Design your bot's persona

This topic is about choosing a personality for your bot in the content that you write.

For information on the Bot Persona page, where you can choose a personality for automatically generated content, see Customize your bot’s personality in automatically generated content.

Human beings subconsciously associate a personality to the things that we interact with. If you don’t actively project a persona for your bots, your chatters will assume one. And why would you ever allow your chatter to have complete control over what sort of personality you want for your bot? You wouldn’t, of course!

Creating a persona for your chatbot can guide you in two key ways:

First, a persona will help you write consistent dialogue for your bot. Use this persona to shape how your bot talks - does it use slang? emojis? wit? - and position your bot’s voice relative to your support agents and brand messaging.
Second, creating a bot persona can foster trust between your chatters and your bot. Have you ever spoken to someone who gave inconsistent answers or seemed to change their tone throughout the conversation? It probably felt hard to trust that person. It’s the same with a bot: if a chatter feels like the bot’s personality is inconsistent, they may be less inclined to trust what it is saying.

Creating a bot persona doesn’t need to take lots of time or effort. Here’s a quick cheat sheet:

Start by jotting down a few key adjectives and phrases that will embody the bot’s voice.
- Understand your demographic.
- Consider company branding and collaborate with your Marketing team.
Then, give the bot a name.
- Choosing a unique, memorable, non-human name helps identify that the bot is a virtual assistant.
Finally, add a picture to help your chatters remember it.
- An image of a bot, animal or company mascot works well.

This topic is about choosing a personality for your bot in the content that you write.

For information on the Bot Persona page, where you can choose a personality for automatically generated content, see Customize your bot’s personality in automatically generated content.

Creating a persona for your chatbot can guide you in two key ways:

First, a persona will help you write consistent dialogue for your bot. Use this persona to shape how your bot talks - does it use slang? emojis? wit? - and position your bot’s voice relative to your support agents and brand messaging.
Second, creating a bot persona can foster trust between your chatters and your bot. Have you ever spoken to someone who gave inconsistent answers or seemed to change their tone throughout the conversation? It probably felt hard to trust that person. It’s the same with a bot: if a chatter feels like the bot’s personality is inconsistent, they may be less inclined to trust what it is saying.

Creating a bot persona doesn’t need to take lots of time or effort. Here’s a quick cheat sheet:

Start by jotting down a few key adjectives and phrases that will embody the bot’s voice.
- Understand your demographic.
- Consider company branding and collaborate with your Marketing team.
Then, give the bot a name.
- Choosing a unique, memorable, non-human name helps identify that the bot is a virtual assistant.
Finally, add a picture to help your chatters remember it.
- An image of a bot, animal or company mascot works well.