How to Effectively Test Your Customer Service AI Chatbot (Non-Technical Perspective)

Testing an AI chatbot for customer service doesn’t always require deep technical expertise. Instead, it needs empathy, logic, and strategic thinking. Here’s how you can test your AI chatbot—step-by-step—using a travel chatbot for a tourist destination website (DMO) as an example. The chatbot’s goal? Helping visitors plan and decide what to do at your destination. ??

1. Put Yourself in the Customer’s Shoes ??

Think of all the questions a visitor might reasonably ask when planning their trip. Examples:

• "What are the top things to do?"
• "Any festivals happening between July 10th and 15th?"
• "Is there a modern art museum?"
• "Is the [NAME OF ATTRACTION] open on Sunday?"
• "Where can I find some local taprooms?"

By envisioning diverse personas—such as families, solo travelers, seniors with pets, or food or wine enthusiasts—you can address a broad range of needs. Additionally, your application should be capable of communicating in multiple languages to enhance accessibility and inclusivity.

2. Prioritize Must-Have vs. Nice-to-Have Responses ??

Decide which questions are essential for your chatbot to answer (must-have) and which can wait until a later iteration (nice-to-have).

Must-haves:

• Comprehensive information about key attractions and events.
• Tailored recommendations for local dining experiences.
• Detailed specifics: Address questions beyond generic terms like "restaurants" or "museums" by providing precise, granular information.
• Clear directions for reaching destinations via various modes of transportation, ideally with links to navigation apps for convenience.
• Responses enriched with links to relevant websites and social media pages for further details.

Nice-to-haves:

• Niche interests (e.g., best spots for birdwatching)
• Insider tips (e.g., "hidden gems" locals love)

This ensures your chatbot delivers core value upfront while leaving room for growth.

3. Set a Time Expectation ?

Consider how long a customer is willing to wait for an answer. For most queries, a 5–10 second response time is ideal. Longer than that? It might frustrate the user.

4. Plan Fallbacks for Unanswered Questions ??

What happens if the chatbot can’t provide an answer? Plan clear fallback scenarios. The communication should be friendly, concise, and transparent.

Example fallback messages:

• "I’m sorry, I don’t have information on that right now. Let me connect you with a live agent!"
• "That’s a great question! While I can’t answer it directly, here’s a link to explore more options."

5. Analyze Non-Responses to Improve

If the chatbot doesn’t respond (well), identify the root cause:

a) Flawed logic: The bot wasn’t designed to handle this query. Example: The user asks for "free concerts or festivals," but the bot doesn’t recognize "free" as a key parameter.

b) Over-reliance on LLMs: By default, the bot forwards any unhandled queries to a Large Language Model (LLM), which may generate inaccurate or fabricated responses (e.g., suggesting attractions that don’t exist anymore). To mitigate this, minimize reliance on LLMs for content delivery and focus on enriching your own database with accurate and comprehensive information.

c) Data limitations: The bot understands the question but lacks the data to respond. For example, the user asks for breweries in Bologna, but this data hasn’t been uploaded yet. Highlight these gaps and update your database to improve over time.

Applying This to a Travel Chatbot Use Case ???

For my tourist office chatbot (a SaaS solution tailored for DMOs), I developed the set of questions detailed at the end of this article to rigorously test and enhance its performance. After implementation in 19 languages and testing it for over 50 DMOs (Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona and more), it has become the 'gold standard' in the industry. With a database containing hundreds of thousands of tourist entries, it remains open to further contributions from current and future cities it is designed to support. You can try it out via this link: https://app.dm2find.com/webchat/?p=1765712&id=lPRoBVqVP8d3hQDi4O0

Conclusion:

By testing your chatbot with a customer-first mindset, you ensure it delivers real value while constantly improving. Remember, it’s not just about answering questions—it’s about creating trust and delighting your users. ??

What’s your favorite way to test an AI chatbot? Share your tips below!

#AIChatbot #CustomerService #TravelTech #CX #AI

Example Questions for my DMO AI Chatbot

New features since the first publication of this article (thanks to the people who started chatting with the bot):

How to travel there? (to your destination)

Is there any farmers's market on August 12th? [making sure that when the user is planning up to 1 year ahead, that she can also find recurring events such as weekly markets]

What are the top things to do here?

Any Christmas Markets in December?

Are there any vintage fairs in 2025?

Any chance to attend a medieval festival in April?

I am looking for a food truck festival on May 16th

Is there any kids run between May 26 and June 2nd?

Any marathon in 2025?

Is there a market this Saturday?

Where can I find art museums?

Any museums with impressionist art?

Any museums with works by [ARTIST]? (for example 'Van Gogh', or Picasso)

Any Michelin starred restaurants?

I am looking for breweries.

I want to drink beer.

Can I find distilleries here?

Can you show me some taprooms?

Is there any wine tasting in May?

Where can I eat pizza?

Any seafood restaurants?

Any vegetarian restaurants?

I am looking for fine dining restaurants

Any French fine dining restaurants around?

What about Italian fine dining restaurants.

Would love to find some vegetarian fine dining restaurants

Can I attend cooking workshops?

Where can I rent bicycles?

Is it possible to rent a Standup Paddle board?

Any arts & crafts workshops around?

Can I find any rinks here?

Is {{main_landmark}} open on Sunday?

Any repair cafes open tomorrow?

I am looking for 'rustpunten' (this is specific for the Netherlands)

I want to find restaurants with 2 toques (Gault&Millau) rating)

Are there any 2 'sun' restaurants here? ('soles'or 'suns' is a restaurant rating by Repsol in Spain)

Looking for a 'Lekker500' restaurant ('Lekker500' is another food rating in the Netherlands)

I am looking for a 'rustpunt' (applies to the Netherlands only)

Is any repair café open in June?

Note: this list is not exhaustive!