A Viber chatbot answers customers where they already are: in the messenger that most people in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, the Philippines and Myanmar open every day. It takes orders, confirms bookings, answers the same ten questions without an operator and hands the rest to a person. This guide covers the whole path from an idea to a working bot, including the parts that usually surprise people: partner registration and session-based billing.
What a Viber chatbot can do
- Answer questions from a menu or by keywords: prices, delivery, opening hours, order status.
- Show buttons, carousels of products and lists so the customer taps instead of typing.
- Collect a phone number, a name and an address and pass them to your CRM.
- Send notifications to people who have subscribed: order updates, appointment reminders, promotions.
- Hand a conversation to a live operator with the full history when the bot cannot help.
- Answer in natural language from your knowledge base when an AI operator is connected.
What it cannot do: message people who have never written to the bot or subscribed. For that, Viber has Business Messages, a separate product with per-message pricing.
Step 1: register the bot
Viber does not let a company create a bot on its own. A bot is registered through an official Viber partner, which checks the company and the intended use. The registration is free and usually takes one or two business days; you will need the company name, a logo, a short description and the website. SMSBAT is a Rakuten Viber partner, and the bot registration page contains the exact list of what to prepare.
Once the bot is approved you receive a token. That token is what connects the bot to the builder and the inbox; keep it private.
Step 2: decide what the bot has to do first
Most bots fail because they try to do everything on day one. Pick the two or three questions that your team answers most often and build those. The rest goes to a person via the “operator” button. Typical first scenarios:
- Retail: price and availability, delivery terms, order status by number.
- Services: booking a time, confirming and rescheduling, the address.
- Delivery and logistics: where is my parcel, change the delivery address, call the courier.
- Clinics: appointment reminders, preparation instructions, results ready.
Write the scenarios as short dialogues on paper before touching the builder. Each customer question, the bot’s answer, the buttons offered, and where a wrong answer leads.
Step 3: build the scenarios without code
In the no-code bot builder a scenario is a chain of blocks: a message, buttons, a question with a saved answer, a condition, a delay, a webhook to your system. Drag the blocks, connect them, test in the preview. Points that matter in Viber specifically:
- Keyboards are the main navigation. A keyboard with 4 to 6 large buttons is easier on a phone than a text menu.
- Carousels show several products or slots at once; one carousel with “Book” buttons often replaces three screens of text.
- Keyword triggers start a scenario when the customer types “price” or “delivery” instead of tapping; add the triggers after the button paths work.
- Variables store what the customer answered so the bot does not ask twice.
Test every path with a colleague’s phone, not only your own: a second person finds the dead ends.
Step 4: connect notifications
A bot that only answers is half the value. Once a customer has written to the bot, you can send them messages: an order shipped, a reminder the day before the appointment, a monthly promotion. In the builder these are broadcasts to a segment, or automatic messages triggered by an event from your CRM through a webhook. Remember that people can unsubscribe with one tap, so keep notifications useful and not too frequent.
Step 5: hand conversations to people
Every bot needs an exit to a human. In SMSBAT the “call an operator” button moves the dialogue to the shared inbox with the whole history, assigns it to an available agent and notifies the team. The same inbox serves WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and the website widget, so operators work in one place. If the team is busy or offline, the AI operator answers first from your knowledge base and escalates only what it cannot resolve.
Step 6: understand how sessions are billed
Viber charges for chatbot traffic by sessions: a session opens when the customer writes to the bot or the bot writes to the customer and lasts 24 hours; messages inside the session are not charged separately. Sessions started by the customer are typically free up to a monthly limit, and sessions started by the bot (notifications) are paid. The exact rules and the current rates by country are on the Viber chat sessions page, and the session counter shows how many you have used. In practice a support bot with a few thousand conversations a month costs less than one part-time operator.
Step 7: promote the bot
The bot does nothing until people find it. Put a viber://pa?chatURI= link on the website and in the email signature, a QR code on receipts and packaging, and use the context parameter in ads to see where conversations come from. The Viber link generator builds the links and QR codes; the bot promotion page covers ads inside Viber itself.
Verification badge
A verified bot shows a check mark next to the name, which matters for banks, clinics and anyone handling payments. Verification is a separate request through the partner, with proof that the company owns the brand. The bot verification page explains what is required.
Checklist before launch
- Registered bot, token connected, logo and description filled in.
- Two or three scenarios tested on at least two phones.
- “Operator” button in every scenario and a team that receives those dialogues.
- Notifications limited to what the customer asked for.
- Link and QR code placed where customers actually see them.
- Session usage checked after the first week.
Building the first working version usually takes a few hours once the bot is registered. The scenarios that make money are added over the following weeks, when the inbox shows what customers actually ask.