ShihabAI العربية

How Shihab works, step by step

There is no app for the customer to install and no new number to learn. Shihab sits on the channels your customers already write to, and works from your own data.

Connecting

  1. Connect the channel

    In the Shihab console: connect Messenger, WhatsApp or Instagram. Sign in with the Facebook account that manages the page, approve the permissions, pick the page or the number. Nothing to copy and no token to send over chat.

  2. Test it yourself

    After connecting, the console gives you a link, a QR code and a message with a test code. Send it from your phone and watch Shihab reply before any customer sees it.

  3. Load the menu

    If your cashier system is connected (Unify, for example) the menu and prices come from it and stay in sync. If not, you upload the menu once and edit it in the console.

  4. Record delivery areas and opening hours

    Each area with its fee and the branch that serves it, and each branch's hours. This is the data Shihab answers from, which is why it never has to guess.

How a conversation goes

  1. The customer writes the way they speak

    Are you still open, how much is delivery to Betunia, two crispy meals and make one of them spicy. No menus of buttons and no numbers to press.

  2. Shihab answers from your data

    A question about a price, an item, an area or opening hours is answered from your menu and your tables. Every price, total and fee is computed in code, not written by a model.

  3. It completes the order

    It asks for the size and the add-ons the item allows, confirms the area, address and phone number, shows the total, and takes the customer's confirmation.

  4. The order reaches the cashier

    The order lands at the branch in the shape your staff already know, and goes straight into the cashier system with a reference when one is connected.

  5. The customer follows the order

    A link shows the status: received, confirmed, being prepared, on the way. No more asking where the order is every five minutes.

Where Shihab stops and hands over

This is the important part, and it is built into the system rather than asked for in words: there are cases Shihab is not allowed to finish on its own.

  • The customer asked for a person.
  • A complaint about an order or about quality: it apologises, gathers the details and routes it to the quality team.
  • An area with no recorded fee: it will not invent a number.
  • A discount, a large order or a special price: a management decision, not a bot's.
  • An allergy or ingredient question with no confirmed answer.
  • Anything it does not hold: it says it will check and hands over.

The whole conversation arrives with the member of staff from its first message, so the customer does not repeat themselves and nobody reads it twice.

What the owner sees

  • One inbox for every channel, in Arabic, with every conversation as it happens.
  • Take over at any point, or pause the agent on one conversation or a whole channel.
  • Orders and their status, including whether the cashier accepted them.
  • The menu, prices, sold-out items, delivery areas and opening hours.
  • Each channel's health: are messages arriving, are the permissions valid, what was the last reply and how did it go.
  • Gradual rollout: a percentage of conversations to Shihab, the rest to your staff.

Before any customer sees a reply

Every version of Shihab is re-run against real conversations from the restaurant's own page history: the same questions real customers asked, with Shihab's answer compared to what the member of staff actually replied, turn by turn. That is how we know whether a new version is better or worse for your restaurant, not for a hypothetical one.

Common questions

How long does connecting take?

Connecting itself takes minutes: a Facebook sign-in and picking the page. What takes time is preparing the menu, the delivery areas and the opening hours if you do not already have them written down.

Do I need a cashier system?

No. With one connected, orders go straight in and the menu stays in sync. Without one, the order reaches the branch and you manage the menu in the console.

Will my staff stop handling messages?

No. Shihab takes the repetitive questions and the orders; your staff keep the judgement calls. You can also start with a small percentage and raise it.

What if a customer writes something unclear?

It asks one clarifying question, the way a member of staff would, and hands over rather than assuming if it is still unclear.

Want to see it on your own menu? Send us the restaurant's name and its page link.

support@shihab.co.uk