I notice time and again that our customers and other companies are faced with a new challenge when they want to write dialogs for chatbots or conversational user interfaces.

Writing dialogs for chatbots is a complex task. It seems very simple at first, as most of us write and read a lot of WhatsApp messages every day, but writing a purpose-driven dialog is a bit more involved.

Every sentence must drive the conversation forward and bring the user closer to their goal.

Otherwise we end up in endless conversations, as we are sometimes used to from WhatsApp group chats.

So what makes a good dialog?

I recommend looking here at how playwrights and screenwriters do it. You are used to writing meaningful dialog. In most screenplays, dialog has the following three functions.

• They move the story forward.
• They tell us something about the situation.
• They tell us something about the characters.

Good writers ensure that each sentence contains at least two of the above functions. Instead of just driving the story forward, the sentence could also tell us something about the character or the place.

So how can we apply this to chatbots?

If we consider the three principles above and apply them when writing chatbot dialogs, we can say the following for the Conversational UI:

• The customer journey is being driven forward.
• The user understands the context in order to have a personalized experience.
• The bot tells the user something about the brand/product.

To make our dialogs successful and conversion-oriented, we should always consider several of the factors mentioned above. It is also important that the chatbot is assigned a character right from the start.

So let’s get started:

Develop a character for your chatbot

Who is your chatbot? It can be anyone who represents your business. As with writing a marketing persona, you need to clearly define your chatbot as a character. The character brings the bot to life and helps the customer to interact with the bot.

When describing your character, pay attention to the right tonality. You probably already have a tone of voice for your company. Now you need to transfer this to the character of your chatbot.

What kind of words does your character use and which would they never use? Is your chatbot character young and humorous or rather serious and earnest?

Define your goals

Every dialog serves a purpose. Your customers have a specific task or question they want to complete or answer, and your dialog should help them get there faster.

Make sure that the dialogs you develop later do not miss the defined target.

Sketch a flowchart for your dialog

Now we are approaching the actual writing of the dialogs. However, before you write every single word of the dialog, I recommend that you roughly sketch out the conversation in a flowchart.

The flowchart gives you an overview of all the directions your conversations can take. Each message can be answered in several ways and all scenarios must be covered.

Select a scenario

As soon as you have completed the diagram, it is best to look at each scenario separately and start writing a separate dialog for each case. Some dialogs can cross over or are brought back together at certain points.

But basically, each user only goes through one scenario and therefore each case must be conclusive and make sense in terms of content.

Write your first dialog

You have now defined a chatbot character, the flowchart is complete and the individual scenarios are clearly delineated. Now you can finally start writing.

And here are a few tips that you should bear in mind when writing so that your conversations lead to the desired result:

• Write in the voice or tonality of your brand
• Always address the user directly (1-1 communication)
• Keep it short
• Not too much humor, appropriate depending on the use case

Proceed as follows with each scenario.

Test your dialog

However, before you can actually use the dialog for the chatbot, you should check it again in detail.

First, read the dialog out loud to yourself and ask yourself if this is a conversation you would like to have with a colleague or customer advisor. Does it sound realistic?

As soon as you are satisfied with the dialog, it is best to test it with members of your target group. Your target group must feel comfortable and understood in the dialog and be able to reach the desired goal quickly and without obstacles.

In some cases, A-B tests are also suitable here if you are not quite sure.

I know it can be a lot of work to develop a good chatbot conversation. But the effort is worth it. Your chatbot will only achieve the desired results if your dialogs are designed in a target-oriented way.