WhatsApp chatbots for small business
Where an assistant on WhatsApp helps, how the 24-hour window and opt-in rules work, and what to set up so customers trust it.
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What can a WhatsApp assistant do for a small business?
It can answer the questions you get every day, ask a few qualifying questions, book an appointment, and pass the conversation to you with the answers attached. It works at any hour, so a customer who writes in the evening gets a reply straight away instead of waiting until morning.
Which businesses benefit most?
Businesses that get repeated questions by message: clinics, salons, agencies, real estate teams, tutors and shops. If your team answers the same ten questions all day, an assistant takes that load and leaves the conversations that need a person.
What are the rules I should know?
WhatsApp's business platform separates two kinds of conversation. When a customer writes to you, you can reply freely during a 24-hour window that restarts with each of their messages. Outside that window you can only send pre-approved message templates, and only to people who have agreed to receive messages from you. Check the current policy before you design a flow, because the details change.
Should the assistant say it is an AI?
Yes. Say so in the first message and make it easy to reach a person. It builds trust, and in many places it is also a legal requirement. Keep the assistant to approved content, and have it say when it does not know instead of guessing.
What should I prepare?
- The ten most common questions and the answers you want given.
- The details you need to qualify a lead, such as the website, the service and the budget range.
- The tools it should connect to: a calendar for bookings, a CRM for contacts.
- A rule for when to hand over to a person, such as complaints, prices and anything sensitive.
What are the privacy points?
Collect only what you need. Do not ask for sensitive details in a chat, tell people how their information is used, and follow the data rules that apply where your customers live, such as GDPR in Europe and the UK.
How do I know it works?
Track how many conversations end in a booking or a qualified lead, how many are handed to a person, and which questions the assistant could not answer. Use the unanswered ones to improve the answers each month.