Shipper Back Office Automation Without Adding More Headcount
This page is for shippers, hauliers, couriers, forwarders and 3PL back offices where a handful of office staff absorb the same customer enquiries every day. Boafo Agent is an AI agent on your own website that answers those repetitive questions in your words, captures the details you need, books calls into your Google Calendar and emails the enquiry to the right person with a written summary. It handles the first conversation and the qualification. It does not pretend to be your traffic office: anything that needs live shipment data, a commercial decision or a judgement call is routed to your team with the full context attached.
Live in production with real customers. Trained on your business before launch.
What's getting in the way today
- Office staff answer the same delivery status and collection questions all day instead of clearing the real work.
- Quote and booking requests arrive at 21:00 and sit until someone opens the shared inbox in the morning.
- Enquiries need qualifying before anyone useful can act, so they bounce between people first.
- Genuine enquiries get lost in a shared inbox behind newsletters, invoices and carrier notifications.
- Peak weeks need more admin cover than you can realistically recruit.
- New enquiries land with half the information, so the first reply is always a question rather than an answer.
How back office automation works for a shipper team today
Boafo Agent is trained on your services, lanes, coverage, cut-off times, policies and the questions your office already answers. It sits in a branded chat window on your website and answers visitors around the clock in your tone.
For a delivery status or documentation question, it explains your process, tells the customer exactly what your team needs from them, and captures the consignment reference, contact details and the nature of the query. For a quote, collection or booking request it works through your qualifying questions first: collection and delivery postcodes, pallet or parcel count, weight, service level, timings and any special handling.
Every conversation produces a written summary and a categorised enquiry. You get an instant email alert, the record lands in a Google Sheet you control, and a call or site visit can be booked straight into a connected Google Calendar during the conversation.
Nothing is invented. The agent does not read your transport management system, carrier portals or tracking feeds, so it never guesses where a load is. It answers what it genuinely knows, collects what your team needs, and escalates the rest with the whole thread attached. Deeper operational integrations, voice answering and WhatsApp are on the roadmap and are not live today.
Example conversation
Why teams choose Boafo Agent for this
Repetitive enquiries absorbed
The recurring questions your office answers every day are handled in the chat, in your words, without a person.
Qualified before it reaches staff
Postcodes, volumes, service level and timings are collected up front, so the first human reply can be a real answer.
After hours enquiries captured
Digital enquiries that land in the evening or at the weekend are answered and recorded instead of lost.
Routed to the right team
Enquiries are categorised so quotes, collections and account queries reach the right inbox with a summary.
Nothing buried in the inbox
Instant email alerts plus a Google Sheet you control give the office one clean list to work from.
Honest about its limits
It never claims to have live shipment data. Anything operational goes to your team with full context.
Where the ROI shows up
The saving is not theoretical: it is the volume of enquiries your office answers more than once a day. Count how many of those arrive through your website, add the ones that land outside working hours, and that is the workload this removes. Use the cost calculators below to put your own numbers against it rather than ours.
AI enquiry handling vs adding seasonal admin cover
| Feature | Boafo Agent | Extra admin headcount |
|---|---|---|
| Time to add capacity | About a week | Weeks to recruit and train |
| Cover outside office hours | Continuous on your website | Shift dependent |
| Consistency of answers | Same answer every time | Varies by person |
| Enquiry record | Summary, transcript and Sheet row | Depends on note taking |
| Live shipment lookups | Not supported, routed to staff | Yes, with system access |
| Commercial judgement | Escalated to your team | Handled in person |
Peak weeks without recruitment
Enquiry volume through the website can rise sharply in peak periods without adding admin cover, because the first conversation and the qualification are already handled. Your team keeps the exception work.
What onboarding involves
We train the agent on your website, service list, coverage and the questions your office already answers, agree the qualifying questions per enquiry type, then wire up email alerts, the Google Sheet and Google Calendar booking. Most deployments are live in about a week because there is no operational system integration to build.
The back office workflows this actually covers
Each of these is enquiry handling and qualification on your website, not operational system access.
Repeat customer questions
Coverage, cut-off times, service levels, packaging rules, opening hours, claims process and account setup answered instantly in your words.
Delivery status enquiries
The agent explains your process, captures the consignment reference and contact details, and routes to the traffic desk. It does not retrieve tracking data.
Quote enquiries and qualification
Postcodes, volumes, weights, service level, timings and special handling collected up front so the commercial team can price without a round trip.
Collection and booking requests
Structured intake for collection requests, with a call or site visit booked into a connected Google Calendar where that suits.
Documentation enquiries
Explains what paperwork is needed and who issues it, then routes requests for specific documents to the right inbox.
Email and enquiry triage
Every conversation arrives categorised and summarised by email and in a Google Sheet, so the office triages a clean list instead of raw messages.
After hours digital enquiries
Evening and weekend website enquiries are answered, expectations are set honestly, and nothing is lost before Monday.
Escalation and routing
You define which enquiry types go to which team. The agent applies those rules and hands over with the full thread.
Frequently asked objections
We already have a shared inbox rota.
The rota still exists. The difference is that enquiries arrive qualified and categorised, and the repetitive ones never reach the rota at all.
Our enquiries are too technical for a bot.
Then it should not try to answer them. The agent is scoped to what your office genuinely repeats, and everything else is routed to a person quickly with the details already collected.
We do not want customers misled.
The agent identifies itself as AI in every conversation and states plainly when something needs a human or when it cannot see live operational data.
Where this fits
If a meaningful share of your office day is repeated customer enquiry handling and quote or collection intake through your website, this removes that layer. If your bottleneck is live operational data and system integration, wait for the roadmap or talk to us first rather than buying on a promise.
Industry examples
Pallet and haulage
Qualifies pallet count, postcodes, weight and service level before the traffic desk sees the enquiry.
Couriers
Answers coverage, cut-off and collection process questions, and captures same day requests out of hours.
Freight forwarders
Takes structured RFQ details and routes lane enquiries to the right desk with a written summary.
3PL and fulfilment
Answers onboarding and service questions from prospective merchants and books discovery calls.
Shipper customer service
Handles repeated delivery status and documentation questions and escalates with the consignment reference.
Removals and specialist transport
Collects survey details and books site visits into a connected Google Calendar.
Boafo Agent runs in production on our own site and on AddressCore, handling website enquiries, qualification and email routing. We do not publish shipper customer results we cannot evidence.
Read customer stories →
Trusted by teams running Boafo Agent live
The pillar Boafo Agent solution: answer every call, qualify the caller, book the meeting.
Learn more →Score and route inbound leads the moment they land.
Learn more →Turn website visits and replies into booked time on your calendar.
Learn more →Run discovery, follow up, and progress deals 24/7.
Learn more →Resolve tier-1 questions instantly across phone, chat, and email.
Learn more →One virtual AI receptionist across your phone, site and inbox, trained on your business.
Learn more →Simple, transparent pricing
Pick the tier that fits today, upgrade when you outgrow it. Full pricing on the pricing page.
Starter
From
£99/month
+ £499 one-time onboarding
Small businesses wanting an AI Employee on their website.
- Website chat + lead capture
- Email notifications
- Custom branding
Growth
Most popularFrom
£299/month
+ £999 one-time onboarding
Businesses that want automation, customer recovery and deeper insights.
- Everything in Starter
- Google Sheets + CRM integration
- Advanced analytics
Businesses are adopting AI employees to reduce missed calls and improve response times.
An always-on team member that picks up the moment a customer reaches out, in any language, on any volume.
- Available 24/7
- Never misses a call
- Handles unlimited conversations
- Answers in seconds
Frequently asked questions
Can it tell a customer where their load is?
No. Boafo does not connect to transport management systems, carrier portals or tracking feeds today, so it never guesses a shipment position. It explains your process, captures the consignment reference and contact details, and routes the query to your traffic desk with the full conversation attached.
Can it handle quote and collection requests?
It handles the intake and qualification. It asks your qualifying questions, collection and delivery postcodes, volumes, weights, service level and timings, then emails a categorised, summarised enquiry to your commercial team. Pricing decisions stay with your people.
Which channels does it work on?
A branded chat agent on your own website today, with email alerts, conversation summaries, Google Sheets delivery and Google Calendar booking. Phone answering, WhatsApp and SMS are in development and are not live.
Does it integrate with our TMS or CRM?
Not natively today. Enquiries reach you by email and Google Sheets, which most offices route onward from. Native two way CRM and operational system integrations are on the roadmap, and we will tell you plainly what is possible before you buy.
What happens outside office hours?
The agent keeps answering website enquiries, sets the right expectation about when a human will respond, and logs everything so the office starts the day with a qualified list rather than a backlog of unknowns.
How does escalation to staff work?
You tell us which enquiry types go to which inbox. The agent categorises the conversation, writes a short summary, and sends it with the transcript so nobody repeats the questions the customer has already answered.
Does it replace office staff?
No. It removes repeated enquiry handling so the same team can absorb more volume. Judgement, pricing and exception work stay with your people.
How long does it take to go live?
Typically about a week for a website agent trained on your services, with the email routing, Sheet and calendar wiring set up during onboarding.
What is the pricing model?
Flat monthly plans with a fixed onboarding fee. See Boafo Agent pricing for current plans and what each tier includes.