CIERA — WhatsApp AI Agent & CRM for South African Service Businesses

CIERA is a WhatsApp AI agent and CRM for South African service businesses — plumbers, electricians, salons, tutoring centres, studios and more. It answers your customers on WhatsApp 24/7, books the job, sends the quote and the invoice, and keeps a customer record that fills itself in. It runs on your existing WhatsApp Business number through Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform, so you keep your number and your app. From R799 per month.

Is CIERA a WhatsApp CRM?

Yes. CIERA is a WhatsApp CRM and an AI agent in one. Most small-business CRMs fail because nobody does the data entry, so CIERA does not ask for any: every WhatsApp conversation automatically creates and updates the customer record — contact details, household relationships, booking history, quotes, invoices and payments. There is no second system to keep in sync and nothing to type in after a call. More on the WhatsApp CRM.

What the WhatsApp AI agent does

• Answers customer questions 24/7 using only your business's verified information — your services, your prices, your policies
• Books, reschedules and cancels appointments straight onto your calendar
• Quotes off your own price book, and takes a deposit as acceptance
• Sends branded invoices and secure payment links inside the chat
• Builds the CRM automatically from every conversation
• Messages your staff on the business number, in English or Afrikaans
• Hands the chat to a human team member the moment one is needed

How CIERA works

1. Connect your number. CIERA links to your existing WhatsApp Business number through Meta's official Embedded Signup. You keep the number and can carry on using the WhatsApp Business app alongside it.
2. Load your business. Your services, price list, hours, staff and policies go in once. CIERA answers only from that verified information, so it does not invent prices or promises.
3. It answers, books and bills. Customers message the same number they always have. CIERA replies in under a minute, books the job on your calendar, quotes off your price book and sends the invoice and payment link when the work is done.
4. You watch one dashboard. Every chat, booking, quote, invoice and customer sits in one place, and anything CIERA is unsure about is escalated to you instead of guessed at.

Which industries does CIERA support?

CIERA covers the 22 service industries below. Twelve of them have a purpose-built agent with its own playbook — its own triage rules, safety lines and way of talking to a customer. The rest run on the shared call-out-trade and service-business models with their trade's vocabulary and rules on top. Either way, getting started means loading your prices and your calendar, not training an AI from scratch. See what each agent handles.

Trades and home services

• Plumbers — emergency call-out triage, quotes off your price list, deposit to book
• Electricians — hazard calls booked immediately rather than quoted, compliance-aware job notes
• Solar installers — site-visit booking, system quoting, staged deposits
• Alarm & security installers — call-out scheduling and site assessments
• Garage door installers — repair vs replace triage, on-site quoting
• Pool companies — service routes, repairs and recurring maintenance
• HVAC & aircon technicians — install quotes and seasonal service bookings
• Appliance repair — fault capture, call-out fees and parts follow-up
• Maintenance contractors & handymen — mixed job intake and scheduling
• Pest control — treatment booking and follow-up visits
• Cleaning services — once-off and recurring cleans, team dispatch

Motoring

• Mechanics & auto repair — booking a car in, quoting work, ready-for-collection updates
• Driving schools — lesson booking, packages paid up front, instructor schedules

Health, beauty and wellness

• Hair salons — stylist-level bookings, deposits and no-show protection
• Veterinary clinics — appointments, patient history and reminders
• Pilates studios — class schedules, packages and waitlists
• Yoga studios — class booking and membership questions

Education and studios

• Dance schools — class enrolment, term fees and parent updates
• Tutoring centres — session scheduling, attendance-driven invoicing and tutor payouts

Hospitality, retail and property

• Restaurants — reservations, menu questions and large-group enquiries
• Florists — orders, delivery slots and occasion reminders
• Property managers & residential rentals — tenant maintenance requests, contractor dispatch and unit-level history

Why service businesses use CIERA

One AI team member covers WhatsApp 24/7 — no leave, no sick days, no repetitive questions. Replies land in under a minute, and one dashboard shows every chat, every booking and every busy hour. CIERA has already handled more than 10,000 customer conversations, and counting.

Built for South Africa

CIERA is South African. Pricing is in rand, not dollars. The platform is built with POPIA in mind, and the operating company is registered with the Information Regulator. Staff can work in English or Afrikaans, and customers pay through local payment links. The WhatsApp connection runs on Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform, which means your number stays yours and your account stays in good standing.

How much does CIERA cost?

CIERA starts at R799 per month for a solo operator and runs up to R19,999 per month at the Enterprise tier. Every plan is the complete platform — the AI agent, the CRM, bookings, quoting, invoicing and payment links. The tier only sets how many WhatsApp conversations are included, so you are never charged extra for a feature. Setup is done for you, and most businesses are live within about two working days.

Get started

Visit ciera.co.za to see CIERA in action and book onboarding for your business.