What a website chatbot should answer, and what it should hand over.

One rule first

A business chatbot should answer from information the business has approved, and say so when the answer is not there. Everything else in this guide builds on that.

What it can answer on its own

• Questions with one correct, written answer: opening hours, location and parking, services, prices from your own list, policies, what to bring and how booking works.
• Process questions: how a consultation works, what happens after an enquiry and how long a reply usually takes.
• Sorting questions: which service fits, who handles it and which page explains it.

What it should always pass to a person

• Advice about someone's own situation: medical, legal, financial, tax or safety.
• Complaints, refunds and anything that needs a decision or an exception.
• Urgent problems: it gives the right phone number straight away instead of chatting.
• Anything it cannot answer from the approved information.

Handing over well matters as much as answering. Pass the conversation on with what was said, and tell the visitor what happens next and how long it usually takes.

How the limits change by business

A dental clinic's chatbot can explain treatments and take booking requests, but pain and swelling get the emergency number. A law firm's can explain practice areas and collect conflict check details, but never assess a case. A restaurant's can share allergen information, but only the kitchen can confirm what is safe.

Our industry pages set out these limits for twelve kinds of business.

Write the rules down in plain sentences

Write each limit so that both the chatbot and your team understand it, for example: "If someone describes pain or swelling, give the emergency number and do not comment on symptoms."

Keep example questions next to each rule, including ones that sit on the edge, and run them again after every change.

Check the limits are working

Read conversations that ended in a handover and ones that did not. Look for questions it answered that it should have passed on, and ones it passed on that it could have answered.

Adjust the rules and the approved information together. Most fixes are a clearer page, not a cleverer chatbot.