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Channels

Eight channels. One agent. One memory of the customer.

Most businesses do not have a channel problem, they have a continuity problem. The customer who chatted on your website on Monday is the same person who phones on Wednesday, and nobody on your side knows that. This is how that gets fixed.

One customer, one week Four channels  ·  zero repeated explanations

Mon 08:14

Webchat

Reads about a product on your site and asks whether it is in stock in Rustenburg.

Agent answers, then offers to continue on WhatsApp so she does not lose the thread. She agrees, and you now have a contact instead of an anonymous visitor.

Mon 22:40

WhatsApp

Sends a voice note in Setswana asking about delivery cost to her area.

Agent already knows which product she was looking at. No name, no reference number, no starting over.

Wed 09:02

Voice

Phones because the delivery did not arrive when she expected.

Agent picks up with the order already open, explains the delay, and creates a ticket in Deliveries with the history attached.

Fri 16:20

Email

Emails asking for a tax invoice for the purchase.

Agent matches the email address to the same customer, sends the invoice, and closes the ticket without a person touching it.

Four channels, four days, one customer record. She never explained herself twice, and nobody on your team did any of it.

WhatsApp

Where the volume is. Your customers already have it open, already know how to use it, and expect an answer in minutes rather than days.

Best for Everything, most of the time
Setup About a week, Meta verification included
Cost Meta charge per conversation, at cost

Full WhatsApp detail →

What the agent does here

  • Understands voice notes and replies
  • Collects IDs, payslips and photos
  • Offers buttons and lists, not menu numbers
  • Switches language per message

Worth knowing

It runs on the official Business API, not an unofficial connection to a handset. Your number stays registered to your business, your whole team can work it at once, and there is no ban risk hanging over the number your customers have saved.

SMS

The channel nobody talks about and everybody still needs. It reaches a customer who is out of data, on a feature phone, or in an area where the signal will carry a text but not much else.

Best for Reach when nothing else lands
Setup Days, no verification queue
Cost Per message, network dependent

What the agent does here

  • Answers in short, plain messages
  • Sends status updates and reminders
  • Falls back automatically when WhatsApp does not deliver
  • Pulls the conversation back to WhatsApp with a link

Its limits, stated plainly

No images, no documents, no voice notes, and a customer cannot send you a photo of their ID. Treat it as the safety net rather than the main channel. Where SMS earns its keep is the customer you would otherwise never have reached at all.

Webchat

Catches people at the exact moment they are deciding. Someone on your pricing page with a question either gets an answer in ten seconds or leaves and does not come back.

Best for Turning visitors into conversations
Setup One line of code, live same day
Cost No per message charge

What the agent does here

  • Answers from your own site and documents
  • Matches your brand, not a generic bubble
  • Knows which page they are reading
  • Books, quotes or creates a ticket in the widget

The move that makes it pay

A webchat visitor is anonymous, and when they close the tab they are gone. The agent offers to carry the conversation over to WhatsApp so they can keep it on their phone. Most people say yes, and you have turned a bounce into a contact you can follow up.

Email

Where the long, formal and documented requests land, and where the backlog quietly builds. Business customers, invoices, complaints and anything somebody wants a written record of.

Best for Detailed and documented requests
Setup Connect your existing support inbox
Cost No per message charge

What the agent does here

  • Reads the whole thread, not just the last message
  • Replies in full sentences, in your tone
  • Opens attachments and works from what is in them
  • Sends documents back, invoices and statements included

Worth knowing

It keeps your existing address. Customers write to the inbox they have always used, and your team keeps working in the same helpdesk as every other channel. Nothing gets migrated and nothing gets announced.

Instagram

Where people find you before they ever look for you. Someone watching a reel or scrolling your grid slides into your DMs with a question, already interested and already warm.

Best for Customers who found you through content, not search
Setup Connect your existing Instagram Business account
Cost No per message charge

What the agent does here

  • Answers every DM, day or night
  • Knows which post or product someone is asking about
  • Keeps your brand voice, not a generic auto-reply
  • Moves the conversation to WhatsApp once documents are needed

Where it fits

Instagram is where people discover you, not where they file paperwork. The agent qualifies the enquiry and, the moment it needs an ID or a signature, moves the thread to WhatsApp where that is easy to do properly.

Facebook

Still where a large part of your audience spends its time, and still where a lot of your older or more established customers will find you first, especially from an ad or a shared post.

Best for Customers who already follow your Page
Setup Connect your Facebook Page and Messenger
Cost No per message charge

What the agent does here

  • Replies to every Messenger conversation
  • Understands questions that started on a specific post or ad
  • Runs on the same knowledge base and guardrails as every other channel
  • Hands over to WhatsApp once it is time to collect documents

Worth knowing

A lot of Facebook conversations start the moment someone clicks an ad. The agent picks it up from there instead of leaving them to wait for a person to notice the message.

TikTok

The one that moves in bursts. Most days it is quiet, and then a video does well and the DMs arrive faster than any person could keep up with.

Best for Fast, high volume questions when content takes off
Setup Connect your TikTok Business account
Cost No per message charge

What the agent does here

  • Answers DMs at volume, even when a video is blowing up
  • Keeps up when a video goes viral overnight
  • Runs on the same knowledge base as every other channel
  • Moves anything serious over to WhatsApp

Our honest advice

This is the channel that matters most exactly when you are least prepared for it, the day something goes viral. That is precisely when having an agent already switched on pays for itself.

Voice

For the customers who will always phone. Older customers, people driving, and anyone whose question feels too complicated to type. The line gets answered on the first ring, at any hour.

Best for Callers who will not use chat
Setup Add once the text channels are settled
Cost Per minute, higher than text

What the agent does here

  • Answers in natural speech, no press one for sales
  • Handles the routine calls end to end
  • Transfers to a person, with context, when needed
  • Follows up on WhatsApp with what was agreed

Our honest advice

Do not start here. Voice costs more per minute, takes longer to get right, and is less forgiving when it does. Prove the agent on WhatsApp first, where you can read every conversation, and add voice once it is handling your questions well.

Where to start

You do not need all eight.

Almost everyone should start with one or two and add the rest once the agent has proved itself. Here is what we would suggest, based on what kind of business you are.

If you areStart withAdd later
A consumer business with a phone number on every posterWhatsAppVoice, then SMS for reach
Selling online, most enquiries from your siteWebchat and WhatsAppEmail for invoices and returns
Serving business customers who write formallyEmail and webchatWhatsApp once they get used to it
Reaching customers in low data or rural areasWhatsApp with SMS fallbackVoice
Drowning in phone calls specificallyWhatsApp first, to move volume off the phoneVoice, once the agent is proven
Getting most enquiries through Instagram, Facebook or TikTok contentThat platform, plus WhatsAppThe rest, once volume proves it
The one we always recommend first WhatsApp. Not because it is fashionable, but because it is where most customers already are, it carries voice notes and documents, and it gives you a contact you can reach again. Everything else is easier to justify once that is working.

One agent, not eight bots

Adding a channel is a setting, not a second build.

Everything below is shared. Change a policy once and it changes everywhere, which is the whole reason not to buy a separate tool per channel.

One knowledge base

Update your price list once. The answer changes on WhatsApp, email, webchat and the phone at the same moment.

One set of guardrails

What the agent must never promise holds on every channel, including the one you added last week.

One customer record

The webchat visitor, the WhatsApp number and the email address resolve to the same person and the same history.

One ticket queue

Your team works one list. No switching between a WhatsApp phone, an inbox and a notepad by the till.

One language engine

All eleven official languages on every channel, detected per message rather than set per customer.

One set of reports

Topic volumes and resolution rates across all channels together, so you can see which one is actually working.

Unified inbox showing conversations from every channel in one queue

Start with one

Tell us where your
customers reach you now.

We will tell you which channel to start on and which ones are not worth it yet for a business your size. That answer is free whether you buy anything or not.

Book a call See how pricing works