How a small business saved 70% on email queries with a chatbot
ROI & Savings

How a small business saved 70% on email queries with a chatbot

5 min read
10 March 2026
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The problem: 40 emails a day with the same questions

Sarah has been running her online artisan products store for 8 years. She has a team of 3 people and, until a few months ago, they spent between 2 and 3 hours daily answering customer emails.

The problem wasn't the volume of emails itself. The problem was that 80% of those emails contained exactly the same questions:

  • How long does shipping take?
  • Do you ship to [specific region]?
  • Can I return a product if I don't like it?
  • Do you have size XL in model X?
  • What are your customer service hours?
Sarah calculated that her team was losing approximately 15 hours per week answering these queries. At a cost of €15/hour, that's €225 per week or nearly €1,000 per month in work time dedicated to answering the same things over and over.

The solution: a chatbot with all the business information

After researching several options, Sarah decided to implement MySwissBot. The process was simpler than she expected:

Step 1: Gather business information

The MySwissBot team asked Sarah to prepare:

  • A list of the 20 most frequently asked questions with their answers
  • The shipping and returns policy
  • The product catalog with available sizes
  • Customer service hours
Time invested: 2 hours.

Step 2: Chatbot configuration

The MySwissBot team configured:

  • FAQs with automatic responses
  • Quick replies for the most common questions
  • Detailed articles on shipping and returns
  • Two-way chat for cases requiring human attention
Time to go live: 48 hours.

Step 3: Website integration

A simple code snippet in the website footer. No server changes, no complicated plugins.

Integration time: 15 minutes.

Results after 3 months

The numbers speak for themselves:

MetricBeforeAfterChange
|--------|--------|-------|--------|
Daily emails4012-70%
Hours/week on support15h4.5h-70%
Monthly support cost€1,000€300-70%
Response time4-8hInstant-100%
Customer satisfaction3.8/54.7/5+24%

What surprised Sarah most

"What surprised me most was that customers didn't notice they were talking to a bot. The answers were so accurate and natural that many thought it was a team member responding in real time."

But what really changed the business was the two-way chat. When a customer had a complex query the chatbot couldn't resolve, the system automatically connected with Sarah or someone from her team. The customer didn't notice the switch, and the team could step in from their phone at any time.

How much does it cost vs. how much does it save?

With MySwissBot's MSB Setup plan:

  • Setup fee: €499 (one-time)
  • Monthly maintenance: €149/mo
Sarah's monthly savings: €700/mo (€1,000 - €300 residual support)

Return on investment: she recovered the initial investment in the first month.

Conclusion: email is no longer the primary support channel

If your small business receives more than 10 daily emails with repetitive questions, you're losing money and time you could be spending growing your business.

A well-configured chatbot isn't a luxury. It's an investment that pays for itself in the first month.

Want to see how it would work for your business? Request a free demo and we'll show you exactly which questions your chatbot could answer automatically.

Ready to automate your customer support?

Request a free demo and we'll show you how it would work for your business in less than 30 minutes.

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