In the July /Aug 2025 issue of The Hardware Journal, Lenehans, one of Ireland’s most established retail brands with over 150 years of service, reported their introduction of one of Ireland’s first fully AI-powered shop assistants, setting a new standard for customer experience in the Irish DIY, home and garden sector.
Now over 12 months on we can report on what a great success the initiative has been. As a quick reminder for anyone who missed the first piece, Mark Lenehan, Managing Director of Lenehans, says “In a physical shop, someone knows the range, answers the awkward questions, and helps guide the customer towards the right product. Online, that experience is much harder to replicate”.
“The AI Shop Assistant was introduced to help bridge that gap. It helps customers find, compare and understand products, while also answering many of the customer service questions that would otherwise arrive by phone or email including questions about delivery, stock, returns, or whether a product will work for a particular job”.
“It also gives us a much clearer picture of what customers are looking for and where the website is falling short. As it chats, it takes notes on what customers are asking for and sends those insights
back to us”.
Since our original piece, the results from Lenehan’s have grown considerably:
– More than 23,000 customer conversations
– 52% of conversations start outside 9-6 or at weekends, when there is nobody here to answer them.
– Around one in four conversations identifies something worth acting on.
– An estimated 140 hours of customer service time saved between March and September 2026.
– More than €245,000 worth of products added to baskets through the assistant.
One of the biggest developments came in July 2026 says Mark, “Until then, the assistant was mainly a chat button in the corner of the website. On 16th July, we moved it directly onto every product and category page, making it part of the shopping experience rather than something customers had to actively seek out”.
“The difference was significant. Conversations increased from around 52 per day to 155 per day, while the estimated customer service time saved increased from 23 hours to 61 hours across comparable eight-week periods”.
“What surprised us was that the quality of those conversations held up. The proportion of conversations that highlighted something worth acting on barely changed, so roughly three times the volume produced roughly three times the useful customer insight rather than simply three times the noise”.
“The most common thing the assistant tells us is that a product page is missing a piece of information the customer needed. After that, we regularly see customers asking for products we don’t currently stock or looking for products that happen to be out of stock at the time. Previously, much of that demand was invisible to us. Now we can see it and act on it. That insight is probably the part I would highlight most”.
With thousands of customer interactions since the launch, the AI assistant has already improved website navigation, boosted customer satisfaction, and enhanced overall purchase journeys on www.lenehans.ie.
