Blog / Automation & AI

Automated messages on WhatsApp: what to automate and ready-to-copy templates

The questions come in when you’re closed: “are you open tomorrow?” at 10:40 p.m., “how much does it cost?” on a Sunday morning. Answering everything, instantly, by hand, isn’t sustainable — and so many conversations die without a reply, along with the sales they contained. Automated messages are built for this: covering the repetitive and the after-hours without making the customer feel they’re facing a phone menu. In this guide: the four automations that pay off right away, with ready-to-adapt templates.

What automated messages on WhatsApp are

They are replies and sends that go out on their own when a condition is met: a new contact who writes (welcome), a message outside working hours (away), a keyword in the text (preset reply), an approaching date (reminder). The free WhatsApp Business app covers only the first two cases, with a welcome message and an away message. Keywords, scheduled reminders, list subscriptions, and AI require a platform connected to the number — via QR code or through Meta’s official APIs.

The 4 automations to set up, with ready-to-use templates

1. The welcome for first-time writers

It’s the first contact with your business: it should say who you are, when you reply, and what the customer can do in the meantime. A good welcome: “Hi! 👋 You’ve reached Pasticceria Vergani. We reply the same day, Tuesday to Sunday 8:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m. Feel free to write your request right here: orders, custom cakes, information.” Short, with the real hours and a concrete invitation to leave the request straight away.

2. The after-hours reply

It avoids silence during closed hours and sets an expectation: “Thanks for your message! We’re closed right now: we’re back tomorrow morning at 9:00. Leave the details of your request here and we’ll reply as soon as we’re back.” The detail that changes everything is the time you’re back: “we’ll reply as soon as possible” reassures little, “tomorrow morning at 9:00” does.

3. Keyword replies

These are the next level: the customer writes a word — or includes it in the message — and gets the right answer. They work for recurring questions (prices, hours, menu, price list) and for list subscriptions and unsubscriptions. Example on the MENU trigger: “Here’s the updated menu 👉 [link]. To book a table, reply BOOK with the day and number of people.” And the unsubscribe, mandatory for promotional communications: anyone who writes STOP is removed from the list, automatically, with no manual steps.

4. Reminders for appointments and deadlines

Here you don’t reply: you prevent. A reminder the day before reduces no-shows and frees the calendar from gaps: “Hi Marco, we’re expecting you tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. for the check-up. If you can’t make it, reply to this message and we’ll find another date.” On Meta’s official APIs these messages use utility-category templates; from a number connected via QR they go out as regular messages, scheduled from a calendar.

5. The step beyond rules: trained AI

Keywords cover the predictable questions; AI covers the rest. A chatbot trained on your content — website, PDFs, price lists — answers freely phrased questions (“do you also make gluten-free cakes for Saturday?”) in the customer’s language, and passes the conversation to a human when needed. It’s the difference between an auto-responder and an assistant.

On SendApp you’ll find both paths: Cloud adds keyword replies, an autoresponder, and reminders to the number you already use, connecting it via QR code in five minutes; Agent adds trainable AI, on WhatsApp as well as Instagram, Telegram, and email. Plans from €19/month, free trial without a card.

What to automate (and what not to): the map

Best practices

• State that it’s automated: an announced automated message doesn’t bother anyone, one disguised as a human does
• Always offer the way out to a person: “reply AGENT to talk to us” saves the delicate conversations
• Keep hours and content up to date: wrong after-hours info is worse than silence
• Turn the bot off when you take over: the double reply — human plus automated — confuses the customer
• For reminders, ask for consent at the time of booking and handle STOP automatically
• Re-read the conversations once a week: the questions left unanswered are the next keywords to add

Where to start

With the most immediate effect. Welcome and after-hours set up in ten minutes and instantly remove the silence from closed hours. Keyword replies come second, after a week spent noting down the questions that truly repeat. Reminders alone justify the project if you work by appointment. AI last: it pays off more when it already has clean rules and up-to-date content to lean on.