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Why put a chatbot on your site
6 min read
Short answer
A website chatbot is worth it when the same questions keep arriving and the answers already exist in writing. It saves time on repeated e-mail and answers outside office hours. What it does not do: bring in more enquiries, or replace your contact page. Bought as marketing, it disappoints.
01What actually changes
Three things, and all three are measurable.
- 01Fewer repeated e-mails and messages. Questions about prices, dates, opening hours and how things work go to the bot; only the ones that want a person reach you.
- 02An answer outside office hours. Most people look at a site in the evening and at the weekend; until now that answer waited until Monday.
- 03A transcript of every conversation. You suddenly know exactly what people ask before they write or call — the cheapest research you have.
02What not to expect
That it raises demand. A chatbot serves the enquiry that already arrived, faster. If few people reach the site, the bot changes nothing about that.
That it replaces the contact page. A visitor with a specific problem wants a person, and a bot standing in the way does more damage than it saves. Its most important button is “talk to a person”.
That it runs without maintenance. When you change a price list or opening hours, that has to reach the bot's material too, or it starts giving old prices with confidence.
03A bot on your material versus a bot from the internet
This is the difference that decides whether the bot can be trusted.
A scripted FAQ bot knows only what you typed into it, and answers anything off-script with “I don't understand”. Accurate but dim.
A bot built on a general model with none of your data sounds confident and invents part of its answers — a price, a date, a warranty condition. Impressive until someone holds it to its word.
A bot that reads your own pages and documents, answers from them, and says so when it has no answer is the one that belongs on a company site. Not because it is the cleverest, but because its answers can be checked.
04Working out whether it pays
Take a month and count how many messages and calls were about things already written on your site. Multiply by the time one answer takes and the hourly rate of whoever handles them.
If it comes to a few hours a month, leave it — the bot will not pay for itself and still needs maintaining. If it comes to a day or more, and most of those questions have an answer that does not change, it is a good candidate.
The other thing, which does not show up in the sum but is felt: speed. An answer at ten in the evening, while someone is deciding, is worth more than the same answer on Tuesday at one.
Frequently asked
- Will a chatbot increase the number of enquiries?
- No. It serves the ones that already arrived faster and cuts repeated e-mails. It does not create demand — bought as a marketing tool, it disappoints.
- What is the difference between a chatbot on your own data and an ordinary AI bot?
- A bot on your material answers only from your pages and documents and says so when it has no answer. An ordinary AI bot without your data sounds just as confident but invents part of its answers — prices, dates, conditions.
- How much work is a chatbot to maintain?
- Little, but not none. When you change a price list, opening hours or terms, that has to reach its material. If it refreshes from your site automatically, editing the site is enough.