Anyone can set up and configure a bot for Messenger. But in the year since the Bots for Messenger platform was launched, many companies and people have learned that just having a bot is like just having an app: If you build it, they might come. And they’ll probably leave.

Messenger product manager Kemal El Moujahid has spent the past year in the catbird seat to learn what does and does not work, what to do and what not to do. In a long phone call with Chatbots Magazine, he led us on sketching out three basic rules for success. We don’t have the answers — we have the questions you need to ask yourself, which only you can answer.

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Easy to Launch, Harder to Win

“The first benefit of a Messenger bot is it’s frictionless,” Kemal says. What does that mean? You may have already figured it out: You don’t need to invest in building software, or in driving customers to your bot any further than a new Messenger conversation. “Some things that used to not be viable in an app are becoming viable in the Messenger platform model,” he says.

An app that challenges customers’ parking tickets would be costly to build, generate no direct income to offset that, and then require customers to install an app before they can challenge one ticket. By contrast, the DoNotPay bot, a student’s side project, was relatively quick to assemble and only requires customers to message it to get going.

But to retain customers, what will make your bot worth sticking with is making smarter use of their time than a Web page, app, or email could do.

1. What is the Goal of your Bot?

“Be very clear about what is the objective for your bot,” Kemal says. “Start very simply. There’s been a lot of, ‘Bots are cool, let’s try to have a bot,’ especially in the first few months after we launched.” What has since turned out to work in the long run, he says, are bots that focus on one goal — selling shoes, bonding fans to a band, upselling existing customers, dispensing expert advice on one topic.

Topbots founder Adelyn Zhou summed it up: “A bot that does everything will be good at nothing.” What is the one thing your bot needs to do best? How will you measure success at that?

2. What Can a Messenger Bot Do That is Unique?

Time with a Bot is One-sided

A Messenger bot is a what Kemal calls an asynchronous communications channel. In smaller words: The bot always responds to all messages instantly, but the human on the other side can read and reply to the bot’s messages to them on their own schedule — now, or in a minute, or Sunday. The bot doesn’t care. “Get back to me whenever it works for you, human! I’ll be here.” To take advantage of that, ask yourself: How and when could that help you better serve or bond with your customers?

People Want Their Bot to Talk to Them

“I’ll only accept notifications from an app for events that are critical to the function of the app,” Kemal says, echoing most app users. You don’t want Uber popping up when you aren’t in need of a ride. “But in a bot, I’m supposed to get notified by this thing, in my messaging app. How do you use that time aspect to create delight as well, against your original objective?”

People Anthropomorphize Bots

Rick Ross’ bot Rozay could be first to wish a fan a happy birthday at midnight. Humans tend to think of bots as human, although they’re well aware they’re not. A midnight birthday message could be annoying from Google Calendar, but from Rozay? Awwww, you remembered.

3 What Are the Details That Will Win With Customers?

Here’s where we can’t give you answers. You know best what will please or displease your customers, and how much that varies per customer.

Use Your Voice For the Bot

One very basic thing Octane AI has learned: Your bot’s voice need to match your own voice. Some marketers make the mistake of presuming a bot should talk as if it’s a stereotypical American teenager, or in some Millennial jargon written by a social media marketing consultant. That’s going to fail hard for your travel agency. It’s going to fail hard for a well-known celebrity, too. Fans know Maroon 5’s bot isn’t Adam Levine, but if it doesn’t at least seem like the band told it themselves what to say, those fans are gone.

If a public persona, or a product or service brand, has familiar catchphrases, one-liners, or a predictable or eccentric way of speaking, use those even as random replies. Think about it: There’s only one. Way. That William Shatner’s bot should EVER. Talk to you.

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