What an AI website chat should and shouldn't say
A website assistant speaks in your name. Here's how to make sure it helps your customers and never embarrasses you.
An AI assistant on your website is often the first conversation a customer has with your business. Done well, it answers in seconds at ten at night. Done badly, it makes things up. The difference is almost entirely in how it's set up.
It should answer from your information, and nothing else
The single most important rule: the assistant answers from a sheet of information you've written and approved. Your services, prices, hours, location and policies. If something isn't on that sheet, it shouldn't guess.
It should know when to stop
A good assistant knows the questions it shouldn't answer. Anything medical, legal, financial or upsetting goes to a person. The assistant's job there is to take the details kindly and make sure someone calls back.
- Prices, hours and availability: answer
- Booking a time that's free in your calendar: answer
- Advice that needs a professional: take details and pass it on
- Complaints: take details, apologise, pass it on
It should be honest about what it is
If someone asks whether they're talking to a person, the answer should be no. People are fine talking to an assistant that's useful. They're not fine finding out later that they were misled.
It should hand you the lead
Every useful conversation should end with something for you: a booking in the diary, or a short summary with a name and number. An assistant that chats nicely but never passes anything on isn't doing the job.
If you'd like to see how this works for your business, we can show you on a free 15-minute call.