How to implement an online chat or FAQ bot on your website and save time

Customers value speed, and any delay in responding can cause them to leave for competitors. Online chat and FAQ bots help you quickly establish communication with website visitors, automate responses, and improve service levels without additional staffing costs. Read this article to learn how to effectively implement them when creating an online store.

Why does a website need online chat or a bot

Website chat and FAQ bots have long been tools not only for support but also for business development. Their advantages include:

• instant responses increase customer satisfaction;
• real-time communication helps not only to quickly answer questions, but also to alleviate customer doubts about the advisability of purchasing/ordering a service;
• the company saves on personnel, as automation allows for a reduction in staff;
• round-the-clock customer support has a positive effect on the brand's reputation;
• chat dialogues and their analysis help businesses better understand the needs of their audience. Based on this information, you can improve your product, adjust processes, and enhance service quality.

Chatbots work best with typical, frequently asked questions. For example, they can easily handle information about delivery, price, or returns. If they cannot answer a question, they connect the operator.

Types of chats and bots

Online chats and bots come in many forms, from classic live chats with an operator to fully automated systems. Advanced AI bots use natural language processing technology and provide flexible responses.

Live chat and chatbot

To understand which tool to implement on your website, you need to evaluate the pros and cons of live chat and bots, as well as what they are:

• an online chat is a widget on a website that allows visitors to communicate with operators or an automated system in real time. It helps users get quick answers, clarifications about products/services, and assistance with placing orders;
• an FAQ bot is an automated virtual assistant trained to answer typical questions that are usually asked in the FAQ section. It can offer ready-made questions and answers, redirect to reference articles, or open a ticket to an operator.

The main difference between them is that online chat involves live communication or its real-time simulation, while a bot is focused on automating routine requests.

FAQ bot

There are several types of FAQ bots, and you can order a website with any of them. The most popular ones are:

• scripted bots — they provide answers to frequently asked questions by offering to select the desired item from the menu and directing the user along a predetermined path. They are simple, predictable, and quick to set up;
• NLP/AI bots — they understand the text written by the user, recognize the meaning of the question, and generate more flexible answers. They require training and quality control;
• hybrid bots combine scripts with AI and, in complex cases, transfer the dialogue to an operator;
• retriever-augmented bots search for the necessary information in documentation or a knowledge base and form a response based on the fragments found.

The choice of bot depends on the site's tasks. Scripted bots are suitable for simple questions, NLP/AI bots are suitable for understanding free text. Hybrid bots combine scripts with AI and transfer complex questions to an operator, while retriever-augmented bots search for answers in a knowledge base.

How to choose and configure a chatbot

Poorly configured bots annoy users. Vague answers, the inability to switch to an operator, and confusing scenarios undermine trust. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the selection and configuration of a chatbot.

Popular services

The following tools are particularly popular:

• Tawk.to is a simple and inexpensive option for getting started. It offers free online chat, quick launch, visitor tracking, operator connection, and basic analytics. It is suitable for small websites but has limited configuration and integration options;
• JivoSite (Jivo) — a popular omnichannel tool, as it works not only with website chat, but also with social networks and messengers. It offers a convenient operator panel, telephony, built-in CRM, and simple settings. Suitable for online commerce and working with phone calls;
• Zendesk (chats + Support) — a corporate solution that offers integration with a ticketing system, CRM, and analytics. It allows you to flexibly configure permissions and routing of requests. Suitable for medium and large businesses where the history of all dialogues and scalability are important.

Before connecting the widget, define your goals: what should the chat do — reduce the number of calls, increase conversions, collect leads, or provide round-the-clock technical support? After that, choose the type of solution (scripted, AI, hybrid) and service, taking into account your budget and which systems it needs to be integrated with.

Integration with CRM

For live chat or bots to really benefit your business, you need to integrate chatbots with CRM correctly. Pay special attention to the following points during integration:

• a unified customer base is convenient because all chats, tickets, and orders are displayed in a single card. This helps employees immediately see the context, speeds up request processing, and improves service quality;
• two-way synchronization — the bot should not only record dialogues in CRM, but also pull data from it (order status, balance) for personalized responses;
• creation and updating — the bot must be able to create leads/tasks/tickets and update them as the conversation progresses;
• context transfer when switching to an operator — the entire dialogue history, entered data, and tags must be transferred to the CRM along with the open ticket;
• triggers and automation — use events from the chat to automatically assign tasks, notifications, or change the status of a deal.

Megasite Web Studio develops websites in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine, effectively helping businesses automate communication with customers, increase conversions, and improve service without unnecessary costs. If you have any questions about implementing online chats and FAQ bots on your website, call us at +38 (050) 3986 275 or leave your contact details in the feedback form on our website.