How-To Guideintermediate15 minutes

How to Automate WhatsApp for Business

Set up business automation with auto-replies, FAQ handling, and AI customer support on WhatsApp.

Automating a WhatsApp Business account with BotWave gives you 24/7 customer answers, instant catalog pulls, auto-replies to common questions ("price?", "location?", "hours?"), and a clean handoff to a human when needed. All without paying for WhatsApp Cloud API.

Prerequisites

  • A WhatsApp Business app account (free).
  • BotWave connected to it as a Linked Device.
  • A short FAQ list of the questions you get most.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. 1

    Build the FAQ playbook

    Dashboard → Business → FAQ. Add 10-20 of your most common customer questions and the canned answers you want the bot to use.

  2. 2

    Set business hours and AFK

    Dashboard → Business → Hours. Configure your open hours; outside hours, the bot auto-replies "We are closed, will reply when we open at X". Inside hours, the bot defers to FAQ and AI.

  3. 3

    Connect AI for fallback

    When the FAQ does not match, hand off to !ai with a system prompt that has your business info. Dashboard → AI → System prompt.

  4. 4

    Track conversion

    Dashboard → Analytics → conversion: how many auto-replies led to an actual order. Tune the FAQ based on what is converting and what is not.

  5. 5

    Add a "talk to human" escalation

    When a user types "human" or "agent", the bot pings you in DM. Configure the trigger in Dashboard → Business → Escalation.

Expected result

Customers get instant answers to 80%+ of common questions, you get pinged only for the genuinely tricky cases, and conversion data tells you what to improve.

Power-user tips

  • Build the FAQ from your last 200 customer DMs, those are your real questions, not the ones you assume.

Common pitfalls

  • Bulk outbound to non-opted-in numbers is the fastest way to a WhatsApp Business ban. Always opt-in.

Frequently asked questions

Is this WhatsApp Business API?

No. This is the free WhatsApp Business app via the same Linked Device protocol as regular WhatsApp. No Meta approval, no per-conversation pricing.

Can the bot send catalog cards?

Native catalog is WhatsApp-Business-only; the bot can reply with a catalog *link* and price summary text. For true rich-card catalog, the official Cloud API is required.

Ready to put this into practice?

Create your free BotWave account and connect a session in under 2 minutes.

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