10 Chatbot Tips – how to use Chatbots the right Way!

Successful chatbots should meet or even exceed the expectations of the defined target group. User dissatisfaction usually arises whenever expectations are not met. This article gives you 10 important tips on how to prevent this and achieve your goals with your chatbot.

10 tips to keep in mind when it comes to using a chatbot.

Tip 1: Phrase a good start message

Chatbot or human? This is the question that all users initially ask themselves when they interact with a chatbot. Users need to know from the start that they are communicating with a piece of software. The best thing is for the chatbot to introduce itself directly as a chatbot or digital assistant. Because transparency creates trust.

Tip 2:Present the competencies of the chatbot

Not every chatbot can answer the same types of questions or solve the same tasks. Users need to know what the chatbot is designed for and what questions it can answer.

Most chatbots say directly after the presentation what they can be used for. If the chatbot can still answer a few more questions than the users expect, their excitement about the digital assistants increases.

Tip 3: Keine Angst vor Unvollständigkeiten

If the chatbot is AI-based, it's safe to assume that it will continue to learn in the future - after all, it's always being trained. It is best to communicate this to your users.

An example: Raiffeisen has launched its chatbot called Casalino as part of a pilot phase. It tells its users from the start that it is still very «new» and actually still undergoing some experimentation. It admits to users that it can only find a Raiffeisen advisor or consultant as well as calculate a mortgage.

It is legitimate for the first version of a chatbot to have very limited capabilities. It is important, however, to communicate this transparently from the beginning.

Tip 4:Define expectations and goals

This is where the usability and design experts are needed most, rather than the software developers. Those who write dialogs for the chatbot must also ensure that the user expectations for the chatbot are properly defined. Here, it should also be defined: What do you want to achieve with the chatbot and what must it be able to do for this?

In addition, when the chatbot is launched, a separate landing page can provide information about the chatbot's goals and competencies. For example, Helvetia Insurance published an interview with Clara for the launch of their chatbot Clara and provides even more information about her on a separate web page. 

Tip 5:Define the area of use of the chatbot

Be clear about the purpose for which a chatbot should be used. Should it engage website leads in conversation for marketing? Qualify sales leads? Or maybe answer the most frequently asked questions more quickly and automatically for Customer Solutions?

Defining the area of use of the chatbot is important because it influences the selection of the chatbot tool. Moreover, this aspect is also strongly related to the question «Where on the website do I implement a chatbot?».

Tip 6: Use a tool that can be customized

The more you can determine and assemble the chatbot yourself, the better it can be adapted to your company and your needs. For this reason, you should use a customizable chatbot platform that offers you the greatest possible scope for designing your chatbot.

Elements that your chatbot tool should dispose of are:

• A simple modular system (thus no programming knowledge is necessary)
• Chatbot theming, so that your chatbot can be used for your brandingn
• Wide range of applications for different use cases
• Live chat integrations, e.g. a Facebook Messenger chatbot or a transition to Slack
• Flexible integration into different CMS like e.g. WordPress and Wixx

Tip 7: Keep it simple

At the beginning, the tasks and conversations of your chatbot should be very simple. Its language should be easy to understand and unambiguous to avoid misunderstandings and get users used to the new technology. 

Murray Newlands, a writer for Entrepreneur among others, describes the early days of a chatbot as follows:

Your bot is currently in its infancy; it doesn’t need to pretend to be something it is not. By starting small and keeping your bot simple, you can learn from your audience’s behavior and slowly develop new versions of it with more functionalities.

Tip 8: Pay attention to data protection

Sooner or later, your chatbot will need to request user data to help your website visitors. But is it allowed to do that? And what happens with this data? 

It is important that the chatbot tool you choose has a high data protection standard and, among other things, has the DSGVO seal. This way, you prevent misuse of your chatbot users' data.

A little tip: In this podcast episode, Sophie Hundertmark, self-employed chatbot consultant, interviews lawyer Marcel Griesinger on the topic of chatbots and data protection and gets some helpful information from him that you might want to watch out for.

Tip 9:Proactively communicate the benefits of the chatbot

A chatbot is useless if no one knows it exists. If you plan to implement a chatbot on your website, you need to make sure that your target audience gets wind of it!

How do I communicate the benefits of my chatbot? Don't tell your target audience that you have a chatbot, tell them what you have a chatbot for. Tell prospective users what your chatbot is called, what it can do, what functionalities it has, and where it can be found.

You can hear more about the communication of chatbot benefits in this podcast episode as well.

Tip 10: Have your chatbot evaluated regularly

The world of chatbots is still very new, which is why there are very often new and innovative uses in this area. Ask yourself regularly: Is our target group satisfied with our chatbot? Does it still meet their expectations?

If you keep getting feedback from your users about your chatbot, you can make sure that you always meet their demands and stay up to date with the latest developments. For this reason, it's important to choose a chatbot tool that lets you make changes to your chatbot easily and at any time.

And don't forget: A chatbot always needs to evolve to stay in its best shape!

Short and sweet: The 10 tips summarized in 5 sentences

• Your chatbot should have a good starting message and introduce its competencies right at the beginning.
• It may (and should) be incomplete at the beginning and kept very simple.n.
• It is important that you define the target audience's expectations of the chatbot, its goals, and its area of use equally.
• Place the greatest possible emphasis on the use of a customizable chatbot tool as well as on data protection.
• Last but not least: proactively communicate the benefits of your chatbot and make sure you regularly collect feedback from your target audience about the chatbot!

Do you know any other chatbot tips or have you already applied any of these here? Let us know in the comments!