How to Design a Website Chatbot that Engages Visitors

Over the past several years, thousands of business owners and marketers have recognized the value of chatbots and deployed them to their websites to create a more engaging and productive session for their website visitors. A website chatbot is available on a 24/7 basis to assist visitors with their most frequently-asked-questions and requests, as well as to qualify sales leads and encourage any particular call-to-action (CTA) that your sales and marketing team might be seeking.

With a well-designed chatbot, all of this is possible without any need for (human) agent intervention. But to be successful, there are some key design elements to keep in mind as you plan your website chatbot strategy.

Provide and Introduction and Guiderails

For visitors who have not seen or are not yet familiar with chatbots, the experience may be a bit confusing at first. It will help to include a quick introduction, followed by simple questions and easy calls-to-action to efficiently guide the user through the process.

Keep it Simple

The most effective chatbots are focused on straight-forward conversation that addresses very specific topics. It is good practice to avoid branching out to too many sub-topics. Simple chatbots that keep the communication linear tend to have the best chance for success in enhancing the customer experience.

Don’t Design for Fringe Use

Designing a chatbot to handle every possible use case is a daunting task that can lead to confusion and dead ends within your chat interactions. Best practice calls for structuring for the user’s intended input and offering (human) agent handoff when and if necessary.

Create Short and Precise Interactions

For the most part, chatbot interactions should be quick and to the point. Do not let your visitors get into lengthy back-and-forth conversations that can degrade their interaction.

Stay in Context

As designers of any user experience will tell you, context is perhaps the most critical aspect to consider. The style of the interaction and the likely desired outcomes should all be pre-determined with the chatbot continuously guiding the interactions to these anticipated conclusions.

Keep the Larger Goal in Mind

The intent for most chatbots is not to take 100% of the workload away form (human) agents, but to handle the majority of frequently-asked-questions and requests. The fact that chatbots enable this on a 24/7 basis with no wait times while efficiently leveraging available information and third-party technologies will go a long way toward elevating a user’s interaction with your brand.

Contact us to discuss website chatbots for your brand.