A small business website with an AI assistant
An assistant on your website is a text chat that answers customer questions from information you provide, and asks for the details you need when someone wants a quote or a visit. It is useful when you are on a job and cannot pick up. It is not a receptionist that acts on your behalf. This guide explains what it does, what you need to give it, and where the limits are.
Who does what
Avallon handles
- Reads your published pages, uploaded documents, hours, and written instructions
- Answers questions in a conversation on your site, 24 hours a day
- Collects name, email, phone, and what the customer wants
- Records booking requests with a preferred date, time, and service
- Saves every conversation to your inbox and emails you new inquiries
You provide
- Accurate services, service area, hours, and any pricing rules
- Policies you want enforced (deposits, minimum job size, no quotes over chat)
- A price list or FAQ document if you have one
- Confirming bookings and replying to customers
Outside the platform
- Sending email or writing to your calendar for visitors
- Guaranteeing that visitors will arrive at your site
- Following up with customers who did not leave details
What the assistant answers from
The assistant does not browse the internet or guess. When a visitor asks something, it is given your site content, the documents you uploaded, your business hours, and your instructions, and it answers from those. If the answer is not there, it should say so and offer to take a message.
That is why the quality of your information matters more than anything else. A clear services page and a short instructions note beat a long, vague description every time.
How inquiries reach you
When a visitor shares contact details, the assistant saves them with what they asked about. Booking-shaped requests are saved with the requested service, date, and time. Each one appears in your dashboard inbox with the full transcript, and you receive an email notification.
The assistant tells the visitor that the business will confirm. It never says an appointment is booked, because nothing has been checked against your calendar.
- Inbox: every conversation, unread markers, captured details
- Export: download inquiries as CSV
- Email: a notification for each new inquiry or booking request
Setting boundaries
Instructions are the place to set boundaries. Tell the assistant what it must not do: quote prices for custom work, promise availability, discuss competitors, or offer discounts. It is also the place to say what it should always do, such as ask for the customer’s postal code before anything else.
You can pause the assistant at any time from the dashboard. Visitors then see a short message pointing them to your normal contact details.
When an assistant is not the right tool
If most of your customers call and never read the website, an assistant will not change that. If your pricing genuinely depends on a site visit, the assistant can collect the request but cannot shortcut the visit. And if you cannot keep the information up to date, an assistant with stale hours or prices will confidently repeat them.
Limitations to know
- Visitors cannot trigger email, calendar, or CRM actions; those integrations are for your own use in the dashboard.
- The assistant reads whole documents up to a size limit; a very long manual may be truncated.
- Changes to instructions, hours, and documents take effect on the live site after you republish.
Questions owners ask
It answers from your information and tells visitors when it does not know. Review the transcripts in your inbox during the first weeks and tighten the instructions when you see an answer you would not have given.
No. It can explain your deposit policy if you write it in the instructions, but it does not process payments.
Yes. The free plan includes one hosted website with the assistant, the inbox, forms, and analytics.
Next step
Free to start. You review everything before it is published.
