Do You Need an AI Chatbot on Your Website?

Chat bubbles are everywhere now. Your dentist has one, your bank has one, and someone has probably tried to sell you one.

So, do you need one? Maybe. For some businesses an AI chatbot answers questions at midnight and books jobs while the owner sleeps. For others it’s a monthly bill that answers three questions a week.

Here’s how to tell which one you are, and what to set up if you go ahead.

What a website chatbot does today

Older chatbots followed a script. You clicked buttons, and if your question wasn’t on the menu, you were stuck.

AI chatbots work differently. They read your question in plain language and answer from information you give them: your services, prices, hours, policies and service area. A well-set-up bot can:

• answer common questions any time of day
• collect a name, phone number and what the person needs
• offer open appointment times and book them
• hand the conversation to a person, by text or email, when it should

What it can’t do is know things you didn’t tell it. And it can’t use judgment the way you or your staff can.

Signs a chatbot would help you

You answer the same questions all day. Do you have parking? Do you take my insurance? How much is a haircut? Do you work in Queens? If the same ten questions fill your phone and inbox, a bot can answer them instantly.

People reach out when nobody is free. Some customers look you up in the evening or on weekends, when you’re closed. If those messages wait until morning, some of those people may have found someone else by then.

You can’t pick up while you work. A stylist mid-cut, a contractor on a ladder or a chef during service can’t answer a chat. A bot can handle the first few questions and take a message.

You want more booked appointments, not just more messages. A bot connected to your calendar can turn a question into a booking. If that’s mostly what you need, look at online booking too.

Google’s chat button is gone. Google turned off chat in Business Profiles in July 2024. If customers used to message you that way, your website is now the natural place for chat.

Signs it won’t

Your site gets few visitors. If only a handful of people visit each week, a clear phone number, a short contact form and fast replies may be all you need.

Most answers need judgment. A lawyer can’t let a bot give legal advice. A dentist can’t let a bot diagnose a toothache. If nearly every question ends in “it depends,” a bot can only take a message, and a good form does that too.

No one will look after it. Prices change, hours change, services change. A bot repeating last year’s prices does more harm than no bot.

Your website itself is out of date. Fix that first. The bot will only be as accurate as the information behind it.

The risk people forget: the bot speaks for you

When your chatbot answers a customer, it’s your business talking.

There’s a well-known example. In February 2024, a tribunal in British Columbia ordered Air Canada to pay a customer after its website chatbot gave him wrong information about getting a bereavement fare refund. Air Canada argued the chatbot was responsible for its own actions, and the tribunal rejected that. You can read the decision in Moffatt v. Air Canada.

That’s a Canadian case, not a U.S. ruling. But the lesson travels well. Customers will treat what your bot says as what your business promised. So set it up to stay inside what you’d say yourself.

Rules to set before it goes live

1. Say it’s automated. Start the chat with something like “Hi, I’m the salon’s automated assistant.” It’s honest, and some states have bot disclosure laws. California’s, for example, applies to bots that interact with people online to encourage a sale. This is not legal advice.

2. Make a human easy to reach. Every conversation should have a way out: call us, text us, or leave your number and we’ll call back. Never trap someone in a loop with a bot.

3. Give it approved facts only. Load your real prices, policies, hours and service areas. Tell it what it must not do: no discounts, no promises about results, no guesses about prices it doesn’t have.

4. Let it say “I don’t know.” It’s better for the bot to say “Let me have someone get back to you” than to make something up.

5. Collect only what you need. Name, phone, email and what they need is usually enough. Never take card numbers in chat.

6. Take extra care in health and legal work. If you’re a dental or medical practice, health details typed into a chat can be protected health information. HIPAA requires a written agreement with outside vendors that handle that information for you, called a business associate agreement. Law firms have their own confidentiality duties. Talk to your lawyer before a bot collects anything sensitive. This is not legal advice.

7. Read the conversations. For the first few weeks, read every chat. You’ll spot wrong answers, missing information, and questions you didn’t expect. After that, a weekly look is a good habit.

8. If it texts people, follow the rules for texting. Sending texts to customers needs their consent and a proper setup with the phone carriers. If you want the bot to follow up by text, see lead follow-up.

What it costs

Most chatbots have two costs: setup and running.

Setup covers gathering your information, writing the rules, designing how the bot hands off to people, connecting it to your booking or contact tools, and testing.

Running covers the AI service itself, updates when your information changes, and someone reviewing conversations.

Our AI chatbot service starts at $1,500 for setup, plus from $150 a month to run and improve it. Do-it-yourself chatbot tools also exist with their own monthly plans. Ranges vary with how much the bot has to do, whether it books appointments, and how many conversations it handles.

The cheapest option is the one you don’t need. Count the cost against the time it saves and the customers it catches after hours.

Alternatives that might be enough

A chatbot isn’t the only way to answer faster. Depending on the problem, one of these may do the job:

• A clearer website. Put prices, hours, areas served and common answers right on the page. Many questions disappear.
• Online booking. If most chats would end in “book me in,” a booking tool or Reserve with Google may be all you need.
• Fast follow-up on forms. An instant text or email reply to every new inquiry. See lead follow-up.
• Help with the phone. If most of your customers call rather than type, an AI receptionist answers the phone line instead.

A simple two-week test

Not sure? Try this before spending anything.

For two weeks, write down every question that comes in by phone, email, text and social media. Note the time of day, and whether you could answer right away.

Then look at the list. If the same questions keep coming up, and many arrive when you’re busy or closed, a chatbot will likely help. If the list is short or every question is different, put your effort into your website and your response time instead.

How we set one up

If the test says yes, we can help. Our AI chatbot service starts with your real questions, builds the bot on your approved answers, connects it to the tools you already use, and hands off to your team when it should. You own the account and the conversation history.

And if the test says no, we’ll tell you that too.