Chatbots are no longer just “nice to have.” Today’s online users want answers quickly, immediately, and ASAP. Some would even say they wanted answers yesterday.
In fact, almost 60% of customers feel that long waiting times are the most frustrating aspect of customer service. Additionally, 12% of American users rate “lack of speed” as their number one service frustration.
Thankfully, AI technology has enabled businesses to offload a significant portion of their customer support operations to chatbots. And when implemented correctly, businesses can deliver better customer experiences while cutting down on overhead costs.
Today, conversational chatbots are on their way to becoming a must-have tool both for lead generation and customer support.
What does a good chatbot experience look like?
Given that chatbots help increase conversions, generate high-quality leads, and help save on costs, they provide a very efficient and scalable way to interact with online users.
However, chatbots fail when they aren’t able to deliver efficient and seamless conversations.
Here are some examples of the most epic chatbot fails you wouldn’t want to happen to your business:
- CNN’s bot could not understand the command “Unsubscribe” when used with other words.
- Facebook closed down its M assistant on messenger after it failed in handling 70% of user requests.
- Microsoft’s Tay chatbot closed within 24 hours of launching because it started spewing troubling political views.
Put simply, chatbots were designed to help humans by absorbing some of the usual inquiries or support tickets so that live agents can focus their time and energy on the more complex ones. In fact, 24/7 chat support is now also proving to be popular.
So if a chatbot is not able to replicate the experience that online users get when they’re talking to live agents, this could pose a big problem.
A good chatbot should be able to:
- Be a decent alternative for a human agent
- Communicate with a lot of customers simultaneously
- Cover multiple requests and logic branches
- Hold seamless conversations with online users
- Recognize intent and provide the right solutions or direction
Here’s the key takeaway: The challenge of setting up a chatbot isn’t purely technical—it also involves logic, creativity, and very thorough chatbot QA tests.
If businesses decide to use chatbots to optimize their operations, then the bots need to be set up correctly with no room for failure.
6 chatbot QA tests you need to conduct
One very important note: while there are available software that can run automated tests on chatbots and other digital marketing tools, there are some chatbot QA tests that only human testers can do.
Here are some of the most crucial QA tests that chatbots need to undergo—from technical fixes and bugs to logic.
#1: Device responsiveness testing
Chatbots are supposed to make it easier for customers to get answers to their queries—regardless of which platform or channel they are on.
Whether the online user is on a desktop computer, laptop, or mobile device, they must be able to access and use the chatbot seamlessly.
Responsive testing involves testing across all devices to ensure that the chatbot works correctly everywhere without any compatibility or technical issues.
#2: Response time testing
Online users love chatbots because of how fast they respond and provide answers. So if a chatbot cannot answer quickly, it would defeat the purpose of having a chatbot in the first place.
It’s important to test the following:
- How quickly the chatbot gives the right answer
- Consistency of response time regardless of the question or scenario
- How many back and forths need to happen before the online user gets the right solution
- Is the response time satisfactory for online users?
#3: Logic and response accuracy testing
Imagine this: a chatbot that provides answers in milliseconds. But the answers are flawed, confusing, and irrelevant.
Remember that speed is just one of the many factors that affect a chatbot’s success. Response time and logic must work together to provide a seamless customer experience.
Human testers can help with the following:
- Testing and assessing if provided answers are accurate and correct
- Test out all provided scenarios to verify if logic and responses are correct
- Test other possible scenarios that may not have been provided or implemented
- Test how the chatbot responds to emojis, idioms, jokes, and other languages
#4: Navigation and flow testing
People get frustrated with websites and mobile apps that are hard to navigate. The same goes for chatbots.
Chatbots that are confusing and hard to navigate will negatively impact the overall customer experience. After all, chatbots are supposed to make things easier for both the business and customers.
Here’s a list of what needs to be tested when it comes to navigation flow:
- Do online users feel lost or confused when communicating with the chatbot?
- Does the bot provide relevant and appropriate answers to the users?
- Does the bot capture the user’s details and sync them to the CRM or database?
When it comes to navigation and flow testing, human testers are much more reliable so they can simulate actual scenarios. Check out this quick demo to see what working with human testers is like.
#5: Error management testing
Like it or not, there will always be hiccups or one-off situations along the way.
For example, a user might have a super complicated inquiry. Or the software might suddenly experience a bug. Your website might have upgraded and caused some technical issues. When these happen, what will your chatbot do?
The crucial things to test:
- How does the chatbot attempt to understand a confusing request?
- How does the chatbot handle complicated requests? If there are inquiries that need to be handed off to live agents, how does the chatbot facilitate the transition?
- How does the chatbot deal with invalid requests or errors?
#6: Lead management flow testing
Since chatbots are a great first touchpoint, there will surely be new contacts and potential leads every now and then.
However, if your chatbots cannot facilitate the transition of the leads’ information to the sales team, these will be missed opportunities for your business.
Your chatbot QA tests must be able to answer these questions:
- Are leads assigned to the right nurture flow or team member?
- Are team members getting notified about the incoming leads?
- How do the new contacts get synced to the CRM?
- Are new contacts assigned to the right labels, tags, or lists?
Leverage human testers to get your chatbots in shape
Whether you’re using or planning to use Intercom, Drift, or HubSpot for your chatbots, comprehensive QA testing is crucial before launching.
Leave no stone unturned when you work with highly-skilled human testers from UberQA who are guaranteed to provide top-notch feedback and assessment.
