Have you looked for a chatbot for WooCommerce yet?
I remember telling folks about the power of using a chatbot for WooCommerce several years ago. I even worked on one with a client. But that was several years ago, and things were all early versions. By now I assumed it would be easy to find one that wasn't just live chat, but was intelligent with workflow and deep integration.
Normally I like to write comparisons where I've finished the research and can show you the results, like I've done for membership plugins or WordPress form builders.
But today I'm not writing a comparison post because I'm not sure I have the final set of candidates. I'm on the journey and I thought I would bring you with me.
What I want in a chatbot for WooCommerce
So I discovered Tidio the other day and thought – this is perfect! It had pre-configured workflows for chatbots, which I always appreciate. And they're smart.
This represents the first thing I want when choosing a chatbot for WooCommerce. I want a product that understands some of the best practices already and has pre-coded it for me. After all, cart abandonment isn't new. Neither is product inventory inquiries.
After going thru every part of this workflow, I started scratching my head. Where was the integration to my actual cart. You can't evaluate cart abandonment without the cart integration. And I couldn't find it anywhere, so I hit up support.
That's when I discovered that they have tight integration with Shopify, but not with WooCommerce. That's the second thing I want. When choosing a chatbot for WooCommerce, the WooCommerce part is essential.
That said, they did send me some code I could apply to my site to make this bot work. But the lack of integration suggested this wasn't going to work. Not their fault. They just were focused elsewhere.
Lastly, I tried their product inquiry bot template. It looked very promising – and also really well designed. But it was more of a customer service bot than an actual inquiry solution (unless you were using Shopify). That brings me to the third thing I want. When choosing a chatbot for WooCommerce, I want it to automatically look up products in the catalog, present the ones with inventory, and get customers over to the checkout.
As I stopped evaluating that solution, I rounded out the list of what I was looking at. To recap, here are the 6 things I want:
- Pre-existing templates supporting advanced workflows
- Deep integration with WooCommerce
- Ability to check product inventory
- Ability to offer coupons for abandoned cart recovery
- Ability to make product recommendations
- Ability to check order status
While I'm writing this, did you know the most often request to an eCommerce chatbot? It's a product inventory request, “Do you have Product A in Size B?”
This suggests we're way too busy to look in the catalog and find out for ourselves, or we've gotten super lazy. Either way, I want my bot to handle that for me.
The many options available for WooCommerce Chatbots
The good news is that there are more options out there.
I looked at the one on the WooCommerce extension store, Woo Bot, but it didn't have the extensive workflow that would allow me to do some of what I'd already seen in Tidio.
I have started digging into Ochatbot WooCommerce chatbot – which looks like it does most of what I want it to do. My only red flag is when I see the announcement from any of these solutions that they integrate with Zapier. I love Zapier. But I don't want to have to use this to integrate with my email or CRM. I guess I have a 7th request – direct reporting or integration with my existing tools.
Oh man, I'm becoming high maintenance.
But I think I found something that could do the trick. I'm just digging into the QuantumCloud WooCommerce bot and it's looking pretty good.
Finding the right chatbot for WooCommerce
Here's what I can tell you as I've been looking at my options. It's never about the product or its features. It's about how I intend to use it. And the more I know about what I want, the easier it becomes to determine if there's a solution out there that does what I want.
So get focused and clear on your requirements. For me, I may be close. Not sure yet.