Ordering a bot seems simpler than a site: no layout, no pages, just buttons and messages. So the brief often fits into one line like “we need a bot for client bookings.” From a line like that a developer can build anything, and it will almost certainly not be quite what you pictured.
Below is what to describe before work starts, so the bot can be quoted, built, and accepted without long rework. Much of it resembles a website brief, but a bot has its own specifics.
Who messages the bot and why
Start with people, not features. Who will use the bot: your clients, your staff, or both. What task does a person open the bot with, and what should happen at the end: a request, a booking, a payment, an answer.
If the bot has several roles, say a client and a manager, describe each one separately. That shows the scope better than any feature list.
The flow written as a dialogue
The clearest brief format for a bot is a conversation. Write what the person taps or types and what the bot replies, step by step. It does not need to be pretty, plain lines of text are enough.
- How the conversation starts after the /start command
- Which buttons each step has and where each one leads
- What the bot asks and in what form it expects the answer: text, phone, date, photo
- How the flow ends and what the person sees at the end
- How to go back or start over
What the other side sees
A bot almost always hands its result to someone. Describe where requests go: a work chat, a manager’s private messages, a spreadsheet, or a CRM. What the manager can do with a request right inside Telegram: accept it, decline it, reply to the client.
If texts, prices, or a schedule need changing without the developer, that is a separate part of the work, and it should be named in the brief from the start.
Data and integrations
- What data the bot collects and where to keep it
- Whether the bot should connect to the site, a spreadsheet, a CRM, or a booking system
- Whether there will be payments, and through which service
- Whether broadcasts are needed and who will receive them
Agree separately that the bot is created on your Telegram account and the token stays with you. More on this in the note on domain, hosting, and access.
Message texts
A bot has no pages, its whole character lives in the messages. If the developer writes the texts, they will come out technical. It is better to give at least drafts of the greeting, the main steps, and the final message, and to decide how formal the bot should sound.
The awkward cases
Everyone describes the normal path. The time goes into what happens outside it:
- The person answered something other than what was asked, such as text instead of a button
- They dropped the flow halfway and came back a day later
- The slot is already taken, the item ran out, the manager did not reply
- The person blocked the bot, and a message needs to reach them
Even a short answer to each of these in the brief saves several rounds of changes.
What the first version of an order bot looks like is covered in the note on a Telegram order bot. If you want to discuss your bot, use the contact form.