Bilingual AI-Powered Customer Support WhatsApp Chatbot for KSFE

The Kerala State Financial Enterprises Ltd (KSFE) is a leading public sector financial institution in Kerala. It is a Miscellaneous Non-Banking Company fully owned by Government of Kerala providing services like chit funds, deposits and loans.

KSFE is one of the most profit-making public sector undertaking in Kerala with a revenue of more than ₹73,000 crore (US$8.8 billion) having more than 8300 employees and more than 670 branches.

Mini Report

WhatsApp bot Setup Instructions for KSFE

1: Setup Facebook Developers

1. Open developers.facebook.com and choose “Create New App”.
2. Select usecase: ‘Other” → Select app type: “Business” → Add and app name, email and select a business account (KSFE’s Facebook Page) → Enter password to continue.
3. Choose WhatsApp as a Product to finish the process.
4. Setup test numbers.a

Or follow this tutorial.

2: Setup code and server

1. Fork the GitHub repository anuragpoolakkal/ksfebot OR download the code, create a new repository and upload the code into it.
2. Create .env file and copy & paste the content of .env.example fileinto it.
3. Fill credentials of services used in the application.
   1. Facebook Developers: Get ACCESS_TOKEN and PHONE_NUMBER_ID. You can set a secret string as VERIFY_TOKEN. This token will be needed to set CallbackURL in step 5.
   2. OpenAI: Create an API Key by logging into your OpenAI account. Our finetuned model id (email me at anuragrajanp@gmail.com for it) can be used as model.
   3. Credentials for @googlecloud/translate is required for translation services used in the application. The setup can be done by following this video.
   4. MongoDB credentials are required to store user details when they use ‘Request a call’ feature. Create a MongoDB database and paste the URI in .env file.
4. Host the application in a server. Eg: Railway.app
5. Open developers.facebook.com → Setup Webhook CallbackURL in https://{SERVER_URL}/endpoint format. E.g., if server URL is ksfe.example.com, then set callback URL as https://ksfe.example.com/endpoint. Enter your verify token to finish.

3: Facebook Business Verification

The application is now in test mode, in a test phone number. It can only serve 5 verified users. To add our phone number as the number people can use to access the bot, you’ve to create a WhatsApp business profile in business.facebook.com. To make it available for users, business verification has to be done in business.facebook.com. I cannot explain this step as I’m unable to complete it with my Facebook account. Visit business.facebook.com.