How to use QR codes for AI chatbots on Web, Messenger, and WhatsApp

Chatbots allow you to automate customer interaction on different channels and different languages. That automation adds value for you as a business by saving time, and for consumers by answering questions immediately.

As a well-designed chatbot adds value for businesses and for consumers, one of the challenges is how to get as many customers as possible onboarded to the chatbot. That’s where QR codes come in handy.

To get more customers to interact with your bot you can use QR codes. You can create a QR code and place it in offline items such as invites, posters, tables, and more. As it’s very likely that your consumer has their mobile phone with them, they can scan that QR code and directly interact with the chatbot to answer a question or to join a promotion.

That QR code sounds nice but how does that work? And where to start? Well, the QR code actually represents an URL and that URL can redirect customers to Web, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

There a several tools that allow you to convert an URL into a QR code. In this example, we’ll be using qr-code-generator.com. You can paste your destination URL and it will generate your QR code.

To create a QR code that opens a web URL, paste your destination or target URL into QR Code Generator. After that, your code will be created and you can download it in your preferred format. Are you working on a chatbot that serves a lead generator? In that case, you might want to add unique tags in the URL to measure conversion rates.

To create a QR code for your Facebook Messenger bot, the process is similar. We need to convert our target URL into a QR code by using a tool like QR Code Generator. The advantage of using Facebook Messenger is that you can create a link that triggers a specific event within Khoros by using m.me links. In that case, your URL will be something like:

http:<i>//m.me/theflowai?ref=TEST_DRIVE</i>

Read more about Facebook m.me links in How to use Facebook Messenger m.me links.

The idea of creating a QR code for WhatsApp is quite similar to the m.me links. The only difference is that our URL can set a pre-defined text within WhatsApp to your chatbot so that the user only has so hit the enter button. In that case, we won’t be able to trigger an event directly from the link but we can already place a piece of text that would trigger the right flow when being sent.

To create a link that’s useful for this case you can use WhatsApp click to chat links. That will result in something like this:

https:<i>//wa.me/31633567993?text=preorder</i>

With QR codes as described above you make it easier for your user to connect with you as a brand. With less friction in the process this will boost conversion rates and onboarding numbers.