Insights · Convert · AI chatbots
Does your website need an AI chatbot? An honest guide
By Klaus S, AI and Automation Lead
Published · 3 minute read
The short answer
An AI chatbot is worth adding when enquiries arrive outside office hours, visitors ask the same questions repeatedly, or your team cannot reply to every enquiry quickly. It is not worth it if your site gets very few visitors or if nobody will keep its answers up to date. A good chatbot answers only from approved information, qualifies enquiries, books appointments and hands over to a person when it should.
I build chatbots for a living, so you might expect me to say every website needs one. It does not. Here is how to tell whether yours does.
When does a chatbot make sense?
- Enquiries come in during evenings and weekends, when nobody is there to reply.
- Your team answers the same ten questions every day.
- Leads wait hours for a reply because everyone is busy with clients.
- Visitors leave your site without asking the question that was stopping them.
An East London aesthetics clinic we work with found 39% of its bookings were made outside business hours once clients could book online around the clock. That is the kind of demand a chatbot captures.
When is a chatbot not worth it?
- Your website gets very few visitors. Fix your traffic first.
- Your services change constantly and nobody will keep the answers current.
- Your clients mainly need advice that only a qualified person can give.
What does a good chatbot do?
- Answers from approved information onlyIt never makes things up, and says "I will ask the team" when it does not know.
- Qualifies the enquiryIt asks the questions your team would ask.
- Books the appointmentStraight into your calendar, with a reminder.
- Hands over properlyComplaints, advice and anything sensitive go to a person, with a summary.
- Tells people it is an AIHonesty builds trust.
What about regulated firms?
Solicitors, financial advisers and clinics can use chatbots safely if the chatbot never gives legal, financial or clinical advice. Its job is to explain services, answer practical questions and book a conversation with a qualified person.
How do you know it is paying for itself?
- Track enquiries and bookings that start in the chatbot.
- Note how many arrive outside office hours.
- Review conversations monthly for questions it could not answer, and add them.
About the author
Klaus S, AI and Automation Lead. Klaus builds the AI and automation behind every account: AI chatbots, AI receptionists and CRM workflows that answer, qualify and follow up every enquiry, at any hour.
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