Many agencies now offer website assistants to their clients, alongside websites, SEO and ads. It can be a useful service: clients get faster replies to their customers, and agencies get recurring work. But choosing the wrong tool creates support headaches across every client.
This guide covers what an agency should check before choosing a chatbot to offer on client websites.
Setup time per client
The tool will be set up many times, once for each client. Check how long it takes to go from a client's website address to a working assistant. It should be minutes for the basic setup and an afternoon to tune it properly.
Managing several clients
Check how the tool handles multiple businesses. Can you keep each client's assistants, content and leads separate? SpideyChat's Pro plan supports up to 3 companies and Enterprise supports unlimited companies, each with their own assistants and knowledge.
Branding
Clients often prefer the assistant to look like their own brand. Check whether you can set colours, names and welcome messages for each client, and whether the vendor's branding can be removed. On SpideyChat, removing "Powered by SpideyChat" is available on Pro and above.
Where answers come from
The assistant should answer from each client's own website and documents, not general knowledge. Test it with a real client's questions. An assistant that sounds confident about the wrong prices will create problems for your client and for you.
Lead delivery
Clients care most about leads. Check how leads are captured and delivered, and whether the client can see conversations. Webhooks can pass data to other systems on Pro and above; check whether that fits your clients' needs rather than assuming a native connection to their CRM.
Pricing structure
Work out how pricing scales with clients. Flat monthly pricing per plan is easier to resell predictably than per-conversation pricing. See the plans for SpideyChat's structure.
Ongoing maintenance
Assistants need occasional updates as clients change prices, services and hours. Decide who does this: the agency, the client, or both. Build it into the retainer, since clients ask for updates regularly, a pattern described in agency retainer clients asking the same update questions.
Client access and reporting
Clients will want to see results. Check whether they can view conversations and leads for their own business, and what reporting is available: conversations, leads captured, busiest hours and unanswered questions. A monthly summary built from these gives you something concrete to show in client reviews, which makes the service easier to justify at renewal.
Honest expectations
Be clear with clients about what the assistant does. It answers from their website, captures leads and hands over to their team. It does not answer their phones or book directly into their calendar. Clients who understand this are happier with the result than clients who were promised more.
Testing with one client first
Pick a client whose customers ask a lot of questions. Set up the assistant, test it with their real enquiries and measure the result for a month. The test method is similar to the one used in choosing a website assistant for an estate agency.
Explaining it to prospects
Prospects will ask what the service includes and costs, like any agency service, as covered in what prospects ask an agency before booking a call. For more on how agencies use assistants for clients, see how marketing agencies use chatbots for their clients.
SpideyChat for agencies is one option to evaluate. Try the live demos first.