Your customers have questions at 2am. You're asleep. They leave your site and buy from someone else. Here's how to put an AI chatbot on your website that answers questions 24/7 based on your actual business information — not generic robot nonsense.
| Tool | What It Does | Cost | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | AI chatbot that lives on your website | Free – $29/mo | Sign up → |
| Your Existing Website | Where the chatbot will live | Already have it | Sign up → |
What to do: Go to Tidio and create a free account. You’ll enter your website URL and business name during setup.
Why you’re doing it: Tidio gives you an AI-powered chatbot (they call it “Lyro”) that can answer customer questions based on information you provide. The free tier handles most small business needs.
What to expect: Signup takes 3 minutes. You’ll immediately get a dashboard where you can configure your chatbot.
Common mistakes: Don’t just use the default setup and call it done. The chatbot is only as good as the information you give it. We’ll handle that in Step 3.
What to do: Tidio gives you a small code snippet to paste into your website. If you’re on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, or Squarespace, they have one-click plugins/integrations instead.
Why you’re doing it: This puts the little chat bubble on the bottom-right of your site. When visitors click it, they’re talking to your AI.
What to expect: If you use a website builder (Shopify, Wix, etc.), this is a 2-minute install. If you have a custom site, you’ll paste a <script> tag into your HTML — still easy, just takes an extra step.
Common mistakes: Installing it but not checking that it actually appears. Open your site in an incognito browser window after installing to make sure the chat bubble shows up.
What to do: In Tidio’s dashboard, go to the Lyro AI section. Add your FAQ content: common questions and answers, your policies, your services, pricing info — everything a customer might ask.
Why you’re doing it: This is the critical step. Without training data, the chatbot is just a generic assistant. With your specific business info, it becomes a 24/7 version of you answering customer questions.
What to expect: Plan to spend 30–45 minutes here. Start with your top 10 most common customer questions and write clear answers. You can add more over time.
Common mistakes: Writing answers that are too short or vague. Be specific. Instead of “We offer various services,” write “We offer residential plumbing, water heater installation, drain cleaning, and emergency repairs. Emergency calls are available 24/7 at a $50 surcharge.”
What to do: Configure what happens when the AI can’t answer a question. Options include: collecting the customer’s email for follow-up, sending you a notification, or connecting them to live chat if you’re online.
Why you’re doing it: The AI won’t know everything. You need a graceful fallback so customers don’t hit a dead end.
What to expect: This takes about 5 minutes. Most businesses use the “collect email and we’ll get back to you” option during off-hours, with live chat available during business hours.
Common mistakes: Not setting this up at all. If the chatbot can’t answer and there’s no fallback, the customer just leaves.
What to do: Change the chatbot’s colors to match your website. Set a welcome message. Add your logo or a friendly avatar.
Why you’re doing it: A chatbot that looks like it belongs on your site builds more trust than a generic blue bubble.
What to expect: 5–10 minutes of clicking through style options. Nothing complicated.
What to do: Open your site and have a conversation with your own chatbot. Ask the 10 questions your customers ask most. Ask some questions the AI hasn’t been trained on. See what happens.
Why you’re doing it: You want to catch bad answers before customers see them. Every wrong answer is a customer who leaves.
What to expect: You’ll find 2–3 questions where the AI gives a weak or incorrect response. Go back to Step 3 and add better training data for those topics.
This workflow is Beta — Based on Best Available Knowledge. We’ve researched Tidio’s setup process and tested the free tier, but haven’t run this end-to-end for a production business site. The steps are accurate based on current documentation, but your mileage may vary depending on your website platform. Let us know how it goes.