Chatbot Conversation Design — 5 tips to build a user-friendly chatbot
Chatbots aren’t really new, they have been pretty much around for a long time and widely used by many many businesses. But are they used well? Most of the chatbots force the users to leave instead of building a positive conversation. In this blog, we’ll talk about ways to make your chatbot user-friendly through conversations.
UX writing for chatbots is writing text, buttons and intents for a conversational interface to support an automated experience. While UX writing for both app/web and chatbot is exciting, the former has advantage of visual design elements. For example, in an app, text can be highlighted using different font sizes or color or alignment. Writing for bots has its restrictions. For example, to have a rule based question answer script or an open conversation or a combination. Another example is the use of images, videos, emojis etc. which is pretty much limited in a chatbot. However, most bots are primarily text or script based and the choices are limited to simple text and emojis. But even in the case of voice bots such as Google home, Siri and Alexa, text is the heart of most chatbots. There is a basic conversational script written somewhere.
So let’s have a look at the 5 UX writing principles that can help enhance chatbot experience.
1. Defining the bot personality
This is one of the most important aspects. Users understand they are interacting with a bot. But the experience of talking to a bot counts. It has to be easy, not painful. So while designing the chatbot, frame each interaction in terms of the bot’s personality. How the bot would respond to an insult, to thank you, miss you messages etc.
OneAssist chatbot has a personality to make it a more human-like experience. For example, OneAssist chatbot replies to the user who types “I missed you” in an equally warm way “Aw! I missed you too.” On the other hand, the conversation would have a negative impact if the bot responds to the “I missed you” message with something more inappropriate like “Sorry, didn’t get that.”
Chatbot’s personality determines how they interact with the audience and every bot represents a brand. It is important for the bot to follow the brand voice. A travel bot will interact with the audience in a different voice than bank’s bot. This is very important, it sets a particular impression in the audience’s mind. It adds to your chatbot’s success. It is also important to not overdo the personality.
2. Follow a conversation style guide
A style guide to answer the questions will enhance the user experience. For example, do not display too much information at once. This may leave the user clueless. Break the information in separate speech bubbles to make it easier for the user to consume the information. Follow a rule of maximum three small sentences at once.
A conversation style guide can also include where to add pleasantries and where to avoid, to start with a greeting, to avoid user’s name at the start of each sentence, example, “hey Tina! How may I help you today?, “sure Tina, let me check your current claim status”, “thanks Tina, have a good day.” and so on…
3. Concise and clear conversation
Make sure the conversation is clear. Keep it concise so that it actually leads the user towards a meaningful conversation. For example, below are the two types of responses a bot can give to the user when asked about his claim status. Isn’t the information much clearer in the first response than the painful second one.
User query- “What is the status of my claim?”
Bot response — “Great news! Your claim is approved on 8th March, 2022.”
Or
Bot response — “Your claim is very much active. It is still ongoing. As far as I can check, the current status of your claim is approved.”
4. Use simple language
Avoid using jargon. Interact with your audience in simple language, it helps achieve the best results. It should be easy to understand, you want your audience to interact and use the bot.
For example, instead of using jargon such as BER, OneAssist bot will inform the user about his claim status using simpler language such as, “your device has been identified as beyond economic repair (BER). It means the cost of repair will be higher than your claim limit. So you will get a refund of Rs.20,000.”
5. Sanity check
The way the chatbot interacts plays an important role in how the users perceive it. For example, if the chatbot uses too much slang/millennial lingo, poor grammar, it will come across as unprofessional/uneducated. This will impact the user experience.
For a chatbot to interact in a neutral way, use proper sentences with correct grammar and avoid unnecessary exclamations, adjectives etc. to leave a positive impact on the user.
To conclude it with a small tip, never forget to nicely ask the users for feedback at the end of the chat. It brings the chat to a final closure and helps you analyse your bot’s success.
Thank you!
