Can anyone recommend best practices for using HubSpot chatflows?

[angelam]

I have gone round and round with setting up messages, chatflows and bots, but I still don't like how it flows. Does anyone have a 'best practice' they rely on? One bot, one live chat etc? I have a lot that have been created by multiple users and I feel like they are competing even when they are inactive. It also seems that the if/then branches do not always direct the right way or maybe I just haven't figured out the right way to set them up 😉

I would like to streamline our process. Would love feedback about your set up, what works and what doesn't.

Thanks!

[Phil_Vallender · Accepted solution]

Hi @angelam 

It can be tricky to get chatflows to the point where you feel totally happy with them. You're basically writing a choose your own adventure script and trying to predict what users will want at each step. Not easy. 

The best advice, as with all marketing automation tools, is to keep it simple. Complexity doens't do anyone any favours - least of all your users. 

I think HubSpot's own recent post on chatflow configuration gives you a good indication of what they think can and cannot be achieved with the technology, and could act as a basis for your own configuration: How HubSpot Personalized Our Chatbots to Improve The Customer Experience and Support Our Sales Team

I used the ideas here to refine a client's chatflow that was basically performing the same core functions: 1) triage customer support enquiries to the right channels and 2) qualify sales enquiries before agent hand-off. 

When we think about next step to improve the performance of chatflows, the most likely strategy is to clone this main one and customise the messaging to align with the content of specific pages. 

Hope this helps.