, suggesting help articles) it frees up humans to focus on the things they do best. Operator does this through a set of rules and machine learning to recognize when a bot\u2019s input is helpful but also know when it\u2019s not. It\u2019s also extensible. Like Amazon\u2019s Alexa, its skills will grow and build over time.<\/p>\n

By now, bots are almost a dirty word in the tech industry. Despite the hype, few have delivered a killer experience and customers have every right to feel frustrated by most of their experiences with bots today.<\/p>\n

Like when a bot asks the same question over and over:<\/p>\n

\"bad<\/p>\n

Or when a bot can\u2019t understand anything beyond a series of pre-determined if-then-else statements:<\/p>\n

\"bad<\/p>\n

Bots that relentlessly ask for your email and try to block you from talking to a real person might seem like a good way to save time and automate your business. But these experiences wear on your customers and will damage your business over time.<\/p>\n

To really understand the potential of bots, we need to understand their strengths and weaknesses. They can add significant value, but they work best when they follow strict flows or simple rulesets. Think Google Assistant and Siri. What makes these services great is that they require direct user input for them to reply. They only interact when a user asks them for specific information or to complete a task. They don\u2019t try to predict or infer when to interact with a user, or follow a logic tree to insert themselves where they aren\u2019t required.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Google Assistant completing a simple task for the user with well defined inputs.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We’ve put a lot of product thinking, design and development into ensuring we avoid these common \u201cbot-first, user-second\u201d interactions.<\/p>\n

A bot built with manners<\/h2>\n

Whether their creators intend to or not many of today\u2019s bots come across as rude. As humans we understand what rude means. From a very young age, we’re taught not to eat with your mouth full, the seat is not for feet and when someone is talking, you listen and don’t interrupt. These are some of the simple manners parents teach their children but which are totally analogous to how we interact with bots today.<\/p>\n

Let me translate these:<\/p>\n