The same questions every day. Why your website could use an AI assistant

Pille-Riin is a permanent makeup artist who sees clients in Tallinn and Tartu. Her website, pilleriin.com, has everything a client wants to know before booking: the price list, the services, the addresses and the cancellation terms.

Even so, clients messaged her the same questions every day on Instagram and by email. How much are permanent eyebrows? Does she do lips too? Can you book in Tartu as well? In the evening, at the weekend, even while she was out at a restaurant with friends. Leaving them unanswered wasn't an option: a client who doesn't get an answer straight away books with someone else.

That wasn't her website's fault, or her clients'. On a phone it is easier to type one question than to find the answer across three pages. People are short on time, and asking is quicker than reading.

So we built an AI assistant for her website that answers those questions for her. It grew into our own product, Vestly.ai. Here is what we learned along the way, and when the same thing makes sense for your business.

Repeated questions are working time nobody counts#

A small business owner doesn't write down how many times a week they answer "how much does it cost?". But every answer interrupts something else: work, dinner, a day off. And if the reply reaches the client three hours later, they may already have booked elsewhere.

A visitor on your website is in the same position. They want an answer now, not tomorrow morning.

What an AI assistant actually does#

A good assistant isn't a general chatbot. It is your own website's content, able to talk.

• It answers from your information. Prices, services, addresses, cancellation terms, course dates, exactly as they appear on your site.
• It guides the next step. If someone wants an appointment, it shows the booking calendar. If a question needs a person, it asks for contact details and emails them to you.
• It doesn't make things up. If the answer isn't on the site, it doesn't guess. It says so, and the question lands on a list you can use to improve your site.
• It works when you can't. In the evening, at the weekend and while you are with a client, in Estonian, English and Russian.

What it doesn't do#

It doesn't replace you. Complicated questions and personal contact stay with you, as they should. The assistant can't see free slots in your calendar either. It sends people to the booking page, where they find them themselves.

Your Instagram messages won't stop. What changes is that someone who is already on your website gets the answer there and then, and doesn't need to write to you separately.

Who it suits#

The businesses that gain the most are the ones where the same questions keep coming and the answers already exist in writing: beauty salons, clinics, trainers, consultants and small online stores. If your customers mostly ask "how much", "what's included" and "when can I come", much of the conversation is predictable.

It makes less sense when every enquiry is different and needs a long discussion. There, a good contact form does the same job.

What changed#

For Pille-Riin, the biggest change was that the assistant took over part of the repetitive back-and-forth, leaving her more time for her actual work. And we learned something we didn't expect: the questions the assistant couldn't answer showed exactly what her website was missing. We added those to the site, and the next person found the answer on their own.

The assistant is live on pilleriin.com. If you want to see how it looks on a beauty salon's website, go there and ask it something.

Try it yourself#

There's a Vestly in the corner of this page too. It answers from rixio.ee's content, exactly as it would on your website. Ask it something and see how it works.

If you'd like the same on your business's website, see the Vestly.ai page or write to us. On WordPress it installs as a plugin; on any other site it takes one line of code.