Humanizing a chatbot: How to make your Chatbot feel more personal

Tips for making your chatbot feel more personal

Address users by the correct gender pronoun

With Botsurfer you can set up a personalized gender pronoun, so when the user is interacting with your chatbot, they are addressed accordingly to their gender preferences. This all happens automatically according to the gender the user has on his Facebook account. The feature is particularly useful in languages where it is challenging to address users in a gender-neutral way. 

Use first name, last name, or full name to address the user

It is necessary to employ this function from time to time and make your chatbot feel more personal. When using first names, the conversation feels more intimate, therefore, your users perceive your chatbot as someone they know and they are keener on giving out information about themselves. The utilization of this feature can alter the user's behavior towards the chatbot. 

Avoid being excessively formal 

Chatbot's that are communicating is an unreasonably formal manner will come out as too impersonal, cold, and detached. Humanize your chatbot by giving it an appropriate, but a funny personality that will not stand in the way of the customer receiving information for which they came for initially. If the language that your chatbot uses is too formal, then some users might feel uncomfortable? On the other hand, if the language is extremely casual, your chatbot can end up not being taken seriously. 

Additionally, to make your bot feel more human, it is also a good idea to use filler words such as "hmm", "like" or "ah". These words are commonly used in spoken language and make the conversation seem more natural. 

Create a character to humanize your chatbot

Depending on your type of business, you can also create an actual character for your virtual assistant. It helps to humanize the chatbot, moreover users then oftentimes believe that they are chatting with a real character. The character has to fit into your brand identity, otherwise, it may result in distrust.   

Work on your chatbot's personality

Creating a chatbot personality is a widespread method of humanizing and bringing chatbots to life. As chatbot is usually an extension of a brand, therefore it is for the best that the bot personality mirrors the company identity. Remember though, performance should always come before personality as customers primarily use chatbots to get quick answers to their questions, as opposed to conversing just for fun. 

Utilize message delay function 

Message delay can look like a completely irrelevant feature. However, on the contrary, message delay serves more than one purpose. One of its applications is in making chatbots feel more human and personalized. Having a fast chatbot that instantly writes five messages in a row might seem appealing, but it is not user friendly. A user is then overwhelmed with the information and the speed at which he is receiving it. Additionally, message delay creates an illusion that the chatbot is in fact thinking, or typing and, thus, more humanized. 

Botsurfer can help to humanize your chatbot 

Botsurfer provides all tools and features necessary for designing more personalized chatbots. Sign up for free and explore our software suite to see how easy it is to build a customized chatbot for your business.