WhatsApp Automation: What is It, Benefits, Uses & Examples

82% of Users in 2024 expect an instant response from businesses. Else they don't convert & shift to a competitor offering robust customer support solutions.   

Small Biz Trends

Wondering how to send automatic reminders on WhatsApp for Abandoned Cart recovery, application dropoff recovery, order confirmation/ cancellation, delivery updates or welcome/ away messages? 

You're at the right place!!

WhatsApp Automation is one of the best means to automate common customer queries and welcome & away messages to your users on WhatsApp. 

In this blog, we'll cover everything about WhatsApp Business automation & share everything you need to know about automating WhatsApp messages via WhatsApp Business App & WhatsApp Business API.

Table of Content

What is WhatsApp Automation

Benefits of WhatsApp Automation

Use Cases of WhatsApp Automation for businesses

How to Automate WhatsApp messages: WhatsApp Business App & WhatsApp Business API

What is WhatsApp Automation?

WhatsApp Automation refers to the process of using a software to automate messaging and communication on WhatsApp. WhatsApp Business automation enables businesses to streamline their customer support, promotional messaging, and reminders by automating repetitive tasks. By implementing WhatsApp Automation, businesses can save time and resources, while improving their response times and increasing customer satisfaction.

Welcome & away messages, Abandoned Cart reminders & Order updates are examples of WhatsApp Business automated messages sent via the WhatsApp Business app.

To automate common customer queries & notifications like Order Confirmation, delivery, payments & more, you'll need a WhatsApp Business API-powered platform like AiSensy. 

In case you're new to the term WhatsApp Business API, check out this WhatsApp API guide before you continue. 

Benefits of WhatsApp Automation for your Business

By automating messages on WhatsApp, you can:

• Reduce your response time - 49% of companies agree that Marketing automation has helped their time wasted doing repetitive tasks. You can effectively reduce your response time with automated replies for common customer queries.

• Save your team's time & efforts - By automating repetitive user queries, you can help save your agents valuable time which they can use to complete other important tasks at hand.
  
  
• Keep your Business running 24x7 - By enabling pre-set responses, you can keep your business active 24x7, even during weekends & holidays. Whenever users send you a message, they'll receive an automated response for their queries.
  
  
• Drive engagement to 5x more users - WhatsApp has a 5x more engagement rate than emails & SMS. By automating WhatsApp messages, you can drive 5x more engagement & quality leads to your business.
  
  

Top 6 Use Cases of WhatsApp Automation

1. Automate payment reminder notifications on WhatsApp

You can drive 3x more payments faster when you automate payment reminders on WhatsApp.

In the fast-paced world that we live in today, users might unintentionally forget to make their promised payments.

Whether it's a loan EMI, school/ college fees, car loan, subscription fee etc; automating a payment reminder WhatsApp message helps you collect 3x more payments in much less time.

AiSensy integrates with 2000+ CRMs & softwares like Razorpay, Shopify, WooCommerce, Pabbly, Integrately & many more. You can easily integrate your business software & setup automated notifications on WhatsApp (click here to know how)

2. Setup Welcome message & quick replies

Users that receive a welcome or onboarding message are 33% more likely to engage with your business.

A warm welcome goes a long way in helping you create a good first impression on the user's mind about your business.

So, whenever a user signs up on your platform, says a 'Hi' on WhatsApp or makes their first purchase, automate a Welcome message that helps them:

• Understand your business offerings and
• Provide a list of actions they can perform

Wondering how to automate WhatsApp reply for Welcome and away messages? 

With AiSensy, you can easily set up Welcome & off-hours messages where users will instantly receive a message from your end depending on the time of their message.

3. Recover 45-60% of Abandoned Carts

One of the best use case of WhatsApp Business Automation is sending Abandoned Cart Recovery Notifications on WhatsApp.

80% of customers bag items in their carts but abandon their purchase at the payment page. That means 8 out of 10 users who add items to their carts won't end up purchasing.  

But, there's a simple trick that can recover 45-60% of Abandoned Carts. Just automate Abandoned Cart Notifications on WhatsApp with a casual reminder to users to complete their purchase.

Sending Abandoned Cart Notifications on WhatsApp has been extremely profitable for our clients, with a 20% jump in sales. One of our clients has been able to recover 25-30% of the total Abandoned Carts.

4. Send Live Delivery Updates on WhatsApp

97% of Customers expect real-time visibility of their order shipments, with live delivery tracking status, updates & notifications.

Automating these WhatsApp notifications will establish you as a trustworthy brand for users. 

This is because users know that they'll receive a confirmation on WhatsApp whenever they purchase a product or ask for a refund. 

You can connect your existing E-commerce systems with AiSensy & set up WhatsApp API campaigns to automate live order updates on WhatsApp.

5. Automate sales & customer queries with WhatsApp Chatbot

A WhatsApp Chatbot is a Chatbot that functions on WhatsApp, answering customer queries, completing sales & collecting user attributes on WhatsApp.

It works just like a customer support agent delivering a human-like experience 24x7 for your business.

The WhatsApp Chatbot is capable of tasks such as:

• Answering common customer questions,
• Nurture leads when they first land on WhatsApp,
• Complete sales by sending them personalized recommendations & product details,
• Collect product feedback,
• Transfer queries to Live Chat Human-Agent if the user wants to talk to a human.

You can achieve all this by integrating a Smart WhatsApp Chatbot with AiSensy in just 3 minutes. 

  Read: The Complete WhatsApp Chatbot Guide

6. Provide robust after-sales support

Statistics suggest that 96% of customers leave a brand if they don't provide quality customer support. After-sales support is important if you wish to boost customer loyalty & retention to your brand.

You can set up automated responses & pre-set replies for queries that users might get after purchasing your products and services.

How to automate WhatsApp messages?

There are 2 simple ways to setup WhatsApp Business Automation including:

• WhatsApp Business App
• WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp Automation with WhatsApp Business App

WhatsApp Business App allows you to setup:

• Greeting message
• Away message
• Custom Schedule message
• Outside business hours message

To automate WhatsApp messages via Business App, follow the below steps:

• Open WhatsApp Business App
• Click the 'three dots' on the top-right corner
• Open Business Tools
• Click 'Greeting/ Away Message'
• Turn on 'Send Greeting/ Away Message'
• There is an auto-generated Greeting/ Away Message already set. You can choose that or customize the Message by clicking the pencil icon.

Limitations of WhatsApp Automation with WhatsApp Business App

For small & individual businesses, WhatsApp Business App is a great choice to setup automated responses

But, if you're a large business looking to use WhatsApp to reach global audiences, then WhatsApp Business won't be the right choice for you!

There are multiple limitations of the WhatsApp Business App such as:

1. WhatsApp Broadcast Limit of 256 users. Also, it will only reach people who have added you to their contacts. 

2. You can't set up Auto reply in WhatsApp for very basic use cases

2. No option to track analytics

3. Can't track agent's performance.

4. Can't integrate WhatsApp Chatbot to automate customer support

5. No option to Integrate with 3rd party software & CRMs 

6. Automated Notifications are not available

7. Can't send Messages with Clickable Buttons

8. Getting a WhatsApp Green Tick isn't possible 

If you wish to achieve the Use Cases mentioned above, choose WhatsApp Business API for automating WhatsApp messages to users.

WhatsApp Automation with WhatsApp Business API

Using WhatsApp Business API, you can do much more than basic greetings by setting up a WhatsApp Chatbot for auto-replies.

You can set up WhatsApp Business automation easily using AiSensy. AiSensy is the Smartest WhatsApp Engagement Suite built on official WhatsApp Business APIs.

You can automate WhatsApp messages for order confirmation, delivery updates, abandoned cart reminders, application dropoff reminders & many more easily.

With WhatsApp Business API-based platform AiSensy, you can:

• Automate Welcome & away messages
• Create WhatsApp API Campaigns to automate notifications for Orders, Delivery, payments & more. 

Let's discuss each of these in detail:

Setup Welcome & Off-hours message in AiSensy

Welcome & off-hours automation is the basic necessity of any business. 

By setting up Welcome & off-hours auto-replies, you ensure that a user immediately receives a message from your end depending on the time they connect with you.

Here's how you can setup Welcome & off-hours messages in AiSensy:

1. Go to Live Chat settings

To set up a Welcome / Off-hours message, go to Manage & choose Live Chat settings. 

In Live Chat settings, enable Welcome & Off-hours messages as shown in the below image. 

Make sure to turn on the Enable button if you wish to automate the auto-replies.

2. Configure Welcome & Off-hours message

After enabling Welcome & off-hours messages, let's configure the message you wish the user to receive. 

Hit the Configure button to configure the messages. 

3. Set Timezone & working hours

Last, select your preferred timezone & working hours of your business. 

Your users will receive the message based on the timezone you choose. 

In the below image, if a user messages you between 10 AM - 7 PM from Monday to Saturday, they'll receive a welcome message. 

However, if they message you anytime outside this timeframe, let's say 8 PM on a Tuesday, they'll receive an off-hours message. 

Automate WhatsApp Notifications via Integrations

Imagine this: You run a Shopify Ecommerce store and want to automate an Abandoned Cart Reminder for those users who have added an item from your store to their cart but haven't completed the purchase.

You can do this easily by integrating your Shopify Ecommerce store with AiSensy. Connect with our team for FREE Shopify AiSensy Integration.

Follow the below steps to set up a WhatsApp API Campaign on AiSensy App:

1. Create & submit WhatsApp Template messages

After getting approved for WhatsApp Business API, go to manage 👉 Template Message 👉 +New

Check out this Template Message Guide to know how to create WhatsApp Templates in AiSensy.

2. Create a new WhatsApp API Campaign

Now, go to the Campaigns page 👉 tap the +Launch button at the top right corner 👉 click API Campaign.

3. Set WhatsApp API Campaign Live

Next, pick a Campaign name & select a pre-approved Abandoned Cart Reminder WhatsApp Template message that will automatically send to users who have added an item to their cart but haven't completed the purchase.

Yes, it's that simple!

You can easily set up WhatsApp Business automation for use cases like Order Confirmation, Live Delivery updates, OTP verifications, payment reminders, newsletters & many more. 

WhatsApp Automation FAQs

Q. Can you automate WhatsApp messages?

Q. Is WhatsApp Automation Free?

Q. How does WhatsApp Automation works?

Q. How do I start automation on WhatsApp?

Q. Which is the best WhatsApp Automation tool?

Before you Leave

That sums it up!

WhatsApp Automation can save your agents a massive amount of time from answering common customer queries.

We hope this guide helps you understand everything you need to know about WhatsApp automation.