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Design positive chatter experiences

Overview​

Your customers’ journeys start well before they engage with your bot, so it’s important to consider the experiences your customers have with your bot before their chat begins.

Map Customer Journeys​

Before you decide where to place your bot and how it will fit into the overall customer experience, consider the varying journeys your customers take. How can you ensure your bot will support each journey?

For example:

  • Can the bot reach out with recommendations when customers browse for products?

  • Can the bot help with payment issues on the billing page?

  • Can the bot help with troubleshooting?

With this exercise, you'll be able to map out the most optimal entry points to your chatbot and decide on how the bot can engage with customers.

Easy wins​

  • Make your bot available on pages where your customers access support resources.

  • Make your bot available in areas where customers might encounter points of friction, such as login pages, account cancellation, and billing.

  • Include your bot as a top support channel on your contact page and social media so that customers can get in touch without calling!

Use a Familiar and Accessible Chat Widget​

Your Ada chat widget should be easy to identify and consistent. Choose something visually familiar and accessible across different touchpoints, so your customers won't have trouble finding it.

Wherever you place a chat widget, add a recognizable help icon. If you're using a navigation link that leads to the chat, keep this pattern consistent. Make sure your bot follows W3C accessibility guidelines to ensure all chatters can easily converse with it.

In web view, add a familiar chat bubble in the bottom right corner of the screen. This is likely where customers will look for an online chat. Be sure the button is easy to spot by using a contrasting color and familiar support icon, which you can configure in the Ada web chat settings.

Brand Appropriately​

Branding your bot can make the chat experience feel personalized, polished, and fun, but the wrong branding can run the risk of confusing customers. With your branding, it’s important to:

  • Clearly communicate the concepts of customer assistance and online chat through design and messaging. Avoid content that is ambiguous or appears too much like advertising.

  • Design your bot’s persona to match your very best support person. Ensure that your bot is helpful, clear, and approachable.

  • Use a simple and friendly image or logo for your bot's avatar. Steer away from an avatar that is too human-like, which may set the wrong expectations.

Provide Proactive and Contextual Help​

Something magical happens when customers get the help they need before they ask for it. To meet your customers where they are, provide proactive and contextual help. You can do this in two ways:

  1. See Start conversations using basic proactive campaigns to tailor how your bot will engage with customers, depending on where they are on your platform or website.

  2. Drop customers directly into a specific bot flow by adding a custom Embed2 Greeting.

For example, if a customer is on a billing page and payment is a common issue, you can proactively reach out and ask "Need help with paying your bill?" The customer can then click on the chat and go directly to the payment flow.

Set Expectations​

Set expectations before your customers open up a chat. Start by providing an example of how to converse with the bot, such as "Try asking me about x, y, or z" and let customers know that they're speaking to a bot and not a human.

Another strategy is to list out common or complex tasks your bot can help with. This is very helpful if you've identified the top use cases for your bot. If your bot can handoff to a human agent, let your customers know.

Highlight the Benefits of Automated Support​

Automated support is the way of the future. Help customers understand the value of using a chatbot by highlighting some of these key benefits in your messaging:

  • 24/7 support and asynchronous chat: No more waiting like with traditional phone support or email. Get assistance whenever needed.

  • Reduced agent handle time: Agents can quickly understand the issue from the bot conversation before jumping in, eliminating the need for you to repeat information.

  • Faster resolution: Get complex issues resolved immediately and on your own.

  • Omni-channel support: Chat wherever it's convenient and get help on the go.

  • Multilingual support: Easily get assistance in a preferred language.

Have any questions? Contact your Ada team—or email us at .