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Show HN: Choosify – Intercom Alternative with Auto Responses

2 points by jos- 6y ago

jos- 6y ago
Hi HN, I'm launching Choosify (https://choosify.chat https://choosify.chat), a website plugin for live chat / customer support. It allows you to chat with website visitors directly via Slack. Conversations can be partially automated using a flow builder. The main reasons for developing Choosify are: 1) Chatbot platforms like Dialogflow are too complicated for the average user regarding input/output context. 2) Intercom is terribly expensive :) Recently more Intercom alternatives have been launched (cough Papercups (YC S20) cough). However, Choosify is unique in the way it allows you to set up automated messages and responses. I hope this will help you to talk to your customers. The free tier should be sufficient for the average user. (Billing is not yet implemented, so it's 100% free for now.) Features: - Customizable lightweight plugin - Automated replies using code-free flow builder - Reply from Slack - Free tier and affordable pricing based on how many messages you send/receive - Golang backend, Vue/Nuxt.js frontend Please let me know your thoughts. Any feedback is welcome, thanks!
ktpsns 6y ago
As a customer, I hate chatbots. They make it harder to look up information, mainly because one has to guess the correct keywords to trigger the wanted answer. I prefer any other UI over chatbots. But since you are now into chatbots, here is a thing: What about exposing the configuration to users? This way, you could offer customers an alternative way of digging throught the informations encoded within the chatbot. I guess a lot of people would prefer that.
- jos- 6y ago
  You mean a 'Chatbot to FAQ page' exporter? Interesting idea, but the best way to navigate such a page with nested questions would probably be something that looks similar to a chat interface :) What are the reasons why you hate chatbots most? Don't you think most them are solved using hybrid human-bot responses?
  - ktpsns 6y ago
    Most chat windows are styled as if a human was sitting at the other end. It is very annoying to learn just by the quality of answers that it is only a bot answering. I can scan information on a lengthy FAQ page or a knowledge database much faster then I can interact with a chatbot. Just imagine the interface to the Google search would be a chatbot. That's ridicolous. A well-done search page which searches over on any kind of website is a better interface then a chatbot.

2 points by jos- 6y ago

jos- 6y ago

Hi HN, I'm launching Choosify (https://choosify.chat https://choosify.chat), a website plugin for live chat / customer support. It allows you to chat with website visitors directly via Slack. Conversations can be partially automated using a flow builder. The main reasons for developing Choosify are: 1) Chatbot platforms like Dialogflow are too complicated for the average user regarding input/output context. 2) Intercom is terribly expensive :) Recently more Intercom alternatives have been launched (cough Papercups (YC S20) cough). However, Choosify is unique in the way it allows you to set up automated messages and responses. I hope this will help you to talk to your customers. The free tier should be sufficient for the average user. (Billing is not yet implemented, so it's 100% free for now.) Features: - Customizable lightweight plugin - Automated replies using code-free flow builder - Reply from Slack - Free tier and affordable pricing based on how many messages you send/receive - Golang backend, Vue/Nuxt.js frontend Please let me know your thoughts. Any feedback is welcome, thanks!

ktpsns 6y ago

As a customer, I hate chatbots. They make it harder to look up information, mainly because one has to guess the correct keywords to trigger the wanted answer. I prefer any other UI over chatbots. But since you are now into chatbots, here is a thing: What about exposing the configuration to users? This way, you could offer customers an alternative way of digging throught the informations encoded within the chatbot. I guess a lot of people would prefer that.

jos- 6y ago
You mean a 'Chatbot to FAQ page' exporter? Interesting idea, but the best way to navigate such a page with nested questions would probably be something that looks similar to a chat interface :) What are the reasons why you hate chatbots most? Don't you think most them are solved using hybrid human-bot responses?
- ktpsns 6y ago
  Most chat windows are styled as if a human was sitting at the other end. It is very annoying to learn just by the quality of answers that it is only a bot answering. I can scan information on a lengthy FAQ page or a knowledge database much faster then I can interact with a chatbot. Just imagine the interface to the Google search would be a chatbot. That's ridicolous. A well-done search page which searches over on any kind of website is a better interface then a chatbot.