WhatsApp reservations and orders, on one number

At six on a Friday the person messaging you has three other tabs open. CIERA answers in under a second, works out in the first turn whether they want a table or a collection, gets allergies to the kitchen properly, and never promises a table you do not have. From R799 per month.

See CIERA in action

Booking or order, decided in one turn

"Table for two tonight" and "two pizzas for collection at seven" arrive on the same number and routing one into the other's flow wastes the next five turns — and usually the customer. The agent reads which it is immediately, and when it genuinely cannot tell, it asks exactly one question before opening either the menu or the calendar.

Speed here is hospitality. Hesitation reads as "closed" or "no space".

Allergies are the one place it deliberately slows down

A 600-millisecond reply to a parent disclosing their child's peanut allergy reads as a bot firing back. So the agent slows, and runs a fixed chain:

1. Establish whether this is a preference, something avoided strictly, or an actual allergy — three tiers that never get collapsed into one
2. Read the allergen back in capitals, never paraphrased. "Shellfish" does not become "seafood"
3. Tag the booking with the allergen and its severity
4. Alert the kitchen — immediately if service is inside 24 hours, otherwise into the morning brief. Anaphylactic or "carries an EpiPen" always pings the manager, however far out
5. Confirm back, and ask them to tell their waiter on arrival, so there are two layers
6. If they ask whether a specific dish is safe, it does not answer. Only the chef can confirm that

Strict dietary requirements are handled differently again — the agent confirms what is on the menu and never claims a halaal or kosher certification the restaurant does not hold.

The chef sees a big table 48 hours out

A party of twelve that lands on an unwarned kitchen is how a restaurant loses a night. Anything eight and over diverts into its own flow: the deposit is explained, the dietary list is requested with a cut-off, the manager is told, and a kitchen brief is queued for two days ahead rather than the afternoon of.

It asks what the occasion is before it celebrates

"We're celebrating" could be a fortieth birthday or a wake. A cheerful "happy birthday!" reply to a funeral booking is unrecoverable, so the agent always asks first, then changes register to match.

On a memorial booking it goes quiet: no exclamation marks, no "looking forward to celebrating", no candles or dessert flourishes, and the floor brief asks for a quiet table away from the music. The follow-up that would normally ask how the evening was is switched off entirely.

On a surprise it protects the surprise. The other party's number goes on a silence list for the booking window, so no confirmation or reminder can land on a phone that gets handed over. If they message asking directly, the agent says it will check with the restaurant and routes to a human rather than improvising.

Regulars get treated like regulars

Asking a three-year regular "can I take your name please?" is the single most insulting thing a front of house can do. The agent knows them, books them in a sentence, and can pass on that the chef was asking after someone who has not been in for a while. If a regular's birthday was marked last year, that surfaces to the manager rather than to the customer — the surprise belongs to the restaurant, not the bot.

It will not oversell the room

"We'll squeeze you in" is a manager's decision, never the agent's. Better to lose a booking than to oversell one. What it offers instead is the honest version: the times that are actually free, or the waitlist.

It also does not comp meals, hand out free drinks or promise a remedy when something goes wrong. Compensation is a manager's call every single time, and the agent's job is to capture the complaint without getting defensive about it.

A few things it does that nobody asks for

If a patio booking is facing rain, strong wind or a night under 12 degrees, it offers to move the table inside that morning. It checks in on a lapsed regular once, warmly, with no discount and no second nudge. And a repeat no-show is handled without ever being named or shamed — that conversation goes to the manager, not the customer.

Built for South African restaurants

It knows what a provincial liquor licence category means for corkage, that BYO is the exception here rather than the rule, that SANHA certifies halaal and the Beth Din kashrut, that gluten-free is not statutorily certified in South Africa, and that the indoor room is non-smoking by law. Where you do not take direct delivery, it points people to the aggregator you actually use.

A CRM that fills itself in

Covers, occasions, allergies, no-shows, favourite tables and the dates that matter accumulate against each customer without anyone keeping a book. See how the WhatsApp CRM works.

Not a restaurant? See florists, hair salons, veterinary clinics, or all 22 industries. More on how the AI agent works.