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Guide · 5 min read

How to set up WhatsApp Business in an afternoon

Installing WhatsApp Business is quick. Setting it up so it saves you work takes an afternoon. The order that avoids losing chats, the profile fields customers actually read, and six settings worth fixing before the first customer writes.

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Before you start: decide the number

Everything else can be changed later. The number is the one decision that is awkward to undo, so settle it first.

Two rules from WhatsApp’s help centre shape the choice. WhatsApp Business is a separate, free app for Android and iPhone. And one number can’t be in the ordinary WhatsApp and in WhatsApp Business at the same time: if you want both on one phone, each needs its own number.

The number itself can be a mobile or a landline, as long as it is yours and can receive a text or a call. According to the registration guide, VoIP, freephone and premium-rate numbers are not accepted. If you are torn between your own mobile, a second SIM and the shop landline, which number to use for WhatsApp Business goes through each option.

One more thing to know now rather than later: if you might one day connect an assistant through the WhatsApp Business Platform, some providers need a number that isn’t in use in the app. Conserjía’s current sign-up is one of them.

Setting it up on a new number

  1. Install WhatsApp Business from the App Store or Google Play and accept the terms.
  2. Enter the number with your country code. The registration guide is specific here: don’t add a 0 in front of it.
  3. Enter the six-digit code that arrives by text. On a landline, tap Call me and an automated voice reads it out. Don’t guess the code: wrong attempts lock you out for a while.
  4. Create the business profile. The fields are below.

Moving your existing WhatsApp number

If customers already message you on your ordinary WhatsApp, you can take the number and the chats with you. These are the steps in the official guide (Android; the same article has an iPhone version):

  1. Back up your chats in WhatsApp first.
  2. Save your contacts to the phone’s address book. Contacts that only exist inside WhatsApp aren’t supported in the Business app and are lost in the move. WhatsApp’s settings can save them all to the phone for you.
  3. Update WhatsApp and install WhatsApp Business.
  4. Open WhatsApp Business. It detects the number you use in WhatsApp: tap it.
  5. Tap Continue, then Allow, so the app can bring over your chat history and media.
  6. Verify with the six-digit code and create the profile.

From then on the number no longer works in the ordinary app. You can move back, but, as the help centre warns, Business-only data such as catalogue items doesn’t come with you.

The profile: the fields customers read

The profile is what a new customer sees before they write, and a complete one saves you questions. WhatsApp’s guide to editing the business profile lists what you can fill in:

  • Name and photo. The trading name people know you by, and a logo or shopfront that reads at thumbnail size. The photo is public by default.
  • Category. Up to three, from a fixed list. If yours isn’t there, pick the closest general one.
  • Description. What you do, for whom and where, in two lines. Not a slogan.
  • Address. Or, if you go to the customer, a service area on the map.
  • Business hours. Open for selected hours, always open, or appointments only.
  • Email and website. Where the booking page or price list lives.

Fill in everything that applies. The app uses the profile to create ready-made quick replies with your hours and address, so a complete profile also means less typing.

Six settings most businesses leave wrong

1. Business hours left blank

It looks optional. It isn’t: according to the help centre, the away message can only be sent ‘outside of business hours’ if the hours are set in the profile.

2. An away message that always sends

The away message can be sent always, on a custom schedule, or outside business hours. ‘Always’ means a customer who writes at 11:00 on a Tuesday is told you are away. Tie it to your hours.

3. No greeting, or one that says nothing

The greeting message goes to anyone writing for the first time, or after 14 days without contact. ‘Hi, how can we help?’ wastes it. Say what they should send you: service, preferred day, morning or afternoon.

4. No quick replies

Quick replies are shortcuts you call up by typing ‘/’. You can store up to 50. Write the five answers you type every day (prices, directions, parking, how to cancel, what to bring) and you will get your first evening back.

5. Two-step verification off

With it on, anyone trying to register your number on another phone also needs a password you chose. The help centre sets it up under Settings, Account, Two-step verification, and offers to add an email address, which you will want if you ever forget the password. On a business number, turn it on the day you install.

6. Backups set to never

On Android, the backup settings live under Settings, Chats, Chat backup: choose a schedule other than ‘Never’. The iPhone app has its own version of the same setting. The day a phone is lost, a recent backup is the difference between inconvenience and losing every customer conversation.

What an afternoon won’t fix

A well set-up WhatsApp Business greets new customers, tells people when you are closed and saves you typing the same answers. It still needs a person for everything else: reading each message, checking the diary, writing the time, confirming, chasing the deposit. Several people can use the account on linked devices, but nothing shares out the conversations between them.

When that part starts eating the day, the next step is running customer service on WhatsApp with a few rules, and after that an assistant on the WhatsApp Business Platform that answers and books into your diary. That is what Conserjía does; you can see it with your own questions in the demo.

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