How to Improve Your Chatbot With Split Testing

In an age where 75 percent of consumers expect to see their problem on a website solved in five minutes or less, it’s no wonder more website owners are using chatbots on their website as a customer support option. Some developers and business owners see this as an opportunity not just to help customers right away, but market their products or services to consumers.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to chatbot technology, so it can seem daunting to find the right format you want to use when split testing for increased conversions and sales. We want to take a look at how you can start split testing different components of your chatbot and make long-term improvements based on your results.

Consider the Variables You Can Test

The first thing you have to think about when split testing a chatbot is the variables you want to change. Depending on your niche or your overall goals when developing this technology, it’s vital that you change certain aspects of the conversation flow and appearance to encourage consumers to engage with your program.

Valuable conversations between AI and humans take time to master, but there are specific components within this text that we can use as a split test foundation. Commonly, business owners will change the opening line of text that pops up when a consumer is on their website. You can see significant results based on the tone of your bot, the length, and even whether or not you use emojis. This is an excellent starting point for mastering your chatbot formula.

You may also want to think about the design of your chatbot, including color schemes, fonts, and default images used by your bot. We know that color can have a profound effect on the way consumers react to your call to action, but design and color can have an impact on how users interact with our website and support bots. A small change like the color of your text window could be the deciding factor on whether someone interacts with your brand or bounces from the page.

Gather Feedback

Once you’ve started split testing different components of your chatbot, you’re ready to start gathering data and feedback on your experiments. The most accurate way to determine if your split tests are working is by taking a look at your analytics information. You can use this information to see if one color or line or text change drastically improved the conversion rate or traffic on your website.

It’s often necessary to extensively test your changes over weeks or even months to make sure you’re looking at accurate information. You wouldn’t want to change your format based on limited information entirely. In almost every case, the more data you have to examine, the more accurate your results.

Customer feedback is another important aspect of gathering data on your split tests. You could offer a customer satisfaction survey to customers who land on your page and ask if they used your chatbot. If they did use a bot, did they enjoy their experience and what can you do to improve. Similarly, you could ask if they didn’t use the chatbot, was there a reason and is there something you can do to make the process more appealing.

All of this data and feedback will help you craft future split tests down the line and improve the quality of your chat service.

Refine Your Chatbot

Finally, you’re going to want to use all of your past split tests and customer feedback to refine your current chatbot model. This step is going to vary from person to person, but generally, every system has room for improvement. As you get to know the people who use your chatbot, you’ll be able to refine the split testing process for better results.

This step is the longest part of improving the overall quality of your chatbot, but it’s necessary for those who plan on using an automated bot service on their website. When you have a list of variables that encourage engagement, you can test them against other variables that perform well to create a chatbot that has the design and features your users expect.

Conclusion

There are countless uses for automation, but chatbots are quickly becoming one of the most useful tools for business owners and developers. We can communicate with our audience in seconds and obtain results that allow us to improve our websites.

Split testing is still extraordinarily common practice in the marketing world, but this tactic is now merging into other aspects of web design. As we learn to harness the full power of chatbots, it’s safe to say that the possibilities within this technology are endless.