Duke on duty: answering customers on WhatsApp

With Duke on duty, Duke answers customers who write to you on WhatsApp, at any hour: from what you tell him, your services and your free times. He can save their details, book their appointments and fill in their records, and he hands over to your team when he should.

Before you start

• Connect your WhatsApp number. Until then the page asks you to connect it first.
• Your plan needs to include answering customers. If it doesn't, the page says so.
• You need permission to put Duke on duty (owners have it).

Switch it on

1. Open Duke on duty (from Duke's work).
2. Under How Duke answers, choose the mode:
   • Off: your team answers every message.
   • Drafts: Duke writes every reply at once, and someone on your team sends it with one tap (or edits it first).
   • On its own: Duke replies and takes the actions you allow, any time of day.
3. Fill in What Duke knows (see below).
4. Click Save.

Duke works as you: the person who switched him on (or last changed the mode). He can never do more than you can.

What Duke may do besides answering

Under Besides answering, it may, tick what you allow:

• Save their details and enquiry: their name, email, your own fields (like budget or goal) and a lead for what they want.
• Book their appointments: book, move or cancel their own appointments in free times, for the services people may book themselves. See Bookings.

Save their details and fill in pages

With Save their details on, you can also let Duke Fill in your pages from what they say: tick the custom pages linked to customers that he may fill in, such as an assessment or intake form. He adds or updates that customer's own record from their answers. If you have no such pages yet, create one (or ask Duke to).

In Drafts mode, Duke never changes anything: nothing happens until your team sends the reply.

What Duke knows

Duke answers only from what you write here, your services and your prices. Anything else goes to your team.

• What it can tell customers: your opening hours, address and parking, what's included, offers, policies and frequent questions.
• Questions to ask new enquiries (optional): for example, what they're looking for and their budget.

When a person takes over

Duke hands a conversation to your team when:

• the customer writes one of your Words that always go to a person (for example “refund, complaint, manager”);
• a conversation reaches the Replies per conversation a day limit (20 unless you change it);
• the customer asks for a person, or it's about money, refunds, discounts, complaints or cancelling something paid for;
• Duke can't answer, or isn't sure.

You're notified, the conversation shows Needs a person with the reason, and Duke stays quiet in it until you give it back. In On its own mode, he tells the customer the team will reply soon.

Take over and give back

In the conversations list on the Duke on duty page:

• Take over to answer yourself; Duke stops replying there.
• Give back to Duke when you're done.
• Drafts appear under Duke's reply, waiting for you: edit if you like, then Send or Discard.

Quiet hours

Under Quiet hours (optional), set From and Until in your business's time. During those hours Duke only writes drafts for your team to send in the morning. You can add a Note sent once a night, such as “Thanks for your message! We're closed now and will reply after 9 am.”

Limits

• Replies per conversation a day: 1 to 100 (20 by default). At the limit, the conversation goes to a person.
• Monthly credit limit (optional): once Duke on duty has used this many AI credits in a month, he writes drafts instead of sending.
• WhatsApp's 24-hour rule always applies: Duke only replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message.

What Duke never does on duty

Money (payments, refunds, discounts, invoices or prices outside your list), cancelling or changing anything paid for, deleting, exports, settings, and messages to anyone who didn't write first. He only sees and changes the details and appointments of the customer he's talking to.

Keeping an eye on it

• Each morning at 8 am you get a summary: how many people Duke talked with, replies, drafts, hand-overs and what he did.
• Duke's work shows this week's customers answered and bookings made.
• Every message and change is on the customer's timeline and in the audit log, marked as Duke's.
• Duke introduces himself to customers as your business's assistant.