Since June, five travel agencies in Uganda have been using Novinect in their daily work. Real customers, real questions, real pressure.

That is the most valuable thing a young product can have, because it shows you exactly where you fall short. Here is what the agencies taught us.

What we learned

  • Every answer has to be grounded. An agency can only trust a receptionist that says what the agency would say, based on what the agency actually told it. A confident answer that is not grounded is worse than no answer.
  • The handover is the product. The moment a customer needs a person is where trust is won or lost. It has to be clean, timely and clear to everyone.
  • One conversation, one voice. Customers should feel they are talking to one agency, not to a set of tools stitched together.
  • Private chats come first. The conversations that turn into bookings are one to one.

What we changed

We rebuilt the receptionist around those lessons.

  • A new receptionist for private chats. Customer conversations now run on a new engine designed to give replies grounded in the agency's own information.
  • Clearer outcomes. Each conversation now aims for a clear result: the customer's question answered, or the request passed to the team with everything they need.
  • Better support for the team. When a conversation is passed over, the team gets a clear picture of what the customer needs.

Groups are paused

To give private chats our full attention, automated replies in WhatsApp groups are paused. Private conversations are where agencies need help most, so that is where we are focusing.

Thank you

To the five agencies: thank you for your patience and your honest feedback. This version of Novinect exists because of you.