The most common Chatbot fails and how to avoid them

Nothing is perfect, and technology is included in this matrix of mishaps. Artificial intelligence can fail hilariously as it often misses the context that we, as language interpreters, use daily. “Sorry, I don’t understand” is a common response when speaking to an AI chatbot as we don’t speak robotically. Our use of language is not conditional; it ebbs and flows like a river. But chatbots, no matter how smart they are made, are conditional. While we hope that in the future, artificial intelligence chatbots like Artie, our AI provided within our live chat software suite can get smart enough for us to speak to them like we would to our peers, we have not arrived at that point of technological progression just yet. But is it the chatbot’s fault that it does not understand you? Or is it the humans? 

Error! Error! Malfunctioning!

The most common chatbot fails are from malfunctioning or broken bots, affecting mostly new or neglected chatbots. The new chatbots are most prone to errors since they are in their early stages of development, but this comes at a high cost to customer experience. While internal testing can help fix many obvious errors, when the testing pool is open to a much wider audience, like the public, that’s where many other errors that were missed in testing become visible. Development teams do everything they can to avoid this, but it’s mostly the nature of the beast.

Neglected, outdated chatbots break with time, when no updates or patches have been applied or there may be an old chatbot running on newer software, causing a conflict. Either way, a broken, malfunctioning chatbot negatively impacts the user’s experience, leading to frustration and bad reviews. Mostly, chatbots would be encountered when you have a pre-sales question or an issue, but if you have a stressful issue that needs rectifying immediately, such as with finance or travel industries, a broken unreliable chatbot is the last thing that a customer wants to be greeted by.

Moral of the story: if you have a chatbot, make sure to use a reliable supplier, like Click4Assistance's web chat software to keep your chatbot healthy and functioning properly.

TMI: Too Much Information

We overshare. Social media has made us into oversharing robots, feeding useless content throughout the day to keep the timelines alive, with updates relating to food, location check-ins, and every minor detail of the day that in all probability did not warrant a status update. Sometimes, when we open a live chat, we are focused on getting as much information as possible across to the company that we overload the chatbot, only for it to reply with something random, completely unrelated or a simple, “I don’t understand”. Frustratingly, this is when the user has entered too much information in a way that a human would understand, but a chatbot is unable to decipher, which isn’t the user’s fault, or the chatbots. Constant user research is needed to combat an issue such as this.

On the flip side, have you ever had information overload from a chatbot? Some chatbots are instructed to throw in cross-sells, up-sells, interesting tips and tricks and warm welcome messages, but instead of being helpful, the chatbot delivers a desperate elevator pitch or few, giving the end user a wall of text, littered with links, emojis and buttons. Rather than be casually helpful, they end up overwhelming the user.

Moral of the story: Don’t give the chatbot long-winded replies with loads of links and emojis. Using a supplier that has lots of experience with live chat, like Click4Assistance, will prove to be very beneficial in developing the best replies for your chatbot.

Time for artificial intelligence to take over chatbots

The best way to really avoid chatbot fails like the above is to implement an AI chatbot, like Click4Assistance’s Artie. While he has many benefits, such as always being available to chat with an unlimited number of website visitors simultaneously, his conversations with customers feel more natural, unlike strictly pre-defined, rigid replies. It is important that your chatbot supplier has extensive experience with live chat and customer service, to ensure that your chatbot feeds seamlessly with your customer service team, and represents your brand well. Remember, the chatbot is possibly the first point of contact a customer is going to have with your brand, so you must ensure that the experience is positive from the start.

If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to increase your business’ productivity for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email to theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our experts will be with you right away. Not ready to reach out yet? Discover how it works, try a demo, or better yet, try Click4Assistance completely free for 21 days.