WhatsApp Business automatic replies: what to write

The top two results for this search are WhatsApp's own help pages, and they explain perfectly well where each setting lives. I am not going to repeat that.

What I could not find anywhere is what to write inside. And that is where conversations are lost, because the automatic message is the first thing read by somebody who has just decided to contact you.

What the free app can and cannot do

Worth knowing the ceiling before designing anything. The WhatsApp Business app gives you three tools:

Greeting message. Sent to anyone writing for the first time, or after fourteen days of silence.

Away message. Sent outside the hours you define.

Quick replies. Saved texts you send yourself with a shortcut. They are not automatic: you fire them manually.

And here is the limit almost nobody mentions: the app cannot answer differently depending on what the customer asks. It sends the same text to everyone. Nor can it schedule a send for a given hour: it only reacts once somebody writes first.

The greeting message that says nothing

“Thanks for getting in touch. We will reply shortly.”

That message, or some variant, sits in half the businesses I look at. It informs nothing, commits to nothing, and the customer reads it for what it is: an automated receipt.

A greeting message that works does three things in two lines: confirms they reached the right place, says when there will be an answer — an actual time, not “shortly” — and volunteers something useful that prevents a second question.

On that last point: if half your messages ask about opening hours or delivery, that information belongs in the greeting. Every fact you put there is a conversation you do not have to handle.

The away message, which does the most damage

The away message is read at the worst moment: somebody wrote with an intention and finds out nobody is there.

“We are currently closed” makes it worse. It leaves the customer with no idea when to come back, and that person will probably message someone else tonight.

A useful away message says two things: the exact time there will be an answer, and what they can do meanwhile. If your website lists prices, the link goes there. If you have a WhatsApp catalogue, mention it. The difference between “we will reply tomorrow” and “I will reply tomorrow at 9, meanwhile the prices are here” is a sale still alive.

Three mistakes I keep seeing

Writing paragraphs. This is read on a phone, usually on the move. Two or three lines.

Promising what you do not deliver. If the message says “we reply in 5 minutes” and you take two hours, that message works against you. Better to promise an hour and keep it.

Leaving it up forever. The away message with hours from two years ago, or the greeting announcing a promotion that ended, says more about the business than it looks.

When the app stops being enough

When the answer ought to depend on what they asked.

A customer writing “do you have the blue one in medium?” and another writing “where is my order?” receive exactly the same automatic message, and neither gets what they need. The app does not distinguish, because it was not built to.

That is where the WhatsApp Business API comes in, which can check stock or order status before replying. That is no longer an automatic message: it is an agent, and I cover it in AI agents: what you learn once they start selling. Mind the cost differences, which I break down in what the WhatsApp Business API really costs.

Where I would start

Open your last fifty conversations and count how many begin with the same question. That question, answered in the greeting message, takes work off your desk from tomorrow and costs nothing.

Then fix the away message so it names an actual hour. Two five-minute changes that solve more than any tool you could buy this week.

I post automation examples on @WhatsMarketing_es.

If you want me to look at your case, get in touch. I work from Buenos Aires with clients in Mexico City, Argentina, the rest of Latin America and Spain.