10 creative chatbot ideas to improve customer engagement

A decade ago, only large enterprises could use chatbots to drive engagement. Remember LEGO’s Ralphand Amtrak’s Julie? These were one-of-a-kind bots, built from the ground up by tech agencies—a rather costly and elaborate process.

But that’s no longer the case. Today, even startups (with no tech expertise) can deploy custom AI chatbots in under an hour using one of the many chatbot solutions on the market. However, without careful consideration, a chatbot becomes merely a novelty—failing to deliver tangible value and maybe even detracting from the overall user experience.

We’ll share 10 chatbot ideas for different customer touchpoints and business needs so you can build actual relationships with customers. We'll also share practical tips on making your online presence feel more human.

Overview of chatbots

A chatbot is like a virtual assistant that chats with people, mostly through text but sometimes by voice too. Some are pretty basic, following set scripts, while others use AI and natural language processing (NLP) to understand message context and user intent for more natural, human-like conversations.

You’ll find chatbots on websites, in messaging apps, and in mobile apps, helping businesses offer 24/7 support. They can answer common questions, guide users through processes, and even assist with shopping—all in a smooth, almost-human way.

They work great in pretty much all industries:

• E-commerce: To provide personalized product recommendations, track order statuses, and handle return requests

• Healthcare: To schedule appointments, provide medication reminders, and offer basic health information

• Finance: To answer account balance inquiries, process simple transactions, and provide personalized financial advice

• Travel and hospitality: To handle booking inquiries, provide travel recommendations, and offer real-time flight or hotel updates

• Real estate: To provide instant information about listings, qualify leads by asking about property preferences and budgets, and schedule property viewings.

Chatbot vs. live chat vs. virtual assistant

Chatbots are often compared to live chat widgets and virtual assistants as they’re all used to automate conversations. But they each do it in a pretty different way:

• Chatbots typically handle routine inquiries through pre-set scripts or AI-driven responses. They automate basic customer service and information delivery.

• Live chat widgets connect users directly with human agents in real time. They allow for personalized assistance with complex or nuanced issues.

• Virtual assistants use advanced AI to perform a broader range of tasks beyond simple conversations, such as scheduling appointments, providing personalized recommendations, and controlling smart home devices.

Types of chatbots

Now that we’ve seen where chatbots stand in the larger picture, let’s explore the different types of chatbots available today, how they work, and when they work best.

1. Rule-based chatbots

These chatbots are built on predefined rules and decision trees. They respond to specific keywords or phrases with pre-programmed answers and follow the "if-then" logic.

They’re particularly great when you can predict user input and the desired response. This includes answering frequently asked questions (FAQs), providing basic customer support, and guiding users through simple processes. This also means they cannot understand nuanced queries and cannot adapt to unexpected user inputs.

A popular example is the bot that both Domino's and Pizza Hut have on Facebook Messenger. It allows you to place orders and track the status from within the bot.

2. AI chatbots

These chatbots leverage NLP, ML, and deep learning to understand user intent, context, and sentiment. This allows them to learn from interactions, adapt to various user inputs (even unexpected ones), and provide more personalized and dynamic responses.

This makes them great for complex interactions and personalized customer experiences. However, the ‘human touch’ depends on the data they’re trained on. Insufficient or biased data can lead to inaccurate responses, misinterpretations, or even offensive outputs. Something to keep in mind when picking your chatbot provider.

Many banks and financial institutions, such as Bank of America’s Erica Bot, use AI bots that use NLP to provide personalized financial advice and recommendations.

3. Hybrid chatbots

These chatbots combine the strengths of rule-based and AI-powered approaches. They use rule-based logic for simple tasks and AI for more complex or ambiguous queries. They are great for customer service situations that sometimes need a simple answer and sometimes need a complex answer.

10 chatbot ideas to increase customer engagement

Here are some chatbot ideas for beginners and pros, focusing on different engagement angles and use cases.

1. Customer service chatbots

Customer service chatbots are one of the most popular use cases. In fact, Gartner predicts chatbots will be the primary customer support channel by 2027. And with good reason as they can give instant answers (in multiple languages)—eliminating wait times during peak hours or off-business hours.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons why David Yabubik, the director of customer support at Restaurant365, pickedFreshdesk’s AI bots.He says:

“We have big aspirations for the future, and if we are ever going to hit the kind of revenue, service margins, and scale of support, we're going to need to get more efficient and automate our work.”

Besides, unlike human agents, customer service chatbots provide consistent answers pulled from a single source of truth, ensuring uniform customer experiences regardless of the time or number of interactions.

2. FAQ chatbots

Trained on internal knowledge bases and help documentation, FAQ chatbots use generative AI to analyze user questions, automating customer support with relevant responses. This benefits you in two ways: customers get instant responses, and customer support agents don’t have to waste their time handling basic, routine questions, so much so that 69% of customers prefer FAQ chatbots over regular email or chat support.

3. Lead generation chatbots

If you're a marketer looking to engage your target audience and capture leads, then lead generation chatbots are your solution. They can act as your virtual assistant—initiating conversations, asking qualifying questions, and capturing valuable contact details like names, emails, or preferences.

For example, if you’re a real estate company, you can have a chatbot on your website to greet visitors, answer questions, and nudge them to book a viewing. This can reduce bounce rates and transform casual browsers into qualified leads by collecting actionable data for follow-up.

4. ‘Welcome’ chatbots

Welcome chatbots are conversational AI bots designed to create a positive first impression by greeting prospects and directing them toward their objectives, whether that’s finding information or exploring products.

By highlighting special offers or assisting with product recommendations, welcome chatbots can nudge visitors toward making a purchase. A success story here is Gwyn, 1-800-Flowers’ bot. 1-800-Flowers, the largest gifting retailer in the U.S., uses Gwyn to help customers find the right gift. And according to Chris McCann, president of 1-800 Flowers, over 70% of the chatbot’s orders come from new customers.

5. Booking chatbots

Booking chatbots, also known as appointment chatbots, are AI-powered tools that automate scheduling, reservations, and bookings. They’re available 24/7 and can be integrated into websites, messaging platforms, or apps, making it easy to book a meeting without the hassle of back-and-forth emails or long, complex forms.

Booking.com’s Booking Assistant is a well-known example here. It provides instant answers regarding hotel amenities, policies, and location. Plus, you can book your hotels without leaving the bot interface.

6. Survey chatbots

Survey chatbots are AI-powered tools designed to collect customer feedback through conversational interactions. They use NLP to engage users interactively, making the survey experience feel more human-like.

Plus, they can create a dynamic conversation flow, adjusting questions to previous answers—so you get contextual feedback, not just a, b, or c. Its conditional survey forms are 100 times better and more nuanced.

7. Educational chatbots

Educational chatbots act as virtual assistants for students, teachers, and staff, for project ideas. They provide instant support and personalized learning experiences. These chatbots can be integrated into e-learning platforms, mobile apps, or websites to improve engagement.

For example, you can use ML and NLP to analyze student interactions and tailor educational content based on individual needs and learning styles. They can also save educators a lot of time by automating administrative work like grading assignments and monitoring student progress—a huge help as teachers are some of the most overworked people.

8. Legal chatbots

Legal chatbots are designed to assist users with legal matters through text-based conversations. They use NLP and ML to understand and respond to user queries, offering relevant legal information and guidance.

As legal is a sensitive topic, make sure to train your bot on extensive legal databases so it can handle complex queries and create compliant legal documents. They’re great for basic legal guidance and drafting standard documents like NDAs.

For law firms, on the other hand, AI bots can automate a large part of the admin work. An example here is Jupus. It acts as the first point of contact for potential clients, collecting essential information to determine whether to accept a mandate. This process is more efficient than traditional web forms, allowing the firm to assess and prioritize potential cases.

9. HR and recruiting chatbots

HR and recruiting chatbots automate various human resource processes, including recruitment, onboarding, employee support, and talent management. These can interact with employees and job candidates, create job listings, source candidates, conduct initial screenings, and schedule interviews.

Some chatbots even help promote workplace diversity by identifying biases in job descriptions and sourcing diverse candidates.

10. Social media chatbots

Social media chatbots can help you engage users on platforms like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Threads. You can automate responses, generate leads, and improve customer service directly through social media channels.

A real-world chatbot example here is Sephora’s Virtual Assistant, available on Facebook Messenger and Kik, a Canadian instant messaging app. It provides makeup tutorials, product recommendations, and appointment scheduling at Sephora stores.

Tips to make your chatbot rise above the noise

Remember Bot-Tender, Patrón Tequila's chatbot for X (Twitter, back then)? The launch of the Bot-Tender chatbot led to an 11,000% increase in direct messages on X in 2017 compared with 2016.

That was before the sophistication of modern AI. Imagine what a smart chatbot strategy can do for you today.

Here are some chatbot design ideas and tips so it’s loved by humans and helps you drive revenue:

• Define a clear personality: Give your chatbot a unique voice and tone that aligns with your brand. Is it friendly and helpful, or more professional and informative? Even just giving it a name can make it stand out.

• Focus on solving real problems: Don't just add a chatbot for the sake of it. Identify specific customer pain points and design your chatbot to address them effectively. And, of course, prioritize providing value over simply being "chatty."

• Personalize the experience: Go beyond the basics of greeting someone by their name. Use collected data and past conversations to tailor conversations and recommendations.

• Use NLP: Invest in robust NLP to understand user intent accurately. And if you’re a global (or hyper-local) brand, train your chatbot on regional language patterns and colloquialisms.

• Ensure cross-platform consistency: Maintain a consistent user experience across all platforms where your chatbot is deployed—messaging apps, websites, and more. This can strengthen brand recognition.

Finally, recognize the limits of your chatbot. Set up a workflow to hand off the conversation to human agents when situations get nuanced. This can avoid a lot of frustration on the customer’s side.

What to consider when choosing a chatbot for your business

No matter how great your chatbot concept or backstory is, the actual user experience depends largely on the chatbot provider you partner with. Here are some factors to evaluate when picking your chatbot service:

• NLP accuracy: Evaluate the chatbot's ability to understand and interpret user intent, including complex or nuanced queries, to provide relevant and accurate responses.

• User Experience (UX): Prioritize a chatbot with an intuitive interface and navigational ease, as it directly impacts customer satisfaction and engagement.

• Customization and flexibility: Look for a provider that allows you to tailor the chatbot's design, functionality, and conversational flows to align with your brand's voice and specific business needs.

• Analytics and reporting: Select a provider that offers robust analytics and reporting features, enabling you to track chatbot performance, identify areas for improvement, and measure ROI.

• Integration capabilities: Ensure the chatbot platform seamlessly integrates with your existing CRM, marketing automation, and other essential business tools.

Put customers first with AI-powered customer service from Freshdesk

If you need a chatbot but also an end-to-end help desk that can handle pretty much anything, in any situation, Freshdesk can help.Its AI-powered support system, driven by Freddy AI, can automate most interactions without making it sound too robotic or out of context.

Use the no-code chatbot builder to customize your bot’s conversational flows and tone. Then, train the bot with unique business documentation to align with your brand voice and further personalize interactions. Once deployed, your custom bot will use a combination of NLP and your internal documents to understand customer questions and the sentiment behind them to have human-like conversations.

So you’re always covered, no matter the complexity of the question! Try Freshdesk today!