Automated customer service on WhatsApp, step by step.

How does automated customer service on WhatsApp work?

There are two different tools, and many people mix them up.

• WhatsApp Business app. This is the app you download on your phone. It is free and built for small business owners. Its automatic replies are fixed: you write the text once and the app sends the same message to everyone, following the rule you pick.
• Official API (WhatsApp Business Platform). An API is the official link between two systems that lets one send data to the other. Through the API, the business number is connected to a customer service program. That program can include an AI that reads the customer question and answers based on the business information, and it can split chats among several agents. Meta charges per delivered message.

For a bakery that gets a few messages a day, the app covers a lot. When the same questions arrive all day and nobody can answer in time, the API starts to make sense.

How do you set up automated replies in WhatsApp Business?

Everything lives in the app Tools tab. There are three features, and each one has a job.

1. Greeting message. Tap Greeting message, turn on Send greeting message, write the text and choose the recipients. Meta says it goes to people who write for the first time or after 14 days without a conversation.
2. Away message. Tap Away message, turn it on and pick the schedule: Always send, Custom schedule or Outside of business hours. The last option only shows up if your hours are filled in on the business profile.
3. Quick replies. Shortcuts for texts you send all the time, such as address, menu or payment options. You can save up to 50. In a chat, type a slash (/) and pick the reply.

The phone must be connected to the internet for the greeting and away messages to go out. The full walkthrough, with sample texts, is in the article on automatic messages in WhatsApp Business.

Is there automated WhatsApp customer service with AI?

Yes, and the most complete route is the official API. There, the answer can come from an AI connected to the business information: menu, service price list, open slots in the schedule, stock, return policy. Customers write in their own words and the AI understands the question, without forcing anyone to type 1, 2 or 3 in a menu.

Meta allows automation inside the customer service window, with one condition written in the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy: the business must offer a prompt, clear path for the customer to reach a person. It can be a transfer to an agent in the same chat, a phone number, an email, a form or a store visit.

In practice, good AI customer service does three things:

• answers repeated questions, such as price, hours and address;
• handles counter work, such as booking an appointment or taking an order;
• hands off to a person when the topic goes off script or the customer asks.

Meta also has its own AI agent, Meta Business Agent. When it is connected in the app, the greeting message is turned off. The differences between a menu bot and an AI bot are in the article on WhatsApp chatbots, and the Library has a guide on AI in customer service.

How much does automated WhatsApp customer service cost?

In the WhatsApp Business app, greeting, away and quick replies cost nothing.

On the official API, the bill has separate parts:

• Meta messages. Meta charges per delivered message, based on the category and the country of the recipient number. Messages the customer sends to the business are not charged. Since October 1, 2026, customer service replies (service messages) are charged again, with 1,000 free per month for each business phone number.
• Setup. Connecting the number, building the AI answers and linking them to the schedule or system. At Lotaloja, this is done as a project with a fixed price.
• Ongoing support. Adjusting answers, reading chats and fixing what the AI got wrong. At Lotaloja, this can be hired on its own, with setup from R$ 1,890 plus R$ 490 a month (see the projects), or inside the monthly plans, which start with Presence at R$ 2,990 a month. Meta messages are billed separately.

Meta billing rules, including the 24-hour window and the free allowance, are explained in the article on WhatsApp Business API pricing.

How do you turn off automated replies on WhatsApp?

In the app, the path is the same one you used to turn it on:

• Tools, Greeting message, turn off Send greeting message.
• Tools, Away message, turn off Send away message.
• To delete a quick reply, open Tools, Quick replies, tap and hold the reply and choose Delete. Meta warns that a deleted reply cannot be recovered, so keep a copy of the ones you use most outside WhatsApp.

If the greeting does not go out even when it is on, check three points the Help Center mentions: whether Meta Business Agent is connected, whether the recipient list leaves the customer out, and whether the person wrote in the last 14 days.

On the API, the AI is turned off or paused in the customer service system connected to the number. Ask whoever set it up for a simple button to pause the bot, for example on a holiday, and leave only people answering.

When should you move from the app to the API?

Some signs show it is time for the API:

• more than one person needs to answer the same number at the same time;
• customers wait hours for an answer that is always the same;
• orders and bookings arrive after hours and wait until the next day;
• you want the answer to check the schedule, stock or price list.

In a restaurant, this usually happens at lunchtime. In a clinic, early in the morning. Examples by type of business are on the food service page and the clinics and aesthetics page.

Lotaloja works only with the official Meta API. The WhatsApp customer service offering includes the AI, the handoff to a person and ongoing review of the chats. If you are not sure where to start, the free assessment takes 3 minutes and shows what to automate first.