How AGSONS Middle East took its sales enquiries out of group-chat screenshots

AGSONS Middle East supplies flooring, porcelain slabs, stone surfaces and construction adhesives from Jebel Ali in Dubai. It is the UAE extension of a UK family business with more than three decades in building materials, and its buyers range from homeowners to architects, contractors and developers working across the GCC.

None of them buys on the first message. A contractor specifying flooring for a development, or a homeowner choosing a kitchen surface, needs samples, several conversations and a quote that arrives before the project moves on without them.

Every enquiry arrived on someone's personal WhatsApp. Whoever received it forwarded the chat or dropped a screenshot into a group, and somebody picked it up, or didn't. Follow-ups lived in Excel sheets and handwritten notes and depended entirely on individual memory.

The gaps were predictable. Messages sent after hours sat unseen until morning. Screenshots were missed because everyone assumed someone else had taken them. A lead with no reminder was chased when somebody remembered, not when it mattered, and a contractor who waits two days for a reply has usually moved to another supplier. Nobody could see which leads were open or which follow-ups were late.

The team looked at the regular WhatsApp Business app first, but it had no shared inbox for several people, no automation for routine questions and no way to track leads in one place.

A shared team inbox replaced the personal numbers and the group chat. Every message lands in one place, is assigned to someone and stays visible, so it is obvious who owns it.

Chatbots handle the first layer — product categories, availability, showroom visits — so a client writing at 9pm gets a useful reply and has already said what they need by the time a person joins. WhatsApp Flows collect project type, surface area, material preference and timeline in one structured form instead of several rounds of messages. Segmented broadcasts bring new ranges, offers and project ideas to architects, contractors and past clients who have gone quiet.

Enquiries stopped falling between personal phones and group chats, because every message now enters a shared system where it is tracked and followed up. Response times dropped, so a client asking about materials for a live project hears back while the decision is still open. Contractors with detailed projects get a structured follow-up that starts from better information and shortens the road to a quote.

Gallabox's original story, linked above, gives its own figures in context. This summary sticks to what AGSONS set up and what changed for the sales team day to day.

Kuwait's tile, sanitary-ware, furniture and fit-out suppliers mostly sell the same way, and the screenshot-to-group habit will sound familiar. Move the sales number to the API with a shared inbox first; bots and forms matter less than knowing who owns each lead. A form that asks for area, finish and timeline before the showroom visit saves a round of messages, and a dynamic form that adapts to the answers needs Gallabox's Advanced plan. If you want to keep using the WhatsApp Business app on the same number, ask about Coexistence, which Gallabox's support team switches on.