Chat on your website or shop that knows when to stop
It answers the simple questions: opening hours, delivery, what a service covers, order status. It collects contact details. Anything harder goes to your CRM with the transcript, so a person does not start from zero.
What I implement
Answers from sources
Your website, FAQ, price list, terms, knowledge base. The chat answers only from these and says where the answer came from.
Handover to a person
When a question falls outside the list of topics, the chat collects contact details and creates a lead or case in the CRM with the whole conversation. The salesperson is notified.
Scope and limits
A list of topics the chat answers. Everything else is a handover. No promises on price, no legal advice, no guessing.
Online shop
Order status by order number and email address, returns policy from your terms, product availability. Read-only access to the shop.
WordPress, WooCommerce and others
Embedded on a WordPress or any other site, in a WooCommerce or custom shop. No rebuild of the site.
CRM
Salesforce, HubSpot and other systems with an API. A lead with source “chat”, the transcript and the topic, so you can count what the chat brings in.
Data and consent
Consent before contact details are collected, a notice that it is an automated assistant, a retention period for transcripts. You agree the wording with your lawyer; I implement it.
Measurement
How many conversations, how many handovers, what people ask most. The list of unanswered questions is your list of fixes for the website.
How it goes
A list of questions
From last month’s emails and phone calls. What customers actually ask, not what we think they ask.
Sources and limits
Which texts the chat answers from, on which topics, and where it hands over to a person.
A prototype on a test page
Your team asks questions, including awkward ones: about price, about competitors, about things not in the sources. We adjust until the chat politely declines.
Go-live on part of the traffic
First on one page or during set hours. A person reads the transcripts.
A month of observation and care
How many cases the chat handled alone, how many it handed over, where it got it wrong. We add sources and move the limits.
What a chat should not do
A chat that answers everything also answers wrongly. Better one that knows twenty topics and hands the twenty-first to a person.
The most common mistake with website chat is the absence of limits. A model will answer any question, including those it has no data for: it will invent a delivery date, promise a discount, interpret your terms in its own way. So I set the scope the other way round: the chat answers only topics on the list, only from the named sources, and everything else ends with “I will pass this to someone who can answer” and a lead in the CRM.
That is not worse service. A customer who gets an answer to a simple question in two minutes, and on a harder matter hears from a person who has already read the conversation, is better served than by a “contact us” form.
Questions about chat
Will the chat replace customer service?
No, and it should not. It handles simple, repetitive questions and collects contact details for harder ones. Your support team gets fewer “what are your opening hours” emails and more time for the cases that need a person.
What if a customer asks about price?
If the price list is public and in the sources, the chat quotes it. If the price depends on a quote, the chat does not guess: it collects what the customer needs and passes it to sales.
We have a WordPress site and a WooCommerce shop.
That is a typical case. I embed the chat on the site, give it read-only access to order data, and send leads to the CRM. If there is no CRM yet, to a mailbox or a spreadsheet until there is.
Can the chat place orders or change customer details?
Technically yes, but I advise against it at the start. Changing data and placing orders are actions with consequences, and those should be confirmed by a person until the chat has proven it does not get them wrong. I write about this in the article on the human in the loop.
What about GDPR?
Consent before collecting data, a notice about the automated assistant, a retention period, a business account with the model vendor with training switched off, customer data in your CRM, not with me. You agree the wording of consents and policies with your lawyer; I make sure the technology does what they say.
Is there a task someone at your company does by hand every week? Describe it in one sentence.
I reply within one business day. The first call is free of obligation.
Describe what you want automated
One sentence about the task is enough to start. You do not need to know the names of any tools. I reply within one business day.