What actually matters when someone asks you to "build a chatbot" for their business

Got a real lead this week — small business owner wanting an AI chatbot for his site. Here's the honest breakdown of what that actually requires, since "chatbot" means five different things depending on who's asking.
Scope before building. Most small businesses don't need a custom-trained bot. They need their top 10-20 repeated customer questions automated well. Find that out first.
Platform over custom build. Tidio, Crisp, Intercom's lower tiers — pre-built AI chat widgets connect to a knowledge base fast. Custom builds are rarely worth it below a certain scale.
The bot is only as good as its input. Feed it real past customer conversations, not generic FAQ copy. Specificity is what makes it feel useful instead of annoying.
Always build the human handoff. A bot that traps a frustrated customer in a loop does more damage than having no bot. This is non-negotiable.
Test before launch. Twenty real customer-style questions, see what breaks, fix it before it's client-facing.
Full customer support AI stack at xedge.tech.