5 Top Tips for Adding a Chatbot or Voice AI Assistant to Your Website

Launching a Chatbot for your business? Read our 5 best practices

If you're a customer facing business of any kind it's likely that you might be thinking about adding a chatbot to your website at the moment, or in the process of updating an older chatbot with a more intelligent and helpful AI Assistant - and with good reason. Customers want an answer now, not via a contact form that sits in an inbox unanswered for days.

At converse360 we've seen a fair few of these go live, including our own; and it's usually the same one or two things that can get overlooked during the design, build and deployment of an AI Assistant which can make all the difference to your customer experience of using the chatbot.

Here's are our 5 best practices, practical things which you should get right before (and after) you go live:

1. First check whether your chatbot's slowing the site down

This one catches people out more than you'd think. The script fires the second the page opens, before anyone's even scrolled, when most visitors won't touch the chatbot for another ten seconds, if they touch it at all.

So delay it, add it to the footer code. Let the rest of the page load first, then bring the chatbot in. Most platforms let you do this, WordPress, HubSpot and WebFlow included, and it's a small job. Worth doing to optimise your site peformance.

2. Make sure your AI Assistant actually understands your customers

If your chatbot only understands five or six pre-written questions, it's not really helping anyone, it's just there. Someone asks something slightly off-script and gets nothing back. They leave, and you've probably lost them.

Generative AI actually picks up on what someone means, even when they've not phrased it very well, which, let's be honest, is most of us most of the time. That's really the whole difference.

3. Be upfront that it's AI. There's no need to dance round it

Customers don't seem to mind talking to an AI when it's genuinely helpful. What they mind is finding out later that they didn't know. So just say it, something like "you're chatting with our AI Assistant" at the top of the chat. Takes two seconds, and people trust it more for knowing.

It also makes the next point a lot easier to manage.

4. Always have a clear handoff to a human

No matter how good the AI is, some conversations just need a personal touch — a complex complaint, a sensitive query, or simply a customer who prefers to talk to a human.

So give people an obvious transfer route.  This could be a handover to live chat, a number, a callback request, whatever suits your business and processes. As long as it's easy to find. An AI assistant with nowhere for the conversation to go isn't really complete.

5. Think beyond text, AI Voice for websites is catching up fast

Website chat isn't the only front door anymore. AI Voice Assistants, including AI Receptionists that can answer phonecalls and Voice AI for websites are increasingly used for handling inbound calls, taking bookings, and providing out-of-hours support — doing for the phone and speech what chatbots do for the web and messaging.

If your business gets a meaningful call volume — or you have a complex product that it's easier for customers to ask questions about rather than searching your website for information, it's worth thinking about how a voice assistant could complement your chatbot, particularly for busy periods, providing out-of-hours cover, or answering simple, repetitive queries that tie up your team's time.

A few things to check before your AI chatbot goes live

• Does my chatbot load before or after the rest of my page?
  Ideally after. If the script fires the moment the page opens, it can slow down load times before anyone's even scrolled. Delaying it — adding it to the footer code — lets the rest of the page load first.
• Should I tell customers they're talking to an AI assistant?
  Yes. A simple line like "you're chatting with our AI Assistant" at the start of the conversation builds trust and avoids customers feeling misled later.
• Can customers reach a human easily?
  There should always be a clear route to a person — live chat, a phone number, or a callback request. An AI assistant with no handoff option isn't complete.
• Does the chatbot sound natural or like a rigid menu?
  A generative AI assistant should understand what someone means even if they haven't phrased it perfectly, rather than only recognising a handful of pre-scripted questions.
• Has the chatbot been tested with real, unscripted questions?
  Testing with genuine customer phrasing — not just the questions you expect — is the best way to spot gaps before customers find them.

‍Getting the basics right pays off

None of this needs to be complicated. A chatbot or voice assistant that loads fast, sounds natural, can be styled to suit your brand-voice and knows when to bring in a human will consistently outperform one that's fast to set up but frustrating to use.

The businesses getting the most value from AI assistants right now are the ones treating them as a genuine extension of their customer service — not just a box-ticking exercise.

If your chatbot's feeling a bit stuck in its ways

If your current chatbot is scripted, rigid, or starting to feel like it's holding your website back, it might be time for an upgrade. Converse360 helps businesses move to generative AI chatbots and AI Voice Assistants that actually understand customers — without the technical headaches.

Get in touch with Converse360 today to talk about upgrading your chatbot to generative AI, adding an AI Voice Assistant, or both.

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