7 Chatbot Mistakes That Will Cost You Conversions

Published in

Chatbots Life

6 min readNov 6, 2019

Over the years, chatbots have been a buzzword in marketing. These bots have managed to automate sales, customer service, after-sales services, and more.

Chatbots helped businesses gain massive reach, reaching a sophisticated number of users to help solidify marketing efforts. Although there is undoubtedly a lot of potential in this automation tool, one should not go overboard with it.

It still needs consistent monitoring to be able to be implemented successfully, as it is still an evolving technology.

In this post, we will walk you through the most common chatbot mistakes that will cost you your conversions in the long run.

Chatbot mistakes to avoid

1) No solid strategy

One of the most common chatbot mistakes a lot of businesses make is to invest in chatbots even without a solid marketing strategy.

Keep in mind that bots can be used for a lot of marketing-related purposes, and one of them is turning prospects into loyal customers.

For you to have an excellent marketing strategy, you need to set business targets that are envisioned.

Is it your goal to:

Drive traffic and revenue to your site?
Cut your business costs?
Personalize all communications?
Boost user retention?

Always see to it to create a solid plan that has clearly defined methods on how you can fulfill your targets for your clients.

That said, know your why, what, and how. Also, know what your metrics are, know who your target audience is, and then strategize accordingly.

2) Letting your bot go nameless

Just like distinguishing one person from the other, a chatbot’s name should be able to separate it from the hundreds and thousands of other chatbots that exist online.

Giving your bot a unique name makes it much easier to recognize and find. Also, as with any other name out there, make sure that the name of your chatbot is easy to spell and pronounce.

Stay away from the brand and trademarked names, as that might lead you into legal trouble in the long run.

3) Lengthy messages

Chatbots are designed to speed up the whole process of finding a particular service or making a purchase.

So, with that in mind, you have to pay attention to the overall length of your chatbot messages. Also, make sure that every message of your chatbot gives a simple and clear purpose.

That way, you have absolutely nothing to worry about, and users will stay interested and engaged with your brand.

4) Making your bot too pushy

While it is vital to boost customer engagement, some bots will try so hard for users to interact with your brand. You might unknowingly flood your customers with empty or unsolicited messages.

Keep in mind that overdoing your promotions is counterproductive in the long run. It might even cause users to uninstall an app or leave a website. So, moderation is key here.

To fix this, your chatbot should be designed in a way that gauges a customer’s response and communicates only when needed. When a user stops interacting with your chatbot mid-conversation, what you can do is to send them occasional reminders.

If the user has bought a product from you already, your chatbot can announce any upcoming sales, drawing them more to your brand.

5) Forgetting to perform tests before launching

User testing is necessary. However, a lot of companies skip this crucial step. They just trust the chatbot to function without any issues whatsoever.

But the thing is, this kind of optimism will come back and can bite you in the long run.

Creating and launching a chatbot is challenging, and you just cannot cut corners in development. Fortunately, this kind of problem has a clear solution that does not take a lot of work.

Look for users that are willing to help. You can send them a copy of your chatbot, and let them send in their feedback.

6) Your bot does not represent your brand identity

Your own personal brand is what will make people buy your products. It can even encourage them to become one of your loyal customers.

Everything you publish, design, create, and sell are all part of the strategy of your brand. Your chatbot is part of that.

That’s why it needs to showcase your brand’s identity by following your:

If your chatbot’s personality is quite different from what they expect from your brand, they might end up disappointed.

For instance, if you incorporate a chatbot on a website of a professional contractor, then you have to make your conversations strictly business-style.

In the long run, this affects how your customers see you, which will push them to leave the conversation altogether or your website.

7) Not stating your bot’s capabilities

What will customers feel when they thought they were talking to a human only to find out that it is merely a bot?

Even worse, they are repeatedly asking the bot things that they are not designed to do. That can be frustrating on the part of your customers.

Your introduction plays a huge role in all conversational interfaces.

Firstly, starting a conversation with someone without introducing yourself is quite off in real life. That is the same in the online world as well.
Secondly, you need to provide disclosure. It must be clear to them that the other end of the interaction is not a human.
Finally, this gives you the chance to state what your bot can and cannot do. It is all about managing the expectations of users without giving them any negative experiences.

What you can do here is to introduce your bot and give user guidance in a couple of sentences. It does not have to be more than that.

Wrapping it Up

So there you have it. Those are the most common chatbot mistakes. Nonetheless, one of the most important things that you have to do is check your chatbot. Also, make necessary adjustments and upgrades if needed.

When you commit yourself to do this, you are well on your way to creating an excellent chatbot marketing strategy.