diff --git a/unicode.py b/unicode.py
index 45fd4c8ad73246a5dccd10de4a4d6e104c036784..9c216846d193b49295db7d8f7ba62eee75a7fd96 100644
--- a/unicode.py
+++ b/unicode.py
@@ -7,11 +7,17 @@ class Unicode(BotPlugin):
     @botcmd
     def ord(self, message, args):
         """Runs ord() on the characters given"""
+        if not args:
+            return "**Usage**: !ord <characters>"
+
         return [ord(c) for c in args]
 
     @botcmd
     def chr(self, message, args):
         """Runs chr() on the numbers given"""
+        if not args:
+            return "**Usage**: !chr <numbers>"
+
         try:
             return ''.join([chr(int(i)) for i in args.split()])
         except ValueError as e: