A Guide to Chatbot Design

Chatbots have completely transformed the way humans interact with computers. They have made our lives simpler by automating almost everything from providing instant customer service to acting as virtual assistants in many industries. But for that, they need to be built properly using software like Appy Pie’s Chatbot Builder to make them user-friendly and effective. This guide will give a comprehensive overview of chatbot design.

Here are 10 factors to consider when designing a chatbot:

Identify the Need for a Chatbot

Before getting started with chatbot design, it’s important to know if there’s actually a requirement for it or not. Multiple considerations have to be made to identify the need for a bot such as determining the objectives, analyzing target audience’s preferences, evaluating existing systems and carrying out a SWOT analysis and checking technical feasibility and competitiveness.

For example, websites with static content not involving much human interaction like personal blogs, would not really require a chatbot on their website; however a chatbot for an ecommerce website involving huge customer interactions would be a worthwhile investment. While a chatbot can be a powerful tool for improving customer satisfaction, it’s essential to evaluate the above factors. Once the need is identified and a chatbot seems like a suitable option to go for, one can move ahead with designing a chatbot.

Select the Right Platform for Chatbot Design

There are multiple platforms available for creating and designing a chatbot. However, all have different features which might or might not align with a particular brand. Some chatbots may have improper navigation, poor user interface or simply have a look and feel that doesn’t suit a website. Thus, it’s extremely important to try out multiple platforms and see what works for the best chatbot design. With Appy Pie’s Chatbot Builder, for example, a customized chatbot can be created based on business requirements, personalization, customer preferences etc. to provide a seamless user experience. Some of the chatbots that Appy Pie offers are:

• Lead Generation Chatbot: To capture leads 24/7, nurture them and engage in a personalized manner, lead generation chatbot is the best option. It helps attract leads, convert them into potential customers and increase the conversion rate.
• Customer Support Chatbot: For streamlining the customer support processes, a customer support chatbot is suitable. It receives, processes and analyzes customer queries and provides reasonable solutions to them in a few seconds through automation and improves customer experience at large.
• Appointment Chatbot: For convenient and faster appointment booking and meeting scheduling, an appointment chatbot can be employed. It fast tracks the whole process of scheduling and provides assistance in terms of carrying out routine tasks, helping human resources to be utilized to the fullest.
• AI Chat Assistant: The AI Chat Assistant transforms the way businesses interact with their customers by providing assistance round the clock and resolving their inquiries in the minimum possible time to smoothen the flow of conversation and satisfy the customer.

It’s a great option to go for when designing a chatbot as it provides exceptional features, applications and a multitude of benefits in terms of scalability, integration, design customization, personalization and time and cost efficiency.

Determine the Chatbot Complexity

Chatbots can vary in terms of complexity- they can either be simple rule-based chatbots or complex chatbots powered by artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities. When starting from scratch, a traditional rule-based chatbot might be a better choice as there’s not much data for the bot to comprehend. Moving forward, when the business grows and there is increased user engagement with the bot, one can move towards deploying an AI and NLP bot.

To determine the requirement, the first step is to track the kind of questions customers are asking via calls or live chat and see whether they can be handled by a traditional chatbot. If not, prepare a decision tree and figure out the conversational flow to solve customer issues. Then, use that data to build an AI and NLP bot to handle the complex queries on the website or application. Always make sure to deploy a chatbot which is suitable for the platform to achieve maximum results.

Also Read: A Complete Guide to Natural Language Processing Chatbot

Align Chatbot Goals with Business Goals

For an effective chatbot design, it’s crucial to determine the goals for a chatbot and ensure that these goals align with the business goals and are met with efficiency. Some of the important goals a chatbot can have are lead generation, customer support, appointment booking or general chat assistance. A chatbot focusing specifically on a particular goal should have a clear aim and should not lead the conversation in a different direction.

For example, a customer support chatbot would have goals like enhancing customer experience, quick query resolution, increased customer satisfaction and so on. The chatbot design for such a chatbot should have a clear conversation flow, a professional look and personality and a personalized conversation style to help customers feel heard and to help them reach an appropriate solution quickly.

Determine Bot Personality

A chatbot’s personality matters when it comes to preparing a good chatbot design. The bot needs to be emotionally intelligent, should have an appropriate tone of conversation and be user-friendly in order to provide the best user experience. An insensitive, boring or uninterested bot may lead a customer to exit the bot interface or even the website, which is a loss of a potential customer. Companies need to focus on giving the chatbot a personality in accordance with the brand values, user expectations and business goals.

The chatbot’s personality is not only limited to a good conversational tone but also the ability to comprehend emotions like sadness, anger, happiness etc. to give contextually correct responses. For example, a customer who is frustrated with an order being defective would not want to listen to a humorous chatbot and would rather want an intelligent and helpful bot who takes the issue seriously and provides a speedy solution.

Create a Good Chatbot UI and UX

A good user interface and user experience goes a long way. The user should be able to easily navigate through the bot’s interface and the content should be readable with appropriate size, font and context. Furthermore, the chatbot’s elements should not overlap with other elements on the website as it gives out a messy look. Other factors to consider for a good chatbot design and UX-UI are allowing easy scrolling, easy restarting of conversations, providing clear buttons, directions and appropriate greeting, feedback and conversation ending messages.

Most importantly, the chatbot widget should be easily visible and accessible to users on the website or application, irrespective of the device the user is using to access it. The bot’s placement should be optimized for all screen sizes and all devices- mobiles, laptops, tablets, desktops (for both Android and iOS), for an effective chatbot UX design.

Edit and Optimize Bot Flow

A well organized conversation flow is another important factor when working on chatbot design. It’s the actual flow of messages between the chatbot and the user. The bot flow should be smooth without interruptions and should have clear messages with a common aim to solve the user’s issue. Including anything and everything in anticipation of the customer asking certain questions leads to a messy bot interface with too much going on.

It’s advisable to try and make the chatbot design as simple as possible without compromising on important data to be included. A simple chatbot design avoids confusion in the minds of users when they are conversing with the bot and tangible solutions are achieved quicker.

Use A/B Testing for Different Messages

An important factor that cannot be missed out when designing a chatbot is A/B testing i.e a method of comparing two different messages that can be sent out by the chatbot and evaluating results like performance and user engagement to choose the better option. If a certain message provides a higher click through rate, lower bounce rate and increased user impressions, it’s best to go for that one compared to alternatives.

Through regular A/B testing, a chatbot design can be optimized continually over time. This ensures that the bot’s messages are always relevant, performance remains high and user engagement keeps on growing. One should also consider the target audience and accordingly select the type of message to be sent as they should be framed differently for people of different age groups, backgrounds, tastes and interests.

Make the Bot Visually Appealing

A bot can be extremely proficient in its capabilities and can be the most efficient one for use, but would still not meet its goals if it looks unappealing. Most users would not even click the chatbot’s widget if it doesn’t spark their interest visually, and some may click on it but close it if they see a messy or dull bot interface. For creating a visually intriguing chatbot design, focusing on customizing the bot’s widget, header, background, avatar, color scheme and interface is a must.

A good looking chatbot has a brand-appropriate avatar, a color scheme complementing the website, and a suitable background, name and header. Adding emojis and other visual effects might also help. Incorporating the right elements into a chatbot’s look helps attract more customers, retain existing ones and provide an overall exciting chatbot user experience.

Always Install a Handoff

A chatbot should know when to handle a conversation and when to step back and transfer it to a live agent to avoid creating a loop of repetitive messages which provide no value to the user. It’s a good idea to hand over the conversation to an agent for human support when a chatbot is not able to understand the user's query as it might get frustrating for them. Try incorporating a short message like “I’m sorry, but I can’t understand your query” followed by transferring the conversation to a live agent after taking the user’s permission.

This way, assistance can be provided in a better manner without having back and forth meaningless conversations. If a user is not able to achieve a reasonable solution or answer to their input, they should easily be able to opt for talking to a live agent. This factor needs to be given utmost importance when working on the chatbot design.

Conclusion

In conclusion, creating an effective chatbot design requires more than just putting the right elements into place. It requires a proper understanding of business goals, customer needs, types of chatbots, bot flow, chatbot UI design and much more. By keeping the above mentioned factors in mind while designing a chatbot, one can create that suits them and their uses best!