This week, it's a solo episode. Mav Head of Brand and Conversation Design Hillary Black takes the mic to share what eight years of writing for bots has taught her about one thing: getting people to actually text you back.

On the table: what a conversation designer really does, why ChatGPT made your customers harder to impress, the texting mistake she sees brands make constantly, and her top three fixes you can use today, no matter which AI you run.

Chapters

00:00 — Intro

00:15 — A solo episode

01:21 — What is conversation design?

02:05 — Why the good bots are good

02:43 — From writing bot scripts to writing system prompts

03:48 — Why conversation design matters more than ever

05:40 — When AI support chat goes off the rails

06:46 — If you're texting your leads

08:02 — Top three ways to improve your conversations

08:31 — Tip 1: Make it a two-way conversation

09:56 — Tip 2: Ask one thing per message

11:24 — Tell people how to respond

12:22 — Close the loop

13:23 — Tip 3: Test it yourself as a user

14:57 — What to look for in your conversation logs

16:07 — Close

Host

Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, Mav

Links and Resources

ChatGPT, OpenAI's assistant and the reason your customers expect more from every chat

Claude, Anthropic's assistant, home of the Opus and Sonnet models Hillary mentions

SmarterChild, the AIM chatbot that couldn't answer much of anything

Follow the show

Manual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: hiremav.com.

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