What is a good name for a chatbot?
And why is Jörg Eugster’s chatbot actually called Giorgio I?
Keynote speaker Jörg Eugster happened to be at one of my chatbot webinars at the beginning of April and was inspired to create his own chatbot. The name of his bot was particularly important to Jörg during implementation and he invested a lot of time in it. You can find out more about his chatbot project, what he thinks of bots and how he found a good chatbot name in this interview I recently conducted with Jörg.
Sophie Hundetmark interviews keynote speaker Jörg Eugster.
Jörg, you recently asked me for a chatbot. How did you come up with that?
I came across your announcement for the chatbot seminar by chance. That piqued my interest. And because there’s less going on than usual anyway because of Corona, I signed up. I have always been interested in new things.
What exactly got you so excited about the idea of “a chatbot on your own website”?
Precisely because it’s new and I always want to try out everything that’s new to see what it brings.
Normally I create the concepts for my customers. With you it was different, you sent me the dialogs almost ready and I implemented the bot for you with the chatbot tool aiaibot.com. How did you come up with your concept?
I am a very conceptual person and have been working this way since 1985. It was clear to me that I wanted to create the concept for “my” chatbot myself. With every concept, there is a mental preliminary phase for me before I get started. When I had filled up with enough thoughts, I was in the flow and it was just bubbling away.
And how did you go about designing the dialog?
I can’t say that because it’s a creative process that starts with the thought of refueling and then it bubbles up.
After the first draft, I discussed the concept with Stefan Häseli, a Club55 friend who is a comedian. He gave me one or two valuable tips in the concept.
What are your goals with this chatbot?
Firstly, I want to live up to my reputation as an innovative and creative mind and early adaptor. People have known me like this for years. Then I would like to give the users of my website a little pleasure. And thirdly, I would of course also like to increase the conversion rate for booking me for presentations. At the moment, of course, nothing is happening because of Corona, but that will change again. And then I’m ready with my chatbot.
I now know that you have put a lot of effort into naming the bot. Why was the name so important to you and how did you finally find a good chatbot name?
My first book in 2004 was called “How to fish customers out of the Internet.” The second book “The day after tomorrow – A journey through time into our digital future” was published in 2017. Both books became bestsellers and each went into three editions. The title of a book is crucial to its success. If the title doesn’t appeal, then you won’t get any attention. It’s the same with lectures. One of my presentations is called “weggeUBERt”, it raises questions and sounds promising, and ultimately the name of the bot is also decisive for success, I am firmly convinced of that.
I also discussed the name of the bot with Stefan Häseli. After a round of brainstorming, I finally decided on Giorgio I.
What does Giorgio I actually mean?
At first I thought of a name like R2D2 from Star Wars. But friends thought it was too technical. Then I thought of J1 or similar, where J would have stood for Jörg.
The name Giorgio has a personal history. Stories are very important.
When I was 19 years old, I took my first language vacation in Florence, in Italy and not England like most of my colleagues. Jörg is the short form of Georg and Georg in Italian is Giorgio. Everyone there called me Giorgio and not Jörg.
Then I wanted a version number like J1 or R2D2 for my bot. Stefan said that a Roman numeral reminded him of the popes, which was cooler. So now I have Giorgio I. as Bot.
Do you think the name of your bot is crucial for success?
Yes, absolutely. The name, be it for a brand, a product, a book, a lecture or whatever, is enormously important.
What should we do now? Are you planning more bots?
Let’s see when Giorgio II or Giorgio III will be born? I can well imagine that a future Giorgio will be properly equipped with artificial intelligence and really be able to advise people.
If anyone reading this interview is now interested in a chatbot. What is your recommendation for him?
First of all, you need a goal. What does someone want to achieve with the bot? Then you need a concept with a twist. No boring bots, please. A bot should stand out. Anyone reading this should please visit my bot on my website https://eugster.info/. I have already received a lot of positive feedback.
Then you need a platform such as aiaibot.com and someone like Sophie Hundertmark for professional implementation. I was really pleasantly surprised at how well she did it. There was not one mistake that I had to complain about. Unfortunately, this has become very rare today. In today’s hectic world, people are often “sloppy”, which I don’t like. But Sophie did an excellent job. I can really recommend them without reservation for this task. Thank you, Sophie.
By the way, finding names for chatbots is also part of my chatbot canvas, which you can download here.
About Jörg Eugster:
As a true online pioneer from the very beginning, Jörg Eugster founded three Internet platforms – jobwinner.ch, swissfriends.ch and webcams.travel – built them up, ran them successfully for years and then sold them at a profit.
From being a sought-after online marketing expert, he has increasingly become an enthusiastic ambassador for the digital future, speaking to large audiences about his practical experience at congresses and summits. Unlike many doubters, Jörg Eugster, a passionate digitalization optimist, does not fear robots and artificial intelligence – quite the opposite. He loves sharing the huge potential of the digital revolution with the world as a publicist and speaker and infecting people with his enormous digital enthusiasm.
The internationally sought-after keynote speaker holds a degree in business administration and an Executive MBA. Jörg Eugster is also a member of the Board of Directors of Vaduzer Medienhaus AG, netpulse Liechtenstein AG, io-market AG and MBSZ Marketing & Business School Zurich.
With “The day after tomorrow – A journey through time into our digital future”, Jörg Eugster has published a book that whets the appetite for a future with far greater opportunities than many dare to dream of today.
