Chatbot Message Templates

April 15, 2026

Define the exact words Leno AI uses for greetings, fallbacks, handovers, and goodbyes — so every conversation stays on-brand.

Why Chatbot Message Templates Matter

Even the most capable AI benefits from a little guidance. Chatbot Message Templates let you shape how Leno AI communicates across a wide range of conversation scenarios — ensuring every response reflects your brand's voice, sets the right visitor expectations, and avoids generic AI dead-ends that frustrate customers. Without customised templates, Leno AI falls back to sensible system defaults. With a few minutes of setup, you can give your AI agent a personality that feels authentically yours and converts visitors into customers more effectively.

Control tone: set responses that match your brand's voice — whether that's professional, friendly, empathetic, or playful.
Guide the experience: tell the AI what to say and when, including auto-greetings, fallback messages, and human handover prompts.
Improve clarity: replace generic replies with precise, helpful messaging that visitors understand immediately.
Boost trust: visitors respond better to AI that sounds like a real team member rather than a scripted robot.
Reduce dead-ends: with clear fallback and handover messages, no conversation stalls because the AI didn't know what to say next.

Enabling the Templates Section

Chatbot Message Templates are only available when the Leno AI Agent (ChatBot) is toggled ON in your settings. Once enabled, the full templates panel appears in your Leno AI Settings. Each template group is collapsible, and expanding a group reveals all the individual message fields within it.

Step 1: Log in to LenoChat and navigate to Settings from the left sidebar.
Step 2: Select Leno AI Settings from the Settings menu.
Step 3: Toggle the Leno AI Agent (ChatBot) switch to ON. The Chatbot Message Templates section will appear immediately below the toggle.
Step 4: Expand any template group to view and edit individual message fields.

Leno AI Agent (ChatBot) toggle switch in Leno AI settings enabling the Chatbot Message Templates section

Conversation Starter Messages

The Conversation Starter group contains templates for the opening moments of every chat. These messages define how Leno AI introduces itself, responds to greetings, and handles identity questions — all before any support query has been raised. Setting these correctly creates a warm, professional first impression that encourages visitors to engage.

Auto-Greeting Message (sent automatically when a visitor opens the chat widget): this is Leno AI's opening line, triggered before the visitor types anything. Use it to introduce the AI, invite questions, and set expectations — for example, 'Hi, I'm Leno AI! How can I help you today?'
Greeting Response (triggered when a visitor says 'hi', 'hello', or similar): keeps the tone conversational and welcomes returning or hesitant visitors. For example, 'Hey! Great to see you. What can I help you with?'
AI Identity Message (triggered when a visitor asks 'Are you a bot?' or 'Is this a human?'): builds transparency and trust. Acknowledge the AI identity honestly, then pivot to what you can help with — for example, 'I'm Leno AI, your virtual assistant! I can answer most questions right away, or connect you with a human if needed.'
Personal Response to Friendly Questions (triggered by messages like 'How are you?'): keeps the conversation warm without derailing the support context. A short, upbeat reply works best — for example, 'Doing great, thanks for asking! How can I help you today?'

Conversation Starter template fields in Leno AI Chatbot Message Templates settings panel

Tip: Write your Auto-Greeting Message in the first person using your AI's name or your brand name. A message like 'Hi, I'm Leno, your LenoChat assistant! Ask me anything about our products or get help with your order.' outperforms a generic 'How can I help you?' by setting clear expectations upfront and significantly increasing the likelihood that visitors engage.

Friendly & Personal Responses

The Friendly & Personal Responses group handles warm, social moments in a conversation — when a visitor says thanks, wraps up, or chats casually. These messages may seem minor, but they significantly affect how human and trustworthy your AI feels. Use a tone that is consistent with your brand across all three templates.

Friendly Questions Response (triggered by small talk like 'How are you?' or 'What's up?'): responds in a warm, human-like way that keeps the visitor engaged without breaking the support context. Keep it brief and upbeat.
Thank You Response (triggered when a visitor says 'thanks', 'thank you', or similar): closes small positive interactions warmly. A message like 'You're welcome! Let me know if there's anything else I can help with.' is ideal.
Goodbye Response (triggered when a visitor says 'goodbye', 'bye', 'see you', or similar): ends the session on a professional and friendly note. Consider including an invitation to return — for example, 'Take care! Feel free to come back anytime you need help.'

Friendly and Personal Responses template fields in Leno AI Chatbot Message Templates showing thank you and goodbye message settings

When AI Can't Help

Even great AI needs a backup plan. The 'When AI Can't Help' group gives you control over what happens when Leno AI hits the limits of its knowledge. You can configure separate responses for two distinct failure scenarios — when the AI cannot understand the input, and when it understands the question but does not have an answer in the knowledge base — and further split those by business hours context so visitors receive the most appropriate response at any time of day.

Unclear Message Response: sent when Leno AI cannot understand or confidently interpret the visitor's input. Politely resets the conversation and invites clarification — for example, 'I didn't quite catch that. Could you rephrase your question?'
AI Can't Answer – During Business Hours, Step 1 (Offer to Connect to Human): informs the visitor the AI cannot help and offers to transfer to a human agent. Make the offer clear and reassuring — for example, 'I don't have an answer for that one. Would you like me to connect you with a member of our team?'
AI Can't Answer – During Business Hours, Step 2 (Queue Confirmation): sent after the visitor accepts the human handover offer. Confirms they've been added to the queue and sets expectations for response time — for example, 'Great! You're now in the queue. A team member will be with you shortly.'
AI Can't Answer – Outside Business Hours, Step 1 (Ask to Leave Contact Info): when your team is offline, this message invites the visitor to leave their email and message so the team can follow up during business hours.
AI Can't Answer – Outside Business Hours, Step 2 (Email Submission Confirmation): confirms receipt of the visitor's submission and reassures them a follow-up will occur — for example, 'Got it! We'll get back to you as soon as possible.'

When AI cannot help template fields showing business hours fallback messages and outside hours email submission flow

Tip: The distinction between 'During Business Hours' and 'Outside Business Hours' fallback messages is determined automatically by your Leno AI operating hours configuration. Make sure your operating hours are correctly set in Leno AI Settings so that visitors always receive the right handover message depending on when they start a conversation.

Talking to a Human Agent

Some visitors will bypass the AI entirely and request to speak with a real person straight away. The 'Talking to a Human Agent' group handles this intent gracefully — guiding the visitor through the handover process whether your team is available online or offline. There are separate message flows depending on the combination of visitor request type and business hours status, giving you precise control over each scenario.

Visitor Requests Human – Transfer (During Business Hours), Step 1: acknowledges the visitor's request and begins the transfer process. Keep it reassuring and action-oriented — for example, 'Of course! Let me connect you with one of our team members right away.'
Visitor Requests Human – Transfer (During Business Hours), Step 2 (Queue Confirmation): confirms the visitor has been added to the agent queue and a human will respond shortly. Setting realistic wait-time expectations here reduces impatience and drop-offs.
Visitor Requests Human – Display Contact Form (During Business Hours), Step 1: if your inbox is configured to show a contact form rather than a live agent transfer, this message introduces the form and explains how and when the team will follow up.
Form Submit Confirmation (shared Step 2): confirms the contact form was submitted successfully. This message is shared across both the 'AI Can't Answer' and 'Visitor Requests Human' form flows — customise it to reassure the visitor their message was received.
Visitor Requests Human – Outside Business Hours: when your team is offline and a visitor requests a human agent, this message informs them of unavailability and guides them to leave a message via email so your team can follow up when back online.

Talking to a human agent template fields showing visitor handover request messages, queue confirmation, and contact form flow

How to Edit a Template

Editing any message template takes less than a minute. Every field follows the same interaction model — click to focus, edit, then save. Changes take effect immediately for all new conversations; there is no need to restart or republish anything.

Step 1: Navigate to Settings → Leno AI Settings → Chatbot Message Templates.
Step 2: Expand the template group you want to edit (e.g., Conversation Starter, Friendly & Personal Responses, When AI Can't Help).
Step 3: Click inside any text field to focus it. The Save and Use Default buttons appear at the bottom of the field when it is focused.
Step 4: Type your custom message. The Save button becomes active once the field contains at least one character.
Step 5: Click Save to apply the change. The new message takes effect immediately for all new conversations.
Step 6: To revert to the system default at any time, click Use Default. This restores the original message provided by LenoChat for that specific field.

The Save button is disabled if the text field is empty — a template field must contain at least one character before it can be saved.

Complete Template Reference

The table below summarises every template group, the trigger scenario, and the business hours context where it applies.

Template Group	Trigger	Business Hours Context
Auto-Greeting Message	Chat widget opens automatically	Always active
Greeting Response	Visitor says 'hi' or 'hello'	Always active
AI Identity Message	Visitor asks 'Are you a bot?'	Always active
Friendly Questions Response	Small talk (e.g. 'How are you?')	Always active
Thank You Response	Visitor thanks the AI	Always active
Goodbye Response	Visitor says goodbye or ends the chat	Always active
Unclear Message Response	AI cannot parse visitor's input	Always active
AI Can't Answer – Offer Human (Step 1)	AI has no answer; team online	During business hours
AI Can't Answer – Queue Confirmation (Step 2)	Visitor accepts transfer	During business hours
AI Can't Answer – Contact Info Request (Step 1)	AI has no answer; team offline	Outside business hours
AI Can't Answer – Submission Confirmation (Step 2)	Visitor submits email form	Outside business hours
Visitor Requests Human – Transfer (Step 1)	Visitor asks for human; team online	During business hours
Visitor Requests Human – Queue Confirmation (Step 2)	Visitor is in agent queue	During business hours
Visitor Requests Human – Contact Form (Step 1)	Visitor asks for human; team offline	Outside business hours
Form Submit Confirmation (Step 2)	Visitor submits the contact form	During or outside hours
Auto-Close Message	Chat closes automatically due to inactivity	Always active

Common Issues & Solutions

The Chatbot Message Templates section is not visible in settings

Chatbot Message Templates only appear when the Leno AI Agent (ChatBot) toggle is switched ON. Navigate to Settings → Leno AI Settings and confirm the toggle is enabled. If you cannot see the toggle, verify that Leno AI is available on your current plan.

The Save button is greyed out or disabled

The Save button requires at least one character in the text field to activate. If the field appears to have content but Save is still disabled, click away from the field to blur it, then click back in and try retyping the message. If the issue persists, refresh the page and re-enter your text.

My custom template is not being used in new conversations

Template changes only take effect for conversations that start after the change is saved — existing in-progress conversations continue with the message that was active when they started. Wait for the current conversation to close, then start a new test chat to verify the updated template is in use.

Outside business hours messages are triggering during regular hours

This occurs when no operating hours are configured, which causes the system to treat all hours as outside business hours. Navigate to Leno AI Settings → Chat Operating Hours and set your team's correct schedule. Once operating hours are saved, the correct set of templates — during or outside — will activate based on the current time.

Templates are not being translated correctly in multi-language conversations

When multi-language support is enabled, all message templates are automatically translated into the visitor's detected language at conversation time. If a translation appears incorrect, review the template for ambiguous phrasing, abbreviations, or idioms that may not translate cleanly. Rewriting the template in plain, direct language typically resolves translation quality issues. Verify that multi-language support is enabled in Leno AI Settings → Multi Language Support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to fill in every template field?

No. Every template field has a sensible system default provided by LenoChat. You only need to customise the fields that matter most to your brand. Any field left at its default will continue to use the system-provided message automatically.

Will my custom templates be translated automatically in multi-language conversations?

Yes. When Leno AI Multi-Language Support is enabled, all message templates — including greetings, handover messages, and goodbye responses — are automatically translated into the visitor's detected language at conversation time. You do not need to create separate templates for each language.

Do template changes affect conversations that are already in progress?

No. Template changes take effect for new conversations only. Any conversation that is already in progress continues to use the message that was active when the conversation started. Start a new test chat after saving to verify your changes.

What happens if I accidentally clear a template field?

The Save button is disabled when the field is empty, so empty templates cannot be saved accidentally. If you want to restore the system default, click inside the field to focus it and then click Use Default — this immediately restores the original LenoChat-provided message for that field.

How does Leno AI decide which fallback template to use?

Leno AI evaluates two factors: whether it can answer the question (determines 'unclear' vs 'can't answer' templates), and whether the current time falls within your configured operating hours (determines 'during business hours' vs 'outside business hours' templates). Ensure your operating hours are correctly set in Leno AI Settings to get the right template at the right time.

Can I use the same message for both the 'AI Can't Answer' and 'Visitor Requests Human' flows?

Each flow has its own independent template fields, so you can use different messages for each scenario. However, there is one shared template — the Form Submit Confirmation (Step 2) — which is used by both the 'AI Can't Answer' and 'Visitor Requests Human' contact form flows. Customise it to work naturally for both situations.

What is the Auto-Close Message used for?

The Auto-Close Message is sent to the visitor when their chat session closes automatically due to inactivity. You can customise this message in the Chatbot Message Templates section to inform visitors their session has ended and invite them to start a new chat anytime they need help.