7 things to check before you add a chatbot to your website

A badly configured chatbot is worse than none: it frustrates visitors, gives wrong answers and makes your business look careless. A good one quietly handles the repetitive work. Before you pick a tool, check these seven things.

1. Where do its answers come from?

The assistant should answer from your own information — services, prices, opening hours, policies — not from general knowledge on the internet. Ask how you add and update that information, and whether you can see exactly what it knows.

2. What happens when it does not know?

Every assistant will meet questions it cannot answer. The right behaviour is to admit it and collect the visitor’s contact details so a person can follow up — not to guess. Test this before you go live.

3. Can it see your real availability?

An assistant that can only say “please call us” is not a booking assistant. Check whether it connects to the calendar you already use, and whether it can offer real free slots instead of made-up ones.

4. How does it handle personal data?

Chat conversations contain names, phone numbers and sometimes sensitive details. Ask where the data is stored, how long it is kept, and whether the provider offers a data processing agreement. For businesses in the EU, GDPR compliance is not optional.

5. Does it speak your customers’ language?

If you serve tourists or international clients, the assistant should reply in the visitor’s language automatically — while still using your information and your rules.

6. Can you see what it says?

You should be able to read past conversations and see the enquiries it collected. That is how you spot missing information, correct answers and learn what your customers actually want to know.

7. Is it easy to set up and fits your website?

Adding the assistant should not require rebuilding your site. Look for a simple embed code, styling that matches your brand, and a setup where someone tests the key answers with you before launch.

A quick test before you decide

• Ask it your three most common customer questions.
• Ask something it should not know, and see whether it admits it.
• Try to book a slot, then check that it appears where you expect.
• Ask in a second language.

If a tool passes these four checks with your own information, it is very likely to save your team real time.