Small and medium-sized enterprises across Nigeria are losing significant sales due to slow and inconsistent responses to customer inquiries on WhatsApp and Instagram, platforms that have effectively become major marketplaces in the country.
Techstars-backed cloud communications firm PressOne Africa disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, warning that unmanaged customer service via social media DMs is costing businesses millions in unrealised revenue.
The company noted that customers now judge a brand’s professionalism, reliability, and overall quality by the speed and clarity of its responses. In many cases, a delayed DM is enough to push a potential buyer toward a competitor.
To tackle this, PressOne Africa has introduced Juliet, an intelligent AI employee designed to stabilise and professionalise chat-based customer interactions. Juliet provides instant, consistent, and on-brand responses across WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, and other real-time messaging channels.
PressOne Africa’s CEO, Mayowa Okegbenle, highlighted Juliet’s financial impact, noting that the company had initially planned to make a substantial investment in building a large customer support team.
“We had budgeted millions this year to build a large customer service team. Juliet removed that need completely,” Okegbenle said. “She saved us significant operational costs, and we have shifted that money into marketing and growth.”
PressOne Africa explained that Juliet was originally developed as an internal tool to address its own customer service challenges, including unpredictable message volumes, the need for instant responses, and inconsistent staff performance. After a six-month internal testing period, the results were compelling enough for the company to roll out the solution to Nigerian businesses.
Unlike traditional chatbots, Juliet is trained like a real employee, learning from real customer conversations, understanding product-specific details, and handling the entire process from inquiry to payment.
“A slow or unclear message on WhatsApp can stop a sale that should have happened,” the statement noted. “Messages arrive unpredictably, customers expect instant responses, and inconsistent follow-ups lead to missed opportunities—driving buyers straight to competitors.”
PressOne Africa, already recognised for making business phone numbers more affordable, believes Juliet will help SMEs convert more chats into sales, reduce customer service stress, and eliminate the chronic losses caused by delayed responses.
With millions of Nigerian businesses now using social media DMs as their primary storefronts, Juliet may be arriving at a crucial moment for SMEs seeking growth in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace.
