What is smart customer service?
An AI assistant that answers your customers on the website, the phone, text and WhatsApp, connected to your real stock, orders and diary, with clear rules for when a person takes over. Ours answer at once, day or night, help customers buy, and turn anything they can’t settle into a complete ticket for your team.
Can a small local business afford 24/7 customer service?
Yes. Our AI receptionist starts at £99 a month for 200 minutes, and a website chat assistant also starts at £99 a month, each with a £149 setup. The Never Miss a Customer pack (£249 a month) puts the receptionist and missed-call texts together with a website, Google Business Profile care and review requests. No VAT is added.
Will customers know they are talking to an AI?
Yes. Our assistants say they are AI assistants and never pretend to be a person. They use natural voices, let callers interrupt and talk at their own pace, and hand over to a person when that is what the customer needs.
Can it stop sales calls and time wasters?
Yes. Cold calls and advertising calls get one polite redirect and the call ends. Staff phone numbers and personal emails are never given out. Real customers get their answer or a ticket, and on the phone a caller can be put through to the team once their ticket is written.
Will my personal mobile number stay private?
Yes. Customers use one public business number. The assistant answers it and never shares your team’s direct numbers. If someone insists, it explains that a real person reads every ticket and writes one there and then.
What happens when a customer wants a real person?
The assistant reassures them that a person reads every ticket and sorts out the quick questions first if it can. Then it writes the ticket on the spot and gives the customer a reference. On the phone it can put the caller through once the ticket exists.
Can an AI assistant actually sell?
Yes. In an online shop it searches the live catalogue, shows products with photos and prices, adds items to the basket when the customer says yes, offers the closest alternative when something is out of stock and gives real delivery dates. About 1 in 3 Aquatropics conversations are shopping conversations.
Does it work on WhatsApp?
Yes. Customers message the same number they call. The assistant reads photos, documents and voice notes, and order texts can open a WhatsApp chat with the order number already typed.
What if the AI gets something wrong?
It answers prices, stock and orders from live systems rather than memory, and it never promises refunds. Every conversation is reviewed automatically against the business’s rules, and every change is tested against scripted conversations first: 86 for Aquatropics and about 190 for Tropical Fish Co.
How is customer data protected?
Order details are shared only after two details match, the assistant never asks for card details or passwords, and uploaded photos and videos are stored privately and deleted after six months. Hand On Web is registered with the ICO (ZC232436).
What languages can it speak?
The Tropical Fish Co assistant speaks 17 languages, including Welsh, Polish, Urdu, Punjabi and Arabic, and switches when the customer switches. Tickets are always written in English for the team.
How long does it take to set up?
An AI receptionist on your number can be live in 48 hours. A shop-wide system connected to orders, stock, WhatsApp and tickets, like the two in this gallery, is a custom build that we plan with you first.
Does it work with Shopify, WooCommerce or my booking system?
Aqua runs on a Shopify shop and Coral on WooCommerce. Each job, such as an order lookup, a delivery date or a ticket, is a separate tool, so booking diaries, CRMs and couriers can be connected the same way.
Can it ask customers for feedback and reviews?
Yes. Happy customers are offered the Google and Trustpilot review links at the right moment, with no pressure and no incentives. An AI aftercare call, which rings customers a few days after delivery to ask how it went and what could be better, is in testing.
Will it replace my staff?
No. It takes the routine questions and the out-of-hours load. People handle judgement calls, refunds and exceptions, with the facts already gathered for them.
Who builds and runs it?
Hand On Web, a web design, SEO and Google Ads agency at Riverside Innovation Centre in Chester, and a Google Partner since October 2026. We design the conversations, connect the tools, test every change and keep improving each system from its real conversations.
Hand On Web Ltd, Riverside Innovation Centre, Chester. Web design, SEO and Google Ads (Google Partner since October 2026), and the customer service systems behind them.