The jobs a chatbot does well
The wins are repetitive, high-volume and time-sensitive: the questions your team answers ten times a day, and the enquiries that arrive when nobody is at a desk. A well-trained assistant answers instantly, captures the details, and hands over anything that needs judgement.
- Answering service, pricing and opening-hour questions 24/7
- Qualifying enquiries — budget, timeline, urgency — before they reach your inbox
- Booking appointments straight into your calendar
- Collecting contact details from visitors who would otherwise leave silently
Where bots still cause damage
A chatbot that guesses is worse than no chatbot. If it invents a price, promises a service you do not offer, or traps a frustrated customer in a loop, you lose trust in seconds. Anything ambiguous — refunds, complaints, medical or legal advice, anything emotional — should reach a human quickly.
A practical way to start
Write down the twenty questions your team answered last week. That list is your training set. Build the assistant to answer those confidently, add a clear route to a human, and review the conversation transcripts every fortnight for the first two months. Accuracy improves fast when you can see exactly where it stumbled.
