As a chatbot builder, it is important that when working with clients, you have experience building chatbots in multiple chatbot builder platforms. One platform that I like building in is BotStar. But for a while, one of the features that is most useful was not present when I first started with this platform which was using a ref URL in BotStar. Now, I am happy to share with you how to use a ref URL in BotStar that will make your chatbots using BotStar even more dynamic and useful.

Having a ref URL is a way to have a link to your bot and use it to bring in dynamic information or go to a specific block in your chatbot, instead of having to go directly to your welcome block each time. Using a ref URL in BotStar can allow you to set a variable within BotStar that can set information about a user. Maybe you want to know where this user is from and clicked your BotStar chatbot link, you can pass along with the link a variable and set that variable within the chatbot using key:value.

If you have other dynamic information that you would like to set, maybe from your CRM or a marketing campaign, you can do so using a ref URL in BotStar. This will go a long way in integrating into multiple systems with the same information. And it will give your users a much better experience.

But the most powerful piece to using a ref URL in BotStar is the ability to go to a specific block within your chatbot. Being able to send users to certain parts of your chatbot makes your chatbot a lot more dynamic and it will help you to use multiple links outside of your chatbot to get users to where you need to send them.

Let’s say that you have a welcome block for general users to come in, click a button on where or what information they would like. Now, you can have other areas of your chatbot like if you have marketing campaign where you want to have a specific quiz, you can send out a link with the block information at the end of the link that will bypass all other blocks, including the welcome block to go straight to the block you need them to go.

Ready to build a better chatbot? Check out some examples below of using a ref URL in your BotStar chatbot (Note: the link url’s will not work here, just used to show as an example and you would fill in with your m.me link and also you specific block of variable info):

Ref URL in the BotStar To Specific BotStar Block

hxxps_://m.me/122351985495645?ref=block:sc26436c5-ebc7-5f95-a3c2-3bbb4e744c7b

Let’s break this down –
1. Here, the (hxxps_://m.me/122351985495645), this would be your specific m.me chatbot url.

2. Appending the url with (?ref=block:), this is important to let BotStar know that you are trying to go to a specific block.

3. Now you will append the particular block ID (sc26436c5-ebc7-5f95-a3c2-3bbb4e744c7b) that you will find on the right panel of your builder.

So, when someone clicks on that url, they will go to that Block with the ID of sc26436c5-ebc7-5f95-a3c2-3bbb4e744c7b

How cool is that?

Another example is to use ref URL in BotStar:

Update a variable

hxxps_://m.me/122351985495645?ref=variables:my_variable:8
Let’s break this down –
1. Here, the (hxxps_://m.me/122351985495645), this would be your specific m.me chatbot url.

2. Appending the url with (?ref=variables:), this is important to let BotStar know that you are trying to update a variable or variables.

3. To update the variable or variables, (my_variable:8) is needed to set the key:value variable. So your variable name is ‘my_variable’ and the value is 8.

**If you would like to to add multiple variables, you would just add on to the variables like so:

hxxps_://m.me/122351985495645?ref=variables:my_variable:8;variables:my_variable_2:jersey

To break this down, you (variables:my_variable:8;variables:my_variable_2:jersey), set the first variable (variables:my_variable:8), then you need to end that variable with a semi-colon (;), then add the next variable (variables:my_variable_2:jersey)

Let’s say that you want to update a user’s information like first name or last name from another system, you can use a ref URL similar to this:

Update a user attribute

hxxps_://m.me/122351985495645?ref=user:first_name:Christopher;user:last_name:Walker

This falls inline with much of what I have laid out before but now, we will user user and the user attribute (user:first_name:Christopher;user:last_name:Walker)

In this example, we have a ‘first_name’ user attribute with a value of ‘Christopher’ and we also have a user attribute of ‘last_name’ and a value of ‘Walker’.

And you can combine all into one url, just seperate them by semi-colons (;)

And there is much more that you can do with BotStar chatbot builder to come with this platform.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email or shoot me a messenger message.

If you would like for me and my digital marketing agency, EXECUTABLE, to build a BotStar or ManyChat chatbot campaign for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Getting seller leads usually involve providing leads with lead magnets like seller guides but a lot of time providing a way to show a seller what their ‘Home Is Worth’. What I am working on rolling out in the coming days is making this possible through a chatbot. So when someone wants to know what their home is worth, they can get this information instantly through the chatbot and be prompted to provide their contact info to get a more accurate price from you, the agent.

By using the chatbot, you pick up a chatbot subscriber which gives you a way to instantly ‘chat’ with the lead and have more conversations as opposed to email which is very one way. Even if they don’t leave their email, you can ping them through messenger and do other cool automation that will free you up until you have time to have a longer conversation. This typically leads to a phone call and eventually clients. How cool is that?

Make sure to join my list (just send an email to My List Subscription) and LIKE my Facebook page to stay up to date.

I wanted to make sure that it was super simple and powerful for real estate agents. As a licensed real estate agent, I understand that agents don’t have much time to try to figure out and build their own chatbot.

Check out the screen share below:

My stance on chatbots has shifted from automating everything to more assisting the business in being more consistent and enhancing the personal touch needed in most businesses.

Too many businesses are caught up in automating everything and forget that what makes your business stand out with your customers is that personal touch. It’s what Chic-fil-a does. They focus on how they make someone feel when visiting their establishment more than focusing on making price the ultimate driver. Which is why they continue to grow in their profits despite being open 6 days vs 7 days.

I think that as more chatbots are deployed, you will see more chatbots assist businesses more with understanding their customers than it being an automated communication agent for them. At the end of the day, most of us still love to press ‘0’ when we call into customer service to talk to a human.

Check out this article talking about – Chatbots: Beyond the hype, now what?
https://chatbotsmagazine.com/chatbots-beyond-the-hype-what-now-5ec0110f6397