3.1.4 Customer Chat Feature

This page contains the required information about the engineering of the customer chat feature on the website.

The customer chat feature we're implementing on the website is a Chatbot. This enables our users to have quick answers to questions they might have, and solutions to the issues they encounter. The following table contains information on the engineering requirements.

FEATURE	SERVICE INTEGRATED	PURPOSE OF THE SERVICE
CHATBOT	IBM Watson Virtual Assistant	It's a no-code tool that requires zero programming knowledge to use. It also integrates easily into our chosen platform.

Technical Requirements

The technical requirements of building a successful chatbot require the following components:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP): The chatbot must be equipped with NLP capabilities to understand the user and give appropriate responses.

• Machine Learning (ML): The chatbot must have ML algorithms integrated to learn from its interactions with the user over time.

• API Integration: The chatbot must be integrated with the website's API to retrieve user data and personalize recommendations.

• Security: The chatbot must be secure and protect the user's data from unauthorized access or breaches.

• Scalability: The chatbot should be able to handle a large number of users.

Development Process

The development process of the chatbot follows the following:

STEP	PROCESS
Gathering the required recourses	Here, the development team (consisting of the data professional and developers) will gather the resources needed to create the chatbot. This includes understanding the purpose and choosing the best customer use case.
Chatbot design	Here, the developers will design the chatbot's interface, backend and frontend architecture (We used IBM Watson Virtual Assistant, so these were taken care of).
Chatbot development	The data professional will develop the chatbot using the aforementioned services in the table and make it available for the developers to integrate into the website. The developers will make use of APIs, Javascript and react to integrate it.
Chatbot testing	In this stage, the chatbot's functionality, performance, security, and other requirements will be put to the test and perfected.
Chatbot deployment	After the successful development and testing of the chatbot, it will be deployed to the website.

Access to the code files for this feature will be available on our GitHub repository.