A Launch Checklist for Your Website Chatbot

A chatbot launch goes best when it starts narrow and is tested the way visitors will really use it. This checklist covers what to settle before going live, what to test and how to learn from the first weeks.

Before you build

Pick one clear job. Decide whether the first version should answer repeat questions, book appointments, capture leads, or a combination. A focused scope is easier to test and easier to trust.

Name the owner. Someone on your team should own the chatbot after launch: reviewing conversations, correcting answers and following up on leads. Without an owner, quality slips quietly.

Agree the boundaries. List what the assistant may do, what it must hand to a person and who that person is for each topic, such as service, billing or sales.

Prepare the content

• Gather the website pages, FAQs and documents the assistant should use.
• Resolve contradictions so each fact has one version.
• Write the greeting, quick replies and the assistant's name in your tone.
• Add the contact numbers it should share when it cannot help.

Connect the tools

• Connect your calendar and check which appointment types it can offer.
• Set up lead routing so each enquiry reaches a named owner.
• Decide whether the team wants alerts, for example in Slack, when a lead or booking arrives.
• Restrict the widget to your own domains.

Test before going live

Test the ordinary flows and the awkward ones.

1. Ask your most common questions and check each answer against the source.
2. Ask questions the knowledge base does not cover and confirm the assistant hands over instead of guessing.
3. Book, reschedule and cancel an appointment, and check the calendar and confirmation email each time.
4. Submit a lead and confirm it reaches the right owner with the conversation attached.
5. Try the widget on mobile and on the pages where it will appear.
6. Ask colleagues who have not seen it to try to break it.

Prepare the team

Walk the team through the admin portal. They should know where to read conversations, how to see leads and bookings, how to correct an answer and how to edit the greeting or quick replies. Agree who responds to leads and within what time, so visitors hear back when they are told they will.

After launch

First week: read conversations every day. Look for questions with no good answer, answers visitors pushed back on and bookings that needed repair. Fix content quickly, since changes in the portal go live within about a minute.

First month: review a sample each week. Add the missing topics, tighten the unclear answers and adjust the quick replies to match what people ask.

Ongoing: update the knowledge base whenever prices, hours, services or policies change.

Signs the launch is working

• Visitors get straight answers without searching the site.
• Out-of-hours enquiries are answered and followed up the next working day.
• Bookings arrive with the information your team needs.
• Staff spend less time answering the same questions and more time on conversations that need them.

If you want help scoping and launching a chatbot with a fixed price agreed up front, see the Ontix AI chatbot.