Do you remember this article about chatbot personalities?

And now today I happened to come across the interview between Helvetia employee Florian Nägele and their chatbot, Clara.

The Helvetia team pretends that Clara is a personality and asks her about her state of mind, vision and mission in an interview.

Great, thanks to this interview we users can put ourselves in Clara’s shoes a little. We now understand what she can actually do, why she only speaks German so far and have an initial idea of how Clara will develop.

This interview makes it much easier for users to chat with Clara afterwards and we also get an understanding of why Clara may not yet be able to answer all questions in the subsequent chatbot dialog.

Of course, after reading the interview, I immediately chatted with Clara.

And here is my first impression:

POSITIVE

1. First of all, I would like to express my great praise. Clara really understands a lot and has answered 80% of my questions correctly.
2. Clara doesn’t just reply by sending me a link, she always replies in full sentences and repeats my question or my intention. So if she answers something wrong, I can see this immediately in her answer and not only when I click on the wrong link.
3. Clara introduces herself briefly and concisely as a chatbot. That way, the expectations are clear from the start and I can’t even develop the feeling of chatting with a person.
4. Clara says right from the start why she is there and what she can do. Namely exactly this: “I can help you find your way around our website and find the right information.”. So there can be no expectation that Clara can do more.
5. Clara doesn’t just stop. Whenever she has answered a question, she asks if I have any other concerns.
6. Clara usually writes in short paragraphs. This makes it easy for me as a user to follow the conversation.

NEGATIVE

1. This is where Clara disappointed me. I didn’t say that I wanted to change. In my opinion, giving such an answer is a bit tricky.
2. When I called up the chatbot with my smartphone, the quick reply buttons were missing. I would have liked to see a few buttons with answer options in addition to the free text field.
3. So far, the chat has been very text-heavy. Sometimes I would have liked a picture or maybe even an emoticon to lighten things up.

All in all, I think the project is currently very successful. The idea with a landing page incl. I think the interview with the chatbot is brilliant. Clara already understands a lot and usually answers in complete, coherent sentences.

You can find out more about Clara here.

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