Customer FAQ replies
Direct answer
Customer replies should come from a page you wrote. One guide drafts that page from questions you were actually asked. Another drafts the email from the page. A chat widget can use the same page if it must stop when the page is silent. You still handle anything the page does not cover.
For shops, salons, cafes, and agencies that answer the same questions every week. The policy is the source. You still send the mail.
A reply agent is only as good as the page you give it. If your refund rule lives in your head, the model will write a confident version of a rule you do not have. Write the rule down first.
Complaints that mention injury, a solicitor, or a chargeback do not get a draft. You handle those yourself.
If the answers are not on a page yet, write that page first: questions you have already been asked. The email draft and the widget both assume it exists.
Playbooks
- Customer FAQ repliesChatGPT1–2 hours, mostly writing the policyabout £0–£15/mo
Customer replies from a written FAQ, drafted in ChatGPT
Put your real refund, price, and booking rules into a ChatGPT Project and let it draft customer replies from that page only. You send the email. If the answer is not in the page, the draft should say you will check, not invent a policy. Not live-tested yet.
- Customer FAQ repliesChatGPTOne sitting with the questions written down first£0 on the free plan/mo
Draft the public FAQ page from questions you already answer
Write a public FAQ by listing questions customers have already asked and drafting answers only from rules you supply. ChatGPT can arrange that page. You publish it. The email-reply guide and the website chat come after the page exists. The free plan was listed on 25 October 2026. This has not been live-tested.
- Customer FAQ repliesTidioAn afternoon to write the page, then an hour for the widget£0 on the free plan, with Lyro's paid meter left off/mo
Website support chat with Tidio
A support chatbot for a small website should repeat a page you wrote and stop when the page is silent. Tidio's free plan was $0 for 50 billable conversations a month on 25 October 2026. Lyro's first 50 AI conversations were a lifetime allowance, not a monthly refill. You handle the rest. This has not been live-tested.
Comparisons
Questions
Should I put a chatbot on the homepage?
Only after the answers exist on a page and the bot is told to stop when the page is silent. A widget that invents a refund is a consumer-rights problem, not a convenience.
Is email or chat the better start?
Email, if the questions already arrive there. A chat widget adds a new channel you have to watch. Read both playbooks before you add the widget.
Can it see the order?
Not in these setups. Pasting an order number into a draft is your choice. Giving a bot the shop admin is not part of the guide.