What’s new: set up your promotions by chatting with your bot

Every month your trade promotions change. Someone builds the list in Excel or a PowerPoint deck, and then someone else types it all into the ordering system, line by line. That second job is where the mistakes happen: a wrong price, a missed flavour, a deal that runs a week too long.

Your bot can now do that second job. Your admin sets up promotions by messaging the bot, or by sending it the file they already made. We tested every step below on our test number, with made-up products and shops.

1. Say the deal the way you’d say it

Your admin types the promotion in plain words. The bot works out which products count together, the quantities, the prices and who it’s for.

“Mix and match” matters. Five cartons of Original and five of Berry make ten, so both get the 10+ price. The bot keeps the three flavours in one group, so the order is priced the way your salesman would price it.

It also handles percent off, an amount off per carton, and free goods. A free gift can be a stock item (“1 free for every 10”) or something you don’t sell, like a cooler bag.

2. If it isn’t sure, it asks

If a product name matches nothing in your catalogue, or “Canton Boy” matches two of your customers, the bot doesn’t guess. It names the problem and saves nothing until you answer.

3. Send the file you already have

Most promotions already live in a spreadsheet or a deck. Send it to the bot in the chat. It reads Excel, CSV, PowerPoint, PDF, and photos of a printed price list.

It copes with the way these files really look. In our test, the loyalty price was only written in the promotion’s name, and the outlets were listed by code, not name. The bot found both. A matrix with products down the side and quantities across the top became tiers, and the one product with no pair was left out and reported.

PowerPoint decks work too. The bot reads the text on each slide, keeps price tables row by row, and looks at any picture of a price list on the slide.

4. Nothing goes live without a yes

A draft prices nothing. It only changes what outlets pay when you make it live, and the bot reads the rules back and waits for your yes before it does.

Changing a live promotion is the risky one. In our first test, we asked the bot to change a live promotion’s price, and it paused the promotion to do it, without asking. For those minutes, outlets lost the deal.

We fixed it so it can’t happen again. The rule isn’t just in the bot’s instructions, where a model could skip it. The tool that pauses a live promotion refuses unless you’ve said yes.

5. Ending and removing

Ask the bot to end, archive or delete a promotion. A draft can be deleted outright. A promotion that has been live is archived instead, so past orders still show the deal they got.

6. Who can do what

Only your staff can set up promotions. Customers chatting with the same bot can’t. Inside your team there are two permissions: one to create and edit drafts, one to switch promotions on and off. Let your sales admin build next month’s deals, and keep the switch with the manager.

Every promotion records who created it, so you can see whether it came from a chat, a file or the hub.

Prefer to click?

Everything above is in the hub too. Open Promotions to see the drafts, upload a file, check the tiers, and make one live.

Want your promotion list set up this way? Send us last month’s file and we’ll show you what the bot makes of it.