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How to build a smart AI chatbot for next-level service on your website

ai chatbot tips & tricks

Almost everyone has experienced it. You're on a website, see one of those chat icons, click on it, ask some questions, and within no time you get answers that don't help you at all. The chatbot apparently doesn't understand anything you ask. Very frustrating and a waste of your time. 

But imagine if your website or online store had a digital service that was available 24/7 and did a great job of answering your visitors' questions like customer service would. Which is also increasingly smart and always friendly. That is the promise of AI chatbots for websites and one of AI's application areas within marketing

At NXTLI, we put it to the test and developed our own AI chatbot. We are already quite proud of the first result. Test our AI chatbot by clicking on the icon at the bottom right of our website. Please give us feedback about your experience and what could be improved. After all, we are training this assistant on a daily basis. We are curious.

Would you also like to deploy an AI chatbot for your website that does work? We would love to help you develop such a digital assistant that really is an asset to your website visitors. And doesn't give them a lot of frustrations and headaches. 

Let's take a look at the main points to consider when developing an AI chatbot for your website or online store.

Define the purpose of your chatbot

Before you start, it's important to have the purpose of your chatbot clear. Do you want to improve your customer service, provide more sales or simply help visitors find relevant content on your website faster? This goal will determine the direction of your entire chatbot project.

What should the chatbot be able to do?

What do you want the chatbot to be able to do? Go through a very structured process of questions or converse as naturally as possible. Give tips including links to more extensive information on the website or keep the conversation in the chat. Provide information about your products and services, your team, your customers or articles you have written. Communicate in Dutch and/or other languages. Being able to switch to a personal chat. These are all questions you can ask yourself. 

What questions should the chatbot be able to answer?

This can be a real eye-opener, at least it was for us. Make a good list of all the questions you want answered. For example, use the questions you already often get via social media, DMs or emails. These are questions that resonate with your audience. Supplement these with the questions you can think of yourself.

Test these questions and see how the answers are given. If a question is answered incorrectly or not answered, chances are you do not have the necessary content on your website and have not used it as additional training data. This provides immediate insight for creating or updating content.

What are desirable functionalities?

To best train the chatbot and make it better and better, the following features are important to consider:

  1. The chatbot uses one of the best AI language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT4o, Claude Sonnet or Gemini. 
  2. You can give the chatbot a lot of information as training data, such as your website urls, documents and instructions for specific answers to certain questions. 
  3. You can give the chatbot detailed instructions.
  4. You have clear insight into all the questions asked and answers given, where you can easily adjust incorrect answers. 
  5. You can easily customize the chat interface to match the style of your website and activate the chat easily. It may also be desirable to deploy different chatbots on certain pages.
  6. The chatbot users and conversations can be integrated with your CRM or marketing automation systems. 
  7. The chatbot must be able to respond quickly.

Provide a chatbot with a human touch


To make users feel that the chatbot is a fine assistant, try to make it carry on a conversation as naturally as possible.   

1. Give your chatbot a name and some personality, for example, "Sam the Servicebot. 

2. Let the bot adapt to the user's tone.

3. Use data from previous conversations for a more personalized experience.

4. Let the bot use humor.

You don't want to make your visitors feel like they're talking to an aloof, impersonal robot. By giving your chatbot a little character, you'll make the conversation a lot nicer.

What technology are you using as a base?

There are several AI models you can use as the basis for your chatbot. From open-source solutions to advanced models from large tech companies. Choose a model that fits your purpose, needs and budget. Consider factors such as:

  1. Language support: should your bot be multilingual?
  2. Processing speed: how fast should your bone react?
  3. Adaptability: how easily can you fine-tune the model?
  4. Cost: does it fit within your budget?

Train your chatbot 

Think of your chatbot as a new (customer service) employee. The more you train it, the better the results.

1. Collect relevant data from conversations with current customer service, the AI chatbot and new inquiries you see coming in via social media or email.

2. Develop content and enhanced instructions based on common questions.

3. Continually test and refine.

At NXTLI, for example, we noticed that our chatbot was able to answer 30% more questions correctly after intensive training.

Integrate the AI chatbot with your website

Make sure your chatbot looks like it is part of your website. Tune the design to your corporate identity and make the interface personal and user-friendly. A chatbot that looks very different from what you would expect on your website is less likely to be used. Also make sure that the chatbot's location does not interfere with anything else. For example, a cookie notification, an arrow to go up or down on the website or some other application

Ensure proper privacy and data security

We live in an age where there is an increasing focus on privacy and data security. Handle the information users share with your chatbot carefully. Provide encryption and be transparent about data usage.

How do you measure the success of your chatbot?

When setting your goal with the chatbot, it is also important to determine how you will measure success toward achieving the goal. You can think about:

1. Look at how often the chatbot is used.

2. The percentage of correct answers to the questions asked.

2. The time when customer service is less busy handling inquiries.

3. Increasing conversion to inquiries or purchases.

Without clear metrics, you won't know if your investment in time and money is paying off.

Set up a backup

Although developments are rapid, AI is not perfect at this time and still makes mistakes regularly. Therefore, ensure a smooth process to put users in touch with a real human if they get stuck with the chatbot. 

Keep your chatbot up-to-date

The world of AI is developing rapidly. Be sure to make regular updates, both in terms of knowledge and technology. Designate someone on your team to be responsible for optimizing and further developing the chatbot.

Be transparent

Be honest about having users talk to an AI and make sure your bot does not exhibit bias or provide misleading information.

Do you also want a good AI chatbot on your website?

Developing an AI chatbot for your website and improving your customer service can be done fairly quickly with the right approach. By paying attention to the points mentioned above, you take the first steps toward a digital assistant that really helps your visitors and can make your customer service and sales much more efficient.

Ready to upgrade your website with a smart AI assistant that offers your visitors the best service 24/7? We'd love to help you with strategy and development. 

Invitation to monthly AI inspiration sessions

Together with you, we would like to take a look at the most important AI developments, discuss the latest news and updates, share experiences, inspire each other, take advantage of what is possible and prepare ourselves as well as possible for the changes that are coming.

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