What to check when hiring for chatbot design
For chatbot and conversational UX, check how a conversation starts, carries context, handles ambiguity, explains limits, and recovers or hands off to a person. Verify whether the example shipped and what the agency actually designed.
Questions to put in the brief
- How does the conversation handle ambiguity and maintain useful context?
- Can users see why an answer was given and correct its assumptions?
- How does the experience recover or transfer a user to a person?
- Which channels, privacy needs, and success measures shaped the design?
Evidence to compare
Ask to see a conversation from its opening through a successful outcome and a failure or handoff. The agency should be able to explain the user intent, content or data sources, escalation rules, and what it actually designed or implemented.
A common evidence gap
A chat widget or AI demo does not establish conversational UX expertise. Check turn-taking, fallback behavior, context retention, accessibility, and the path to human support.
For a broader comparison framework, read How to compare UX agencies.