Customize AI Chatbot Appearance

Why Customization Matters

A generic chatbot feels like a generic chatbot. Visitors subconsciously treat it as a bolt-on widget and trust it less. A customized chatbot with your brand's name, tone, and personality feels native to the site, which increases engagement and trust.

The good news: customization is fast. All options live in the chatbot settings (Sidebar > Chatbot) across 5 tabs. This guide covers each customization option.

General Tab: The Basics

Chatbot Name

The name visitors see when they open the chat. Default is your project name. Options:

Use the project name (default). Simple, brand-consistent.
Give it a human name like "Sam" or "Alex". More approachable, feels less like a bot. Visitors often engage more with named assistants.
Use a functional name like "Support Assistant" or "Product Guide". Sets clear expectations about what the chatbot does.

Pick whichever matches your brand voice. For friendly consumer brands, a human name works. For professional B2B, functional names often fit better.

Icon

The avatar visitors see next to the chatbot's messages. Default uses your project icon. For distinctive personality, upload a custom avatar:

A simple illustration or character
A stylized version of your logo
An abstract shape that matches your brand color

Avatars are small (often 40x40 px or similar). Keep them simple enough to read at that size.

Greeting Message

The welcome message visitors see when they first open the chat. Keep it:

Short (1-2 sentences)
Friendly
Action-oriented (suggest what they can ask)

Good: "Hi! I am Sam. Ask me anything about our pricing, features, or how Pixelesq works."

Less good: "Welcome to our website. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about our products and services."

AI Behavior Tab: Personality and Instructions

Personality Presets

Four personality options: Professional, Friendly, Casual, Enthusiastic. Each changes the tone of the AI's responses.

Professional: neutral, factual, measured. Responses use complete sentences without casual language. Best for B2B SaaS, financial services, legal, healthcare.
Friendly: warm, conversational, approachable. Uses contractions, friendly phrasing, occasional personality. Best for consumer products, wellness, creative brands.
Casual: relaxed, slightly informal, efficient. Uses shorthand and direct language. Best for developer tools, technical products, younger audiences.
Enthusiastic: energetic, upbeat, encouraging. Uses exclamation and positive framing. Best for lifestyle brands, fitness, education, community products.

Pick the one closest to your brand voice. You can switch later without losing anything.

Custom Instructions

A free-form text field where you give the chatbot specific rules. This is where you enforce brand voice, compliance, or specific conversion goals. Examples:

"Keep responses under 80 words unless the user asks for detail."
"When discussing pricing, always direct users to the /pricing page for current rates."
"Never mention competitors by name."
"Always sign off with an invitation to book a demo at /demo."
"If the user asks about enterprise features, tell them to contact sales@yourbrand.com."
"Respond in a formal tone without contractions (use 'do not' instead of 'don't')."

The chatbot treats custom instructions as a system prompt in every conversation. Use them to enforce rules that apply across all interactions.

Fallback Message

When the chatbot cannot find an answer in your site content, it falls back to a predefined message. The default is something generic like "I'm not sure about that. Would you like to email us?". Customize it to:

Fit your brand voice
Suggest a specific next step (email a specific address, book a call, check docs)
Offer to connect them with a human

Fallback Email

Where unresolved questions are forwarded. When a visitor provides their email and the chatbot cannot answer, the question and email are sent here. This turns the chatbot into a lead capture tool even for questions it cannot answer directly.

Lead Capture Form

Optional integration where the chatbot can trigger a form submission within the conversation. For example, after a visitor asks about pricing, the chatbot can ask "Would you like to speak with sales? Here is a quick form." and collect their info inline. Connect this to one of your existing Pixelesq forms.

Appearance Tab: Display Modes

Three display modes control how the chatbot appears on your site:

Widget (Most Common)

A small bubble in the bottom corner that opens into a chat panel when clicked. Least intrusive, most common. Use this unless you have a specific reason for another mode.

Full Page

The chat takes over the entire page when activated. Use for dedicated chat experiences like a standalone help page or a full conversational interface. Not typical for general websites but useful for specific use cases.

Panel

A side panel that slides in from the edge of the screen. Balance between widget and full page. Provides more space than a widget without taking over the whole screen.

Pick widget for most sites. Use the others when you have a specific design reason.

Preview Tab: Test Before Launching

The preview tab shows the chatbot running live with your current settings. Ask it questions to verify:

The name and icon look right
The greeting message appears correctly
Suggested questions load
The personality matches your brand voice
Custom instructions are being followed
The fallback message shows for unknown questions

Iterate on settings until the chatbot behaves the way you want. Do not skip this step. A chatbot that does not match expectations confuses visitors and erodes trust.

Analytics Tab: Track Performance

Once your chatbot is live, the analytics tab shows:

Conversations started
Average questions per conversation (engagement depth)
Leads captured (from fallback email or lead form integration)
Fallback rate (how often the chatbot could not answer)
Top questions asked (crucial for content strategy)

Use the top questions to identify content gaps. If visitors ask the same question repeatedly and the chatbot cannot answer, write a page that addresses it. The chatbot will start answering it automatically next time.

Pro Tips

Iterate based on real conversations. Your initial settings are a starting point. Review analytics weekly and refine based on actual visitor behavior. Which suggested questions are clicked most? Which responses do users seem satisfied with?
Use custom instructions for compliance. If your industry has legal or regulatory requirements, encode them in custom instructions. For example: "Never provide medical advice. Always recommend consulting a doctor for health questions."
Test with adversarial questions. Real users will ask vague, ambiguous, or off-topic questions. Test how your chatbot handles them. If it looks bad, add guidance in custom instructions.
Keep custom instructions focused. Writing 20 rules overwhelms the chatbot and creates conflicts. Pick the 5-6 most important rules and enforce them. Simplicity wins.
Review and update monthly. Brand voice evolves. Products change. Your chatbot should evolve with them. Set a monthly review to refresh greeting, suggested questions, and custom instructions.

Troubleshooting

Chatbot is ignoring my custom instructions: AI models do not always follow instructions perfectly, especially complex or contradictory ones. Simplify instructions and make them direct. Test with specific questions that should trigger the instructions to see if they work.

Personality feels off even after selecting a preset: Presets are a starting point. For fine-grained control, use custom instructions to add specific tone guidance like "Use contractions like 'I'll' and 'you're'" or "Avoid exclamation marks".

Suggested questions do not match what users actually ask: Check the analytics tab for the top real questions. Update your suggested questions list to match. This is an iterative process; your initial guesses are usually not optimal.

Widget is covering important page content: The widget position is configurable in the Appearance tab. Move it to a different corner or adjust its offset to avoid blocking key content.

Chatbot icon is blurry: Upload a higher-resolution icon. Recommended: at least 200x200 px, square, with a transparent background or matching your brand color.

FAQ

Can I train the chatbot on content outside of my Pixelesq site?

The chatbot is grounded specifically in your published Pixelesq pages via RAG. External content (documents, databases, other websites) is not indexed. For external knowledge, consider a custom chatbot solution outside of Pixelesq, or import the external content into your site as pages or collection entries.

How do I make the chatbot respond in a specific language?

Add a custom instruction like "Always respond in Spanish" or "Respond in the language the user asks in, preferring English for English questions". The AI model supports dozens of languages, but defaults to the language of your site content.

Can I disable the chatbot on specific pages?

Chatbot display is site-wide, not per-page. There is no native toggle to show it on some pages and hide it on others. For page-specific exclusion, you would need custom CSS to hide the widget on specific page URLs.

What happens if I change the chatbot's personality mid-conversation?

Changes apply to future conversations, not active ones. A visitor already chatting sees the old personality until they start a new conversation (usually by closing and reopening the widget).

Can the chatbot remember what visitors said in previous sessions?

No. Conversations are session-based. Each new conversation starts fresh without memory of previous ones. For persistent memory across sessions, you would need a custom implementation.

Should I use enthusiastic personality for a consumer brand?

Test both friendly and enthusiastic. Enthusiastic can feel over-the-top for some brands, while friendly is a safer default that still feels warm. If your brand voice is genuinely high-energy (fitness, events, youth-oriented products), enthusiastic fits. For most consumer brands, friendly is better.

How to Customize Your AI Chatbot's Appearance and Behavior