Website chat
Mostly browsing help
48% of chats involve finding products; 107 included basket help.
- Out of hours
- 65%
- Passed to a person
- 45
Customer service case study · our founder’s own shop
Tropical Fish Co: one assistant on the website, WhatsApp and the phone
Tropical Fish Co is our founder’s own aquatics shop, so we run its customer service ourselves. Its assistant, Aqua, answers on three channels with the same knowledge and the same rules, and hands customers to a person when they need one.
Conversations across all three channels
1,711
260 of them passed to a person with the details ready
1,170
Website chat
Since 30 April 2026
373
Since 22 August 2026
168
Phone and text message
Since 23 August 2026
Source: the assistant’s conversation records to 25 October 2026. Counts only conversations with at least two messages; may include a few of our own tests. No customer details are shown.
Three channels, three kinds of questionWhatsApp
People ask different things in different places
That is why one website chat box isn’t enough. Here is what each channel is mostly used for.
Mostly existing orders
33% check an order; 35% end with a ticket for the team.
- Out of hours
- 51%
- Passed to a person
- 130
Phone and text message
Often “can I speak to someone?”
51% are passed to a person, by call transfer or a ticket.
- Out of hours
- 31%
- Passed to a person
- 85
Out of hours means before 9am, after 5pm or at the weekend. Task shares come from the actions Aqua took in each conversation.
How it fits together
One assistant, one set of rules, wherever the customer is
Customers meet the same Aqua whether they type on the website, message on WhatsApp or ring the shop. It gives the same delivery answers, checks the same order records and follows the same rules about when to bring in a person.
People stay in charge of livestock welfare, refunds, dead-on-arrival claims and anything unusual. Aqua’s job is to gather the facts and get them to the right person quickly.
One set of shop data
Product search, order status, postcode checks and delivery estimates come from the same shop systems on every channel.
Tickets with the details filled in
When Aqua can’t sort something, it raises a support ticket with the order and the problem already written up.
A real person on the phone
Callers who need a human are transferred, instead of being stuck in a menu.
Summaries for the team
Every conversation leaves a short summary behind, so staff start the day knowing what came in overnight.
Questions about Aqua
Which channels does Tropical Fish Co’s assistant answer?
Three: chat on the website, WhatsApp, and the shop’s phone line, which also answers text messages. It is the same assistant, Aqua, on all three, so customers get the same answers wherever they ask. Tropical Fish Co is our founder’s own shop.
How many conversations does it handle?
Between them, the three channels held 1,711 conversations by 25 October 2026: 1,170 website chats since 30 April, 373 WhatsApp conversations since 22 August and 168 phone calls and texts since 23 August.
What happens when the assistant can’t help?
It passes the customer to a person. On WhatsApp it raises a support ticket with the details filled in; on the phone it can transfer the call or raise a ticket. That happened in 130 WhatsApp conversations and 85 phone conversations, mostly about specific orders.
Why use WhatsApp and the phone as well as website chat?
Because customers ask in different places. Website visitors mostly want help finding fish and equipment. People who have already ordered tend to message on WhatsApp or ring about their delivery. Covering all three means nobody waits for office hours.
The same shop, different work
Tropical Fish Co website and SEO
Another shop, another approach
Aquatropics: an order desk that never closes
How the whole system works
Smart sales & 24/7 customer service
For your business
AI receptionist for your phone line
Customers on WhatsApp, the phone and your website?
We can give them one assistant that knows your business on every channel, and a clear route to your team.
Talk to us