WhatsApp chatbot for a small business: what to automate and how to build the first one

What a small business should automate first

Start with the questions that have one right answer and that you answer many times a week.

1. A welcome message when someone writes to you for the first time.
2. Opening hours, address and how to reach you.
3. Prices or a price list, and how to place an order.
4. The status of an order or a booking, when you can look it up from your own software.
5. A way to reach a person at any step.

What to leave to a person

Complaints, refunds, anything that needs judgement and any customer who asks for a person should reach a human quickly. A flow can end with a hand-over to your team's inbox, so the customer does not have to repeat themselves.

How to build the first flow in VartaAPI

In the app, open Flows and make a new flow. You build it on a canvas by dragging blocks, with no code.

1. Choose what starts it: a word a customer sends (a keyword), or the first message from someone new (a welcome).
2. Add the blocks: send a message, ask a question, show buttons or a list, send an image or a document, send an approved template, add a tag to the contact, wait, branch on the answer, or hand over to a person.
3. Test a step or the whole flow before it is live. The app also shows what each run did for 30 days.
4. Switch it on.

There are 34 ready-made flows to adjust instead of starting from nothing.

How many flows each plan allows

Spark allows 1 flow, Comet 5, Orbit 15 and Nova 25. If you need more, you can add packs of 5 flows from the app. See the pricing page for the current prices.

Connect it to your other software

Each flow can have its own secure address that other software calls, for example to send a WhatsApp message after a payment. This is part of the same flow builder.