Manufacturer Case Study: WhatsApp Quoting Bot
How a hydraulic components manufacturer answers quote requests on WhatsApp in under two minutes, with a bot that reads part numbers, checks pricing and stock, and hands complex requests to a person.
Overview
The client manufactures hydraulic fittings and components and sells to distributors and repair shops across the Americas, most of whom ask for quotes on WhatsApp. Two inside-sales staff answered the messages, looked up each part number in the price list, checked stock, and typed a reply. Median turnaround was almost a day, and a request that arrived on Friday afternoon was answered on Monday.
Gain Rhino built a quoting bot on the company's WhatsApp Business number. A customer sends a part number, or several, or a photo of a label; the bot reads them, returns unit price, quantity breaks and stock, and offers to turn the quote into an order. Anything the bot cannot resolve, such as a custom spec or a part not in the list, goes to a person with the conversation attached. Every quote is logged in the CRM against the customer.
Research
We exported three months of WhatsApp history: about 1,100 quote requests, 80 percent of which were standard part numbers the price list could answer directly. Median response time was 22 hours. Roughly one in six requests never received a reply because the message was buried by newer ones.
We connected the price list and inventory feed, set the pricing tiers by customer type, and defined the hand-off rules: custom specs, quantities above a threshold, and any message the bot is not confident about go to a human. The bot reads part numbers from text and from photos of product labels, because that is how customers actually send them. Every conversation writes back to the customer's CRM record.
Result
Standard quote requests are now answered in minutes at any hour, in the channel the customer already uses. Inside sales spends its time on custom work and on customers who need a conversation. Nothing gets buried, and every quote is on the record.
By the numbers (first 90 days):
- Median time from request to quoteabout 2 minutes, down from 22 hours
- Quote requests answered without a person78%
- Requests that received no reply0, down from about 1 in 6
- Quotes converted to orders inside the chat31%
- Quotes logged in the CRM100%, up from roughly half
Client identity withheld at their request. Figures reflect the first 90 days after launch.
