How to Build a Website Chatbot Without Coding (Step by Step)

Many of the messages that reach your support team are repeats: opening hours, shipping costs, order status. A simple chatbot can answer those instantly, collect the details your team needs before a conversation reaches an agent, and hand the customer to a person whenever needed.

In this guide you'll build a chatbot with Hodhod's decision flow — without writing any code. It works with buttons and choices rather than free text, which makes it predictable, fast and easy to control.

What a decision-flow chatbot is good for

• Answering repeat questions without involving an agent.
• Collecting details up front, such as an order number or phone number, so agents start with complete information.
• Routing conversations to the right team based on the customer's choice.
• Covering after-hours for questions with fixed answers.

Before you build: sketch the flow on paper

1. Find your customers' ten most frequent questions using labels and reports.
2. Group them into a few main topics — for example orders, shipping, returns.
3. For each question, decide whether the bot answers it fully or hands it to an agent.
4. Decide which details you need before a handoff.

Step 1: Create the bot

In the panel, go to Settings → Bots, click "Add Bot" and choose Decision flow as the bot type. Give it a name and save.

Step 2: Build the flow

In the bot's row, click the Edit decision flow icon to open the flow editor. These are your building blocks:

• Topic: the main buttons on the first screen, such as "Orders" or "Shipping".
• Subtopic: buttons inside each topic.
• Question: a specific question the customer picks.
• Answer: the reply text, which can include links.
• Input: asks the customer for a value, such as an order number.
• Yes/No question and Multiple-choice question: branch the flow.
• Connect to agent: hands the conversation to a person.

Step 3: Collect details with validation

In an Input block you can set the expected format so customers don't send the wrong thing. There are ready-made patterns for mobile number, numbers only, email and transaction hash, and you can define your own. Your agents won't have to ask "could you send the order number again?"

Step 4: Design the handoff to an agent

• Place Connect to agent wherever the bot can't fully answer. You can route the conversation straight to a specific team, such as "Billing".
• The path the customer took and the details they entered are saved on the conversation, so the agent sees everything and doesn't need to ask again.
• With Require this flow before contacting an agent, customers must go through the flow before chatting with an agent. When it's off, they can message you directly at any time.

Step 5: Preview, save and attach the bot to an inbox

1. Use Preview to try the flow as a customer would.
2. Under Messages, adjust texts such as "Did this help?" to match your brand's voice.
3. Click Save flow.
4. Under Settings → Inboxes, open your website inbox and select the bot on the "Bot Configuration" tab.

From now on, the flow appears on the home screen of your website's chat widget.

Step 6: Measure and improve

Under Reports → Chatbot flow, see which paths are used most and where customers hand off to an agent. If one question keeps ending with an agent, its answer in the bot is probably incomplete.

An example flow for an online store

• Orders
• Track my order → Input "order number" → Connect to agent
• Cancel my order → Answer about cancellation terms → Connect to agent
• Shipping
• Shipping costs → Answer
• Delivery times → Answer
• Returns
• Return policy → Answer with a link to the guide
• Start a return → Connect to agent (Returns team)
• Something else → Connect to agent

Tips for a better chatbot

• Keep the flow shallow. More than three levels wears customers out.
• Always leave a way to a human. Nobody likes being stuck in a bot.
• Write short answers and link out for details.
• Label buttons clearly: "Track my order" beats "Option 1".
• Review the report monthly and update the flow with new questions.

Combined with after-hours messages and canned responses, a chatbot takes a real load off your team. Haven't installed the widget yet? See the live chat installation guide.

Frequently asked questions