Residents message the center on WhatsApp in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian or English, and an AI agent answers from the live class catalog, holds a seat, sends a payment link and confirms the place once paid. Fee waivers and complaints go to the front desk.
Typical results
Under 1 min
First reply, in the resident's own language
≈7 hrs/wk
Front desk time on class questions saved
4
Languages answered from one live class catalog
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
During registration season, about 500 inquiries a month ask the same things: what time the Tuesday pottery class starts, whether there is a sibling discount, whether seats are left for age 8. Two front desk staff answer between walk-ins and calls, replies take hours, and seats get promised before anyone pays. Messages in Arabic or Russian wait longest.
Before and after
Minutes to first reply on WhatsApp
−99%Front desk hours per week on class inquiries
−58%Unpaid seat holds blocking the waiting list per month
−88%The automation
An AI agent answers the center's WhatsApp number in the resident's language, reading days, times, ages, fees, discounts and open seats from the Google Sheets class catalog. When someone wants a class, it collects the participant's details, holds the seat for 24 hours and sends a payment link. A cleared payment confirms the place and updates the roster. Fee waivers, complaints and unanswerable questions go to the front desk with a conversation summary.
How it works
- 01
Message in any of four languages
A resident writes in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian or English, and the agent replies in the same language within a minute, day or night.
- 02
Answers from the live catalog
Days, times, age groups, fees, sibling discounts and open seats come straight from the Google Sheets catalog the staff already keep up to date.
- 03
Seat held, payment link sent
When the resident picks a class, the agent collects the participant's name, age and phone, holds a seat for 24 hours and sends a payment link.
- 04
Paid means confirmed
Once the payment clears, the seat is confirmed, the roster is updated and the resident gets the class details. Unpaid holds are released after 24 hours.
- 05
Front desk gets the rest
Fee waiver requests, complaints and anything outside the catalog go to the front desk with a short summary of the conversation, so no one asks twice.
Starts from
- Resident WhatsApp messages
- Class catalog in Sheets
- Payment confirmations
Delivers
- Held seat and payment link
- Booking confirmation
- Front desk handoff summary
The impact
About 60% of inquiries are handled end to end with no staff involved, and first replies drop from around 4 hours to under a minute. Front desk time on class questions falls from about 12 hours a week to 5, and unpaid seat holds are released automatically instead of blocking the waiting list.
Questions about this automation
How does the agent know which classes still have seats?
It reads the class catalog in Google Sheets on every question, so a change the staff make to a time, fee or seat count shows up in the next reply. Held and paid seats are written back to the same sheet, which keeps the open seat count accurate while several residents book at once.
What happens with questions the agent can't answer?
The agent doesn't guess. Fee waivers, accessibility arrangements, complaints and anything outside the catalog go to the front desk with a short summary of the resident's language, the class discussed and the question, and the resident is told when a staff member will reply.
What does the center decide before the agent goes live?
Staff set the seat hold time, the sibling and age discount rules and the topics that always go to a person, such as fee waivers. The center also needs a WhatsApp business number, the class catalog in Google Sheets and a payment provider that sends links. This is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages.