How to add an AI chatbot to your website

Before you start: four things to decide

Most chatbots that frustrate visitors fail on one of these, not on the technology. Spend ten minutes on them before you sign up for anything.

1. Where its answers come from

An AI assistant can only be as right as what it reads. Ask of any product you consider: does it answer only from my own pages, or also from what the model learned elsewhere? A model that fills gaps from general knowledge will tell a visitor your return window is 30 days because that is common, even when yours is 14.

Check that your website actually says the things people ask about. Open your pages and look for:

• shipping costs and delivery times, by country if you ship abroad;
• returns and exchanges: the window, the condition of the item, who pays return postage;
• how to reach you, with an e-mail address that someone reads;
• product details people compare: sizes, materials, compatibility, what is included;
• opening hours, service area or booking rules, if you sell a service.

If a page is missing, write it first. An assistant that reads a good page answers well; one that reads nothing says "I don't know" a lot, which is honest but not much help.

2. Who it hands over to

Some conversations need a person: a damaged parcel, a refund, a complaint, someone who simply asks for a human. Decide where those go before you go live. An e-mail address works. A chat app you already watch works better, because you can answer while the visitor is still on the page.

Our assistant passes these conversations to you by e-mail, Slack, Discord or Telegram, with the conversation attached, and from the chat apps you can reply into the visitor's chat window. It does not have a shared inbox with seats for a support team; if you need that, see AI chatbot vs live chat.

3. How many conversations, and what happens past the limit

Chatbot pricing is counted in very different ways: per seat (each person on your team), per conversation, per message, or per "resolution" (each time the AI closes a question). Estimate your volume first: look at how many contact-form messages and support e-mails you get in a month, then assume the chat will see more than that, because a chat window is easier to use than a form.

Then ask what happens when you go over. Some products charge extra for each conversation past the plan; some stop answering. Ours does not charge overage: past the limit, new visitors are asked to e-mail you, and the count starts again on the 1st. Plans are listed on the pricing section: free for 30 conversations a month, then $19 for 90, $59 for 275, $199 for 1,000 and $1,099 for 6,000.

4. Privacy

A chat window runs on every page of your site, so read what it collects. Things worth checking: does it set cookies (which may change what your cookie banner has to say), where conversations are stored, how long, and whether it works only on your own domain. Our widget sets no cookies and answers only on the domains you registered. The details are in our privacy policy.

The setup, step by step

These are the steps with our assistant; other products follow a similar order.

1. Sign up with your e-mail. Go to the sign-up page and enter your e-mail address. You get a one-time sign-in link; there is no password to remember.
2. Enter your website's address. We read its public pages, which usually takes about a minute, and read them again every day so new products and changed policies are picked up without you doing anything.
3. Try it on the spot. Chat with your assistant before it is on your site. The store check shows which common questions your website already answers and which it does not.
4. Copy your line of code. Your dashboard shows a single script tag with your own site id.
5. Paste it into your site, before the closing </body> tag, so it loads on every page. The exact place depends on your platform (below).
6. Open your website once. The chat button appears in the bottom-right corner, and your dashboard shows Connected.

Where to paste the code on each platform

Any other site builder works the same way: look for a setting called "custom code", "footer code", "scripts" or "tracking code". If you edit your own templates, put the line in the shared layout just before </body>. Testing locally first is fine: the widget also runs on localhost.

Don't paste the code twice (for example in the theme and in a plugin). You would get two chat buttons, and both would count conversations.

Check it like a visitor would

Before you tell anyone, open your site in a private window, on a phone as well as a computer, and ask the questions your customers actually ask. A short test list:

• a product question with a specific answer on your site ("is the large size in stock?", "what is it made of?");
• a policy question ("how long do I have to return this?");
• a question your site does not answer, such as a discount code you never published. The right answer is "I don't know" plus a way to reach you, not an invented code;
• "can I talk to a person?", then check that the hand-off reached your e-mail or chat app;
• the same question in another language your customers use. The assistant replies in the language the visitor writes in.

If an answer is wrong, the fix is almost always on your website: the page is missing, unclear or contradicts another page. Correct the page and the assistant picks it up when it reads your site again.

The first week after going live

• Read the conversations. Not all of them forever, but all of them in week one. You will learn what people ask that you never put on your site.
• Work through the list of questions it could not answer. Each one is either a page to write or a question you are happy to hand over.
• Check the hand-offs. Were they the right ones? Did you answer them fast enough?
• Watch your count. If you are near the free 30 conversations a month, decide whether to move to a paid plan before visitors start being asked to e-mail you.

Questions