Short answer
A WhatsApp chatbot, or WhatsApp bot, replies to customers on your business number: it answers questions, takes bookings and orders, and passes the chat to a person when a question needs one. A menu bot offers buttons to tap, while an AI assistant reads free text and answers from information you have approved. Praxen builds and tests a WhatsApp assistant in a 2–4 week pilot priced at £2,900, or £2,030 while the launch offer runs, excluding VAT.
Jobs a WhatsApp chatbot takes on
- Answering repeat questions. Prices, opening hours, delivery areas, what to bring and how to pay.
- Taking bookings. Checking free slots in your booking system and confirming the appointment in the chat.
- Capturing enquiries. Asking the questions your team always asks, then saving the answers to your CRM.
- Order updates. Looking up the order and sending the tracking link when a customer asks.
- Sending reminders. Appointment and payment reminders to customers who have agreed to receive them on WhatsApp.
What every build needs
- Your information in one place. Price list, policies and frequent questions, kept current by one person.
- Clear limits. What the bot may promise, which topics always go to a person and what it must never say.
- A handover. The person who takes over replies from the same WhatsApp number, in a shared inbox or your helpdesk, and sees the chat so far.
- A connection to your systems. Booking calendar, CRM or shop, so answers about slots and orders are real.
- Access to the WhatsApp Business API. The free WhatsApp Business app has no connection a bot can use; our API guide covers access and Meta’s message charges.
Mistakes that send customers back to the phone
- A long menu before any answer. Three taps to reach opening hours feels slower than a call.
- No way to reach a person. If the bot never offers one, the customer phones, and the call it was meant to save happens anyway.
- Asking for details WhatsApp already gives. In most chats the customer’s number arrives with the message, so the bot should not ask for it again.
- Photos and voice notes with no plan. Customers send pictures of a receipt or a damaged item, and voice notes. Decide what the bot does with each, even if that is passing the chat to a person.
How to plan your WhatsApp chatbot
- Read the last few weeks of WhatsApp messages and note why each customer wrote: a price, a booking, an order, a complaint. Note the time as well; messages after hours show what the bot will handle alone.
- Choose the first jobs from that list. Two or three are enough to launch, and the rest can follow once they work.
- Decide where buttons help. A short fixed choice, such as a branch or a day, works as buttons; questions stay as free text.
- Write down which chats go to a person, who picks them up and what the bot tells customers outside working hours.
- Run the questions from step 1 through the assistant and compare each reply with what your team would have said.
- Go live and add the wa.me click-to-chat link to your website and booking emails. In the first weeks, read every chat the bot handed over: each one points to an answer to add or a rule to change.
Building it with Praxen
The pilot puts the jobs you chose in step 2 live on your WhatsApp number. Meta bills some messages separately, to your own account. Care is £350 a month at the standard price; the cards show the launch offer.
WhatsApp assistant pilot£2,030The first two or three jobs from your plan, a booking or CRM connection, handover to your team and tests on your past questionsTimeline: 2–4 weeks
Ongoing care£245 a monthoptionalNew answers when prices or services change, a review of handed-over chats, fixesTimeline: Monthly