An Ultimate Guide to Write Chatbot Scripts
By: Daniela Vicker
Tags: Chatbots, Bots, Artificial Intelligence, Customer Experience, Development

Whether you operate an eCommerce platform or a cloud-based outsourcing business, there’s no denying the fact that your visitors want a good customer experience. Depending on the scale of your team and available resources, however, keeping a dedicated customer support team on standby might not be financially viable.

This is where chatbot algorithms and machine-learning come into play as a solution which benefits both businesses and customers. According to Medium, chatbot assistance can reduce customer support expenses by 30%, with more than 70% of businesses actively investing in chatbots in 2020.

Data by Small Biz Genius suggests that 85% of customer interaction will be done without human agents by 2021. This illustrates a shift in customer expectations as well as the channels in which businesses interact with them. With that, let’s explore how you can write good chatbot scripts for your business in order to meet those expectations as we move into 2021.

Why Should You Integrate Chatbots into Your Website?

Before we delve deeper into the topic, it’s worth noting why chatbot algorithms have become an industry staple over the years. Chatbot scripts allow businesses to mimic real-life customer support representatives through machine-learning algorithms integrated into on-site customer servicing.

This means that you can interact with your customer base indefinitely without worrying about hiring additional staff or being present for the exchange. Thus, some of the most crucial and noteworthy benefits of using chatbots today include:

● 24/7 customer support and instantaneous customer answers

● Ability to modify the chatbot script at any moment based on current needs

● Ability to collect customer interaction data for further chatbot refinement

● Low margin for error due to minimal human factor present in the exchange

● Cost-effective customer support and high return on the initial investment

Writing Solid Chatbot Scripts for Your Business

Consider Creating a Persona

First off, you should ensure that your chatbot represents your business adequately through its written content. Creating a persona such as “Mike the Support Guy” or “Lisa the Robot” can do wonders to increase your business’ personalization via chatbot script writing. Adopt a personality for your chatbot script, and your website’s visitors will enjoy using the feature more than before.

Keep the Writing Concise and Practical

Chatbot content should always be short and to-the-point to allow even non-native speakers to properly use it. As such, you should try and keep each chatbot script message as short and actionable as possible. Make sure that each message has a takeaway and answers a specific question. Avoid writing scripts which are purely conversational and avoid the visitors’ questions — these will paint your chatbot as unhelpful and dull.

Conversational and Laid-Back Tone of Voice

Speaking of conversational answers, your chatbot writing should not be stiff and distant, quite the opposite. It’s best to treat your chatbot writing process as a social media chat or SMS chatbot. Imagine that you are writing helpful tips and answers to a close acquaintance who asked you about a feature on your website. Online writing tools and top editing services can help you clear up your writing and edit out unnecessary fluff from the script before going live.

Write Answer Variations

Even though your visitors will be aware of the fact that chatbots are not people, you can work on their personalization through chatbot script writing. A simple way to make your chatbots feel alive is to write different answers to the same question in at least two or three variations. This is helpful for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the more dynamic feeling of your chatbot script. Likewise, if certain visitors ask the same question multiple times, receiving variations of the previous answer will help your website’s user experience.

Rely on Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score

As we’ve mentioned before, it’s very easy to attract an international audience to your website — however, not everyone will be a native English speaker. You can mitigate this in a few ways, including translating your chatbot scripts into different languages. The Flesch-Kincaid readability score can also help your writing be more understandable and easier to engage with for international visitors. Any writing platform dedicated to digital content editing features Flesch-Kincaid grading, including tools such as Hemingway or Readable. Use these and similar tools to level the playfield of your scripts for every customer who might engage with the chatbot.

Attach Resources to your Writing

Your chatbots can easily be retrofitted with outside resources, hyperlinks, and product recommendations to personalize the customer’s experience further. Blog posts and how-to tutorials on your website can also find their way into the list of additional resources the chatbot can pull from. Depending on the type of question a user asks, the chatbot can respond with a recommended course of action for that individual. Machine-learning lies at the core of chatbot algorithms, so why not take advantage of the fact and make your chatbot even more helpful through hyperlinks.

Proofread New Chatbot Scripts

Whether you create a persona for your chatbot or opt for more formal writing, it’s essential that your script is free of proofreading errors. Grammar errors present in chatbot text can cause red flags to pop up for customers. Subsequently, your international customers will have a much harder time understanding what the chatbot is trying to say. To avoid these issues, proofread any and all writing you plan to integrate into your chatbot algorithm. Make sure to also format each answer properly so that it shows up as intended during web or mobile browsing.

In Summary

While chatbot algorithms have become universally praised for their versatility, some people are still cautious about using them. Set up your chatbot so that it gives the user some time to read through the page on your website before it pops up. Give your visitors an element of personal choice, and they will be far more inclined to use the chatbot instead of wandering the website. Leave room for future script writing updates by gathering interaction data once your chatbot goes live, and you will be able to make continuous improvements.