Set up WhatsApp Business professionally

Why WhatsApp messages get left unanswered

Customers message your business with questions like: how much is this, are you open today, is it still available, can I book? Because a messaging app feels informal, replying often happens in between other work, without clear agreements. What goes wrong then is almost always the same:

• Messages arrive on the owner’s personal phone or on a single phone behind the counter, in between personal chats.
• Someone opens a chat but doesn’t reply right away. An hour later the conversation is twenty chats further down.
• Two colleagues give the same customer a different answer about a price or a delivery time.
• At the end of the day nobody knows for sure which customers are still waiting for a reply.

In this lesson you use the free WhatsApp Business app to build a way of working that prevents this, in five steps: profile, automatic messages, quick replies, labels and clear agreements on who answers. After that you read what is and isn’t allowed, and when working by hand starts to fall short.

Step 1: Complete your business profile

Your profile is the first thing a customer sees when they tap your name. A complete profile already answers the simplest questions: where you are, when you are open and what you do. The app also uses those details for a few standard quick replies, such as your business hours and address.

1. Open your business profile

   Via Settings → your business name, or via Business tools → Business profile. You edit each field with the pencil icon.

2. Use your real business name

   The name on your storefront or receipt, without advertising or search words such as “Cheapest lunch in Paramaribo.” WhatsApp’s policy prohibits misleading customers or passing yourself off as another business.

3. Add a recognizable profile photo

   Your logo or a clear photo of your building, so the customer can see right away that they have reached the right business.

4. Choose a category and write a description

   Pick the category from the list that fits best, for example Restaurant. Write two or three sentences: what you do, who you serve, and how customers order or book.

5. Fill in your address and business hours

   Put your address on the map and choose set hours for each day, always open, or by appointment only. Enter what is actually true: the away message can use those hours later.

6. Fill in email and website only if someone keeps them up to date

   An email address that nobody reads is worse than no email address.

7. Consider a catalog

   You can put standard products or services in the catalog with a photo, a description and, if you like, a price. If you do, keep it up to date.

Step 2: Set up a greeting message and an away message

The app can send two messages automatically. They only help if they are honest about what happens next.

For both, you choose who gets them: everyone, only people not in your address book, or everyone except contacts you exclude. They only work when the phone is connected to the internet: if the phone is off at night, nothing goes out.

An automatic reply is not the same as help

An automatic message confirms receipt; it is not an answer. So always say that it is automatic, when a staff member will reply (with times you can stick to), what the customer can send in the meantime, and how they can reach you for urgent matters, for example by calling during business hours.

At ’t Erf (fictional), the away message promises a reply before 9:00 AM on the next business day. That is doable: staff member Kevin starts at 7:30 AM and goes through the evening’s messages first.

Step 3: Create quick replies for the questions that keep coming back

Quick replies (you find them in the app under that same name) are messages you save once and then send with a few taps. Each reply gets a short shortcut. If you type a forward slash / in a chat, you see your saved replies; if you keep typing, for example /prices, you quickly find the right one. You can save up to 50.

Which quick replies you need

Choose them based on the questions you actually get. If you did the customer contact audit from Lesson 1, take the five to ten topics that come up most often. Didn’t do an audit? Scroll through the chats from the last two weeks and tally which questions keep coming up.

How to write a good quick reply

• Short: three to five lines. The customer is reading on a phone.
• End with a question, so the conversation doesn’t stall.
• Put what differs per customer in [brackets] and always fill it in before you send.
• Don’t write prices that change into the text; fill them in each time.
• Adjust the tone, so it sounds the way your team talks.

1. Open Quick replies

   Go to Business tools (or the Tools tab) → Quick replies and tap the plus button.

2. Paste the text and choose a shortcut

   Leave the [brackets] in as a reminder. As the shortcut, choose one short word that everyone remembers, such as prices or complaint.

3. Test and share

   Send the reply to a colleague first to see how it comes across. Post the list of shortcuts at the front desk.

Eight quick replies to start with

These are examples for a business like ’t Erf; adapt them to your own business. The download has more, and also comes as a text file to copy from.

Step 4: Use labels to see what is still open

With labels you give a chat a colored tag, and you can view all chats with the same label in one list. That turns your chat list into a to-do list: you can see at a glance which customers still need something from you.

Use these five labels. Every chat with an open customer question has exactly one.

1. Create the five labels

   Via Business tools (or Tools) → Labels or Lists. Rename or delete default labels you don’t use. Give each label a fixed color, for example red for Action needed.

2. Label every new question right away

   Press and hold the chat and choose the label as soon as you open the chat, even if you can’t reply yet.

3. Change the label when the status changes

   Remove the old label and add the new one. Two status labels at once make the list unreliable.

4. Work from the label lists

   Start every shift with New request and Action needed, not with the top of your chat list.

Want to remember something about a regular customer, such as “always picks up at noon”? Use the notes on the contact; customers can’t see them. Don’t put health or payment details in them.

Step 5: Agree on who answers and how quickly, and close out the day

Labels and quick replies only work if someone is responsible. Without an agreement, everyone thinks someone else is already doing it.

One person responsible for each part of the day

For each part of the day, appoint one person to be on message duty. They don’t have to solve everything themselves, but they make sure every new question gets a label and a first reply, and that chats marked Action needed reach the right colleague. Also appoint a backup for breaks and busy times.

Your own target time

Agree on how quickly a customer gets a first real reply. You choose this yourself, based on what you and your team can keep up with; there is no fixed standard. For example, a business could agree on this:

• During business hours: a first reply within 30 minutes, or within an hour at the busiest times.
• Messages sent after closing time: answered before 9:00 AM on the next business day.
• Complaints: a response from the owner or manager the same day.

Put the time you choose in your greeting message and away message. Then the customer knows what to expect, and your team knows where the bar is. In Lesson 5 you measure whether you meet that time.

Several devices, one account

You can also use the account on linked devices, such as a computer with WhatsApp Web or a colleague’s phone; at the time of writing, WhatsApp mentions up to four in addition to the main phone. Keep using the main phone, or the linked devices will be logged out after a while. Everyone sees the same chats, and don’t count on being able to see which colleague sent a message. So agree on the following:

• Whoever picks up a chat finishes it or explicitly hands it over. Others stay out of it.
• End every message with your first name, for example “Best, Kevin.” That way the customer sees that a person is replying, and colleagues see who is handling the conversation.
• When an employee leaves, unlink their device the same day.

The end-of-day check: ten minutes

At the end of every business day, one designated person goes through the messages:

1. Open the New request list

   Every chat here gets a first reply now, if necessary /closed with the time you will get back to them.

2. Look for chats without a label

   Go through today’s chats and unread messages. Every customer question without a label still gets one.

3. Go through Action needed

   For each chat: who is doing it, and when? Whatever can’t be done today, write down for tomorrow morning, with a name next to it.

4. Look at Waiting for information

   Have you been waiting longer than agreed, for example two days? Send /followup, or move the chat to Resolved if the conversation is finished.

5. Check tomorrow and tonight

   Are tomorrow’s confirmed appointments in the calendar? Will the away message turn on, and is the phone charged and connected?

6. Write a one-line handoff

   In a designated notebook or shared note: what needs to happen first tomorrow, and by whom?

Consent, privacy and WhatsApp’s rules

WhatsApp is personal. Customers only appreciate messages from a business if they are relevant and if they asked for them. WhatsApp’s Business Policy, which also applies to the app, is clear about this. The main points, in plain language:

• Only with consent. Only message someone on your own initiative if they have given you their number and have also said they want to receive messages from you. You can of course reply to anyone who asks you a question. A number on a receipt is not consent for advertising.
• No unsolicited mass messages. Don’t send offers to your whole address book, don’t buy lists of numbers and don’t add customers to a group without asking: everyone in it can see each other’s numbers.
• Stop means stop. If someone asks for no more messages, respect that immediately and note it down, even if they say it on the phone or at the counter.
• No card numbers. Never ask for a full debit card or credit card number over WhatsApp; WhatsApp’s policy prohibits it. If a customer sends one anyway, have the message deleted on both sides and offer another way to pay.
• Go easy on sensitive data. Don’t ask for copies of ID, medical details or passwords unless it is really necessary.
• Always a way to a person. If you use automatic messages, the policy says the customer must be able to reach a person quickly: in the chat, by phone or in person.
• Not everything is allowed on WhatsApp. For some products, such as alcohol, tobacco and medicines, the policy sets restrictions. If you sell something like that, read what is allowed first.

Secure the phone too: a screen lock, two-step verification in WhatsApp (under Settings → Account) and regular backups.

When working by hand starts to fall short

With this way of working, a small business can go a long way. Still, at some point it can become difficult. Watch for these signs:

• Several colleagues reply from linked devices and, despite the labels, don’t know who is doing what.
• At busy times more messages come in than the person on message duty can keep up with, and the New request list grows.
• Many messages come in during the evening or on the weekend, and every morning starts with a backlog.
• The team sends the same quick replies to the same questions all day long.
• The labels are no longer updated, so the end-of-day check no longer tells you anything.

What you can do then, from simple to far-reaching:

1. Divide the work more clearly. More hours of message duty in the busy parts of the day, or one colleague who only handles WhatsApp during the peak.
2. Answer questions before they are asked. Make prices, business hours and what is available today clearer in your profile, catalog, status or on your Facebook page.
3. Look at software. There are services that work with the WhatsApp Business Platform, for example with a shared inbox in which you assign chats to colleagues, or with an assistant that answers routine questions. These have different terms and costs from the free app. Take your time comparing them, and keep your labels, target time and end-of-day check if you switch.

Your own numbers show best which step suits you. In Lesson 5 you count each week how many requests come in and how many are answered within your target time.

Checklist for this lesson

Downloads for this lesson

Test your knowledge

What to do now

• This week, set up your profile and your greeting and away messages, and save the eight quick replies, adapted to your business. Only have an hour? Then start with the away message, three quick replies and the end-of-day check.
• Create the five labels, label all open chats and do the end-of-day check five business days in a row.
• Continue with Lesson 4: appointments and follow-up. There you make sure that chats labeled Appointment confirmed and Waiting for information also end up in one follow-up list.