An AI chatbot for a small business. Meet two of ours.

Your phone rings nine to five. Your customers' questions don't. “Are you open Sunday?” “Do you carry this brand?” “Does this need an appointment?” — most of these arrive after close, and every unanswered one is a customer deciding to try somewhere else. That's the entire case for a chatbot done well: it answers the questions your front counter fields all day, at the hours your front counter is dark.

Meet Poppy and Ivy

Poppy is the concierge we built for Village Pets, a neighbourhood pet shop in Saanichton's Pioneer Square plaza — a project currently in progress. She answers product and hours questions, helps people find the right thing for their animal, and hands anything she can't handle to the people behind the counter.

Ivy belongs to the veterinary hospital in the same plaza. She fields the questions a vet's front desk answers forty times a day — hours, services, what to do next — and routes appointment requests where they need to go. One thing she will never do is give medical advice: anything clinical goes straight to a human. That's not a limitation we tolerated; it's a guardrail we built.

Two storefronts, one plaza, two concierges that each know their own business cold. That's the model: not a generic widget, a staff member made of software.

What separates a concierge from the chatbots people hate

• It knows your business, not the internet. Hours, services, policies, brands, the questions you actually get — it answers from your information, in your voice.
• It knows what it doesn't know. A good concierge says “I'm not sure — here's how to reach a person” instead of improvising. Handing off to a human is a designed feature, not a failure state.
• It has guardrails. Topics it must not touch, claims it must not make, and testing before launch. Ivy's no-medical-advice rule is the template for every build.
• It creates leads, not dead ends. Answered questions turn into bookings, directions, and phone calls — with the conversation waiting for you in the morning.

Do you actually need one?

Honestly — not every business does. The signals that you do: the phone interrupts your paid work all day; you answer the same ten questions on repeat; you see missed calls from evenings and weekends; or customers need help choosing between your services before they'll commit. If none of that sounds familiar, keep your money.

What it costs

A concierge can be part of a new website build or added to the site you already have — no rebuild required. Because the price depends almost entirely on how much it needs to know and do, we scope first and then put a fixed price in writing before any work starts. It runs alongside our other AI integration work and plays well with POS and booking systems.

Common questions

How much does an AI chatbot cost for a small business?

It depends almost entirely on scope — how much the assistant needs to know, and whether it just answers questions or also guides bookings and captures leads. Lucency scopes first, then puts a fixed price in writing before any work starts. It can be added to an existing website; a rebuild is not required.

Will it say something wrong to my customers?

This is the right question, and it's why guardrails matter more than features. A well-built concierge only answers from your business's information, is tested before launch, and hands off to a human rather than guessing. Ivy, the concierge we built for a veterinary hospital, is designed to never give medical advice — anything clinical routes to staff.

Does a small business actually need a chatbot?

Not always. It earns its keep when the phone interrupts your paid work all day, you answer the same questions on repeat, or you're missing after-hours enquiries. If customers rarely have questions before buying, skip it — and a good agency should tell you that.

Can a chatbot work with my existing website?

Yes. A concierge is added to the site you already have, whoever built it — it doesn't require a new website, a specific platform, or a rebuild.

More AI at Lucency: AI marketing agency · AI web design.