WhatsApp automation setup: step by step

Why WhatsApp?

Your customers are already there. According to the 2025 survey of TurkStat (TÜİK, the Turkish Statistical Institute), WhatsApp is the most used social media and messaging app in Turkey at 88.6%, followed by YouTube at 72.9% and Instagram at 68.1%.

The problem is that messages do not keep office hours. When a "how much is it?" message sent at 9 pm is answered the next morning, the customer has often bought elsewhere. The first job of automation is to close that gap.

First decide: the app or the platform?

The rule is simple: if you or an employee answer messages by hand, the app is enough. If you want messages answered automatically and connected to a booking or order system, you need the platform.

How does message pricing work?

Since 1 July 2025, Meta charges per message. You pay only when a template message you send is delivered.

• When a customer writes to you, a 24-hour "customer service window" opens. Normal replies you send within this window are free.
• Utility templates (order confirmation, shipping update, appointment reminder) are free inside this window and charged outside it.
• Marketing templates (campaigns, announcements) are always charged and are the most expensive type.
• Customers who come from an ad: with someone who taps a "Message on WhatsApp" ad on Instagram or Facebook, all messages are free for 72 hours.

In practice: conversations the customer starts and you answer promptly are free. Campaign messages you start are charged. Meta sets the prices by country and changes them from time to time; the current table is in the sources.

Setup, step by step

1. Choose the number. Will you use your existing business number or a new one? Moving an existing number to the platform comes with conditions; check them before setup.
2. Open and verify a Meta business account. Your business details are verified. The name customers will see also goes through Meta's approval.
3. Write your message templates. Messages you will start yourself, such as order confirmations and appointment reminders, are prepared as templates in advance and sent to Meta for approval.
4. Design the flow. The most important decision is this: in which situations will the assistant hand the conversation to a person?

   1A message arrives

   2The assistant understands the request

   QuestionAnswers it

   BookingWrites it into the calendar

   OrderPulls the status from the system

   Unclear or a complaintHands it to your team

5. Brief the assistant. Price list, opening hours, frequent questions, return terms. The assistant answers only from the information you give it; when it does not know, it does not make things up, it hands the conversation to your team.
6. Connect it to your systems. Calendar, e-commerce platform, customer records.
7. Test before real customers see it. Try 20–30 different questions within the team. Try misspelled, incomplete and angry messages in particular.
8. Read the conversations every day for the first two weeks. Add the questions the assistant stumbles on to its knowledge list. This is when the assistant improves fastest.

What should an AI assistant do, and what should it never do?

It does:

• Greet messages that arrive outside office hours.
• Answer frequent questions.
• Take, change and remind of bookings.
• Report order status.
• Collect the name, need and contact details of a new enquiry and pass them to the team, ready to use.

It should never:

• Negotiate prices or promise a discount without asking you.
• Give medical, legal or financial opinions. This matters especially for clinics: the assistant does not diagnose; it passes the question to a specialist.
• Close a complaint on its own.

Rules and the legal side

• WhatsApp's rule: to message someone on WhatsApp, that person must have agreed to receive messages from you.
• The rule in Turkey: marketing messages sent electronically need the recipient's prior consent (Law No. 6563), and these consents are recorded in İYS, Turkey's commercial message management system. Status notifications such as order and delivery updates are treated separately from this consent.
• Personal data: under KVKK, Turkey's personal data protection law, people must be informed about the personal data in these conversations.

Settle these three points with your legal adviser before you start sending campaign messages.

When is it not worth setting up?

If you receive a few messages a day and can answer them comfortably, the greeting message and quick replies in the WhatsApp Business app are enough. Automation makes sense when the number of messages outgrows your team, or when messages outside office hours start costing you sales.

Frequently asked questions