From Charles to Switchbord
GBVAI ran a proprietary WhatsApp automation tool called Charles for internal operations. As we built Switchbord, we migrated all our own WhatsApp workflows to the platform — making us our own first alpha customer.
The challenge
Charles provided basic send/receive but no visibility into delivery status, no template management, and no audit trail. Every failed message required manual investigation.
The solution
Switchbord's real-time delivery status tracking (accepted → sent → delivered → read), template studio, and audit trail gave us full visibility. The open-source codebase meant we could adapt it to our own needs.
Results
- 100% delivery status visibility (vs 0% with Charles)
- Template approval workflow cut approval time from days to hours
- Inbox team response time dropped from 4h to 45min
- Full GDPR-compliant audit trail for every message