The most common mistakes are: no way out to a person, too many options, messages that run too long, sending marketing without a separate opt-in, no fallback for unexpected answers, pretending the bot is a person, and not measuring what goes wrong. Six of the seven can be fixed in half an hour.
1. No way out to a person
Put “talk to a person” in your first menu, not after the customer has hit a wall twice. It costs you a fraction of your conversations and it prevents most of the frustration.
2. Too many options
Three buttons, or a handful of list options at most. Someone looking at ten choices picks nothing — or picks wrong and ends up on the wrong path.
3. Six-line messages
WhatsApp isn't email. What you can say in two lines, say in two lines; put the rest behind a button or a link.
4. Marketing without a separate opt-in
Consent for service doesn't cover offers. Send them anyway and people block your number, and blocks lower your quality rating with Meta — which means you're allowed to send less. See opt-in and GDPR.
5. No fallback for unexpected answers
Customers type. Make sure the default path does something friendly: ask again or put them through. Silence is the worst answer.
6. Pretending the bot is a person
A name and an emoji are fine, but be clear that this is an automated conversation. People forgive a bot a lot; they don't forgive being misled.
7. Not measuring what goes wrong
Check every week which path ends in a handover most often and where people drop out. That's your improvement list, and it's shorter than you'd think.
What you can do today
- Put “talk to a person” in your first menu
- Trim your two longest messages
- Check that your marketing messages have a separate opt-in
- Walk the default path as though you were a confused customer