How to automate WhatsApp replies

Start with what WhatsApp Business already does for free

Personal WhatsApp has no automatic replies. WhatsApp Business, the free app for businesses, has three, and every shop should switch them on before paying for anything. If you sell on your personal number today, you can move that number to WhatsApp Business on the same phone and keep your chats.

Greeting message

Sent automatically when someone messages you for the first time, or after 14 days without messages. Use it to welcome people and tell them what to send you.

1. Open WhatsApp Business. On Android tap the three dots, then Business tools. On iPhone open Settings, then Business tools.
2. Tap Greeting message and switch on Send greeting message.
3. Write your message and choose who receives it: everyone, people not in your contacts, everyone except some contacts, or only some contacts.
4. Save.

Away message

Sent when a message arrives while you are away. You choose when it is active: always, on a schedule you set, or outside your business hours. The last option needs your opening hours filled in on your business profile.

1. In Business tools, tap Away message and switch on Send away message.
2. Write the message, for example when you open again and how to order meanwhile.
3. Under Schedule pick Always send, Custom schedule or Outside of business hours, choose the recipients, and save.

Quick replies

Saved answers you insert with a shortcut. Type a slash in any chat and pick one, for example /prices or /location. They do not send themselves, but they turn a long typed answer into two taps.

1. In Business tools, tap Quick replies, then the plus button.
2. Write the message, give it a shortcut such as prices, and save.
3. In a chat, type / and choose the reply.

While you are in Business tools, fill in your business profile (address, hours, a short description) and add your products to the catalogue. Customers see both before they message you.

Where the free tools stop

Greeting and away messages send the same words to everyone. They cannot answer the question the customer actually asked.

• “How much is the 128GB?” gets the same welcome text as “where are you located?”.
• During opening hours the away message is off, so when you are busy serving someone in person, chats simply wait.
• Nothing takes the order, adds the delivery fee or books the appointment. A person still has to.
• Voice notes and photos of what the customer wants get no answer at all.

That is fine for a shop that gets a handful of messages a day. Once WhatsApp is where most of your sales happen, the waiting is where you lose them.

Option two: keyword bots on the WhatsApp Business Platform

The WhatsApp Business Platform, sometimes called the WhatsApp API, lets software send and receive your messages. The classic use is a keyword bot: when a message contains “price” it sends your price list, when it contains “menu” it sends a numbered menu.

• You set it up through a Meta business provider, and Meta charges for some of the messages sent through the platform.
• Menus work when customers follow them. Real customers type freely, misspell, mix languages and send voice notes, and a keyword bot answers those with “Sorry, I did not understand”.
• Every new product, price or question means editing the rules.

Keyword bots suit businesses with a few fixed questions and a lot of volume, like a bank’s balance check. For a shop where every customer asks something a little different, they tend to annoy more than they help.

Option three: an AI chatbot that answers from your own prices

An AI chatbot reads each message the way a person would, finds the answer in your own product list, prices and rules, and writes a reply for that customer. It can take the order, add your delivery fee for their area, book a time you are free, and bring you in when a person is needed.

The thing to check before choosing one is whether it sticks to your facts. A chatbot that invents a price, promises stock you do not have or guesses a delivery time costs you more than slow replies ever did. GetOrda answers only from your own catalogue and says so when it does not know, instead of guessing.

For a longer checklist, read how to choose an AI chatbot for WhatsApp Business.

Set up automatic replies with GetOrda

1. Create your shop at getorda.app and say what you sell. It is free to start and needs no card.
2. Add your products or services with their prices. You can photograph your shelf and add many at once, then type the names and prices.
3. Link your WhatsApp with a code from your phone, the way you open WhatsApp Web. Your number stays the same and your customers keep messaging the number they know.
4. Add your opening hours, your delivery fee for each area and how customers pay you.
5. Message your own number from another phone and ask what a customer would ask.

From then on GetOrda answers in the customer’s language, understands voice notes and photos, and every chat and order is in your dashboard. You can reply yourself at any moment or pause it for one chat.

Auto reply messages you can copy

Even with an AI answering, a good greeting and away message help. Change the words in brackets.

More examples, in Swahili, Pidgin and French too, are in WhatsApp auto reply messages for businesses in Africa.