1. Vertical fit vs generic posture
А generic chatbot (Intercom Fin, Chatbase, Tidio Lyro) ships а single configuration that every customer adapts via prompt-engineering и а knowledge dump. А vertical-specialised chatbot (SLAtech Medical, ManyChat, Botpress) ships industry-tuned seed content, compliance posture и tone-of-voice presets out-of-the-box. Decision rule: if your industry has compliance constraints (medical, legal, education, payments), pick а vertical. If your traffic is mixed (coworking, generic SMB), pick а generic с graduation path.
2. EU vs US data residency
GDPR-residency is the single largest enterprise-procurement gate в Europe. US-hosted vendors (Intercom, Drift, Chatbase) require а supplementary transfer-impact assessment per Schrems II — bookable но time-consuming. EU-native vendors (SLAtech на Azure West/North Europe) eliminate the transfer question. Ask vendors three questions: (1) where is data hosted, (2) which sub-processors process my data и where, (3) what's your DPA's SCC version.
3. Compliance posture matrix
Match the vendor's compliance posture against your buyer-side regulatory exposure. HIPAA-covered entity → require BAA-eligible vendor with single-tenant option. EU enterprise → require GDPR-compliant DPA referencing SCC 2021/914. Payments-touching → confirm vendor doesn't store cardholder data (PCI scope reduction). Healthcare adjacent → PHI redactor at ingest is а material difference. SLAtech publishes а 14-framework compliance glossary at /en/compliance/ — request equivalent transparency from every shortlisted vendor.
4. Pricing models — flat vs per-conversation vs per-resolution
Flat-tier pricing (SLAtech, Tidio Lyro starter) lets you forecast cost; conversation count is unlimited within reasonable use. Per-conversation pricing (older Drift tiers) penalises traffic growth. Per-resolution pricing (Intercom Fin) penalises successful AI deflection — every successful resolution is а billed event. Decision rule: model your expected conversation volume across а 12-month growth curve under each pricing model. Per-resolution favours low-traffic premium-vertical use cases; flat favours scale.
5. Channel coverage
Web widget is table-stakes. Telegram, WhatsApp Business (Cloud API), Instagram DM, email — each is а separate procurement decision. WhatsApp Business is а significant integration: Cloud API access requires Meta Business verification; vendors that ship native integration (SLAtech Pro tier, ManyChat) save weeks of vendor-side onboarding. Web-only vendors (Chatbase) are inappropriate если your buyers shop via messaging.
6. Evaluation methodology
А public eval scoreboard signals that the vendor has measured their own performance against а transparent harness. SLAtech publishes per-vertical eval scores at /en/eval/ (Medical 88, Hospitality 86, Beauty 85, etc.); methodology is reproducible. Vendors without public eval should provide а private eval harness on request. Ask: how many questions, who labelled them, what was the comparison set.
7. Vendor longevity и concentration risk
AI chatbot vendor consolidation is accelerating. Buyer-side de-risking patterns: (a) avoid sole-channel-bet vendors (web-only chatbots are exposed if buyers shift к messaging), (b) avoid vendors с single LLM-provider exposure (вы don't want OpenAI rate-limits cascading к buyer-facing outage), (c) check vendor revenue runway если public. Procurement-side mitigation: contract export-data right, ensure portable knowledge format (Markdown / JSON), avoid proprietary lock-in formats.
8. Implementation timeline
Self-service onboarding (SLAtech, Tidio, Chatbase): 10-30 minutes to first widget live. Assisted onboarding (Intercom, Drift): 2-6 weeks с а customer-success manager. Implementation consulting (Ada, larger Drift): 6-12 weeks. Decision rule: если your team is ≤50 people, prefer self-service; the consulting-overhead value drops below the time cost. ≥500 people, prefer assisted (compliance approvals и cross-team handoffs benefit from а dedicated CSM).
9. Total cost of ownership
Beyond seat license / per-conversation cost: (a) implementation effort (consultant fees или internal eng hours), (b) integration cost (CRM webhooks, calendar sync — bundled vs add-on), (c) knowledge-management labour (uploading, refreshing FAQ content), (d) procurement / legal review (DPA negotiation, BAA execution). Aggregate the multi-year TCO before choosing — sticker price is rarely the differentiator.
10. Migration path и vendor lock-in
Knowledge format portability is critical. Vendors с proprietary content formats (Botpress' visual flows) impose а high migration cost при switching. SLAtech и Chatbase use Markdown + JSON для knowledge content — portable across vendors. Conversation history should be exportable as JSONL. Lead-capture webhook configuration should be vendor-agnostic (your CRM connection survives the vendor switch). Ask every shortlisted vendor: how do I export my data на day 1, day 30, day 365.
11. Procurement checklist
Twelve questions для every vendor RFP: (1) hosting region, (2) sub-processor list, (3) DPA SCC version, (4) BAA availability, (5) SOC 2 / ISO 27001 status, (6) PHI redaction policy, (7) eval methodology + score, (8) channel coverage, (9) pricing model + projected 12-month spend, (10) implementation timeline, (11) export-data right, (12) vendor longevity / financial transparency.
12. Decision matrix template
Score each shortlisted vendor across the 11 criteria above (1-5 scale, weighted by your priorities). Typical weights: vertical fit 3×, compliance 3×, pricing 2×, channels 2×, all others 1×. Total weighted score = the procurement-defensible recommendation. Document the weighting before scoring к avoid bias toward incumbent vendor. SLAtech ships а downloadable matrix template at /en/buyer-guide/matrix.csv — adapt the weights к your environment.
