Use cases
Each use case is a recipe for one job you want a bot to do. It covers who it suits, what to set up (knowledge, instructions, power-ups, channels, handoff and analytics, each linked to the page with the steps), a starting Prompt you can copy, example conversations and the mistakes to avoid. One bot can cover more than one use case: a support bot often books calls and captures leads too.
Compare use cases
| Use case | What the bot does | Typical channels | Key power-ups | Plan needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer support | Answers questions from your help content and hands off when it can't help | Website widget, email, WhatsApp | Talk to a human, Call your API | Basic (Free without handoff) |
| Sales and lead capture | Answers buying questions, qualifies visitors and sends leads to your team | Website widget | Send email, Call your API, Cal.com or Calendly | Basic |
| Bookings and appointments | Books demos, consultations and appointments in the chat | Website widget | Book a meeting (Cal.com or Calendly) | Basic |
| Product questions | Recommends and compares products, checks stock and orders | Website widget | Display cards, Display table, API request | Basic |
| Onboarding and success | Guides signed-in customers through setup and flags who needs a person | Widget inside your app | Cal.com, Talk to a human, plus scheduled tasks | Standard |
| Internal helpdesk | Answers staff questions about IT, HR and processes | Slack, Discord, password-protected web page | Talk to a human, Notion | Standard (Free on a private web page) |
| Multilingual support | Answers customers in their own language | Website widget, any channel | None needed | Free |
| Community bots | Answers member questions and summarises channels | Discord, Slack | Discord Get Channel History, Slack Get History, Slack Send Message | Standard |
Power-ups need Basic or above. The Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram and email channels need Standard or above. See Compare plans for everything each plan includes.
Where to start
- New to Chat Thing? Start with Customer support. Most other use cases build on the same knowledge and instructions.
- Need a starting Prompt? Each use case has one, and the prompt library has more.
- Already live? See Improve your bot to fix weak answers and keep the bot improving.
In this section
- Answer customer support questions with your botSet up a bot that answers customer questions from your help content around the clock and hands the conversation to your team when it can't help.
- Turn website visitors into leads with your botSet up a bot that answers buying questions, works out what visitors need, collects their details and sends each lead to your inbox, CRM or calendar.
- Let customers book appointments and meetings in the chatSet up a bot that answers questions about your services, then books a demo, consultation or appointment in the chat with Cal.com or Calendly.
- Answer product and catalogue questions with your botSet up a bot that helps shoppers find the right product, compares options, checks stock or orders through your API and shows products as cards.
- Help new customers get set up and succeedPut a bot inside your product that knows who the customer is and where they are, guides them through setup and flags who needs a person.
- Answer your team's questions with an internal helpdesk botSet up a bot that answers staff questions about IT, HR, policies and processes from your internal docs, in Slack, Discord or a private web page.
- Support customers in several languagesSet up one bot that answers customers in their own language, with the widget translated and greetings per language, or one bot per language.
- Answer questions in your Slack or Discord communitySet up a bot that answers member questions in your Discord server or Slack community from your docs, and summarises what's been discussed.
Related
- How Chat Thing works
The building blocks of Chat Thing (bots, knowledge, power-ups, channels, conversations and Otto) and how they fit together.
- Write your bot's instructions
Write the prompt that sets your bot's role, topics, tone, answer length, language, power-up use and handoff, with before-and-after examples.
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