Telegram Bot is a free and effective channel of communication with clients. Not only does it allow you to maintain continuous contact, but it also allows you to automate answers to the most popular questions, which significantly reduces waiting time for clients.
In this article, you will learn how to create and configure a Telegram Bot, connect it to RemOnline chats, and how to customize it for your business needs.
In order to connect a Telegram Bot to RemOnline chats, you first need to create and configure your bot directly in Telegram.
Creating a Telegram Bot
1. In Telegram, find a bot called @botfather and click Start.
2. Select the /newbot command and come up with a name for your bot.
3. Come up with a username for your bot in English.
Important: this name must be unique and end in “bot”.
Your bot is now created! Now you need to set it up.
4. Press /help > /mybots > Select your newly created bot > Edit bot.
5. Here you can add:
About me section that clients will see when they open your bot profile;
Description - a client greeting that they will see as soon as they open a chat with the bot, but not yet start a conversation;
Botpic - a photo of your bot chat profile.
6. After these settings, click Back to bot > API Token. Copy the API Token, because we need it to connect this Telegram bot to RemOnline channels.
Connecting a Telegram Bot as a channel to RemOnline chats
1. In RemOnline, go to the Settings > Chats section and click + Channel. Select the resource - Telegram Bot.
2. Paste the API Key copied from the Telegram bot settings.
3. Configure Access to the channel.
All - all employees of the company will have access to the channel settings, provided that such access is allowed by the system;
Selected - only selected employees will have access to the channel settings, provided that such access is allowed by the system;
Owner - only the company owner will have access to the settings.
Important: to change the settings for employees' access to the Chat and Chat settings, go to Settings > Employees > Roles and edit the necessary settings.
Bot settings
In this section, you can customize the message text and the bot menu. To get started, configure the following fields:
1. Welcome message to the client. This is the message that the client sees after clicking the Start button.
2. Text of the button for requesting the client's phone number.
3. The text of the message that the client will see after they share their phone number.
For your convenience, the standard text has already been added, but you can edit it if necessary.
Customizing the Bot menu
Note: these settings are available from the Business plan and above.
You can customize the bot menu so that the client can get the necessary information without your help by simply clicking the corresponding option. This feature is useful for providing quick, automatic answers to the most popular queries, such as your company's working hours, branch addresses, etc.
The first field is the name of the bot menu. By default, it is called the Main Menu, but you can edit it.
The first option is the option to start a chat with your company, and it is mandatory.
Next, you can configure the rest of the options, namely:
come up with a name for the option,
add the text of the response that the client will receive when selecting this option.
You can create up to 7 additional options, delete them or change their order.
Important:
The text fields of the greeting message and the bot's reply have a maximum length of 1000 characters.
The text of the main menu options has a maximum length of 35 characters.
After all the settings are complete, click Create.
A new chat channel in RemOnline is created!
Working with the Telegram Bot in RemOnline chat
When a customer clicks on the link to your Telegram Bot and shares their phone number, they will be able to find out the information they need by tapping on the menu options, if they are enabled, and initiate a chat with your company.
To do this, the client just needs to click the Chat with operator option and write their question, or simply send the question in a chat. Then RemOnline will automatically create a new chat where you can continue to communicate with the client.
Please note: the answers that the customer receives when clicking on the menu options are not sent to the chat. The chat will be initiated only after the first text message from the client.