# Common Chatbot Mistakes: Why is Your Bot Failing? Oct 14, 2021 6 Min READ Illustrator: Fran Marrero .avif) ## TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. [Top 5 Most Likely Chatbot Mistakes in Bot Creation](#section-1) - 1. [Mask Chatbots as Human Beings](#section-1-1) - 2. [Unusual Means of Communication](#section-1-2) - 3. [Lack of Visual Elements](#section-1-3) - 4. [Bland or Non-Existent Personality](#section-1-4) - 5. [No Purpose](#section-1-5) 2. [To Sum it Up](#section-2) Raise your hand if you’ve ever found yourself getting frustrated while interacting with a chatbot. The odds are there are a lot of raised hands out there. But don’t blame the bots! **The likely culprits of these notorious fails are the chatbot mistakes you commit in the creation process.** Chatbots have become a very popular option for customer service, lead generation, sales, promotions, you name it. Drift’s 2020 State of Conversational Marketing report mentions respondents [using conversational marketing solutions](https://landbot.io/blog/conversational-marketing) to get simple questions answered, access content and other resources, book meetings, or make purchases. There is a lot bots can do, but despite their rising popularity, they still make a lot of mistakes. Or should I say, the people who develop them do. ## Top 5 Most Likely Chatbot Mistakes in Bot Creation A successful chatbot for your business, one that leads to customer satisfaction, requires work. ### 1. Mask Chatbots as Human Beings When customers click on a chat icon on any given website, they don’t know upfront if they’ll be connected to a human on the other end or if they’ll be talking to a chatbot. With the AI capabilities available today, businesses can show a tendency to train their [NPL-based bots](https://landbot.io/blog/natural-language-processing-chatbot) to sound as human as possible. And that’s fine. But even the best-trained chatbots have their limitations, and it’s very easy to [trick them into showing their true colors](https://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/chatbot-experience-human-or-robot/). Here’s why you shouldn’t let it come to this point — trust. If you want to establish a good relationship with your target audience, you need to build trust. That’s why you should always disclose to the customer who or what they are talking to, in your [bot welcome message](https://help.landbot.io/article/ve6mi5bxvg-welcome-message), for example. ### 2. Unusual Means of Communication Chatbot communication is text-based communication. As such, it should strive to follow the same “etiquette” as if it were on the other end of a conversation with a friend. Here are some things to consider if you are to avoid this type of chatbot mistakes: - [**Message length**](https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/chatbots-message-length/): chat conversations, whether on Messenger or WhatsApp, tend to be broken into smaller messages. Instead of overflooding a customer with text as they open the chatbot to start a conversation, consider splitting your message into several smaller ones. - **Time to reply**: although people usually turn to chatbots for immediate responses, not taking a breather before replying doesn’t seem like the normal flow of a conversation. Consider [keeping two seconds between each chatbot message](https://www.userlike.com/en/blog/chatbot-fails) for a more natural feel. - **Consider the channel:** depending on the product or service you sell, you will attract different kinds of customers. Aim to meet people where they are. ### 3. Lack of Visual Elements This common mistake could be related to chatbots using unusual means of online communication, but it takes it one step further. Even if your bot complies with the unspoken rules of online chatting, it might still be missing a piece if all it uses to communicate are words. When developing your chatbot, you should be sure to include visual elements in addition to the text. ### 4. Bland or Non-Existent Personality As customers, we sooner or later realize we are not interacting with another human being. Bots offer an extra great opportunity to solidify your brand and its personality among your customers, so they really should be consistent with your brand values and mission. ### 5. No Purpose Chatbots are a proper business tool that can be [used for a lot of different things](https://landbot.io/chatbot-use-cases) — customer service, lead generation, sales, content suggestion, bookings, etc. **Determine whether or not your business needs one.** ## To Sum it Up By avoiding these _common chatbot mistakes_, you’ll be giving your chatbots a hand and possibly helping them get a spot on the good bots list.