I agree there is nothing worse than an automated assistant/chatbot that is plastered on a website frontpage. Here at Hanover we use our chatbot really as a last resort for visitors to obtain information they might not be able to find on our site.

Any website should be intelligent enough to not only provide searchable functionality but also should be designed in a way that visitors can locate information easily.

Our site is purposely for people over the age of 55 and using a new approach we held workshops with our residents, some as old as 85, to seek just how the website should look and feel.

As a result of this the chatbot was designed and added.

Unlike some sites, we don’t have it on our homepage. It is a simple link on our ‘Help’ Page.

The main aim of our Chatbot is to answer questions outside of office hours as our Service Centre is open from 9-5 Mon-Fri.

Since the launch of the chatbot it has answered 25,000 questions for us and has helped increase the visitors to our website by 380% in the first year alone.

I agree that they can be complicated and, at times, unhelpful. But there are some uses for technology such as this.

:)