A free chatbot that answers your website's FAQs (and knows when to fetch you)

What you'll have in half an hour: a friendly chat bubble on your website (and optionally Instagram/Messenger) that instantly answers your most-asked questions — opening hours, prices, delivery, where you are — and quietly passes anything it can't handle to you. It works while you sleep and while you're serving a customer in front of you.

Repetitive questions are the tax on being reachable — for most shops the same handful make up the bulk of messages. A chatbot that fields the easy ones frees you for the ones that actually need a person. This is the website-and-social counterpart to the free WhatsApp playbook; pick whichever channel your customers actually use.

Is this for you?

Build it if you have a website (or an active Instagram/Facebook) getting repeat questions. Skip it — and use the free WhatsApp app instead — if most of your customers reach you on WhatsApp, or if you get so many web chats that you'd blow past the free tier fast (see the honest limit below). No website yet? This isn't your first playbook; start with receipts or WhatsApp.

What it costs — and the honest ceiling

S$0 up to 50 conversations a month, then it's paid or it pauses. Tidio's free plan includes 50 conversations/month, up to 10 operators, chatbot flows, and its Lyro AI for a limited number of messages, with no credit card to start (Tidio pricing, 13 Jul 2026). Read that number honestly: a quiet website site sits comfortably under 50; a busy one will hit it in days, and then you either pay or the bot goes quiet. If you're high-volume, the free WhatsApp app has no such cap. We'd rather tell you that now than after you've built it.

Before you start (5 minutes)

Sign up free at tidio.com (no card). Have your website login handy if you want the bubble on your site — you'll paste a small snippet, or install a plugin if you're on Shopify/WordPress.

Build it, step by step

Step 1 — Add the chat bubble (10 minutes)

In Tidio, follow Settings → Installation. Either copy the snippet it gives you and paste it into your website (your web person or site builder has a "custom code / header" box for exactly this), or install the Tidio plugin/app for your platform. If you'd rather skip the website, connect Instagram or Messenger from the Channels menu instead.

Step 2 — Build a simple FAQ flow (15 minutes)

In Chatbots / Flows, start from a template or a blank flow. Build a small tree: a greeting, then buttons for your top questions — Opening hours, Prices, Delivery, Where are you? — each leading to a short canned answer you write. End every branch with a "Talk to a person" option that collects the visitor's name and message (or shows your WhatsApp), so nobody hits a dead end. Keep it to five buttons; more overwhelms.

Step 3 (optional) — Let AI answer in sentences

Tidio's Lyro AI can answer in natural language from information you give it, within the free message allowance (Tidio). Feed it your FAQ text and it handles phrasing you didn't script. Treat the free AI messages as limited — the button flow is your reliable backbone; AI is the bonus.

Step 4 — Publish

Turn the flow on / publish it. The bubble goes live.

Test it works (2 minutes)

Open your website in a private browser window (or your Instagram from another account). The chat bubble should appear; click a FAQ button and confirm the right answer comes back; then try "talk to a person" and check the hand-off works and you're notified.

When it doesn't

• No bubble on the site. The snippet is in the wrong place or the plugin isn't activated. Re-check Settings → Installation; on WordPress/Shopify the plugin route avoids fiddling with code.
• The flow doesn't run. It's saved but not published. Publish it, and make sure it's set as the active/default flow.
• The bot's gone silent for everyone. Check your conversation count in the dashboard — you may have hit the free 50/month. That's the ceiling, not a fault; decide whether to pay or move this job to WhatsApp.

Your data

Visitors type names, emails, and questions into the chat — personal data that lives on Tidio's servers (overseas). Under the PDPA, collect it for the stated purpose (helping them), link your privacy page from the site, and don't repurpose captured emails into marketing without consent. Only ask for what you need — a name and the question is usually enough.

Switch it off

Remove the snippet or deactivate the plugin and the bubble vanishes. Delete the Tidio account to remove the data. It's free, so there's no billing to stop — just don't upgrade unless the volume genuinely earns it.

What's next

Grab the FAQ flow starter — a ready tree of the five questions most Singapore shops get, so you fill in answers instead of building from scratch. If your real crowd is on WhatsApp rather than your website, the WhatsApp auto-reply playbook does the same job with no monthly ceiling.

---