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Sometimes, as a website owner, you may be wrong regarding the kind of information visitors are looking for. A bot can be also useful here (people not finding what they are looking for may ask the bot, the bot probably won't be able to answer but, if you're using a decent bot platform, you'll be able to easily get a report on what questions people are asking and then add this either to the bot or to the website if you prefer).

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In this case doesn't your customer walk away frustrated at best, after a nonsensical conversation with a bot? That's been my experience every time. I ask a question, then the bot asks me questions that are irrelevant and make it very clear it doesn't understand what I'm saying and that I'm not talking to a real person.

That’s a reasonable point, but I would argue that the same could be accomplished (with a better user-experience) with something like a “Not finding what you’re looking for, click here” shown on the website in the appropriate places that leads to a contact form. When you end up talking with a chatbot you have no way of knowing if it doesn’t have access to the information you’re looking for, or if you just haven’t asked it using the right key-words or terms. That can make it a significantly more frustrating experience then just using a contact form and waiting a day for a response.

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