Write Suggested Questions That Start Conversations

The suggested questions (the little tappable chips that sit under your bot's welcome message) are the most-clicked thing in your whole chat widget. Most visitors will not type a question from scratch; they will glance at your chips and tap one. So these four or five short lines quietly decide whether a visitor starts a conversation, learns what you offer, and leaves their details, or just closes the bubble. This guide shows you exactly how to write them.

Where suggested questions live in Alee

Open the bot you want to edit and go to its customization settings. Alongside the bot display name, brand color, avatar, and welcome message, you will find the field for suggested questions (sometimes shown as "starter questions" or "suggested prompts"). You add each one as a separate line or chip. They render as buttons under the welcome message the moment the chat opens.

Two things to keep in mind before you write a single word:

• A chip is a shortcut, not a search box. Tapping a chip sends that exact text to the bot as if the visitor typed it. So every chip must be answerable from the content you have already trained Alee on.
• Your knowledge brain has to back them up. Because Alee only answers from your own content, a great chip pointed at a topic you never added will trigger an honest "I don't have that information." Write the chips and your knowledge sources together, not in isolation.

How many should you use?

Keep it to four or five. That is the sweet spot for almost every bot.

• Three can work for a very focused single-product or single-service site.
• Four to five is ideal: enough to cover your main intents without crowding the widget, especially on mobile where India-heavy traffic skews heavily.
• Six or more turns a helpful nudge into a wall of buttons. People skim, get overwhelmed, and tap nothing.

On a phone, two or three chips are visible before the fold. Put your strongest, most lead-oriented chip first.

Cover the real intents, not random facts

Think of your chips as a tiny map of why people come to your site. Before writing, jot down the three to five reasons a visitor opens the chat, then write one chip per reason. Most businesses cluster into these intents:

1. What do you offer? The "I just landed here, explain it" question. Example: "What does Alee do?"
2. What does it cost? Pricing is one of the most-clicked chips on the internet. Example: "How much does it cost?"
3. Does it fit my case? The qualifying question. Example: "Can I use this on Shopify?"
4. How do I start / book / buy? The action question, and your best lead capture moment. Example: "How do I get started?"
5. Trust / proof / logistics. Refunds, timelines, support, location. Example: "Do you offer a free trial?"

Pick the four or five intents that matter most for your business and ignore the rest. One chip per intent. Do not write two chips that both ask about pricing.

Make at least one chip lead-oriented

A suggested question is not just for answering, it is for moving someone toward becoming a lead. Alee can capture name, email, or phone right inside the chat and push that to your CRM, Google Sheets, or email via webhook, so write at least one chip that naturally leads into that flow.

Lead-oriented chips usually fall into one of these shapes:

• Booking intent: "Can I book a free demo?" or "How do I schedule a call?" The answer can hand over a booking link and ask for a name and email.
• Buying intent: "How do I sign up?" or "Which plan is right for me?"
• Personalised help: "Help me pick a plan" or "Is this right for my gym?" These invite a back-and-forth where asking for contact details feels natural.

Pair the lead chip with your bot persona / system prompt so that when a high-intent question comes in, the bot is told to gently ask for the visitor's details or share the booking link. The chip starts the conversation; the persona closes it.

Writing style: short, specific, in the visitor's voice

• Write as the visitor, not as you. "What are your shipping charges?" beats "Shipping information". First-person phrasing feels like the question they were about to type anyway.
• Keep them to roughly three to seven words. Long chips wrap onto two lines on mobile and look messy.
• Be concrete. "Do you ship to Bengaluru?" invites a tap more than the vague "Delivery".
• One idea per chip. Don't cram "pricing and refunds and trials" into one.
• Match your audience's language. If your customers ask about "fees" not "pricing", or mix Hindi and English the way your audience actually types, mirror that. It makes the bot feel native.
• Avoid yes/no dead ends where you can. "What's included in the free plan?" opens a richer answer than a question that ends the conversation in one word.

Keep chips and your knowledge brain in sync

This is the step most people skip. After you write your chips, actually tap each one in the live widget and read the answer.

If a chip returns "I don't have that information", you have two fixes:

1. Add the missing content. Crawl the relevant page, add a sitemap, upload a PDF, paste an FAQ, or add a YouTube video so the brain can answer. Re-crawl any time; the brain grows.
2. Rewrite the chip to point at something you genuinely cover.

Then use your analytics. Alee's Top Questions list and the question-triage inbox show what people actually ask. If a real question keeps appearing and you have a good answer, promote it to a chip. If a chip you wrote never gets tapped, swap it out. Suggested questions are not set-and-forget; treat them as a small, living list you tune every few weeks.

Worked example: a fitness studio bot

Say you run a boutique gym in Pune and you have trained Alee on your website, your class timetable PDF, and a pasted pricing FAQ. Here is a clean five-chip set that covers every core intent and pushes toward a lead:

• "What classes do you offer?" — the "what do you offer" intent
• "How much is a monthly membership?" — pricing
• "Where are you located?" — logistics / trust
• "Can I book a free trial class?" — the lead chip (hands over a booking link, asks for name and phone)
• "Do you have personal training?" — qualifying / upsell

Notice the order: the action-oriented trial chip sits high so it is visible on mobile, and each chip maps to a distinct reason someone messages a gym. Set the bot persona to ask for a name and phone number when someone shows trial or membership interest, and those five chips quietly become a lead engine.

A few more sets by niche

• Coach / consultant: "What programs do you offer?", "How much does coaching cost?", "Is this right for beginners?", "Can I book a discovery call?"
• Ecommerce store: "Do you ship across India?", "What's your return policy?", "Help me find a product", "Are there any offers right now?"
• Agency: "What services do you offer?", "Can I see your pricing?", "Do you work with my industry?", "How do I get a quote?"

For more setup walkthroughs, browse the tutorials and more guides. If you are weighing tools, the Alee vs SiteGPT comparison covers the differences.

Frequently asked questions

How many suggested questions should I add?

Four or five is the sweet spot. That covers your main intents (offer, price, fit, action) without overwhelming the widget, and it keeps the most important chips visible on mobile.

Can suggested questions capture leads?

Yes, indirectly but powerfully. A chip like "Can I book a free demo?" starts a conversation, and you set your bot persona to ask for the visitor's name, email, or phone, which Alee then pushes to your CRM, Google Sheets, or email via webhook.

What if a suggested question gets an "I don't know" answer?

That means the topic is not in your knowledge brain yet. Either add the missing source (a page, sitemap, PDF, YouTube video, or pasted FAQ) so Alee can answer, or rewrite the chip to point at content you already cover.

Ready to put this into practice? [Start free](/signup) with Alee and turn your first few chips into conversations and leads today.