Create your first chatbot

Your chatbot answers your visitors from your website content and documents, and collects their contact details for you. Creating it takes a few minutes with a 6-step wizard.

To start, open your dashboard and click Create chatbot in the menu, or go straight to this page.

Step 1: Essentials

This is the most important step: it defines who your chatbot is and how it behaves.

• Chatbot name: the name your visitors see at the top of the chat window (for example "Solar Plus Assistant").
• Description: a sentence to help you find your way in your dashboard. Visitors don't see it.
• Instruction template: choose a template (FAQ, Appointments, Leads or Custom). It is required: if you don't pick one, the wizard asks you to. With Custom, the instructions box is shown right away so you can write your own.
• First message: the greeting shown when the chat opens. You can translate it into each available language.
• Tone: professional, friendly, casual or formal.
• Language: keep Automatic so the chatbot answers each visitor in their own language.
• Provider, model and API key: only if your plan uses your own key. These fields are then required. See Using your own API key.

The Chatbot behaviour section, just below, holds the detailed instructions (describe your business, what the chatbot should and shouldn't do), the creativity of the answers and the quick replies. The more precise the instructions, the better the answers. See Writing good instructions.

Step 2: Knowledge

Give your chatbot something to answer from:

• Your website address: the chatbot reads your pages and uses them to answer. The maximum number of pages depends on your plan: 50 with Starter and during the trial, 150 with Growth, 300 with Pro, 500 with Scale.
• Documents: brochures, price lists, FAQs… as PDF, Word (DOCX), TXT or Markdown files. Up to 5, 15, 30 or 50 documents per chatbot depending on your plan, 10 MB max per file (20 MB with Pro and Scale).

You can use one, the other, or both. See The knowledge base.

Step 3: Leads

Choose the information to ask visitors for (name, email, phone, project type…), optionally starting from an industry template (renewable energy, real estate, healthcare, home services, insurance…). You also set who receives new lead alerts, the GDPR consent and the sending to your CRM (webhook). See Choosing the information to collect.

Step 4: Appearance

Pick a theme (ScanChat, Light, Dark, Pro blue, Nature green or Coral): one click applies every color. Add your logo and choose the position (bottom right or left). To go further, unfold Customize colors or Advanced options (size, button icon, animation…). The live preview shows the result as you go. See Customizing the appearance.

Step 5: Engagement

If you like, turn on the teaser bubble: a short message shown next to the closed button, after the delay of your choice, inviting your visitors to start the conversation. From the Growth plan, you can also add messages per page, suited to the page being visited.

Step 6: Integrations

If you take appointments, add your Calendly link: the chatbot will offer it to visitors who want to book a slot.

What's next?

Click Create chatbot. ScanChat AI reads your website and documents: it usually takes less than a minute. You then get your chatbot's install code.

1. Install the chatbot on your website.
2. Test it and improve its answers.