We at RoboRobo, love such challenges like making our everyday lives easier with chatbots. We are constantly researching and developing solutions that address situations and needs that occur with almost everyone in our everyday lives.

The result of this research process — among other things— is a chatbot solution that makes package tracking easier than ever!

I am going to present our package tracking chatbot with RoboRobo’s fictitious logistics service, RPL.

Track With A Bot

The RPL Bot was designed to provide the user with all the information they need as quickly as possible, with the least amount of energy.

All you need to do is send to the chatbot the package ID you received when you placed your order, and the bot will look up the parcel delivery database for the package and its status.

The chatbot will display the current status of the parcel in a message and also send as a Generic Template card. The image on the card is generated on the server using the data of the package.

We have designed messages and cards so that the most important information is immediately visible to the user, such as the current status of the package or the estimated time of delivery. The Generic Template button opens the package’s datasheet in a WebView window.

On this datasheet, you can see the full shipping history of the package and share your order details with friends. So, for example, if you order something at the request of a friend, they might be constantly aware of the status of the package too.

You can turn order tracking on the package datasheet. A user may request notification of multiple packages at the same time. The chatbot will notify you each time the status of the tracked package has changed.

Thanks to this, you don’t have to keep an eye on where your package is, the chatbot keeps you up to date.

Additional functions

We have talked about the importance of thoroughly developing user processes several times. We also kept this in mind when designing our package tracking bot, so we prepared the chatbot what to do if it receives something other than a valid Package ID.

The bot will answer in such situations:

• Wrong ID format — the chatbot starts searching only if it detects a valid ID format in the message. Otherwise, the user will be asked by the bot to check and retype the code.
• “I don’t find the code” or “I lost it” — The chatbot will help the user in finding out where their package ID could be found (eg. in a previous email, SMS, merchant’s website, etc.).
• “Didn’t get one” or “I don't have it” — The bot advises the user to contact the merchant’s customer service to obtain the package ID.

What would the chatbot look like in reality?

The RPL bot was created as a research project. If we made an ordered chatbot, a live chat module would also be an integral part of the application, allowing users to connect to customer service within the chatbot. This is really handy if there is a problem during shipping so the user can contact customer support directly through the chatbot.

Once authenticated through the chatbot, users could change the delivery date or other editable details of their packages even without customer support.

The chatbot requires the integration of an external system through which information about the packages can be obtained. The chatbot can work fine alone or integrated as a module of another multifunctional bot.

Before developing the bot concept, we did a thorough research to find everyday life situations where a bot could be a real help. The results of our research help us to develop chat bots that can become modern companions in our daily lives.

Disclaimer: this is a translated version of an article originally posted on our own botblog.hu, on September 19, 2019.