Introduction
Chatbots are rapidly becoming an essential part of our digital interactions. These conversational AI tools are popping up everywhere. Right from messaging apps to websites, and their use is skyrocketing. Studies show that around 88% of people have interacted with a chatbot in the past year.
The chatbot market is expected to reach a staggering $3 billion by the end of the decade. This surge in popularity is driven by several factors.
However, it’s important to recognize that not all chatbots are created equal. There are chatbot mistakes & common pitfalls in chatbot development that can lead to frustrating user experiences.
Avoiding these pitfalls is crucial for businesses looking to leverage the power of chatbots effectively. Below are a few mistakes one should avoid while making a chatbot for their business.
1. Requiring Too Much Text
When possible, the chatbot should be designed to not require text input. Users prefer clicking simple buttons to typing. Graphical widgets should be used instead of text where possible.
2. Not Using A Graphical UI
Most of the mainstream chat applications allow users to add web views with custom graphics as screens for their bots. Using web views definitely improves the UX.
Of course, responsiveness is also a consideration with web views and needs to be addressed by the developer and ultimately the chat platform developer.
It’s also a lesser-known use case that web views should be used for entering secure information like passwords that you don’t want to be saved in the chat history.
3. Too Much Personality
A little bit of personality when appropriate is good. Personality that gets in the way of utility for example by asking people to read too much text, will detract from the experience.
4. Making Your Bot Too Scripted
The advantage of a scripted bot is that the user experience is tightly controlled, served in bite-sized chunks and the user has some ability to navigate to topics of interest. This makes the experience very understandable to the end user.
5. Not Managing User Scope
For infrequent or one-off jobs, it’s therefore important to limit the scope of the questions that people will ask by making the scope clear.
For frequent tasks, it is possible of course to “train” the user along with the machine. For frequent household tasks like managing the playlist or ordering food, the user will adapt to the NLP.
6. Not Using Human In The Loop
Human in the loop is obviously more expensive to provide than a purely automated system however in many cases the human agents are already the ones answering the questions and the bot is introduced to improve efficiency by answering the simple repetitive questions.
To make sure the end user is not frustrated it is important to make sure that the conversation is escalated to the human if the the bot’s probability of answering the question is anything but extremely high.
7. Using Chatbots for Open-Ended Search
In this case, the user doesn’t necessarily know upfront what all the relevant factors are. They want to very quickly get an overview of all the available options and the relevant factors and then rapidly narrow down the options based on search criteria using filters.
While it’s possible to ask a bot to tell you the best hotel for you to stay in a given location, it’s highly unlikely that it will give you a better solution in the same amount of time than you could find searching a good hotel website using the extensive search and filtering tools.
The NLP route may be a good route where you value speed and convenience more than the quality / value of the solution.
8. Building the Chatbot From Scratch
Not only should you not waste time and effort coding up features that could be provided, but you should also not spend time writing multiple integrations to third-party services.
9. Not Solving The Entire Problem
It is impossible for the bot to take care of all the required steps but if it is possible to do so, it will be much more valuable to the end customer if the bot can deal with the entire process.
For example, when a customer uses a chatbot to purchase a cup of coffee, they should have the option to complete the transaction by paying the bot. They should not be forced to pay cash to the barista at the end of the process if at all possible.
10. Having Unnecessary Steps In The Process
It’s obvious, but great customer experience comes from simplicity and convenience. The effort that the customer needs to exert to accomplish a given task needs to be minimized in every way, including the number of steps they need to carry out.
For example, if a customer always orders the same type of coffee, they should be given a quick order option for this type of coffee at the beginning of the process.
11. Using Chatbots When Apps Could Complete the Tasks Better
Chatbots aren't perfect for every task. In some cases, companies can use applications to serve customers better.
If for example, a process requires feedback and adjustments on multiple screens and a high level of detail, it makes more sense to use an app than a bot. This is especially true for desktop applications but is also applicable to mobile applications.
12. Sacrificing Flexibility For Control
Allowing the user flexibility in how they interact with the bot is important even if it results in more input errors.
As long as the customer can undo what they have done if they make an error, the user experience will be much better if it is less rigid and controlled.
The best way to avoid all these mistakes is by trusting the resource you use to make chatbots. We suggest you try out Chatzy.ai, a platform that enables you to build No-Code AI Agents that are fast and reliable.
Our team of experts gives importance to even the minutest of details to make your experience the finest of all with amazing results.
Chatzy.ai is a platform that enables you to build No-Code AI Agents that are fast and reliable.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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4) Are you using ChatGPT to power Chatzy?
To empower Chatzy AI, we utilize diverse Large Language Models (LLMs) that have undergone meticulous fine-tuning. These models are specifically optimized to ensure Chatzy AI's assistance is personalized, reliable, and accurate.