Most customer service is the same dozen questions, asked every day. Tick the ones your team answers below and you’ll see which a chatbot can take outright, which it can start, and which should stay with a person.
A customer service chatbot answers your existing customers’ repeat questions on your website, such as hours, prices, policies, bookings and order updates, at any time of day. It should hand complaints, refunds and anything needing judgement to a person, with the details already collected. For most small businesses it takes the repeat and after-hours questions off the team rather than replacing anyone.
Tick every question your team answers at least once a week. Our sorting rule is simple: if the answer is the same for everyone, a bot can give it; if it needs the customer’s details, the bot collects them and a person finishes; if it needs judgement or a decision about money, it stays with a person.
Dimitri runs an online homewares store from a warehouse in Dandenong South. Every Monday his inbox had the same forty emails: where’s my order, do you ship to WA, can I return a cushion I’ve opened. A chatbot now answers the shipping and returns questions from his own policy wording, takes the order number for anything about a specific delivery, and sends those to him in one list. Complaints still go straight to Dimitri.
Illustrative composite based on common patterns, not a single client.
That’s how we build ours: see how our AI chatbot is built and priced. For questions that come in by phone, the AI customer service page covers calls, and online stores should read the Shopify live chat guide. Still deciding between a person and a bot? Try the live chat vs chatbot quiz.
A chat assistant on your website that answers your existing customers' common questions, like hours, prices, policies, bookings and order updates, and passes anything it can't handle to a person with the details already collected.
Bad ones do: they loop, guess, or hide the way to a person. A good one answers the simple questions straight away, admits when it doesn't know, and makes it easy to reach your team. Saying upfront that it's an AI assistant also sets the right expectation.
A chatbot that only answers from a fixed list of questions and answers. It's a good starting point, but customers rarely ask in the exact words of your FAQ page, so an AI chatbot that understands the question in any wording works better.
Start from the questions your team answers every week (the audit on this page helps), write one short, specific answer for each, and add the rules: when to hand over, what not to promise, and what details to collect. With us, we write these for you from what you tell us.
It shouldn't decide them. It should acknowledge the customer, collect the order or job details, and pass it to a person quickly. Australian Consumer Law gives customers rights to refunds and repairs for major problems, so those decisions need a human.
Read the transcripts. Look for questions it answered well, ones where it handed over, and ones where the customer gave up. Fix the answers for the last group every month. We do this review for clients on our Busy plan.
For a small business it usually takes the repeat questions and the after-hours ones, so your team spends their time on the conversations that need a person. It doesn't replace judgement, complaints handling or relationships.
AI chatbots can usually understand and reply in many languages. If a lot of your customers write in another language, raise it on the demo so we can test the answers in that language before it goes live.
We build and run a custom AI chatbot for your website: $299 one-off setup, then from $29.99 a month (AUD, ex GST), month-to-month. See the AI live chat agent plans.