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Notes on AI assistants that answer customers
What customers ask an AI assistant, where bots go wrong, and how to check and fix the answers. For online stores and service businesses.
- 15 octobre 2026En françaisSoldes d'hiver : tester votre assistant IA avant le 6 janvierLes soldes d'hiver 2027 commencent le mercredi 6 janvier. Prix barrés, retours, délais de livraison : tout change en même temps, et l'assistant de la boutique doit suivre. Vingt questions à lui poser en décembre et ce qu'il faut corriger quand il se trompe.4 min read
- 14 October 2026ChecksWe asked 40 live support bots what their customers ask. Here is what came backIn October 2026 we asked 40 AI support bots on business websites ordinary customer questions and compared every answer with the business's own pages. 19 got a fact about their own business wrong. The patterns, retold with made-up businesses, and what they have in common.4 min read
- 13 octobre 2026En françaisDroit de rétractation : ce que votre chatbot doit répondre, et ce qu'il invente14 jours, des exceptions, des délais de remboursement : le droit de rétractation est précis, et c'est justement là que les assistants IA improvisent. Les questions des clients, les réponses justes d'après la loi et vos CGV, et comment empêcher l'assistant d'inventer.4 min read
- 12 October 2026Basics"Where is my order?": what an AI assistant should do with the most common questionOrder status questions are a large share of every store's chat. An assistant without access to orders can't answer them, and one that guesses makes things worse. Three ways to handle them, from a clean hand-over to a live order lookup, and what each needs.3 min read
- 9 octobre 2026En françaisUn assistant IA sur une boutique PrestaShop : ce qu'il faut vérifier avant de choisirModules de chat avec IA, outils généralistes, solutions européennes : pour une boutique PrestaShop, le choix de l'outil compte moins que cinq points concrets. Ce qu'il lit, en quelle langue il répond, où sont les données, comment il facture, et qui vérifie ses réponses.4 min read
- 8 octobre 2026En françaisAssistant IA pour boutique en ligne : les questions que vos clients posent vraimentLivraison, retours, paiement en plusieurs fois, retrait en magasin : la plupart des questions posées au chat d'une boutique tiennent en une douzaine de thèmes. La liste, la page d'où chaque réponse doit venir, et les erreurs les plus fréquentes.4 min read
- 7 October 2026IndustriesA gym's AI assistant: memberships, joining fees and cancellationPeople thinking of joining a gym ask about prices, joining fees, contract length, class schedules and how to cancel. Those answers depend on the plan and the club. Where gym chatbots slip, a made-up example, and a setup that keeps up with the timetable.4 min read
- 6 October 2026BasicsThe EU AI Act and your website chatbot: telling customers they're talking to AIArticle 50 of the EU AI Act requires that people are told when they're interacting with an AI system, unless it's obvious. What that means for a store or service business with an AI assistant on its site, what it doesn't require, and a few lines of setup that cover it.4 min read
- 2 October 2026IndustriesA coworking space's chatbot: day passes, memberships and meeting roomsPeople asking a coworking space's chat want a price and a yes: is there a desk tomorrow, how much is a day pass, can I book a room for six. The answers depend on plan, location and time of day. How to set up an assistant that gets them right.4 min read
- 1 October 2026PlatformsBuilding a customer bot on Chatbase: sources, instructions and the retraining habitChatbase turns your website and documents into a chatbot in an afternoon. What it reads, how message credits work, which instructions matter for a small business, and why the bot keeps quoting a page you changed last month.4 min read
- 30 September 2026ChecksYour chatbot broke last week and nobody noticed: silent failures and how to catch themAn expired API key, a renamed page, a model the vendor retired, a theme update that hides the widget. AI assistants break quietly, and the first person to notice is usually a customer. The common causes and a five-minute weekly check.3 min read
- 29 September 2026IndustriesA language school's chatbot: levels, start dates and refundsProspective students ask a language school about levels, start dates, group sizes, prices and what happens if they drop out. The answers live on schedule pages that change every term. How to set up an assistant that keeps up, with a made-up example.4 min read
- 24 September 2026ChecksA high resolution rate doesn't mean your chatbot is rightEvery AI support platform reports a resolution rate. It measures whether the customer stopped asking, not whether the answer matched your policy. What the number counts, what it misses, and a simple second number to track next to it.4 min read
- 23 September 2026IndustriesAn electronics store's chatbot: warranty, compatibility and what's in the boxElectronics shoppers ask precise questions: will it work with my phone, what's in the box, how long is the warranty. Assistants answer them from product pages that are long, similar and full of variants. The questions, the traps and a made-up example about warranty.4 min read
- 22 September 2026IndustriesCar rental chatbots: deposits, fees and the questions that start disputesRenters ask about age limits, deposits, mileage, fuel and cross-border trips before they book. Those answers depend on the car, the rate and the branch, which is exactly where an AI assistant mixes things up. A list of the questions and how to set up the answers.4 min read
- 18 September 2026BasicsWriting instructions for your store's AI assistant: what to say and what to leave outEvery AI assistant platform has a box for instructions. Most stores fill it with tone of voice. The instructions that actually change answers are about what the assistant must not do. A worked set for a made-up store, line by line.4 min read
- 17 September 2026PlatformsZendesk AI agents: keeping answers in step with your websiteZendesk's AI agents answer from your help centre and are billed per automated resolution. The weak point for most stores is the gap between the help centre and the website. How to close it, and how to use Zendesk's own testing tools well.4 min read
- 16 September 2026PlatformsAn AI assistant for a Shopify store: Shopify Inbox, Gorgias, Tidio or a general toolShopify merchants have four common routes to an AI assistant: Shopify's free Inbox app, a helpdesk built for e-commerce like Gorgias, a chat tool like Tidio, or a general builder like Chatbase. What each reads, how each charges, and how to choose by store size and support load.3 min read
- 15 September 2026IndustriesA hotel's AI assistant: the questions guests ask and where answers go wrongGuests ask a hotel's website chat about check-in, parking, breakfast, cancellation and the tourist tax. A list of those questions, the page each answer should come from, and a made-up example of the mistake that costs a hotel most.4 min read
- 11 September 2026IndustriesA salon's AI assistant: price lists, 'from' prices and booking rulesHair and beauty salons get questions about prices, durations, deposits and late cancellations, usually in the evening. Salon price lists are full of 'from' prices and stylist levels, which is exactly what assistants simplify. How to write them so the answers hold.4 min read
- 10 September 2026PlatformsTidio Lyro for a small online store: a setup that holds upLyro is the AI agent many Shopify and WooCommerce stores try first. How it learns, what a Lyro conversation costs you in quota, and the five settings and habits that decide whether its answers match your shop.4 min read
- 9 September 2026ChecksWhen your chatbot answers in another language: what gets lost in translationModern AI assistants answer a German customer in German from an English page. That's useful and mostly reliable. The mistakes cluster in a few places: numbers and dates, legal terms, country-specific rules and the language the conversation switches to. How to test them.3 min read
- 8 September 2026PlatformsSetting up Intercom Fin for a store: what to configure before you switch it onFin is easy to turn on and easy to leave half-configured. A checklist for content, guidance, hand-over and testing, with the parts of Intercom's own tools that are worth using and the one gap they leave.4 min read
- 4 September 2026IndustriesA moving company's chatbot: quotes, what's included and the extra chargesPeople planning a move ask the chat for a price, and the honest answer is usually 'it depends'. How a removals firm's AI assistant can give useful ranges without inventing a quote, what to put on the website first, and the extra charges assistants forget.4 min read
- 3 September 2026BasicsAI assistant or a person on live chat: the money, worked outWhat an answered question costs with a person, with a per-outcome AI agent and with a flat-price chatbot, using published prices. And the cost the comparison usually leaves out: the wrong answer.4 min read
- 2 September 2026BasicsDesigning the hand-over: when your AI assistant should pass the customer to a personA good assistant knows what it shouldn't answer. Which questions to hand over, how to do it so the customer doesn't repeat themselves, what to say out of hours, and the two hand-over mistakes that lose more customers than wrong answers.4 min read
- 1 September 2026ChecksTest your chatbot before peak season: a 25-question checklistBlack Friday and Christmas bring the most customers and the most changes to delivery and returns rules. Twenty-five questions to ask your assistant in October, what a right answer looks like, and what to fix when it's wrong.4 min read
- 28 August 2026IndustriesA furniture store's chatbot: delivery to the room, assembly and made-to-order itemsFurniture customers ask about lead times, delivery to an upper floor, assembly, fabric samples and returns on made-to-order pieces. Each answer has a condition attached. The questions, the conditions and how to keep the assistant from dropping them.4 min read
- 27 August 2026MistakesWhy chatbots invent return policies, and how to stop itAsk a store assistant about returns and sometimes it answers with a policy the store never wrote. Where the made-up rule comes from, why it sounds so plausible, and four fixes that work.4 min read
- 25 August 2026BasicsWhat to put in your chatbot's knowledge base, and what to leave outAn AI assistant is only as right as the pages it reads. A list of the twelve kinds of content customers ask about, how to write each so the bot finds it, and the sources that cause most wrong answers.5 min read
- 21 August 2026BasicsWriting a returns page an AI assistant can readReturns pages are written for lawyers and skimmed by customers. An AI assistant reads them in fragments, and fragments lose exceptions. A before-and-after rewrite of a made-up store's returns page, and the seven rules behind it.3 min read
- 20 August 2026BasicsHow an AI assistant on your site actually answers a customerA customer types a question, the assistant replies in two seconds. Here is what happens in between, where the answer comes from, and the three places it can go wrong.4 min read
See your assistant answer your customers first
Email us your store’s address. Within a working day you get five questions your customers ask and the answers your assistant would give, each with the page it comes from. Free, no call needed.