How AGSONS Middle East stopped losing leads in a WhatsApp group chat

About AGSONS Middle East

AGSONS Middle East is the UAE extension of a UK family business with over three decades of experience in building materials. Operating out of Jebel Ali, Dubai, the company supplies premium flooring, porcelain slabs, stone surfaces, and construction adhesives under brands including Richmond Flooring, Iberica Stones, and Monster Adhesives. Their clients range from individual homeowners to architects, contractors, and developers working across the GCC.

Selling premium building materials is not a transactional business. A contractor specifying flooring for a development, or a homeowner deciding between stone surfaces for a kitchen renovation, is making a considered decision that involves multiple conversations, product samples, and project timelines. The team that handles those conversations is the difference between a quote that converts and one that goes cold.

A screenshot in a group chat is not a sales process

Before Gallabox, AGSONS Middle East ran their entire customer communication through personal WhatsApp numbers. When an enquiry came in, the team member who received it would forward the chat or take a screenshot and drop it into a group. Someone would pick it up, or they would not. Follow-ups were tracked in Excel and handwritten notes, done one by one, and dependent entirely on individual memory and effort.

The gaps in this process were inevitable. A message that arrived on a personal number outside of working hours might not be seen until the next day. A forwarded screenshot in a group chat could be missed or assumed that someone else had handled it. A lead tracked in Excel with no automated reminder got followed up when someone remembered, not when it mattered.

For a business selling high-value materials to contractors and developers who are comparing suppliers and working to project deadlines, slow responses and missed follow-ups are not minor inconveniences. They are lost orders. A contractor who sends an enquiry about porcelain slabs for a development and gets a reply two days later has often already moved on.

The team had no unified view of what was happening across conversations. There was no way to see who had responded to what, which leads were still open, or which follow-ups were overdue. The business was growing, but the communication infrastructure was not.

Why AGSONS Middle East chose Gallabox

AGSONS evaluated the core WhatsApp Business platform before choosing Gallabox, but the native app did not offer what the team needed: a shared inbox that multiple people could work from, automation to handle routine enquiries, and a way to track leads and follow-ups in one place rather than across personal devices and spreadsheets.

How they use Gallabox

• Qualifying enquiries before the team steps in. WhatsApp Chatbots handle the first layer of inbound enquiries, answering questions about product categories, availability, and showroom visits. A client reaching out at 9pm about porcelain slabs for a project gets an immediate, substantive response rather than waiting until the morning. By the time a team member picks up the conversation, the client has already shared what they need.
• Collecting project requirements without a back-and-forth. WhatsApp Flows allow AGSONS to gather structured information from clients upfront: project type, surface area, material preference, timeline. What previously required several exchanges to establish arrives in a single structured response. This is particularly useful for contractor and developer enquiries where project specifications are detailed and the team needs specific information before a meaningful conversation can happen.
• Staying in front of architects, contractors, and past clients. WhatsApp Broadcast reaches segmented client lists with new product arrivals, special offers, and project inspiration. A contractor who bought flooring for one development and has not been back in six months is a warm audience for a new range announcement. The team can reach that audience directly on WhatsApp without managing individual messages.
• One inbox the whole team works from. WhatsApp Shared Team Inbox replaced the personal numbers and group chat forwarding. Every inbound message, whether from a homeowner asking about flooring options or a contractor requesting a product specification, lands in a single place that the whole team can see and respond from. Conversations are assigned, tracked, and visible. Nobody assumes someone else is handling it because the system makes it clear who is.

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Outcomes

• Enquiries no longer fall through the cracks between personal devices and group chats. Every message enters a shared system where it is tracked, assigned, and followed up on within a defined process rather than depending on individual effort.
• The team's response time has dropped significantly. A client enquiring about materials for a live project gets a response while the project decision is still being made, not after.
• Contractors and developers who send detailed project enquiries now receive structured follow-up rather than an ad hoc reply. The conversation starts from a more informed place, which improves the quality of the client interaction and shortens the path to a quote.
• The 30% reduction in marketing and advertising spend reflects what happens when lead generation becomes more efficient. When more inbound enquiries convert, less needs to be spent generating new ones.

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What other building materials and interior supply businesses can do with WhatsApp and Instagram automation

• Premium building materials is a category where the sale is won or lost in the follow-up. Clients are comparing suppliers, managing project timelines, and making decisions that affect budget and aesthetics simultaneously. The supplier that responds fastest and most consistently with relevant information is the one that gets the order.
• Flooring and surface suppliers working with homeowners and interior designers can use Instagram DM automation to capture enquiries that start when someone sees a finished project image and wants to know where the material came from. WhatsApp Chatbots can then handle product and pricing questions, and Flows can collect project measurements and finish preferences before a showroom visit, so the visit itself is productive.
• Tile and stone distributors serving contractors and developers benefit most from WhatsApp Shared Team Inbox and structured follow-up sequences. When a single project can involve multiple product categories and several rounds of specification, having a unified view of every conversation across the sales team prevents duplication, missed responses, and the kind of inconsistency that damages relationships with high-value clients.
• Hardware and adhesives suppliers operating in the trade segment can use WhatsApp Broadcast to reach their contractor network with product updates, promotions, and new stock arrivals. Drip sequences can re-engage trade accounts that have gone quiet, keeping the brand present across the project pipeline without the team having to manage each relationship manually.