How do I set up a WhatsApp chatbot?

Step 2: Connect the flow to the WhatsApp Business API

A real chatbot cannot run on the free WhatsApp Business app, that app is built for a person or two replying by hand. Automation, interactive menus, template messaging, and multi-agent handoff all require the WhatsApp Business API, which you access through a provider like InfiQ. In practice that means onboarding your business number, getting it verified with Meta, and connecting it to a flow builder. If your bot only needs to serve static answers and menus, a no-code builder connects everything for you with no engineering. If it needs to read a live order status or write a booking back to your system, your developers wire the API to your CRM, inventory, or payment backend. Either way, the number, templates, and history should belong to you, with InfiQ you keep full BSUID (Business-Scoped User ID) ownership rather than renting a number locked inside a provider's account.

Step 3: Use interactive buttons and lists, not free typing

Once a customer can type anything, they will, and your bot will drown in misspellings, half-sentences, and off-topic messages it cannot parse. The fix is to guide every choice. WhatsApp gives you two native interactive formats built for exactly this: reply buttons for up to three tap-able options (great for yes/no/talk-to-agent), and list messages for up to ten choices grouped under a menu (great for 'pick a service' or 'choose a branch'). Tapping instead of typing is faster for the customer, hands your bot clean and predictable input, and visibly lifts how many people finish a flow instead of abandoning it. Reserve free-text steps for the few places you genuinely need it, like a delivery address or a complaint description, and confirm what you captured back to the customer.

• Reply buttons: up to 3 options, best for short either-or decisions
• List messages: up to 10 options, best for menus and catalogues
• Every dead-end screen should still offer a way forward or a way out
• Echo captured details back so the customer can correct a mistake early

Step 4: Always build in a human handoff

No chatbot should be a trap. The fastest way to lose a customer is to loop them through 'sorry, I did not understand that' with no escape. Put a visible route to a human in every flow and trigger it automatically in the situations bots handle badly: when the customer explicitly asks for an agent, when the bot fails to match a query twice in a row, and whenever the topic is sensitive, a refund, a complaint, a payment dispute. When the handoff fires, pass the full conversation context to your agent so the customer never has to repeat what they already told the bot. Done well, the bot silently clears the routine 70-80% of chats and your human team spends their time only on the conversations that actually need judgement.

What it costs to run, and how a good bot keeps it low

Cost on WhatsApp is driven by messaging, not by having a bot. When a customer messages you first, you get a 24-hour service window in which your replies carry no Meta messaging charge, this is a free service window, not a billing unit. Business-initiated template messages (reminders, notifications, re-engagement) are billed per delivered message by category, marketing, utility, or authentication, since Meta moved off per-conversation billing on 1 July 2025. A well-designed chatbot naturally keeps most traffic inside the free window because it responds to inbound questions, so your costs stay tied to the outbound campaigns you deliberately choose to run. InfiQ applies its own transparent rupee pricing (ex-GST), so you can see exactly what each category costs before you send. As an official Meta Business Partner, InfiQ also keeps your opt-in, templates, and account setup aligned with Meta's rules from day one.