WhatsApp automation for small businesses

What is WhatsApp automation?

WhatsApp automation is software that answers, sorts or sends WhatsApp messages for your business, so your staff do not have to type every reply. A customer asks whether you open on Sunday, and the assistant answers from the opening hours you gave it.

The free WhatsApp Business app sends a greeting and an away message automatically, and stores quick replies that you pick by hand. None of them read the question. For anything more you need the WhatsApp Business Platform. Meta offers it as the Cloud API, and it is often called the WhatsApp Business API. The WhatsApp chatbot we set up on it is configured to answer only from information you approve. It tells people it is automated, and it hands the chat to a person when the customer asks or when it has no approved answer.

Who is WhatsApp automation for?

WhatsApp automation is for owner-run businesses and small teams whose customers already message them on WhatsApp. That could be a salon, a plumber, a tutor, a driving instructor, a restaurant that takes bookings, a shop or a letting agent.

It helps most when the person holding the phone is also doing the work. The plumber is under a sink when the message arrives, and by the time they look, the customer may have booked someone else.

We work remotely with businesses in the UK, Spain and the rest of Europe, the Gulf and Pakistan. If you do not have a website, tell us at the start, because Meta may ask for other proof that the display name belongs to your business.

Why do businesses automate WhatsApp?

Businesses automate WhatsApp so that common questions get an approved answer and enquiries that arrive after hours are not forgotten. Questions such as what time you close come in again and again, and the assistant answers them from the information you approved, even when nobody on your team is free to reply.

Take a salon that gets a message at 9pm on Sunday asking the price of a cut and colour and whether Saturday is free. The assistant gives the approved price, asks for a name and a preferred time, and says the salon will confirm. On Monday the salon sees one message with the details and replies to the customer.

The assistant can also reply in Spanish, Urdu, Arabic or French. Those replies are machine-generated, and we work in English and Urdu, so no native speaker on our side checks the Spanish, Arabic or French wording.

How do you set up the WhatsApp Business API?

We set it up with you in five steps, on a Meta business portfolio in your name. Meta does its own review of the account, the display name and each message template, so we agree the steps rather than promise a date.

1. A short conversation

   We ask what customers message you about, what must always go to a person and which languages you need. Then we quote a fixed scope.

2. Your platform account

   The Meta business portfolio and the phone number stay in your name, and you add a payment method for Meta's charges. Moving a number that is already on the WhatsApp Business app can mean taking it off the app and losing its chat history, depending on how it is connected (Meta's coexistence option, available only through some Meta partners, can keep the app running on the same number), so we agree which number to use first.

3. Approved answers

   We write the answers from your hours, services, policies and whatever prices you choose to share. You approve them. When a question is not covered, the assistant says so and hands the chat to a person.

4. Enquiries and handover

   We set what it asks for an enquiry or appointment request, and how your staff are told so they can confirm. A customer can ask for a person at any point, and your staff reply from an inbox connected to the platform when they are available.

5. Testing and later changes

   We test it with awkward questions in each language you chose, though in Spanish, Arabic and French we cannot judge how natural the replies sound. You try it before customers do, and we agree who updates the answers when your prices or hours change.

When is WhatsApp automation worth it?

WhatsApp automation is worth considering when customers already message you there and the replies fall behind. It is probably not worth it if you get a few messages a week and reply quickly yourself. The free app may be enough, and we will say so.

It can help when:

• The same few questions come in many times a day.
• Evening and weekend enquiries get missed.
• Two or three people answer the same WhatsApp number.
• Instagram or your Google Business Profile sends people to WhatsApp and nobody replies.

What does the set-up include?

We scope each set-up separately. A set-up can include:

• Setting up the WhatsApp Business Platform on your own Meta business portfolio
• An assistant that answers from your approved information and says it is automated
• Enquiry details and appointment requests passed to your staff to confirm
• Handover to a person when the customer asks, for complaints and anything important you list, and whenever the assistant has no approved answer
• Automated WhatsApp messages, such as reminders, for customers who opted in, using templates written with you and submitted to Meta for approval
• Automated replies in English, Spanish, Urdu, Arabic or French
• Testing with you before launch

What we do not do

Several of these points are also Meta's own rules.

• Every set-up we do for a client uses the official WhatsApp Business Platform, never unofficial apps or modified versions of WhatsApp.
• We do not send bulk or unsolicited messages, or buy contact lists. Meta can restrict a number that many people block or report.
• We do not put general-purpose AI chatbots on WhatsApp, because Meta's terms do not allow them. An assistant for your own customers' questions and bookings is allowed.
• We do not build assistants that give medical, legal, immigration, visa, tax or financial advice.
• The assistant does not pretend to be a person, and it does not replace your staff.
• We are not a Meta or WhatsApp partner, and we cannot speed up Meta's reviews.
• We do not promise a number of bookings or sales.

How much does WhatsApp automation cost?

The cost has three parts: our fee for the set-up, which we quote for a fixed scope after a short conversation; the running cost of the AI service behind the assistant, which we explain before you agree to anything; and Meta's charges for template messages, which your business pays to Meta.

We do not publish prices. We invoice as Al-Harram Corporation. Meta sets its own rates and can change them, and the pricing question below explains how they work.

Our price for WhatsApp business automation depends on:

• How many questions the assistant covers, and how often the answers change
• The number of languages
• How enquiries reach your staff
• Whether you send updates to opted-in customers
• Who makes changes after launch