WhatsApp Business for a local shop

The business profile

The WhatsApp Business app gives you a public profile that an ordinary account does not have. WhatsApp’s help centre lists what goes in it: your business name and address, category, description, email address and website.

Fill in all of it. The profile is the first thing someone checks when they message a number they do not recognise. WhatsApp also notes that a complete profile can cut down the messages you get asking about things like your hours.

Use a separate business number if you can. You cannot run the same number on WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business at the same time, according to WhatsApp, though you can move a number from one to the other. Moving your personal number works, and many people do it. The cost is that work and your evenings then live in the same place. A second number - even a cheap second SIM - is often the difference between finishing at six and not.

The three messages that answer for you

Greeting messages, away messages and quick replies are the reason to switch to the business app. Each takes about ten minutes to set up.

The greeting

A greeting message goes out automatically when someone messages you for the first time. It also goes out when a customer messages you after 14 days of silence, so returning customers see it too.

Keep it short and make it do work: say what you do, and ask for the thing you always end up asking for. “Thanks for getting in touch. To quote, it helps if you can send a photo and tell us where you are.”

The away message

An away message replies for you when you cannot. You can send it at all times, on a custom schedule, or only outside the business hours set in your profile - one more reason to fill the hours in.

The point is not politeness. It is setting an expectation. “We are closed now and will reply in the morning” stops somebody messaging three competitors while they wait.

Quick replies

Quick replies are saved answers you drop into a chat by typing a forward slash. Take the five things you type every week - your area, your hours, how soon you can come out, what you need in order to quote, how to pay - and save each one. WhatsApp allows up to 50, which is far more than you need. This is the feature that saves real time.

The catalogue

A WhatsApp catalogue is a list of what you sell or do, shown on your business profile. Each item needs a title and at least one image, and can carry a description, a link and, in some countries, a price. A customer can browse it without leaving the chat, and you can send a single item into a conversation instead of describing it.

It suits some businesses far more than others. A shop, a bakery, a salon with a price list, a mechanic with fixed-price services - all good. A trade that quotes every job individually - less so, though a catalogue of typical jobs still saves a conversation.

Whatever goes in it should match your website and your printed price list. Three different prices in three places is the fastest way to a difficult conversation.

The click-to-chat link, and where to put it

A click-to-chat link opens a WhatsApp conversation with you from anywhere, without the customer saving your number first. WhatsApp’s help centre gives the format: wa.me/ followed by your full number in international format, with no zeros, brackets or dashes.

Pre-filling the first message is the part people miss. Add ?text= and your message to the end of the link, and the message appears in the customer’s text box ready to send. A link that opens with “Hi, I saw your website and I would like a quote for...” gets a usable first message instead of “hi”, and tells you which page they came from.

• On the website, as a button that is visible without scrolling.
• As a QR code on cards, flyers and the shop window.
• On your [Google Business Profile](/blogs/google-business-profile), where a link field allows it.
• In your email signature.
• Not as your only contact method. Some people will always want to ring.

A few manners

• Reply in hours, not days. People expect WhatsApp to be faster than email, and they judge you against that whether it is fair or not.
• Do not broadcast to people who did not ask. A broadcast list only reaches contacts who have saved your number in their phone anyway. Sending promotions to a customer list is the quickest way to get blocked and reported.
• Keep the quote in writing. A price agreed in a chat is still a price agreed - screenshot it into the job record.
• Turn off read receipts only if you mean it. Customers notice, and it reads as avoidance.

A few common questions.