Resources · 3 min read
WhatsApp chatbots in Costa Rica: three different products with the same name
A button tree, a platform your team answers from, and an AI agent wired to your catalog all advertise the same way. The first task isn't comparing prices: it's knowing which one you're being offered.
Three different products, one name
In Costa Rica, “WhatsApp chatbot” can mean three things: a button tree — press 1, press 2 —, a platform with a shared inbox where your team replies with templates, or an AI agent that queries your catalog and answers on its own. All three advertise the same and resemble each other in nothing: not in what they do, not in what they cost, not in what they save you. Comparing quotes without knowing which is which is comparing apples to invoices.
The question that separates them: where does the answer come from?
If the answer lives in a menu someone built, it's a tree: good for store hours and directions, doesn't sell. If your team writes it from an inbox, it's a platform: it orders the chaos, but payroll still answers. If it comes from querying your catalog or your system in the moment, it's an agent. None is “better” in the abstract — but paying agent prices for a tree with a greeting is this market's most expensive mistake.
The test: your catalog, not their demo
The vendor's demo always goes well — it's their script. Ask for a test with your products: ask about something out of stock, a size that doesn't exist, the price that changed yesterday. A tree won't manage. A platform will show you how your team would reply. A real agent answers with your data — or says it doesn't know and escalates to a person. Half an hour of that test is worth more than any PDF proposal.
Red flags in the first meeting
Nobody asks about your systems or your catalog: they'll install the same thing they installed for the last client. They promise “ready in 24 hours” for something integrated: the integration is the work, not the paperwork. They can't tell you what the bot does when it doesn't know. And the classic: “no monthly fee” — a living system has living costs, and whoever gives it away won't maintain it.
What a serious vendor asks of you
Access to the catalog or the system where the truth lives. Real example conversations, hard cases included. Defining together what escalates to a person and who covers it on a Sunday. Someone responsible on your side. If they ask for this, good sign: they're going to integrate you, not install you. And these questions work with any vendor in the market — including us.
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