Glossary term
Chatbot
A chatbot is software that answers customer messages automatically, with scripted questions and buttons, an AI model, or both, and passes the conversation to a person when the request goes beyond what it can handle.
What is a chatbot?
A chatbot is a program that holds a conversation with a customer over a messaging channel such as WhatsApp or a website, receiving messages and replying without a human handling every turn. In sales and service it does three jobs: answering repeat questions at any hour, collecting what a person will need before they step in (name, city, budget, the service wanted), and carrying out simple actions such as booking an appointment or opening a request. A bot succeeds when it removes repetitive work without becoming a wall between the customer and a human. That is why designing the moment of handoff matters as much as designing the questions.
| Kind | How it works | Good for | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scripted (rule-based) | Predefined questions and buttons, with a branch per answer | Qualification, bookings, menus | Stumbles on anything off-script |
| AI | A language model reads free text and writes the reply | Open questions and varied phrasing | Can answer confidently about things it does not know unless constrained |
| Hybrid | A script for the core steps, AI for whatever the script cannot match | Most sales and service teams | Needs clear rules for handing over to a person |
Example: a bot that books car servicing
Illustrative example: a car service center with three branches gets a steady stream of WhatsApp messages asking for maintenance slots. Its bot asks for the service type with three buttons (periodic service, brakes, other), shows a list of branches, asks for the car model and year, then offers a booking. The customer has an appointment in under two minutes, and the service advisor opens a record that already says what the car needs. Anyone who types that they want a person, or asks something the script cannot handle, is handed to an advisor straight away.
Platform rules: WhatsApp reply-button messages allow at most three quick replies, with button labels of up to 20 characters. Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform terms bar AI providers from the platform where a general-purpose assistant or large language model is the primary function rather than an incidental one; a business using a bot to serve its own customers is a different case. Review the current terms before launching an AI-driven bot.
In Naffes CRM
Naffes CRM lets an admin run more than one WhatsApp bot per workspace, each drawn as a flow in a visual editor under Settings > Automation > AI Bot. Rather than starting from a blank canvas, you can open one of four bilingual starter flows (appointment booking, general sales qualification, medical-tourism qualification and real-estate lead qualification) and adapt the wording to your business.
- What a flow can do: send text or media, offer button menus, ask single questions or short multi-question forms, branch on the answer, write answers into fields, create the lead, move the deal to another pipeline stage, call an outside API, pause for a set time, let AI take a turn, or pass the chat to a person.
- Buttons customers can tap: menus with up to 3 choices become WhatsApp quick-reply buttons, and 4 to 10 choices become a WhatsApp list.
- AI inside limits: when a customer types something the flow did not expect, AI answers in the bot's own persona. Guardrails route the chat to a human if the customer asks for a member of staff, if the text is gibberish, or if the bot starts repeating itself without a customer reply.
- Bookings that land in the calendar: a booking made in the chat creates a real meeting owned by the rep assigned to that conversation; if the rep has a booking page, the customer gets its link instead.
- Humans can step in and out: an agent can take over a live chat, ask AI for draft replies while typing, and give the chat back to the bot afterwards.
- Where people give up: each step in the editor shows how many conversations reached it, over the last 30 days by default.
- Office hours: every bot has its own working hours and an away message for anyone who writes outside them.
Supported channels: bots answer on WhatsApp only. The bot editor lists SMS, but SMS conversations get no bot replies, and Instagram and Messenger bots are still marked coming soon. Re-engaging leads who fell silent after a bot message is switched off by default and can only be turned on for a named workspace in the server configuration.
Before you switch a bot on
- Open with one question that sorts the traffic (sales, support or booking) and build each branch separately.
- Keep the way to a human visible at every step; never force a customer to finish the script.
- Check drop-off per step after two weeks. A question where many people stop needs simpler wording or should go.
- Decide what the AI may say, and do not let it promise prices or dates your team has not confirmed.
A good bot hands over a qualified lead; what happens next is on the team. Work handed-off chats from an omnichannel inbox, and remember that speed to lead still decides many deals.
Questions
Questions 2
Can the bot reply outside working hours?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons to use one. In Naffes each bot has working hours and an away message, so you decide what customers hear when the team is offline.
Does the Naffes bot work on Instagram or SMS?
Not yet. Bots currently run on WhatsApp only; Messenger and Instagram bots are marked as coming soon, and SMS threads do not receive bot replies.