Frequently Asked Questions

Raimond is a SaaS platform that transforms your WhatsApp Business account into a 24/7 support or sales assistant. It resolves customer queries and sends quotes in seconds — a fraction of the time it would take a human.

Raimond is built for businesses that want to deploy human-like bots for support, sales, finance, and more — without the complexity.

Register at https://app.raimond.biz/register and build your first bot immediately. Test it in our sandbox environment at no cost. When you're ready to go live, contact us by email and we'll send you an invoice and banking details. After payment, we'll guide you through connecting your WhatsApp Business account.

No technical skills required. We guide you through the entire process. That said, if you want to become a power user and fine-tune every detail, a bit of technical curiosity helps. Technical skills give you an edge — you'll be able to take advantage of webhooks, API integrations, and more advanced features.

You can create and test a bot in the sandbox within minutes. Connecting to WhatsApp via Meta typically takes two to four weeks due to their verification process. During that time, you'll calibrate your bot — training it to handle the scenarios your business encounters.

R10,000 per month per phone number linked to your bot. This includes two active bots.

Yes. The sandbox is completely free — it's a virtual simulation of the WhatsApp environment where you can build, test, and refine your bot before going live.

No setup fees. You simply pay monthly in advance for the service.

Raimond is month-to-month with no lock-in. Cancel anytime.

EFT and credit card.

You configure it with instructions — the tone it should use, core rules, and how to handle specific situations. You can also upload company documents (product info, FAQs, policies) which the bot references to give accurate, relevant answers.

You have full control over the tone, personality, and how the bot handles different situations.

Situation Handlers let you define specific responses for specific scenarios. When a customer asks something and you want the bot to respond in a very particular way, that's where Situation Handlers come in.

You control this. The bot can acknowledge it doesn't know and offer to connect the customer with a human, or it can attempt an answer based on general industry knowledge. The choice is yours. Your instructions should make it clear that the bot must not fabricate answers. A well-built knowledge base minimises this risk significantly — the more comprehensive your facts, the less room there is for guesswork.

Absolutely. Our live console shows conversations in real time. If a customer asks to speak with a person, you can take over instantly. You can also send messages, files, and images at any time.

Yes — Raimond integrates directly with the official WhatsApp Business API.

Yes. The bot automatically detects the language a customer writes in and responds in the same language. It supports most major languages out of the box.

The bot handles them automatically. You can configure it to fulfil requests directly, or simply notify your team in the morning that a customer reached out.

You define the rules. As you use the system, you can tighten guidelines to prevent off-brand responses. Most users refine their bot over the first few weeks until it's spot-on.

Only if you choose to tell them. Research suggests transparency builds trust, but the decision is yours.

Yes. Your data is encrypted, belongs to you, and is never used to train AI models. If you ever want it deleted, we'll remove it promptly.

The bot follows the tone you set. If you instruct it to remain calm, empathetic, and respectful, it will — even with difficult customers. You can also configure it to automatically hand off to a human when frustration is detected.

Traditional chatbots follow rigid decision trees — they feel robotic and break easily. Raimond uses GPT-4, which understands context and nuance. Conversations feel natural, like talking to a knowledgeable human.

You could, but you'd need to build the infrastructure yourself: WhatsApp integration, conversation management, knowledge base, handoffs, analytics, and more. Raimond gives you all of that out of the box — tested, maintained, and ready to use.

Most WhatsApp bot platforms focus on templated flows and button-based menus — they work for simple use cases but struggle with nuanced, free-form conversations. Raimond is powered by GPT-4, which means it understands context, handles unexpected questions, and responds naturally. Combined with a full live console, real-time analytics, webhook integrations, and a knowledge base that learns from your documents, Raimond is built for businesses that need more than a basic autoresponder.

We use redundant infrastructure and multiple routing paths to ensure high availability. Messages queue automatically during any brief interruptions, so nothing is lost.

Yes. We support four permission levels — Owner, Admin, Operator, and Viewer — so you can give each team member the appropriate level of access.

Yes. Raimond supports webhooks and APIs, allowing you to push data to your CRM, trigger automations, or pull information into conversations in real time.

Absolutely — and we recommend it. Having separate bots for sales, support, and specific product lines lets each one specialise and perform at its best.

You have full control over your bot's rules, knowledge base, and behaviour. We handle the infrastructure — keeping everything running, secure, and up to date.

Simply update your bot's instructions or upload new documents. Changes take effect immediately — no development work required.

Yes. All plans include full system support, plus training materials and video guides to help you get the most out of Raimond.

Run simulations regularly and review real production conversations. Use the "Copy for AI Review" feature to paste your bot's configuration and conversation into an AI assistant for targeted improvement suggestions.

Yes. Raimond includes a full analytics dashboard — conversation volumes, average response times, resolution rates, trigger conversion rates, and peak-hour analysis. You can compare multiple bots side by side and export reports as CSV or PDF.

Yes. Trigger performance is available in the analytics dashboard, and you can also send the data to your reporting server via API.

Yes. You can set up threshold-based alerts — for example, if handoff requests spike or response rates drop. The system monitors key metrics and notifies you automatically.

The bot flags the conversation and adds it to a handoff queue, sorted by wait time. Your team sees pending handoffs in real time and can claim and respond to them instantly. While a human is handling the conversation, the bot steps back automatically.

Yes. From the live console, any authorised team member can send a message on behalf of the bot at any point — whether the customer requested it or not.

You configure a trigger that transfers the conversation to a human when specific conditions are met and a team member is available.

Yes. You define triggers — conditions like "customer expresses interest in signing up" — and attach actions to them. Actions can include showing a link, sending data to an external system via webhook, notifying your team, or even transferring the conversation to a different bot.

Yes. You configure extraction fields — name, email, phone number, budget, etc. — and the bot captures them naturally during conversation. Fields can be required, optional, or auto-detected. All extracted data is stored per conversation and available in your dashboard.

PDF, Word documents (DOCX), and plain text files. The system extracts the content, splits it intelligently into searchable chunks, and indexes it for retrieval.

Raimond uses a hybrid search system combining semantic understanding with keyword matching, followed by AI-powered verification. This means it finds relevant answers even when the customer's wording doesn't exactly match your documents.

It's the easiest integration to set up. Link your bot to a widget, customise the appearance, paste the code into your page, and it just works.

When you create a widget, you're given a code snippet. Paste it into your page and it's live.

Yes. You can match the widget to the look and feel of your website.

Perfectly. It's designed to look great on both desktop and mobile.

Yes. You can schedule messages to be sent at a specific time — useful for follow-ups, reminders, or timed offers. Scheduled messages can be viewed and cancelled before they're sent.

Yes — and this is one of Raimond's standout features. If a sales bot identifies a support question, it can transfer the conversation to your support bot mid-conversation. The full chat history carries over so the customer never has to repeat themselves.

Yes. There's a free sandbox environment where you can test and refine your bot before deploying it.

Simulation lets you stress-test your bot before launch. Describe a customer persona and the system generates realistic conversations — bots chatting with bots. This helps you identify and resolve roughly 80% of the scenarios you'll encounter in production.

Yes. Every bot has a Share button that generates a link you can send to anyone.

Yes. Raimond logs all significant actions — bot changes, team member updates, document uploads, and more. Logs are retained for 90 days and can be filtered by user, action type, or date range. You can export them as CSV for compliance reporting.

Yes. You can configure webhooks that fire on events like new conversations, specific triggers, or handoff requests. Each webhook call is logged with full request/response details, and failed deliveries retry automatically.

Yes. You can set up HTTP tools that the bot calls in real time — for example, checking stock availability, looking up a customer record, or generating a quote from your pricing system.

Yes. There are four roles: Owner (full access), Admin (everything except billing), Operator (day-to-day bot management and console), and Viewer (read-only). You can invite team members by email and assign roles during invitation.

Yes. We link your existing number to our Meta App — no need to change the number your customers already know.

WhatsApp is built on Meta's infrastructure, so changes to their terms or pricing affect every business on the platform — including your competitors. We continuously optimise our integration to help you get maximum value regardless of Meta's pricing changes.

Your conversation history and bot configuration are stored in our database, independent of your WhatsApp number. If your number is ever restricted, you can relink your bot to a new number without losing any data.

The number is entirely yours. Raimond only has permission to send and receive messages on your behalf. If you cancel your subscription, we immediately lose access to your number.

Only if you send outbound messages more than 24 hours after a customer's last message. These are called template messages and are charged directly to you by Meta — they do not form part of the Raimond subscription.

Yes. We fully comply with Meta's messaging policies. We have never had a client's number suspended. As an additional safeguard, we refuse to send template messages to contacts who have not engaged first — this protects your number from being flagged for spam.

Yes. Raimond is fully POPIA compliant.

Our infrastructure is hosted in Germany, within a secure, GDPR-compliant data centre.

Yes. You can configure data retention policies to automatically limit how long conversation data is stored.

Yes. Sensitive information can be encrypted within the platform and is only decrypted when accessed via our API — ensuring it remains protected at rest.

Yes. We can process deletion requests within the timeframes required by the Act.

Yes. A DPA is available on request.

AI can occasionally produce inaccurate responses — this is why thorough testing before going live is essential. You define the rules, upload your own content, and refine the bot's behaviour in the sandbox until it meets your standards.

This is preventable through proper configuration and testing. You control what the bot can and cannot say — pricing, delivery commitments, and policy statements should all be defined in your bot's rules before launch.

Yes. You have full control over the bot's scope — you can restrict it to specific topics, prevent it from discussing certain subjects, and define exactly how it handles edge cases.

Absolutely — and we strongly encourage it. The sandbox environment lets you test every scenario with real conversations before a single customer interacts with your bot.

Not to our knowledge. However, as with any customer-facing tool, we cannot guarantee that minor issues have never occurred without being reported to us. This is why we emphasise thorough pre-launch testing and ongoing refinement.

Multi-user critical issues are addressed within one hour. Problem tickets are responded to within one calendar day. General queries are handled within two working days.

The bot goes silent — from the customer's perspective, it appears as an unanswered message rather than an error. Messages are queued and processed once the system is restored.

Yes. You can switch the bot off instantly when required. However, the platform is designed to run 24/7 — most clients only disable during specific incidents or maintenance windows.

All conversations are persisted in our database. When the system restarts, conversations resume from where they left off — no data is lost.

Instantly. You can disable the bot with a single action from the dashboard.

Access is restricted to our head developers only. They are not permitted to pull conversation reports, and all database queries are logged for accountability.

Data is encrypted in transit. Sensitive fields are encrypted at rest — standard conversation data is stored securely but not individually encrypted unless configured to do so.

Yes. We conduct regular penetration testing, security audits, and stress testing to maintain platform integrity.

Not at present. This is on our development roadmap and we will communicate availability when it is released.

You can download all of your data via our API before cancelling. Alternatively, we can make arrangements on request to assist with the export.

Yes. You have full API access to export conversation data and bot configurations at any time.

No. The service is month-to-month with payment made in advance. There is no long-term commitment or lock-in.

Yes. Your data and configuration are exportable. The ease of migration will depend on the platform you are moving to and its import capabilities.

Raimond is currently powered by GPT-4. When the underlying model is updated, your bot's configuration, rules, and knowledge base remain unchanged — updates are designed to improve response quality, not disrupt your setup.

Yes. Conversations are processed through OpenAI's API to generate responses. Your data is subject to OpenAI's enterprise data handling terms, which prohibit the use of API data for model training.

This is possible but requires a different configuration and pricing model. Please contact our technical team to discuss your specific requirements.

Yes. Our team assists you with all Meta-required configuration, walks you through the platform, and shows you how to train and refine your bots. You are never left to figure it out alone.

We provide templates to get you started, and our onboarding support team will work with you to configure your bot's initial instructions and conversation flows.

Budget approximately one month if you want to do it properly — that includes sandbox testing, refining the bot's responses, completing Meta verification, and ensuring the solution works end to end before going live.

No hard limit. We do not impose conversation caps under normal usage. In the unlikely event that usage significantly exceeds reasonable levels, we will discuss additional costs with you — but this would never be requested unreasonably.

No slowdown. We maintain the same level of service regardless of volume spikes. Your customers will experience consistent response times even during peak periods.

Yes. Voice notes are fully supported — they are automatically transcribed when sent or received, so the bot can understand and respond to voice messages just like text.

Yes. The bot can send images, PDFs, and other documents — useful for delivering quotes, brochures, invoices, or product information directly within the conversation.

Individual chats only. The bot is designed for one-on-one customer conversations.

Yes. Beyond standard analytics, you can track conversion metrics — including how successfully your bot is closing deals, collecting customer information, and qualifying leads.

Clients have reported sales more than doubling after implementation, and support tickets being resolved in less than half the time. Results vary by industry and configuration, but the combination of instant response times, 24/7 availability, and consistent lead qualification consistently drives measurable commercial improvements.

Yes. Raimond's infrastructure is cloud-hosted and not affected by local power outages. If your customer's connection drops mid-conversation, the bot picks up seamlessly when they reconnect — no data is lost.

Yes. The bot understands mixed-language messages — for example, a customer switching between English and Afrikaans or Zulu in the same conversation. It detects the language being used and responds accordingly.

Yes. You can set up multiple bots, each linked to its own WhatsApp number — allowing you to represent different branches, locations, or countries independently.

Currently Raimond supports WhatsApp and web chat — these two channels cover the vast majority of customer communication for businesses with buying power.

Yes. The key is proper configuration — in regulated environments, you should restrict the bot to only answer questions it has verified information for, and configure it to hand off to a human for anything outside its scope.

When a customer initiates a conversation with you on WhatsApp, their engagement constitutes consent to communicate. However, when collecting personal information, best practice is to inform the customer what data you are requesting and for what purpose.

Yes. We perform daily backups and maintain a failover system to ensure your data is protected against loss.

Raimond operates with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. In the rare event of downtime, messages queue automatically and are processed once the system is restored.

We use a train-the-trainer approach. Our team trains your designated champion or team lead, who then rolls out the platform internally.

Your customers will never see the Raimond name. You build your own bot, give it your own name, and configure its personality to match your brand.

Raimond is built from the ground up for website and WhatsApp communication. That's our sole focus, and it shows. Our competitors spread across many channels without the same depth.