One of our customers learned the cost of a wrong answer about the nearest branch and opening hours the hard way, and asked us to fix it. They ran several outlets, and one of their customers had driven to a branch the chatbot said was open until nine. It had closed at six. The chatbot had been describing a different branch in a different town, because the customer never said where she was and the chatbot never asked.
What they told us
For a business with more than one outlet, "where is your branch?" and "are you open now?" are the most common questions it gets. They sound simple. The right answer depends on something the customer has not said: where they are. A chatbot that answers anyway has to pick a branch, and picking wrongly sends someone to a locked door.
Opening hours made it harder: different weekend hours, public holidays, a branch that recently closed. They asked for an assistant that would get this right or not answer at all.
How we approached it
The failure here was not a missing fact. It was answering before the question was complete. So we planned the behaviour around the order of things:
- When the customer has not said where they are, ask before recommending any branch.
- Once the location is known, find the nearest outlets, and make sure the outlets shown always match the ones named in the reply.
- Answer only from the business's own locations, so an update to an outlet changes the answer straight away.
- Keep the conversation in the customer's language, even when they mention a place name in another.
How it works
The assistant answers branch questions from the locations the business adds to a knowledge base: each outlet's address, its opening hours, and any details the business adds.
It asks where the customer is first. Since Gydr 3.2.2, when a visitor asks about a branch without saying where they are, the assistant asks for their location instead of naming an outlet at random.
It names the right outlets. Once it knows the location, it answers with the nearest branches, and the locations it shows match the ones in the reply.
It answers in the customer's language, including when a place name is in another language.
Where it leaves the business
A customer asking which branch is open now is asked where they are, then told the nearest outlets and their hours. The answers are only as current as the locations the business keeps: when an outlet's hours change, the business updates the location and the assistant answers from the new hours.
Frequently asked questions
Can a chatbot tell customers their nearest branch and opening hours?
Yes. Gydr answers from your locations — addresses, hours and details — and finds the nearest outlets once it knows where the customer is.
What if the customer does not say where they are?
The assistant asks for their location before recommending a branch, rather than guessing.
Where does the branch information come from?
From the locations you add to a knowledge base, so the answers change as soon as you update an outlet.