My company, Mobile Coach, works with hundreds of clients that create chatbots to support learning of all kinds. Recently, one caught my eye. We had collaborated with a fantastic organization in Australia called Energx that specializes in preventing employee burnout.
What an apropos subject! With a global pandemic, social unrest, and overall upheaval, many people are worn out, cynical, and feeling lost. I was intrigued and curious about how they envisioned a chatbot to deliver their curriculum.
Franky is a personalized coaching chatbot designed to help prevent and overcome burnout, while increasing performance and capacity. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone constantly by our side, someone who continually cheers us on and helps us know how to be at our best?
Franky does just that; based on results from a five-minute energy assessment, Franky’s algorithm creates a personalized 86-day micro-skills curriculum of coaching sessions and behavioral change challenges. Your program is unique to you and what you need to increase your energy level.
When I tried out Franky for the first time, I was doing it primarily through the lens of a chatbot designer—mainly curious how Energx designed the chatbot experience. But I was quickly sucked into self-reflection and a-ha moments about my energy levels, risk levels for burnout, and reflecting on where I wanted to improve. After my assessment, Franky started coaching and challenging me around topics that addressed my individual needs; it taught me skills like square breathing (which has helped me get through anxious times with much more resilience) and kept me accountable for getting to bed on time (it turns out sleep is incredibly important for feeling good, who knew?)
Many of us struggle to feel calm and relaxed amidst the many tasks we deal with daily. Life can be crazy, and it can be hard to find the time to relax, breathe, and tell ourselves that everything will work itself out. Having a coach like Franky that is always available is an excellent resource for personnel and organizations to prevent burnout and enable higher performance, and, most importantly, foster happy human beings. And I do have some chatbot design takeaways from my experience, as well:
Channel matters. To capitalize on the frictionless nature of chatbots, the chatbot must be on a channel they’re already using. I experienced Franky on SMS, which is the messaging channel I use to chat with my family and friends.
Personalization. Since the program was based on my energy needs, the context matched well with what I needed and made it more engaging.
Realistic time commitment: Each 10-day coaching session only required about 15 minutes of my time, which was easily doable, but any additional time would have been hard to commit to despite how useful I found it.
Even after eight years spent building chatbots, I am still impressed with the new ideas and use cases people apply to chatbots for learning. The possibilities are endless, as are the benefits! Franky showed me how over time, a chatbot could help me and others learn new skills to better our lives and the lives of those around us. It can take us from where we are now to where we want to be in a relatively short time. It’s all about helping you become an energist—a person who expands their energy and then the energy of others; a person who is a positive force not only in their own life but in the lives of others as well.
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