How to automate WhatsApp customer support

Use WhatsApp Business, connect it to a shared inbox, give AI your prices, hours and policies, and let it draft or send replies to routine questions. Keep bookings, complaints and anything about money on approval.

Why WhatsApp first

For many small businesses WhatsApp is now where most enquiries arrive, and where the slowest replies happen because it lives on one person’s phone. Automating it well means customers get an answer in minutes and the owner gets their evenings back.

Step 1: move to WhatsApp Business

A business profile gives you hours, a catalogue, a greeting message and, crucially, the ability to connect other tools. It is free and takes ten minutes.

Step 2: one inbox, not one phone

Route WhatsApp into a shared inbox alongside your website form and email. Every conversation gets a name, a status and a next step, and anyone on the team can pick it up.

Step 3: give the AI your facts

Write down your services, prices, hours, location, booking policy and the ten questions you get most. This is what the AI answers from. Tell it plainly: if it is not in here, ask the owner.

Where Kahu fitsWhatsApp InboxKahu reads every WhatsApp message, drafts the answer from your prices and hours, and you tap send. Or let it send the routine ones itself.Your existing WhatsApp Business numberReplies drafted from your prices and hoursA person presses sendSee WhatsApp Inbox →Nikau Reeves+64 21 ··· ··· · via WhatsApp BusinessHey, anything free Thursday after 5? And roughly how much for a cut and beard trim?17:04Draft · from your price list and hoursKia ora Nikau, yes – 5:30 Thursday is free. Cut and beard trim is $55, about 45 min. Want me to hold it for you?EditSend

Step 4: draft first, send later

Start with the AI drafting every reply and you tapping send. After a fortnight, let it send the routine ones itself (hours, location, “do you do X?”) and keep drafting for anything else.

What to keep on approval

• Quotes and anything with a price you have not published.
• Complaints, refunds and cancellations.
• Medical, legal or safety questions.
• Anyone who asks for a human. Always hand over immediately.

Measure two things

Time to first reply and how many conversations end in a booking. Both should move within the first month. If replies got faster but bookings did not, the drafts are answering the question without inviting the next step.