We've all experienced it once. You got a bill from, let's say, your energy company that you don't quite recognize. So you think: I'll get in touch with the company. You navigate to the website, you log in, click on the customer service icon and you are presented with a chatbot: 'describe your problem in a few short sentences'. You write a short description with your question, but you always get the answer: “Sorry, I do not understand your question. Can you type it in a different way?” Well... no! Besides the bill, you are now also stuck with a feeling of frustration.

This is the exact opposite of what a chatbot is supposed to do. You want a chatbot to contribute to the candidate experience in a positive way. To quickly give the user an answer or quickly tell the applicant the status of their application. In this blog, we'll give you some tips for writing texts (conversational copywriting) for a chatbot to make your chatbot a definite hit and not a miss.

Tip 1: Give your chatbot a clear personality

A conversation with Annie is not as informative as a conversation with Lisa tends to be. And a chat with Harry is not nearly as funny as a chat with Melvin. This is exactly the same when talking to chatbots. Just like how your brand has a personality (archetype), the chatbot should also be an extension of the brand with a consistent brand voice.

Always keep this personality in mind when writing for the chatbot. You want it to have a recognizable tone-of-voice. The bot has to sound almost human. And you can only do that if you give it a personality. After all, the way you address a candidate can make all the difference between a successful job application or not.

Here you can find the definitions of all the twelve different brand archetypes, if you want a little refresher course.

Tip 2: Write in colloquial language

Unlike what you learned in school, you will have to completely abandon all official writing rules.

Starting sentences with And? Totally fine!

Using 'annoying' filler words like: uh, yes, actually, just? Definitely do it!

That just adds that extra touch of personality and human character.

How do you make sure you apply this correctly and say the right things? First speak your conversations out loud before you write them down. Have real conversations first, with colleagues for example, and put them on paper verbatim. Also, don't be afraid to make the occasional tongue-in-cheek comment, even if it seems off-topic. In real conversations, you also occasionally digress. No one goes through a conversation completely humorless. Or, at least, almost no one.

Tip 3: Don't hesitate to put words in the candidate's mouth

Whereas our psychologist might teach us not to fill in for someone else, I advise you to do the exact opposite for the chatbot. You want to know exactly what a user is going to say so you can anticipate it. When you think all possible scenarios through as far ahead as possible, you also have an appropriate answer ready for all possible questions.

One way to make sure you stay in control of a conversation is to ask lots of questions. This way you can steer the conversation. Using simple action buttons, you give the candidate control, but within the framework you set.

It can happen that a conversation does not go well. That the bot does not understand a question. Again, prepare appropriate and varied responses so you can get the conversation back on track. Does it still not work? Then you can always have a "real person" take over the conversation.

Tip 4: Get experts on chatbots and Conversational Copywriting to contribute ideas

We all think we know how to have a conversation. I mean, we do nothing else all day long. Right?

However, nothing could be further from the truth. At least, that's my (not so) humble opinion. After all, it pays to admit when something is not your field of expertise. That is also the reason why OTYS focuses on the core of recruitment software, and links with all kinds of expert partners for a complete package. We don't say Jack of all trades, but master of none for nothing.

We believe in the power of chatbots and therefore we link with various specialists in the field of chatbots. That's why we partner with companies such as Joboti and NIXZ. The most recent addition to our impressive list of partners: Dora from Happy Recruiter.

The recruitment robot Dora was developed by Happy Recruiter to connect with candidates as well as maintain contact with them. Create an almost instantaneous bond of trust with the use of an AI-driven chatbot.

And as a final tip: keep improving your bot

The last game is not fought at the facility. Stay critical. Let other people walk through the chatbot. Keep expanding and honing the bot's vocabulary.

Is there still a hitch? Does a conversation unexpectedly go less smoothly despite all efforts? Does the bot have to endure answers to which it has no answer? Learn your lesson and write better, smarter and wittier answers.

Don't have a chatbot yet, but are you interested in it? Please contact us and we will help you build the perfect recruitment solution for you. You can do this by sending us an email, filling in the contact form or by giving us a call.

At OTYS we are continuously optimizing the user experiences for our customers. For this we consider your feedback to be very important.

Based on your feedback, we have decided to change the Key User Training.

Why are we making changes?

Within OTYS we have had two roles for years: Users and Key Users. As a Key User you have more rights within OTYS and you can adjust the layout of the system, submit tickets and create new users.

We have always covered all options for the Key User in one afternoon training. As you may understand this is a lot of information for half a day. We also received this feedback from the participants of the training. For those who really want to get started with managing their own system, it was actually too much information in a short time. What we also noticed more and more is that a large part of the participants do not really want to make adjustments to the system themselves, but mainly want to become Key Users in order to be able to send out tickets and create accounts for new colleagues.

New roles and training types

With the feedback received in mind, we have adapted both the roles and the types of training. We now use three roles: User, Super User and Key User. We explain the differences to you.

User

As a User you have the usual rights for daily work. We give a User Training twice a month via Teams, in which we discuss the most used modules and functionalities. You can register for this training via our website.

Super User

The Super User has the rights of a User and additionally the rights to create tickets and new users. So for this you no longer need to become a Key User! A Super User does not have the rights to make changes to the layout, but can submit a change request via Support.

We expect this to be a godsend for many of our customers; this way you can ensure that the system remains up-to-date with your working method, without having to delve into settings and extra modules yourself.

Are you interested? You can request the rights via Support. The maximum number of Super Users depends on the size of the organization. There is no separate training for the Super User role; we have made informative videos that explain step by step how to create Tickets and Users within OTYS.

Key User

In our previous training courses, we made the assumption that someone who became a 'Key User' would be responsible for all changes to the interior. Statuses, workflows, mail templates, rights for your colleagues, everything was in one training. In practice, it turned out that participants often came to a training for one specific component, for example reports.

In our new training courses we have divided the topics. This way you can choose training courses that suit your interests and the role you have within your own organization. Because of this division we also take plenty of time per subject. This also gives you more time to deepen your knowledge and to practice on your own. These training courses are given on location in Houten and include a catered lunch.

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