Chatbots that answer routine questions and hand over to your team
Give customers instant answers to the questions they ask every day, such as opening hours, order status or booking times, and pass the conversation to a person as soon as it needs one.
- 1Customer message
- 2Menu or keyword
- 3Collect order number
- 4API lookup
- 5Answer or offer agent
- 6Agent in inbox
A simple order-status chatbot flow, from the customer's first message to handover. Illustrative.
Short answer
Updated
OmniChannels.ai chatbots answer routine customer messages on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, RCS and web chat. A flow bot uses menus, keywords, buttons and lists to collect details, look up orders or appointments through your API and share opening hours, in Arabic or English. When a customer asks for a person or the flow cannot help, the conversation moves to an agent in the shared inbox with its history.
What a chatbot can handle for you
Most customer messages fall into a handful of predictable requests. A flow bot handles those and leaves the rest to people.
Menu and keyword flows
Start with a welcome menu or react to words such as "order", "hours" or "agent", and guide the customer step by step.
Buttons and lists
Use quick-reply buttons and list messages where the channel supports them, so customers tap an option instead of typing.
Collect details in the chat
Ask for an order number, a booking date, a branch or an email address, and check the format before moving on.
Order and appointment lookups
Call your own system through its API to fetch an order status, a delivery slot or the next free appointment, and reply with the result.
Opening hours and out-of-hours replies
Answer with your branch hours, and tell customers who write at night when an agent will pick up.
Handover to a person
Move the conversation to an agent in the shared inbox when the customer asks for one or the flow reaches its end, with the bot's messages kept in the thread.
Arabic and English
Run the same flow in Arabic and English, and let customers pick their language at the start.
One flow, several channels
Use the bot on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, RCS and web chat, within what each channel allows.
Flow chatbot or AI agent?
Both are available. Pick by how predictable the conversation is and whether the bot needs to act in your systems.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Flow chatbot | Best when the questions are predictable: menus, keywords, fixed answers and simple lookups. Easy to review because every path is written in advance. |
| AI agent | Best when customers phrase things freely, answers come from a knowledge base, or the bot must take actions through tools. Powered by BroadNet AI. |
| Both together | A flow handles the opening menu and fixed tasks, and passes open questions to an AI agent or a person. |
| Handover to agents | Either type passes the conversation to a person in the shared inbox, with the earlier messages in the same thread. |
How to launch a chatbot
- 1
Pick the top questions
Read recent conversations and list the five to ten requests that come up most, such as order status, hours and booking changes.
- 2
Design the flow
Write the menu, the buttons and the questions the bot asks, in Arabic and English, and decide where each path ends.
- 3
Connect your systems
Agree which API calls the bot makes for lookups, such as order status or free appointment slots, and test them with sample data.
- 4
Set the handover rules
Decide when the bot passes to a person, which agents receive the conversation and what customers are told outside working hours.
- 5
Test, launch and review
Try every path on each channel, go live, then read the conversations that reached agents and improve the flow.
When a chatbot is the right choice
A good fit when
- A large share of messages are the same few questions, such as order status, hours or booking times.
- Customers write outside working hours and you want them to get an answer or a clear next step.
- Your systems can answer lookups through an API.
- You want every bot answer to be predictable and approved in advance.
Good to know before you start
- A flow bot only follows the paths you write; open questions need an AI agent or a person.
- Buttons, lists and rich cards depend on the channel, so the same flow can look different on WhatsApp, RCS and Telegram.
- WhatsApp's 24-hour service window and Meta's messaging rules still apply to bot replies.
- Lookups need an API on your side; the bot cannot read data your systems do not expose.
- A bot that hides the way to a person frustrates customers, so keep an "agent" option in every menu.
Chatbot questions
Which channels can a chatbot run on?
WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, RCS and web chat. Interactive elements such as buttons, lists and cards follow what each channel supports.
Can the bot check an order or an appointment?
Yes. The flow can call your system's API with details the customer gives, such as an order number, and reply with the status or the next free slot.
How does a customer reach a person?
The bot hands the conversation to an agent in the shared inbox when the customer asks or the flow ends. The agent sees the bot's messages in the same thread, so the customer does not repeat themselves.
Does the chatbot work in Arabic?
Yes. You can run the same flow in Arabic and English and let customers choose their language at the start.
When should we use an AI agent instead?
When customers ask open questions in their own words, when answers come from a knowledge base, or when the bot needs to take actions in your systems. Many teams combine a flow menu with an AI agent for everything else.
Guides on this topic
- Customer supportWhatsApp Chatbot to Human Handoff: How to Design It Properly8 min read
- WhatsAppWhatsApp Buttons and List Messages: Which Interactive Type to Use8 min read
- WhatsAppWhatsApp Flows Guide: Forms, Bookings and Lead Capture in Chat8 min read
- MarketingConversational Commerce: How to Sell Through Chat, End to End8 min read
- UAE & Saudi ArabiaArabic Customer Messaging: Best Practices for GCC Brands8 min read
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Bring the questions your team answers most often. We'll sketch the flow, the lookups and the handover for your channels.