Arnav Patel


<p>When we started creating content at TARS, four years ago, <strong>we used to publish posts on pretty much any topic that came to our mind.</strong> Our reasoning was that if we found something interesting, our customers surely would too.</p>



<p><strong><em>We were wrong.</em></strong></p>



<p>While our content did well with other tech geeks like us,<strong> it didn&#8217;t resonate with the average marketers and small-mid sized business owners who were our target customers</strong> because (as we found out from talking to our customers) our language was too technical.</p>



<p>Since then, we&#8217;ve been able to avoid situations like this, but I&#8217;ve always wondered if there was a way to get these insights without burning fingers first, and <strong>this week I finally got an answer!</strong></p>



<iframe style="min-height:180px!important;" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/51baa374"></iframe>



<p>I spoke with <strong>Jerome Van der Linden, CEO at <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://botimplementation.com/" target="_blank">Bot Implementation Institute</a> </strong>about how he and his team are helping large CPG businesses learn more about their customers through chatbot-administered interviews.</p>



<p>While Jerome&#8217;s work primarily focuses on enterprise-level customers, his insights about customer engagement can be used by any business regardless of size.</p>



<p>If you want to improve your marketing effort by understanding your customers better, give the interview a listen</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In this podcast, you will learn…</h2>



<p>👉How chatbots improve consumer data quality<br>👉How chatbots can help businesses scale data collection<br>👉How chatbots provide a better UX for consumer surveys<br>👉How consumer insights can be operationalized to improve marketing efficiency</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Links, links, and more links…</h2>



<p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/ShaneMac" target="_blank">Jerome’s&nbsp;LinkedIn</a><br><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://botimplementation.com/" target="_blank">Bot Implementation’s website</a><br><a href="https://botimplementation.com/2020/07/bmp-23-interview-with-arnav-patel-of-tars-chatbots" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bot Implementation&#8217;s podcast</a> (I was the guest int heir latest ep)<br><a href="https://twitter.com/sir_patel">Arnav’s Twitter</a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/hellotars_ai">TARS’ Twitter</a></p>

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How Chatbots Are Revolutionizing The Way Businesses Find Consumer Insights

How Chatbots Are Revolutionizing The Way Businesses Find Consumer Insights - Tars Blog


<p>What does it take to run a successful SaaS startup?</p>



<p>Lots of funding? A high valuation?&nbsp;</p>



<p>That&#8217;s what most people think, but it doesn&#8217;t necessarily have to be the case.</p>



<p>Since 2017, TARS has been part of the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://upekkha.io/" target="_blank"><strong>Upekkha Catalyst Accelerator</strong></a>, a startup accelerator at the forefront of the ValueSaaS movement, which aims to build capital-efficient SaaS startups that are not overly dependent on venture capital.</p>



<p>As the accelerator gears up for its next cohort (which you can apply for here), we spoke with <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/prasanna_says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prasanna Krishnamoorthy</a></strong>, a partner at the accelerator about his thoughts on the State of SaaS.</p>



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<p>Even if you aren&#8217;t in the SaaS space, Prasanna shares some valuable frameworks that you can deploy in your business regardless of industry, so I highly recommend that you give it a listen.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What you&#8217;ll learn</h2>



<p>👉What is ValueSaaS</p>



<p>👉What is VanitySaaS (spoiler alert it&#8217;s the opposite of ValueSaaS)</p>



<p>👉How you can understand your customer&#8217;s needs better</p>



<p>👉A framework for you can approach crises like COVID-19</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Important Resources</h2>



<p>First and foremost here&#8217;s the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://upekkha.io/apply" target="_blank">application for Upekkha&#8217;s next cohort</a> (I highly recommend that you apply)</p>



<p>Next, here&#8217;s the <a href="http://bit.ly/valuesaasguide" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Upekkha&#8217;s ValueSaaS Basecamp Guide</a> that Prasanna mentioned. A valuable resource if you want to learn more about ValueSaaS as a movement</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s Prasanna explaining in more detail what the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-039j2NR1w">Business Hierarchy of Needs</a>:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe title="Mr. Prasanna Krishnamoorthy - Hierarchy of Business Value" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5-039j2NR1w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<p>Also check out Simon Wardley&#8217;s <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/swardley/status/1273175662669565954?s=20" target="_blank">thread about the Isolation Economy</a> if you want to learn more about how COVID has changed the business landscape.</p>



<p>And of course, don&#8217;t forget to follow us on social</p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/prasanna_says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prasanna&#8217;s Twitter</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/sir_patel">Arnav’s Twitter</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hellotars_ai">TARS’ Twitter</a></p>

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How To Build A Profitable B2B SaaS Business Without Giving Away All Your Equity

How To Build A Profitable B2B SaaS Business Without Giving Away All Your Equity - Tars Blog

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> April 5, 2022</div>
<p>The most common complaint we hear when we ask people about their experience with chatbots is <em>&#8220;they suck because they always make mistakes.&#8221;&nbsp; </em>This is undoubtedly true. We&#8217;ve all interacted with at least one chatbot that has said <em>&#8220;sorry I can&#8217;t answer that question yet.&#8221;</em></p>



<p>But what if I told you that these sorts of errors are actually a good thing!</p>



<p>A few weeks back I spoke with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/ShaneMac" target="_blank">Shane Mac</a>, SVP of Marketing and Partnerships at <a href="http://conversocial.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Conversocial</a>, and Shane introduced me to the idea of using &#8220;errors as intelligence.&#8221;</p>



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<p>The basic logic goes something like this. Errors are basically your customers&#8217; way of telling you what services you should offer. Every time your chatbot fails to give them what they want, that&#8217;s your bot telling you what you should include for the next customer.</p>



<p>Cool insight huh?</p>



<p>Well, if you want to learn more awesome chatbot design tips like that one, listen to our interview with Shane above.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In this podcast, you will learn…</h2>



<p>👉How you can use your chatbot&#8217;s mistakes to improve UX<br>👉What the future of voice assistants will look like<br>👉Apple&#8217;s magical chatbot experience that no one is talking about<br>👉The fundamental difference between websites and chatbots<br>👉Why errors are a chatbot&#8217;s superpower</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Links, links, and more links…</h2>



<p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/ShaneMac" target="_blank">Shane&#8217;s&nbsp;Twitter</a><br><br><a href="http://conversocial.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Conversocial&#8217;s website</a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cocohub.ai/" target="_blank"><br></a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/sir_patel">Arnav’s Twitter<br></a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/hellotars_ai">TARS’ Twitter</a></p>



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Why Errors Are A Chatbot’s Superpower

Why Errors Are A Chatbot's Superpower - Tars Blog


<p>I&#8217;ve been in the chatbot game for almost 5 years now, and in that time, I&#8217;ve found that there is a single factor that differentiates the good chatbots from the not so good ones:</p>



<p><strong>The intention of the chatbot&#8217;s creator.</strong></p>



<p>Now, I realize that this might sound like some holier than thou spiel about having the right intentions, but I&#8217;m being dead serious. A lot of people decide to build chatbots for their business for the sole reason that they see everyone else building chatbots and they don&#8217;t want to feel left out. Inevitably these efforts result in a user experience that disappoints customers and businesses alike.</p>



<p>On the other hand, when people start out with a problem that they are trying to solve and then naturally arrive at chatbots as the solution, the results are better. Much better.</p>



<p>A couple of weeks back I spoke to someone who falls into the latter category of chatbot creators.</p>



<iframe style='min-height:180px!important;' width='100%' height='180' frameborder='no' scrolling='no' seamless='' src='https://share.transistor.fm/e/1c963fab'></iframe>



<p>Jared Jaskot is an immigration attorney and co-founder of  YoTengoBot, a conversational tech startup that helps law firms answer common recurring questions from potential clients and book more high-quality consultations.</p>



<p>The startup was founded out of a problem that Jared was trying to solve at his workplace.</p>



<p>He found that a lot of his clients were waiting months on end for a 30-minute consultation in which they&#8217;d ask him the most basic questions so he set out to find a solution.</p>



<p>After a bunch of trial and error (read: forms and websites), he found chatbots and guess what? They worked. Chatbots helped him automate 70% of customer conversations, increase his conversion rate by 10x, and most importantly deliver his necessary legal services to more people.</p>



<p>Tune in to the episode for the full story👆</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In this podcast, you will learn…</h2>



<p>👉The art of asking for sensitive information in a chatbot</p>



<p>👉How chatbots improve the ROI on digital ad campaigns</p>



<p>👉Why even non-AI chatbots are better than websites and forms</p>



<p>👉 How chatbots help small businesses scale</p>



<p>👉How you can leverage your chatbot to build an audience?</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Links, links, and more links…</h2>



<p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-f-gilbert-75186a156/" target="_blank">Jared Jaskot’s LinkedIn</a> (I’m putting this link first because Jared posts really insightful articles about legal chatbots on his page)<br><br><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cocohub.ai/" target="_blank">YoTengoBot&#8217;s Website<br></a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/sir_patel">Arnav’s Twitter<br></a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/hellotars_ai">TARS’ Twitter</a></p>

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How Chatbot Automation Helps Law Firms Get More Clients

How Chatbot Automation Helps Law Firms Get More Clients - Tars Blog

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> July 8, 2020</div>
<p>What do filmmaking and chatbot creation have in common with each other?</p>



<p>Quite a bit as it turns out!</p>



<p>A few weeks back I spoke with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-f-gilbert-75186a156/"><strong>Jason Gilbert</strong></a><strong>, Lead Conversational Designer at <a href="https://cocohub.ai/">CoCoHub</a>, and multiple Webby award winner</strong> about his thoughts on conversational design and if there is one thing that I learned from him it was that <strong>if you want to make a chatbot that users actually enjoy, then you should go to film school.</strong></p>



<iframe style="min-height:180px!important;" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/ffd4e7ca"></iframe>



<p>On the surface, this might seem like a controversial statement to make because <strong>what could filmmakers possibly know about software creation</strong>.</p>



<p>But when you let it sit with you for a little bit <strong>it starts to make sense.</strong></p>



<p>Chatbots are undoubtedly pieces of software, but <strong>their user experience is defined not by the efficiency of their underlying code</strong>, <strong>but rather by how engaging their messaging is.</strong> And if engaging messaging is what you are going for, would you rather have a filmmaker or an engineer working on your chatbot for you? Probably the filmmaker huh?</p>



<p>Now I know what you&#8217;re thinking. &#8220;I don&#8217;t have the time to go back to film school.&#8221;</p>



<p>Well, that&#8217;s where Jason comes into the picture. He is a filmmaker by training and in our conversation, he shared some valuable insights on how you can make your chatbots more engaging through creative conversational design.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In this podcast, you will learn&#8230;</h2>



<p>👉How to create a personality for your chatbot</p>



<p>👉Why you should make your chatbots more fun (even if they are for customer service)</p>



<p>👉How you can leverage your chatbot to build an audience?</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"> Links, links, and more links&#8230; </h2>



<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-f-gilbert-75186a156/">Jason Gilbert&#8217;s LinkedIn</a> (I&#8217;m putting this link first because Jason posts entertaining bot-related content on his Linkedin)<br><br><a href="https://cocohub.ai/">CoCoHub&#8217;s Conversational Component Library<br></a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/sir_patel">Arnav&#8217;s Twitter<br></a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/hellotars_ai">TARS&#8217; Twitter</a></p>

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Why Filmmakers Make Better Chatbots Than Engineers

Why Filmmakers Make Better Chatbots Than Engineers - Tars Blog

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> November 23, 2021</div>
<p>About a year ago, we pivoted our content marketing strategy at TARS to focus primarily on video. Every blogpost we published would be accompanied by a short video explaining the content, and every one of these explainer videos would be accompanied by an even shorter teaser clip that we&#8217;d post on LinkedIn.</p>



<p>For a long time, this strategy worked well for us!</p>



<p>We got good engagement on LinkedIn, drove traffic to our blog, and even converted some viewers into paying customers.</p>



<p>But then, a few months ago, everything changed. LinkedIn updated its algorithm and videos were no longer performing as well as they used to. Our entire social media strategy had collapsed before our eyes and there was nothing we could do about it.</p>



<p>Thankfully for us, we didn&#8217;t put all our eggs in the LinkedIn basket. In particular, our email newsletter continued to drive valuable traffic our way and the disruption was relatively minor.</p>



<p>In hindsight, we were saved by the fact that we had spent years building an audience (our email list), that was immune to outside pressures (like an algorithm change.</p>



<p>This week, we spoke to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/khandelwalvivek/">Vivek Khandelwal</a> from <a href="http://izooto.com">iZooto</a> about how his team is helping marketers reduce their dependence on Big Tech, liked we did with our newsletters, through the power of owned audience marketing.</p>



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<p>If you want to learn about how you can protect your business from potentially disastrous algorithm changes, give the interview a listen👇</p>



<p>You can check out iZooto&#8217;s kickass product over here👉 <a href="https://www.izooto.com">https://www.izooto.com/</a></p>



<p>And you can check out their podcast over here👉 <a href="https://www.izooto.com/podcast/own-thy-audience-series">https://www.izooto.com/podcast/own-thy-audience-series</a> </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Interested in being interviewed on an episode of TARS conversations?</h2>



<p>Reach out to Arnav at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:arnav@hellotars.com">arnav@hellotars.com</a>&nbsp;and we’ll set it up</p>

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How iZooto is Helping Marketers Grow Their Audience Using Push Notifications

How iZooto is Helping Marketers Grow Their Audience Using Push Notifications - Tars Blog

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> November 22, 2021</div>
<p>Recruitment is a notoriously bureaucratic process. Between the heaps of documents that recruiters need to collect to review an application, and the constant back and forth to schedule interviews, re-interviews and screening calls, companies have to invest an immense amount of time and effort into hiring new talent.</p>



<p>We spoke to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mredstone/">Martyn Redstone</a>, a recruitment expert, about how he&#8217;s using chatbots to simplify some of these processes and help companies grow their teams more efficiently.</p>



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<p>You can learn more about recruitment chatbots and get in touch with Martyn at <a href="http://pplbots.com">pplbots.com</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Interested in being interviewed on an episode of TARS conversations?</h2>



<p>Reach out to Arnav at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:arnav@hellotars.com">arnav@hellotars.com</a>&nbsp;and we’ll set it up</p>

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How Recruitment Chatbots Are Streamlining The Hiring Process

How Recruitment Chatbots Are Streamlining The Hiring Process - Tars Blog

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> November 23, 2021</div>
<p> Healthcare is one of those basic services that every person will need at some point in their lives. </p>



<p>Unfortunately, the actual process of receiving healthcare is plagued with terrible UX, which makes an already stressful situation (being sick) positively unbearable. </p>



<p>This week we were lucky enough to speak to one of the innovators who is working to fix this situation.</p>



<p>Bildad St. Louis,  co-founded RecoveryIP Innovations to revolutionize the way healthcare providers deliver services to their patients. </p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Interested in being interviewed on an episode of TARS conversations?</h2>



<p>Reach out to Arnav at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:arnav@hellotars.com">arnav@hellotars.com</a>&nbsp;and we’ll set it up.</p>

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How RecoveryIP Is Reimagining Outpatient Care Using Chatbots

How RecoveryIP Is Reimagining Outpatient Care Using Chatbots - Tars Blog

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> November 22, 2021</div>
<p>In mid-2018, after spending decades working at South Africa’s largest telecom provider, Dessie Moonsamy decided to strike out on his own, and start a digital marketing agency, DLTM Consulting,</p>



<p>We spoke to him this week, to find out how he has successfully made the transition from climbing the corporate ladder to running his own business, and how chatbots have helped him stand out in a crowded industry.</p>



<p>Check out the full story below👇</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Interested in being interviewed on an episode of TARS conversations?</h2>



<p>Reach out to Arnav at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:arnav@hellotars.com">arnav@hellotars.com</a>&nbsp;and we’ll set it up.</p>

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