WhatsApp AI agent for optical shops: eye test bookings, lens and frame questions, collection updates
An optical shop fields two kinds of message: shop questions about frames, lenses and prices, and clinic questions about eye tests and prescriptions. Both arrive while the optometrist is mid-examination. An AI agent handles the shop questions and the bookings, and steps back from anything about a customer's eyes.
Quick answer
Put a WhatsApp AI agent on your shop's number with your price list, lens and frame ranges, contact lens brands and eye-test information as knowledge. It answers price and product questions, books eye examinations into real slots, explains collection and repair processes, and hands anything about prescriptions, eye symptoms or lens suitability to the optometrist. ReplyKit does this from $29 a month.
What the agent handles
Automate
- Eye test prices, duration, what is included, and whether children are seen.
- Frame brands and ranges, lens options and coatings, price ranges from your list.
- Contact lens brands you stock, how to reorder, and delivery.
- Eye examination booking into real slots, with a reminder.
- Collection: typical lead times for lenses, and what to bring to collect.
- Repairs and adjustments: what you can do and the turnaround.
- Promotions you have published, with dates.
Keep with a person
- Whether a prescription is right, whether symptoms are serious, and which lens type suits someone's eyes. The optometrist decides.
- Reading or explaining a prescription sent as a photo.
- Whether a specific order is ready, unless you keep an order-status note updated.
- Complaints and refunds.
"Is my order ready?"
The most common message in optical retail, and the hardest to automate without a system link. Two workable options. Keep a short daily note in the knowledge base listing ready orders by name or order number, and the agent answers from it. Or instruct the agent to take the name and order number, tell the customer the shop will confirm shortly, and hand over; the front desk replies from the inbox in one line. Both beat leaving the message unanswered until closing time.
Setup for an optical shop
- Use a dedicated number. ReplyKit connects your number through Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform: keep the number you already use in the WhatsApp Business app and the agent works alongside it, or add a dedicated number. Personal WhatsApp numbers cannot be connected. Keep your long-standing number out of it; details in Meta's messaging limits explained
- Upload the price list and paste the website's product pages. Write lead times and repair policies as text.
- Add eye examinations as a service per optometrist, with hours.
- Instruct the boundary: nothing about prescriptions, symptoms or lens suitability; photos of prescriptions go to the optometrist.
- Connect the number through Meta's sign-in and test with a photo of a prescription and "which lens should I get?". It should book a consultation and not interpret the numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Can the agent read a prescription photo?
It acknowledges the photo and hands it to the optometrist. Interpreting prescriptions is clinical and stays with the professional.
Can it book eye tests?
Yes. Set examinations as a service per optometrist, and it offers real slots, books and reminds.
Can it tell customers when orders are ready?
From a daily order-status note you keep in the knowledge, or by taking the order number and handing over for a one-line human reply.
Does it quote lens prices?
It quotes the price ranges you publish and never invents one. Exact quotes after an examination stay with the shop.
How much does it cost?
From $29 a month for one number and 1,000 replies. 7-day free trial.
Book the eye test, answer the frame question
Price list, lens ranges, examination slots, connect your number through Meta's sign-in. 7-day free trial.
Sources and further reading
- Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads (Oldroyd, McElheran, Elkington, 2011) · firms that responded within an hour were about seven times more likely to qualify the lead
- ReplyKit Acceptable Use Policy · what we refuse to automate
- Cochrane Review, Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments (Gurol-Urganci et al., 2013) · reminder messages improve attendance compared with no reminder
- ReplyKit, Will WhatsApp ban my number for automation? · how Meta's messaging limits and quality rating work
ReplyKit is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta or WhatsApp. This article is general guidance for optical retail operations, not medical or regulatory advice.