Chatbots are now an integral part of your business. It’s essential that you use them to improve communication with your customers. However, designing a chatbot that works well isn’t an easy task—the same concerns buttons in the chatbot. Button-based menus are a popular trend in chatbot UI/UX. They can add great value to the user interface if implemented carefully. However, if implemented carelessly, they can really rock the boat. Now, what exactly are chatbot buttons, why and how exactly could we use them?
What are Chatbot Buttons?
Chatbot buttons are simple, clickable elements that a bot may send to users to showcase different options. While browsing the search engine, accessing a website, or shopping from an online store, the user may click on buttons to complete specific tasks. These clickable and actionable elements appear as the last frontier for a decisive action to take place. We are used to pressing various buttons in everyday life while using telephones, AC, or remote controls. Touching buttons is almost reflexive. Hence, chatbot buttons can also lure users and engage them in a conversation.
Let’s find out the more interesting benefits of chatbot buttons.
What are the Benefits of Chatbot Buttons?
Buttons can do a lot of helpful things for good audience interaction. Here are some of the benefits that chatbot buttons can give to your business:
- Chatbot buttons drive a lot of traction from users. More engagement with the bot means increased business conversion and business growth.
- Users can respond with a single click with chatbot buttons without having to type long text in the chat window.
- Buttons are incredibly useful for new users who know less about how the chatbot works.
- Buttons let visitors specify their needs without formulating them. Hence, it becomes so convenient for users to use chatbots.
- Buttons narrow down the conversations and help users to take specific actions instantly.
- After clicking a button, the user can open new pages, automatically scroll to a different part of the chatbot conversation, choose various options, etc. This preserves a lively conversation between the bot and users.
- Users can be distracted by a lot of things on their phones, like a message or a call. A button can instantly re-engage the visitor in this situation.
- Buttons are controllable and have a good influence on the shape of a conversation.
- Good chatbot buttons can significantly improve the user experience and ensure optimum user engagement with the bot.
Now you must be convinced that chatbot buttons are worth using. Let us now look in detail at the five most effective ways to design the best Chatbot buttons.
5 Effective Ways to Design Chatbot Buttons That People Love to Click
So, what to pay attention to while creating chatbot buttons then? There is an array of elements that you need to focus upon while designing chatbot buttons. Here are the five hacks for designing effective chatbot buttons that people love to click:
1) Use a Short and Precise Copy for your button –
Your visitors will be happier if they don’t have to read the wall of text to understand what you want from them. They will lose interest if they have to read and write too much during the conversation. Effective communication happens when both parties exchange sentences or words, not monologues. Buttons limit the user input to a sufficient extent. They can prevent using a lot of readable text in the conversation. Whether the user needs quick navigation, links to products, or setting up an appointment, they will appreciate a straightforward process. You can do so by limiting the number of characters on your buttons. Writing a copy for the button has one important rule. Try to make your copy short enough for your clickable buttons. It gets confusing when a user sees a long text on a button. So, UI/UX designer needs to make the content of buttons short and precise. This will increase users’ tendency to click the button.
2) Create Buttons for the Right Context
Here’s one typical chatbot scenario. A person says hello to the bot. The chatbot then asks a question and lets a user answer it using the “yes” and “no” buttons. If you give your users “yes” and “no” as two binary options, they might not know what context the buttons refer to. For understanding the context, they will have to scroll back and read the whole question. Users nowadays don’t prefer to read the text thoroughly; they tend to skip it. Put some extra elements into your button text, making it less important for users to read the whole message. They will immediately focus their eyes on the important element that marks out and not the text. For example, if a Chatbot asks the visitor, “Did you find the app useful?” with “yes” or “no” buttons, the user might find it hard to understand the context until he read the whole message. However, on the other hand, if your button has text like “Yes, the app is awesome” and “No, I’m disappointed,” the user will clearly understand the context just from the button text. This will make it easier for the user to answer every question in just a few seconds.
Hence, we recommend avoiding using “yes” or “no” responses. Try to use more contextual buttons instead. A good context will help customers immediately find out what they can expect after clicking a button. This makes the conversation more interactive and dynamic like a human being.
3) Build a Trusted Chatbot Personality
Your chatbot can be your brand ambassador that has a personality matching your brand. If we treat the chatbot as a part of our brand, customers start building solid relationships. A chatbot with an easy and accessible personality focused on creating this strong customer relationship makes sure whatever your chatbot says or replies go perfectly with your brand image. Don’t use sophisticated words and ambiguous phrases. Avoid using industry jargon and complicated terminologies. Make the chatbot experience far more fulfilling by creating a chatbot with a good personality and language.
4) Make it Clear What Will Happen After Clicking the Button
Imagine you’re standing in a hotel corridor and looking at the four doors. Something is written on these doors but in an unknown language. This is a similar situation the users face when they get a clickable Chatbot button without any idea of what it leads to. However, in the same situation, if all the doors have simple text or images on them, immediately you can say which door opens the washroom and which goes into the terrace. If you want the users to make a choice, it is necessary to create a clear expectation. To ensure this, you can provide buttons with simple text that clarifies what will happen next if you click them. Sometimes, images or emojis with the buttons can be used as an excellent UI help. They can explain meaningfully and in less time what the button means and what action it leads to. They also support understanding and engaging users. To ensure a clear understanding, you can also use simple text, images, emojis, or a fusion of all. Remember not to use too many of them to avoid confusion.
5) Keep the Number of Options Limited
Every customer likes to have wide choices while making the selection. However, offering too many options can also backfire on their experience. Many decisions can be overwhelming, confuse the customer, and deter purchasing to a great extent. For example, if you go to a restaurant and want to order dessert. If you see thirty types of dessert, it might get hard for you to make the final choice. But if you see 3 or 5 desserts, the decision seems to be much easier. One more thing that you can do here is to give options at multiple stages. First, you can ask what the customer wants. If they say dessert, you can provide two choices of “Hot Desserts” and “Cold Desserts.” If they choose “Cold Desserts,” you can further give two options of “With Chocolate” and “Without Chocolate.” This step-by-step process helps users to decide what they want. This is why it is said that the buttons work best when they are offered with a limited number of options. By giving users a limited set of options, you help them make quick decisions, avoid overthinking and settle their matters faster. We recommend using 3 to 5 button options to drive traction and ensure better conversion.
Conclusion
Applying these principles to your chatbot buttons can increase the conversion rate in your chatbot. You can also test and trial and make sure your buttons and chatbot match the kind of chatbot experience you’re trying to create. If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Design Effective Chatbot Buttons with SocialBot. Sign Up Today! Further Reading: 8 Conversation Design Principles for Making Better Chatbot Conversations
