How Does a WhatsApp Chatbot Work?
What happens in the moments between a customer's message and the reply, and what a business needs before it can run one.
From message to reply, step by step
- The customer sends a message to your business number, as they would to anyone.
- WhatsApp passes it to the chatbot. On Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform, each new message is sent to the chatbot's server automatically.
- The chatbot works out what is being asked, in Egyptian Arabic, formal Arabic or English.
- It finds the answer in the information you approved, such as your services, policies or price list, or looks it up in your system, such as an order status.
- It replies, or hands over. If the answer isn't in its information, or the customer asks for a person, the conversation goes to your team.
The 24-hour rule
On the WhatsApp Business Platform, a business can reply freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. Outside that window, it can only send message templates that Meta has approved, such as an order update. So a chatbot answers when customers write, and it doesn't send messages at random.
What a business needs
- A business account with Meta, and a phone number to use with the WhatsApp Business Platform.
- The information the chatbot answers from, reviewed and approved by you.
- Clear handover rules: which questions go to a person, and who receives them.
- A budget for Meta's message charges, which follow Meta's own pricing.
Chatbot, or WhatsApp Business app auto-reply?
The free app's away message sends the same text to everyone. A chatbot reads each message and answers it. Our auto-reply guide explains when the free option is enough.
Common questions.
Yes. It answers at any hour, and passes to your team what it shouldn't answer alone.
Only with message templates approved by Meta, and to customers who agreed to receive them. Inside the 24 hours after a customer writes, it can reply freely.
It says it doesn't have the answer instead of guessing, and can pass the conversation to your team.
Thinking About A WhatsApp Chatbot?
Tell us what your customers ask, and we tell you what it could handle.