WhatsApp Business is automated with three free features built into the app: the away message (for people who write outside your hours), the welcome message (for first contact) and quick replies (shortcuts for the questions you always get). All three are set up from your phone in under 20 minutes and need no external tool.
It’s 11 at night and a customer messages you asking if you have a slot tomorrow morning. You’re having dinner. You won’t check your phone until tomorrow. But the customer doesn’t know that, and if they don’t get a reply within twenty minutes, they’ve probably already messaged the business next door.
Automating WhatsApp Business doesn’t mean losing the personal touch. It means the customer gets an immediate response confirming their message arrived, telling them when you’ll be able to get back to them, and giving them the basic information they need without you having to watch your phone around the clock.
What can WhatsApp Business automate and what can’t it?
WhatsApp Business has three native automation features, free and available to any business from your phone:
| Feature | When it triggers | Automatic? | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Away message | Outside the hours you define | Yes | 5 min |
| Welcome message | First contact or after 14 days of silence | Yes | 5 min |
| Quick replies | When you type ”/” in the chat | No, you send them | 10 min |
Away message: an automatic reply sent when someone messages you outside your business hours or when you can’t respond.
Welcome message: an automatic reply sent the first time someone messages you, or when they haven’t contacted you in more than 14 days.
Quick replies: keyboard shortcuts for your most frequently asked questions. They aren’t automatic (you send them yourself), but they cut response time from minutes to seconds.
What WhatsApp Business can’t do natively: complex conversation flows, AI-powered chatbots or integration with booking systems. Tools like ManyChat or Respond.io exist for that, but for most local businesses the three native features are more than enough.
How do I set up the away message step by step?
The away message is the most important because it covers the moment of greatest customer frustration: sending a message and getting silence back.
On Android:
- Open WhatsApp Business
- Tap the three dots (menu) in the top right corner
- Go to Settings → Business tools
- Tap “Away message”
- Turn on the “Send away message” toggle
- Tap the pencil icon to edit the message text
- Set the schedule: you can choose “Always”, “Outside business hours” or a custom schedule
- Save
On iPhone:
- Open WhatsApp Business
- Tap Settings (bottom right)
- Go to Business tools
- Tap “Away message”
- Turn on “Send away message”
- Edit the text and configure the schedule
- Save
What to put in the away message:
The most common mistake is using a generic message like “Out of hours, we’ll reply soon.” That gives the customer no useful information.
An effective away message has three elements: acknowledge that you received their message, tell them when you’ll be able to respond, and give them an alternative if it’s urgent.
Example for a hair salon:
“Hi, thanks for writing. We’re outside business hours but we’ll reply tomorrow from 9am. If you need to book, you can also do it at [link] or call us tomorrow on [number]. See you soon.”
Example for a garage:
“Hi, your message came through perfectly. Our business hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. We’ll be in touch tomorrow. If it’s urgent, call [number].”
Example for a restaurant:
“Thanks for getting in touch. We can’t reply right now but we’ll get back to you tomorrow from 10am. For reservations with less than 24 hours’ notice, please call us directly on [number].”
How do I set up the welcome message?
The welcome message is sent automatically when someone messages you for the first time, or when they haven’t contacted you in more than 14 days. It’s the first impression that customer gets of how you handle communication.
The setup process is identical to the away message: Settings → Business tools → Welcome message.
What to put:
The welcome message doesn’t need to be long. It needs to confirm the message arrived, briefly introduce the business for new customers, and open the conversation.
Example:
“Hi, welcome to [business name]. I’m [name], happy to help. What can I do for you?”
If your business has very common questions (opening hours, location, prices), you can add them to the welcome message to reduce the number of back-and-forths before you get to what the customer actually needs.
How do I create quick replies for the questions I always get?
Quick replies are shortcuts that let you send predefined messages by typing ”/” followed by a keyword. They’re the most useful feature day to day because they let you respond in seconds to the questions you get twenty times a day.
How to create them:
- Settings → Business tools → Quick replies
- Tap ”+” to add a new one
- Write the full message in “Message”
- Assign a shortcut in “Shortcut” (a short word with no spaces)
- Save
Useful quick reply examples by business type:
For any business:
/hours→ “Our hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 2pm and 5pm to 8pm, and Saturdays 10am to 2pm.”/location→ “We’re at [address]. The nearest car park is at [reference]. Do you need directions?”/price→ “Prices depend on the service. What do you need and I’ll put together a quote.”
For hair salons and beauty centres:
/appointment→ “To book an appointment you can message us here or call [number]. What service do you need and what days work for you?”/rates→ [list of services with prices]
For restaurants:
/book→ “To book a table, let us know the day, time and number of people. Do you have a seating preference?”/menu→ [link to online menu]
The difference between automating and depersonalising
Automating WhatsApp Business is not the same as turning it into a cold bot. Automation covers the moments when you can’t be there (outside hours, first contact). You still handle the real conversation yourself.
What changes with automation: the customer is no longer left in silence waiting. They get an immediate response confirming their message arrived and telling them what to expect. By the time you pick up the conversation, the customer is already informed and things start from a more advanced point.
To see how to use WhatsApp proactively to bring customers back (not just to reply when they write to you), How to use WhatsApp to retain customers and keep them coming back has the follow-up, reactivation and special occasion messages.
And for the complete automation framework for your business, How to automate your local business without any coding covers the first three things worth automating depending on your type of business.
If you want to explore more free tools beyond WhatsApp (scheduling, payments, invoicing), in Free tools to manage your local business without overcomplicating things you’ll find the full comparison by category.
If you want to go further: automation with artificial intelligence
WhatsApp Business’s native features solve 80% of communication problems for a local business. But there’s a level above that is now accessible to businesses of any size: WhatsApp chatbots powered by artificial intelligence.
Unlike simple automatic messages, an AI chatbot can hold real conversations. Some flows already running in local businesses:
Lead qualification. The customer writes asking about a service. The bot asks two or three questions (what they need, when, for how many), collects the information and books the appointment or passes the contact to the team with the context already in place.
FAQ responses with a database. The bot has access to the business’s information (services, prices, availability, location) and responds with real data. If it doesn’t know the answer, it doesn’t make one up: it escalates to the human team.
Post-visit follow-up. 24 hours after a visit, the bot sends a personalised message asking how the experience went. If the response is positive, it can ask for a Google review in a natural way.
Sending multimedia content. The bot can send photos of previous work, demo videos, menus, catalogues or any file the customer asks for, without human involvement.
My team and I have developed a WhatsApp chatbot that goes a step further than most solutions on the market. It responds as if it were you: with your business’s tone, with the information you want to give, without making anything up. If the bot doesn’t have the answer in its database, it doesn’t improvise: it transfers the conversation to a real person.
And here’s the key difference: the customer can choose at any point to speak with a person. The bot doesn’t try to hold anyone hostage. That transparency is what builds trust.
The results we’re seeing in the businesses where it’s running: 85% of questions are resolved without human involvement, and 55% of customers who interact with the bot book or buy immediately, without any need for follow-up.
If you’d like to see how it would work in your specific business, reach out on LinkedIn.
Frequently Asked Questions
The next step
The full setup (away message, welcome message and three quick replies) takes less than 20 minutes. That alone stops you from losing customers who write out of hours and cuts in half the time you spend answering the same questions every day.
If you'd like to go through together which automatic messages make most sense for your type of business, reach out on LinkedIn.