Ask HN: Does Everyone Hate Chatbots?
We recently did a Show HN post that drove a lot of traffic to our site. We also had an intercom chatbot that was used to qualify leads.
We expected to get roasted on our product, but the Show HN post went surprisingly well. Instead we did get roasted on our chatbot. As in everyone hated the chatbot.
So despite almost every SaaS product page having a chatbot, is the truth that everyone actually hates them? Is there a specific time and place for chatbots?
45 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 92.6 ms ] threadI'm always annoyed with the enter your email and we'll get back to you chatbot.
So if the chatbot actually provides some kind of value then that's different but if it's just a spambot then what's the point.
You'd probably be better off offering some kind of lead magnet to capture emails.
(a) Wanted access to Workflow86 (our product) (b) Chat with sales (c) Chat with support (d) Just browsing
and each of these options then funneled into another action or question e.g. assigning it to a human, asking for an email so we can contact them back etc.
Yes, I get your point re the "please give us your email" thing. But it seems intercom is pretty limited in doing more in terms of lead qualification. Maybe we just aren't using it right.
Why not just have links people can click on to do those things?
In my circle of friends, the general attitude toward them is that those widgets popping up and trying to grab attention (usually with the little red number notification badge) is the most off-putting aspect.
Why? Because frankly they just aren't good enough yet. In my experience they are too dumb to be useful and the process of interacting with the bot is just a waste of my time.
I also don't like when the chatbot interface pops up and starts interacting with me on an unsolicited basis. To me that's just like when I walk into a retail store and 3 seconds later somebody is in my face going "Can I help you find anything?" That is an experience that I also hate with a white-hot burning fury.
That said, I did have a good experience with an Amazon chatbot recently where I expected it to not work, and it wound up solving my problem after all. shrug
https://aws.amazon.com/lex/
https://cloud.google.com/dialogflow
^ But why would anyone go through all that for a vanity chatbox on a landing page? Stuff like that is for, you know, a real chatbot.
For me, it was mostly multiple choice questions that ended with, "your order has been refunded, you may keep or dispose of the item".
That jibes totally with my experience as well. Like you said "it works because it actually has the power/permissions to solve your problem." It's not necessarily more intelligent but it can do useful things nonetheless.
A chatbot usually provides a slower interface to exactly these.
It serves the company in reducing call center expenses, not me in finding what I need.
Chatbots have a real use as first level support, but it has very little use on a landing page, but that’s neither here nor there, we all simply want to fit in.
Sales is hard.
The original scope was just a chatbot for support, but the logic was heck we were paying for it so why not use it in more places.
As a consumer, I hate them. There is something very off putting about seeing a notification when you visit a landing page.
1. https://ososhq.com
I absolutely acknowledge the fact that they can be an Amazing tool to to help with first level support. However, many companies seem to use it as a substitute for human support interaction for any kind. Companies can perfectly go ahead and use Chatbots for their first level support, but please refrain from having the customer jump through 2000 burning hoops just to talk to a human when the chatbot isn't able to help.
As for intercom, it's true that most SaaS companies have them. I assume most use it as a tool to let even the most early stage sideproject seem like a legit business backed by a team. I understand that Intercom is simple to implement and seem promising, but as soon as intecom is pinging me first without any interaction with the widget I'm leaving the site
Talking to a machine is user hostile
In theory they are useful, in practice they are really, really bad and it would be quicker for me to find the help I need elsewhere.
But technical users already know what to look for and how to get help if they need it. Don't nag us and force your help down our throats
But otherwise, please no. Who ever liked calling a service and click 1, 1, 9, ... ? Then why apply it to the web?
Unfortunately most pay big money to chatbots but they don't want to invest anything into building an FAQ. Mind-blowing. In 9/10 cases, I game the bot to take me to "special case, need to contact human support" as soon as possible. Because that's what many do - hide support behind the chatbot, no phone, no email, no contact form being made public...
I do feel that chat bot interfaces work better on desktop than mobile, since it doesn't take over the entire screen (example, I can type in "close account ... Then see the list of all my accounts to find the one to close without leaving the chat bot text box)
it doesnt seem like a big deal to website owners who only work on a single product, but their customers may be evaluating tens or maybe hundreds of products a day, so while one chatbot popup may be nothing to a founder, tens or hundreds of chatbots for us gets old real fast
be different; idk maybe make the chatbot text you directly
Usually, I use chatbots for basic queries such as scheduling appointments, flagging a fraudulent transaction, returning/replacing an online order, etc. All of the above are fairly straightforward and don't really need the attention of a person. For more complex issues, I don't expect the chatbot to answer the question in the first place, so there isn't much room for disappointment.
Sidenote - One thing I dislike is when the chatbots claim "Hey this is Cindy, an actual person ..." when it is clearly a bot.
Another one of my pet peeves is when companies make it exceedingly difficult to end the subscription or delete one's account. Like you have to get in touch with them in order to do so. They can take days to respond or just inundate you with half pleas to get you to stay with them.
Chatbot is functionally an interactive search box and I should be able to use a search box with identical results.
I prefer self-service websites with the option to talk to a human. Chatbots deliver negative value to me in many situations.
That being said, there are situations where I would implement a chatbot. For example, I offer a service where we don't care what the prospect's problem is since we can solve it. The prospect, however, does not trust us enough to be able to do this and so they want to talk to someone to be reassured that what we claim is indeed true.
For that, I can definitely implement a chatbot. If the inquiry could normally be handled by an outside call center who has no special access, that can be relegated to a chatbot. Everything else should be handled by a human with sufficient access to resolve the matter.
Thus, we need additional reassurance when prospects don't trust us enough and so a better approach is to invest in trust building so they feel that booking an appointment online is more convenient.
By the way: chatbots will hardly ever replace web forms.
If I need something, I will get to you.