How to use WhatsApp automation for your business

Start with the chats you already have

Before you build anything, read the last two weeks of WhatsApp chats. Write down the first message of each one and group them: price questions, timings and location, order status, booking requests, complaints. In most businesses a handful of topics covers the large majority of first messages. Those topics are your automation plan. Anything rare, sensitive or emotional stays with a person, at least to begin with.

Also note how long customers waited for a first reply, and when chats came in. If many arrive late in the evening or on Sundays, an away message with useful buttons will help more than any clever bot. If the same three questions arrive all day, a welcome menu is the first thing to build. Let the real chats decide, not a feature list.

What to automate first

Begin with three small automations that are hard to get wrong. A welcome message for first-time contacts, with up to three reply buttons for your top questions. An away message for the hours you are closed, which says when you will reply and still offers the buttons. And a keyword reply for the single most common question, usually price or location.

In WaKite each of these is a flow bot with a trigger: first message from a new contact, a message outside business hours, or a message that contains a keyword (exact, starts with, or contains). Add a "Hand to a person" step at the end of every path. A bot that always offers a way to reach a human is one customers trust, and it keeps your team in charge.

• Welcome menu: three buttons, one hand-off
• Away message tied to your business hours
• One keyword reply for the most common question
• A fallback for "any message no other rule answers"

Design around the 24-hour window

WhatsApp has one rule that shapes every automation. When a customer messages you, a 24-hour customer service window opens and you can reply with any message, button, list or file. Once it closes, you can only start the conversation again with a template message that Meta has approved. Each new message from the customer resets the window.

So use the open window well. Ask your questions, collect the order details or the booking date, and send the documents while the customer is there. Later reminders, order updates and offers go out as templates. WaKite shows which templates are approved and uses them in broadcasts and drips, and a "no reply" trigger can nudge a quiet customer before the window closes.

Examples by type of business

The same building blocks fit very different businesses. What changes is the questions you ask and the moment you hand over. Keep the first version short: three to five steps per path is enough. You can always add a step once you see where customers get stuck, and it is much easier to improve a small working bot than to fix a large one nobody uses.

Whatever the business, finish each path with something useful: an order form, a booking, a document or a named person who will call back. A flow that ends with "Thanks, bye" leaves the customer where they started. Below are starting points for common businesses; change the questions to match the words your own customers use.

• Online shop: product list from your catalog, sizes and delivery questions, an order form, then hand-off for payment queries
• Clinic or salon: a WhatsApp form for booking, a reminder template the day before, a feedback question after the visit
• Coaching or education: course details and fees as a PDF, a question about the start date, a drip until the enrolment
• Real estate: budget and area as a list menu, the brochure, then assignment to the right agent
• Service business: ask for location and a photo of the problem, create a task for the team

Add follow-ups once the basics run

When the first replies run smoothly, add follow-ups. A drip campaign sends a series of approved templates to each contact over days or weeks. It can start when a keyword arrives, when a new contact writes, when a tag is added, when a contact joins a folder or when a pipeline card reaches a stage. The series stops when the customer replies or reaches the goal you set.

Broadcasts are for one-off news to a chosen audience: everyone with a tag, a folder of contacts or a pasted list of numbers. Send only to people who asked to hear from you, and keep the message relevant to them. Customers who reply STOP are opted out of marketing automatically, and broadcasts and drips skip them.

Measure whether it is working

Pick a few simple measures before you switch automation on, so you can compare. How long did customers wait for a first reply? How many chats did your team handle by hand each day? How many enquiries turned into an order or a booking? Check the same numbers a few weeks later. You do not need a dashboard for this; a short weekly note is enough.

Then read the chats your bots handed over. If customers keep typing instead of tapping a button, the labels are unclear. If they ask for a person at the same step, that step needs a better answer or an earlier hand-off. For campaigns, WaKite shows how many messages were sent, delivered, read and replied to, and how many were skipped or failed.

Step by step

1. 1
   List your top questions

   Read two weeks of chats and group the first messages into five or six topics.

2. 2
   Connect your number

   Connect your WhatsApp number to the official API with Meta's sign-up from the WaKite panel.

3. 3
   Build a welcome menu

   Create a flow bot on "First message from a new contact" with three reply buttons and a hand-off.

4. 4
   Add away and keyword replies

   Set your business hours, add an away message and a keyword reply for the most common question.

5. 5
   Test and publish

   Try every path in the test chat, publish, and read the handed-over chats after a week.

Questions