Chatbot and error messages
These are the texts Mikabot shows on its own, without a visitor asking anything. You edit them under Settings → Chatbot settings, below the main form.
They are split into three groups: General Messages, Product Recommendations, and Error Messages. Click Initialize Defaults once if the lists are empty.
General messages
Welcome message
The first thing a visitor reads when the chat opens. Placeholders: {bot_name}, {site_name}.
Make it do one job — invite a question. A good welcome names what the bot is good at:
Hi, I’m
{bot_name}. Tell me the room and the light, and I’ll find a plant that survives it.
Avoid How can I help you today? It shifts the work back to the visitor.
Attention popup
A small prompt that appears about five seconds after the widget loads, to nudge visitors who have not opened the chat. Placeholders: {bot_name}, {site_name}, {ai_expertise}.
Keep it to one sentence. This message appears uninvited, so a long one reads as an interruption. If your bounce rate on product pages is high, this line is worth several rewrites.
Product recommendation messages
Only shown when Enable ecommerce is on.
| Message | Appears | Placeholders |
|---|---|---|
| Product suggestions intro | Just above a set of product cards | {count} |
| Category suggestions intro | Above products found through a category | {count}, {category} |
| Product not available | A specific product cannot be found | — |
| No products available | Nothing in the catalog matched | — |
| Product suggestions error | The catalog could not be reached | — |
Write the not available messages as a next step, not an apology. I couldn’t find that. Tell me what you’ll use it for and I’ll suggest something close keeps the conversation alive.
Error messages
| Message | Shown when |
|---|---|
| General error | Something unexpected failed |
| API key error | The AI provider is not configured |
| No response error | The AI returned nothing |
Rules for error copy:
- No technical terms. A visitor does not know what an API key is.
- Say what to do next: try again, or use the contact page.
- Keep it short. Long apologies make a glitch feel like an outage.
The defaults are functional but blunt. Rewriting these three is fifteen minutes of work that visitors only notice when you skip it.
Editing
- Click the message you want to change
- Edit the text for each active language
- Save
Reset to Default restores Mikabot’s original wording. A language you leave empty falls back to English.
Test
Open the Demo page and:
- Watch the welcome message and wait five seconds for the popup
- Ask for a product you sell, to see the suggestions intro
- Ask for something you clearly do not sell, to see the not-available message
Do this in every active language.
Related
Related articles
AI responses explained
The difference between canned and smart responses, and how the bot decides which to use.
Site info and AI context
Fill in the fields that tell the AI who you are, what you sell, and how to sound.
Appearance and branding
Set the bot name, avatar, colour, and corner radius so the widget matches your store.
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