In Morocco, WhatsApp isn't one channel among others: it's where sales happen. The problem isn't being there, it's answering, in the evening, on Sunday, and thirty times a day to the same question.
What a WhatsApp chatbot really automates
A well-tuned assistant handles requests that have a stable answer, which is most of a small business's incoming volume.
- Prices, packages and conditions, with the exact answer rather than an approximation given in a hurry.
- Opening hours, address, directions and availability.
- Product availability and order tracking.
- Appointment booking, with real time slots offered.
- Lead qualification: budget, city, deadline, before passing to a salesperson.
- Follow-up on an abandoned cart or an unanswered quote.
It isn't magic: it's taking over the repetitive work, done at any hour and without typos.
What shouldn't be automated
A complaint, an unhappy customer, a negotiation, a sensitive request: these exchanges must go to a person, immediately. An assistant that tries to handle a dispute makes the dispute worse.
The rule we apply: the assistant knows how to say it doesn't know, and hands over to a human in one sentence, without sending the customer in circles. It's the only way to automate without damaging the relationship.
Scripted flows or AI: the real difference
A scripted chatbot follows a tree planned in advance: “type 1 for prices”. It's reliable, cheap, and stuck as soon as a question leaves the script. An AI assistant understands a freely worded request, in French, written Darija or English, and answers from your real information.
The second costs more and needs serious scoping, it must be given reliable sources and limits, but it's the only one that holds up against the way people actually write on WhatsApp, with mixed languages and no punctuation.
What it costs, and how long it takes
| Plan | Setup | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Essential, up to 10 flows | MAD 2,400 | MAD 390 |
| Qualification, unlimited flows, CRM | MAD 5,900 | MAD 690 |
| Custom, free-text understanding by AI | from MAD 12,000 | depending on scope |
On top of these amounts comes the cost of conversations billed by WhatsApp Business, low at a small business's volumes. A simple assistant is live in one to three weeks; an agent connected to your catalog or CRM takes longer, because most of the work is the integration.
WhatsApp Business app or the API: which one you need
The free WhatsApp Business app is enough for a greeting message, saved quick replies and a simple catalog. It allows no real automation, no multiple agents on the same number and no connection to your tools.
The WhatsApp Business API, the one automated assistants use, requires a verified account and a dedicated number, and it's what allows flows, AI, scheduled messages and several people working on the same conversation. Moving from one to the other happens without changing number in most cases.
Where to start without getting it wrong
- Reread your last hundred incoming messages and sort them. Three or four questions almost always make up most of the volume.
- Write the right answer to each, the one you'd want your best employee to give.
- Automate only those at first, with immediate handover for everything else.
- Listen to the real conversations for two weeks and fix what jams. An assistant is tuned with real exchanges, not in a lab.
This progression avoids the classic trap: an assistant that claims to know everything on day one and drives customers away before it's corrected.