1. 1 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Advanced usage of Facebook
Messenger to complement the
conversational experience
Nicolas Beuchat
Co-founder at Alpaca
nicolas@rentalpaca.com
Rasa Summit 2021 – Lightning Talk

2. 2 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Alpaca owns the largest network of housing
communities on Facebook
We built our chatbot on Facebook Messenger to simplify the apartment search experience where
our users already spend their time
Seattle
80K+ users
San Francisco
130K+ users
Los Angeles
150K+ users
Austin
50K+ users
Washington D.C.
125K+ users
New York City
280K+ users
Boston
170K+ users
Chicago
85K+ users
Text

3. 3 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Referrals
Know where your user are coming
from and what they want to do
m.me/alpacachat?ref=RASA
Webviews
For interactions that are hard or
slow to do in a chatbot, use an
“app” within your bot!
Typing indicator
Make your user wait and give
rhythm to the conversation
Generic templates
Display graphical information in
beautiful and interactive cards
directly in the conversation
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions

4. 4 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Display multiple apartments at once
Convenient interface to the webview
Visually appealing
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions
Generic templates
Display graphical information in beautiful and
interactive cards directly in the conversation
Custom Rasa action to generate the carousel

5. 5 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions
Webviews
For interactions that are hard or slow to do in
a chatbot, use an “app” within your bot!
Save time setting or editing preferences
Provide additional info such as map, video
tours, insights, etc.
Scroll through hundreds of listings
Loop back to the chatbot through trigger intents
and Rasa 2.0 Rule Policy

6. 6 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions
Webviews
For interactions that are hard or slow to do in
a chatbot, use an “app” within your bot!
Save time setting or editing preferences
Provide additional info such as map, video
tours, insights, etc.
Scroll through hundreds of listings
Loop back to the chatbot through trigger intents
and Rasa 2.0 Rule Policy

7. 7 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions
Webviews
For interactions that are hard or slow to do in
a chatbot, use an “app” within your bot!
Save time setting or editing preferences
Provide additional info such as map, video
tours, insights, etc.
Scroll through hundreds of listings
Loop back to the chatbot through trigger intents
and Rasa 2.0 Rule Policy

8. 8 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions
Implemented in Rasa by customizing the standard
Facebook channel
Bot knows which apartment the user is
interested in
Convert reference into a specific intent with entities
Provide analytics on the source of new and
returning users
Referrals
Know where your user are coming
from and what they want to do
m.me/alpacachat?ref=RASA

9. 9 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Facebook Messenger provides a wide variety of interactions
Implemented in Rasa by customizing the standard
Facebook channel
Bot knows which apartment the user is
interested in
Convert reference into a specific intent with entities
Provide analytics on the source of new and
returning users
Referrals
Know where your user are coming
from and what they want to do
m.me/alpacachat?ref=RASA

10. 10 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Rasa has been instrumental in helping us fully utilize
Messenger’s potential
Rasa 2.0 Rule Policy greatly simplify handling
interactions with the webviews
The power of open-source: fully customize FB channels,
fix your own bugs, and a fantastic community!

11. 11 ALPACA TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Any Questions?
Nicolas Beuchat
Email nicolas@rentalpaca.com
Twitter @NicolasBeuchat
Website rentalpaca.com