Eleven at night in Mansoura
Hassan has a burger and liver sandwich place near the university in Mansoura. Thursday night is his best night and his worst: the counter is full, the kitchen is running, and the shop's WhatsApp has forty unread messages. “Is there liver tonight?”, “How much is the combo?”, “3ayez 2 burger w batates”. The boy at the till answers between two customers, a quarter of an hour late, and half of them have already ordered from the place across the street.
The problem is not the menu or the prices; Hassan has both on PosMasr Cloud already. The problem is that one person cannot sell at the counter and type on WhatsApp at the same time. That is the job of the front desk.
How an order travels
- The customer writes to the shop's number in Egyptian Arabic, English or Franco: “عايز 2 برجر وبطاطس” or “3ayez 2 burger w batates”. Quick messages one after another are read together as one request.
- The assistant looks the items up in your online shop's products: the name, today's price, what is sold out, the sizes and add-ons with their prices. It never makes up a price or an item.
- It sends a quote: the items, the delivery fee of the customer's area and the total, worked out exactly as your online shop works out a cart, with two buttons, Confirm and Change.
- The customer says “yes”, “أيوه” or presses Confirm. Only then the program reads the prices and the stock again and places the order through your online shop's own checkout: cash on delivery, with your rules (accepted by you or automatically), on the tills, with its kitchen ticket.
- The customer gets the order number, the total and the status, then a message at each change: accepted, out for delivery, delivered, or rejected.
The front desk also answers the questions around the order: the menu, prices, whether you are open, your address with a map link, and your own answers that you write in its settings. Simple messages — a greeting, “thanks”, “where are you”, “are you open” — get a ready answer without the AI at all.
The rules it never breaks
- The assistant never confirms an order by itself and never says anybody paid. The confirmation is the customer's word, and the program carries it out, not the AI.
- A price that changed is asked again. If a price moved or an item sold out between the quote and the “yes”, the customer gets a new quote and the question again. A “yes” sent twice never makes two orders.
- A quote lives 30 minutes. When the shop is closed, the order is set for your opening time, following the online shop's hours.
- A daily limit. AI answers a day: 200 on Business, 600 on Chain, 30 in the trial, and 20 an hour for one customer. Past that the conversation goes to your team, never left hanging.
- WhatsApp's 24 hours. A free reply goes only within 24 hours of the customer's last message; after that only an order-status message approved by Meta. No marketing messages, ever.
Switching it on
- Set the online shop first, in Settings → Online → Shop: delivery areas and their fees, the minimum order, pickup and the hours. The front desk uses these as they are, one place for all of them.
- Open Settings → Front desk → Connect WhatsApp: your shop's own WhatsApp Business number on Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API. You paste the phone number ID, a permanent token and the app secret, put the webhook link and the verify token from the page into Meta, and press Check the connection. We go through it with you on a call or on WhatsApp.
- Name and tone: the assistant's name, friendly, formal or brief, and a welcome line. Your answers: up to 30 questions and answers of your own, like “Is there parking?” or “Is the liver Alexandrian style?”.
- Who answers: start with Drafts (the assistant writes, your team sends) or Pilot (automatic only for the numbers you list, like your own), then move to Automatic when you trust it.
The page shows what is ready and what is missing (answers, orders, bookings, voice notes, pictures), with the line to fix. The full steps are in the manual, and the whole feature on the front desk page.
What it does not do yet
• It is coming with the next update, not in your account today.
• Cash on delivery only. The customer does not pay inside the chat.
• No campaigns or marketing messages. It answers the customers who write to you.
• Your own number through Meta. It needs your shop's WhatsApp Business number connected to Meta's WhatsApp Cloud API.
• Not yet: browsable product lists inside WhatsApp, booking reminders as WhatsApp messages.
• It is not in the program on your PC; it is part of PosMasr Cloud.
Which plans include it
The front desk is an add-on on Business and Chain, and it is included in the 14-day trial. It costs 750 EGP a month.
| Plan | Front desk | AI answers a day |
|---|---|---|
| Basic, Cashier, Shop | — | — |
| Business | Add-on, 750 EGP a month | 200 |
| Chain | Add-on, 750 EGP a month | 600 |
| The trial | Included | 30 |
Orders need the online shop on, which Business and Chain include. The full comparison is on the PosMasr Cloud page.
Quick answers
Can the assistant get a price wrong?
Prices come from your online shop's products, and the total is worked out by the program, not by the AI, then checked again at the customer's “yes”.
What if the customer wants to talk to a person?
He writes it, and the conversation goes to your team at once; see voice notes, pictures and the hand-off.
Does it take table bookings too?
Yes, if you use online bookings: it offers the free times, holds the slot, and the customer confirms the same way.
How long are the messages kept?
90 days, with the pictures. The owner can erase one customer's conversation from the inbox.
Let WhatsApp answer while you sell
The front desk is coming with the next update. Start the 14-day trial of Business today, no card, and set your online shop: it is the front desk's menu.
First year 20% off every plan and add-on — with the code
