Chatbot features explained: set up all eight functions, with examples

Open your chatbot and click Functions. The list on the left is sorted by goal: Win customers, Help in person, Get better and Know more. Next to each function you see On or Off; a lock means your plan does not include it yet.

Click a function to see its card on the right: one sentence on what it does, an example of what a visitor might write, and the switch. On a phone, the list comes first and the card opens on its own page.

When someone wants to be contacted, the chatbot asks for their details and passes the request on to you. For name, email, phone and request you choose: Required means the chatbot insists, If possible means it asks once but does not push, Don’t ask leaves the field out.

Northstar wants a phone number but does not need one, so phone is set to If possible. Email and phone cannot both be Don’t ask, unless callbacks are offered.

Offer a callback lets visitors ask to be called back at a time that suits them. Offer to pass it on when the chatbot doesn’t know matters most: when the chatbot has no answer, it offers once to pass the question on to your team.

Extra details adds up to five more questions, as text, email, phone, number, dropdown list or yes/no box. Northstar asks for the company name. Notify me by email sends every new request to the addresses you add, or to your account email if you leave it empty; extra addresses need a paid plan.

On the Northstar website, a visitor writes: “Can you send me a quote for IT support by email?” The chatbot asks for the contact details it needs. The visitor sends name, email and company in one message, and the chatbot confirms that the request was passed on to the team.

View collected leads, or Leads in the Tools section of the sidebar, lists every request with name, email, phone and what it is about. Filters, search and export help when the list grows.

Where do appointments go? Either into Google Calendar, which you connect once with your Google account, or into the calendar built into the platform. Northstar uses the built-in one.

Under Appointment types, Northstar offers a free consultation of 30 minutes and an on-site IT check of one hour, each with a short description. With more than one type, the chatbot asks which one is meant.

What does the chatbot ask before booking? works like contact details. Keep email required: without it, the visitor gets no confirmation. Ask what it is about adds a field for the topic.

Northstar takes bookings two hours ahead at the earliest, up to 14 days ahead, with a 15-minute break after each appointment, inside working hours from Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. Also use on phone calls lets the phone assistant book too; on the phone it only asks for the name.

The same visitor asks for a free consultation. The chatbot shows a booking card with one tab per day and the free times. Name and email are already filled in, because the visitor wrote them in the chat before. One click books the appointment, and the visitor gets a calendar invitation by email.

The booking card appears only in the website chat. In other channels, such as WhatsApp, the chatbot answers in text.

View bookings, or Bookings in the Tools section of the sidebar, shows every appointment with type, customer, start and end. You also get an email for every new booking if Email me about new bookings is on.

Pass on automatically sends every new contact request and appointment to your other tools, for example into your CRM or a spreadsheet. It needs the Standard plan or higher. For a webhook, paste the https address from Zapier, Make or n8n, choose under What to pass on? what should go there, and click Save.

You then get a secret key, shown only once: copy it, your system uses it to check that the data really comes from you. Test sends sample data, and the line below shows whether it arrived.

If you work with HubSpot, connect it directly with an access key of a private app. How to get the key lists the four steps in HubSpot; only super admins of your HubSpot account can create the key. Contact requests then arrive in HubSpot as a note on the contact, appointments as a meeting.

When a visitor wants a person, the chatbot hands the chat over to your team. Live chat needs the Standard plan or higher. Before handing over, the chatbot asks for the name and, if possible, the email.

Only at certain times offers a person only when someone is there, for example Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 20:00. Outside these hours, the chatbot takes the request instead if Collect contact details is on. Waiting time sets how long the visitor waits: if nobody replies within it, the chatbot takes over again.

A visitor writes: “Can I talk to someone from your team?” The chatbot asks for the name and hands over. Your team sees the request under Live chats in the sidebar; one click opens the whole conversation, so nobody has to ask again.

The first reply takes over the chat, and the visitor sees that a person is answering now. When it is done, end the live chat and the chatbot takes over again.

Analyse questions records what visitors ask and marks the questions the chatbot could not answer. Untick Also log answerable questions if you only want the gaps; logging everything can slow answers down a little. Emails only arrive for questions without an answer.

Collect feedback lets visitors rate answers. With Show thumbs under every answer, one click is enough; visitors can also write their feedback in the chat. You get an email for feedback the chatbot takes in the chat, not for a thumb click.

The visitor asks “Are you open on Saturdays?” and “Do you also repair printers?”. The first one is in the knowledge, the second is not: the chatbot says so honestly and offers help from the team. Under Questions, the printer question is marked as no information. Now you know what to add to the knowledge.

The visitor gives the Saturday answer a thumbs up and writes that they expected a clearer answer about printers. Both appear under Feedback, the thumb as positive feedback, the written criticism as negative feedback.

Search websites lets the chatbot read pages live, for things that change often: prices, timetables, availability or a status page. It needs the Standard plan or higher. Each group has a name, the field When should this group be searched? and up to ten addresses. Without the When field, the group is not used.

The chatbot reads exactly these pages and nothing else. If you leave the list empty, it opens the page the visitor names.

A visitor asks: “Is any maintenance planned this week?” This is not in Northstar’s knowledge. The chatbot reads the status page at that moment and answers with the day, time and what is affected.

Connect other systems lets the chatbot look things up in your other software, for example the order status in your shop. Add connection opens an assistant: describe what the chatbot should be able to do and how your shop’s interface works. The assistant asks if it needs more and fills in the connection.

For personal data it adds a check, here: the email the customer gives has to match the order. When it says it is done, save. Show technical details shows everything it filled in, and you can change it yourself.

There is no test button: you test in the chat. A customer asks “Where is my order 10423?”. The chatbot asks for the email used for the order and then answers with the real status from the shop: shipped, carrier, tracking number and expected delivery.

Used by the chatbot switches a connection on or off. Also use on phone calls lets the phone assistant use it too.