Basic Bot Webinar Recap

Last week we did a live tour of Basic Bot, a groundbreaking feature designed to simplify Hatch AI setup while delivering advanced capabilities. The session included a live demo and interactive Q&A by Eric, VP of Customer Experience, and Madeline Evans, Head of AI Onboarding.

Watch the full recording here! 

Top 5 takeaways

• Basic Bot simplifies AI setup with intuitive scripting and dynamic conversations.
• Users can configure your business profile and bot in just 10 minutes.
• Real-time testing helps refine bot behavior before deployment.
• Global rules and language options ensure seamless lead qualification.
• Voice is in full swing! Starting with human voice for campaigns, followed by AI voice. 

What is Basic Bot?

Basic Bot combines simplicity with power, enabling users to set up conversational AI faster than ever. Unlike the advanced bot, which requires detailed configuration of every interaction, Basic Bot allows you to write one open-ended script for intuitive and dynamic conversations. You can learn more about it in our blog post on Basic Bot. 

Live demo overview

Eric showcased the bot’s conversational process and adaptability during the live demo. It handled unexpected questions like “What’s 1+1?” with a clever response: “One plus one is two. Now, back to business.” The bot differentiated between residential and commercial property inquiries and appropriately qualified leads. It also demonstrated its ability to switch seamlessly to Spanish based on customer input. As Eric explained, “This isn’t just an AI that responds; it’s a tool that’s conversational, context-aware, and focused on closing deals.”

Live demo highlights

• Setup. Complete a business profile in 10 minutes, detailing descriptions, hours, services, and areas served. Think of this as the bot’s brain. It learns everything specific to your business so it can answer off-script questions accurately.
• Scripting. Eric walked through an example script. “You are a seasoned sales rep with 25 years of experience. Your goal is to close deals while being conversational.” Plus instructions on qualifying leads by zip code, project type, and property ownership.  
• AI prompt conversion. You can write all of your instructions and script rules in the prompt box and Hatch AI will convert it into AI-friendly instructions for the bot.
• Decision trees to create nuanced conversations. “If the customer says this, then do this.”
• Global rules, such as bailing out if the customer asks about pricing twice. Which means the bot will hand the conversation off to a human.
• Real-time testing offers users a live sandbox to preview and refine bot behavior before deployment. Kristen emphasized, “You can try to break the bot and refine how it handles complex queries in real-time.”

Phil Engle, a Hatch AI user, also jumped into the chat to reinforce that using Hatch AI to qualify, bailout and discard leads “has saved us a ton of time and paid hours.”

Q&A

Is the pricing for Basic Bot the same as Advanced Bot?
Yes, pricing is the same. Basic has some advantages over Advanced but there is still a trade off

Who should be using Basic Bot? 

If you don’t need the bot to be collecting the customer’s information in the side panel and if you’re not using ServiceTitan scheduling, then Basic Bot is the way to go.

Does Hatch AI learn from crawling your website?
Not currently, but it is on the product roadmap. Right now, your business profile serves as the bot’s “brain” and is highly customizable with no limit to the information you can add to it. The AI uses your scripting, business profile, and its integration with OpenAI to operate. 

What happens if you ask the bot a basic math question, like "what's one plus one"?
The bot responds appropriately (e.g., "One plus one is two"), then redirects the conversation back to business-related inquiries.

If I’m using Advanced Bot, do I have to revise to the new format?

It’s not required, but it is recommended. You can take your current interactions, paste them into Basic Bot, adjust the formatting a bit and then click the format button. If you have bailouts, you can copy and paste them over to the new bot setup too. We’re also planning on reaching out to current Advanced Bot users to help them migrate.

Can you put a list of zip codes in, in case we don't cover the whole state?

We're not currently integrated with Maps, so zip codes can be tricky, but names of cities and counties work really well. And you can add a section to your business profile of areas you don’t serve. 

We are in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. Knowing you already have customers in this industry, does that make the learning quicker?

We know these industries very well and we have templates to support your setup based on industry best practice.

Can you ask it price questions? 

Yes. And you can control how the AI responds. Maybe you have different dispatch feeds across services. You can script the bot with how you want it to respond to pricing questions. 

You can also instruct the bot to not talk about price. That’s what we did for this demo bot and when the customer asked, the bot said we don't offer price over text because we need to gather more details. And what we like to do for these bots is set a bailout rule so that the bot hands the contact off to a human if they ask about price twice.

Is this AI feature be compatible with ServiceTitan for our nurture and cold lead campaigns?

Absolutely. And in fact that’s a best practice, to use Hatch across all of your campaigns like speed to lead, estimate follow up, nurture, and more. Our bots can do all of those as well, you just prompt it a little bit differently. We also integrate with the ServiceTitan dispatch board so the bot can book based off of capacity and who’s available.

Will the bot serve up a landing page if they would like to schedule through an online booking tool?

Yup! A lot of customers do that if they don't want the bot to schedule the appointment. Or they have the bot collect all the information and then bailout to a human for that final scheduling piece.

If the customer does not answer the question but brings up objections, will the bot answer the objection but then go back to the question if it was never really answered by the customer?

Yes, the bot will always get back to business. And if you’re worried about people asking completely irrelevant questions, you can prompt the bot with “If the customer is asking questions that aren't related to this conversation, please move on or discard or bailout.”

How customizable is Basic Bot?
You can create tailored scripts for workflows such as speed-to-lead, nurturing, or rehash campaigns. Templated prompts and best practices are also available to streamline setup.

What’s next: voice AI

Kristen closed by teasing Hatch’s next major focus: Voice AI. 

• The first iteration, which is being tested now, will allow users to add a Voice step to campaigns, alongside text, email, and ringless voicemail. 
• This new step will integrate directly with the Hatch sales board, alerting reps to make calls and enabling calls to be placed within Hatch.
• This feature eliminates the need for current workarounds, like delaying first messages to provide time for reps to call.
• Future development includes Voice AI, which is being actively tested to handle conversations naturally and intuitively.
• Hatch plans to provide regular updates on the progress of Voice features, potentially through weekly emails.

Eric shared his enthusiasm, saying, “This will be game-changing. The demos already show how natural and effective Voice AI can be.”

Want to get started with Basic Bot?

Hatch customers, reach out to your Account Manager here with any questions you have. Non Hatch customers, you can book a demo with us here.