A hardware shop that answers every builder at once
Baraka runs a hardware wholesale shop in Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam. Builders buy cement, iron bars and roofing sheets from him.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
From six in the morning, his WhatsApp fills with orders. Baraka answers each one by hand: is it in stock, what does it cost today, when can it come. By nine, forty messages are waiting. Builders who wait an hour buy next door.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Baraka built Counter. Counter is an AI employee: a flow of 5 blocks.
When a builder writes on WhatsApp,
A builder writes (WhatsApp Business event)
Counter reads the order,
The order clerk (AI agent)
checks the stock and today’s prices,
Stock and today’s prices (My data)
books the delivery,
Book the delivery (Google Sheets)
and answers in the same chat.
Answer in the chat (Reply)
What it solves
- Forty messages by nine: solved by WhatsApp Business event and AI agent and Reply
- Prices typed by hand: solved by My data
- Builders buy next door: solved by Google Sheets and Reply
The result
This morning, sixty builders order before eight. Each gets the price and a delivery time within a minute, in Swahili or English. Baraka spends the morning loading trucks, and nobody walks next door.
Baraka’s phone still buzzes at six. Now it buzzes with sales.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
A builder writes
WhatsApp Business event · WhatsApp event
Starts the flow when something happens in WhatsApp Business: a new record, a message, a change.
- 2
The order clerk
An AI agent: for each incoming message it thinks, uses the blocks you link to its Tools port (data, xMap AI, lookups, your tables, other flows, apps), remembers the conversation and writes an answer in {{reply}}.
- 3
Stock and today’s prices
Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.
- 4
- 5
Answer in the chat
Answers whoever started the flow, on the same channel: the app or system that called its Webhook / API gets the answer back, and a message from Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Teams, SMS, Outlook or Discord gets a reply in the same chat, through the account of the block that received it.
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- WhatsApp assistant for shop ownersAn AI agent that answers shop owners on WhatsApp from your product list.
- WhatsApp assistant with live placesAn AI agent that answers your WhatsApp messages with live places.
- Visit plans for my medical reps, by an AI agentAn AI agent prepares a three-line plan for every practice your reps visit this week.
- Chat about places near anyoneA chat for your customers that finds places near anyone, live.
- Branch finder and menu chat for your websiteA chat on your website that finds the customer's nearest branch, live.
- Job search chat for your candidatesA chat where candidates find live jobs and get passed to a recruiter.
Learn how it works
- AI agentAn AI that decides which tools to use to answer or complete a task.
- How to build a WhatsApp assistant that answers about placesCustomers ask on WhatsApp; an AI agent searches and replies.
- Data enrichmentAdding details to records you already have.
- AI agents with tools and memoryAn agent that answers questions using your blocks as tools.
- Answer on WhatsApp, Telegram or SlackAn assistant that replies in the same chat.
- Your own tables and lists (My data)Upload a CSV, save lists of results, and use them in flows.
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- Every client sees their land from space on FridayBrooke owns a small site works firm in Austin. Her crews clear and grade land for new neighbourhoods, on three sites at once.
- Sixty dealers watched, three worth a visitFarah manages sixty dealers for one of Malaysia’s biggest paint makers, across Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley.
Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.