Greeting and Away Messages

We begin by learning when and how customers write. We look at your recent chats to see the busiest hours, common first questions, the language people use and how fast replies really are. We note who answers, on how many devices, and what happens on Sundays and festival days. Then we agree the promises the messages can make. If your team replies within an hour in working hours, the greeting says so. If no one is available after 7 pm, the away message says when the first reply will come, for example “tomorrow after 10 am”. We write the greeting first. It names your business, welcomes the customer, tells them they are in the right place and asks one simple question that moves the chat forward, such as which service or product they are interested in. It stays short, ideally under forty words, because it will show on a phone screen and must be read in seconds. We avoid long menus, exclamation overload and promotional claims, and we keep wording consistent with your brand voice. We then write the away message. It thanks the customer, says that you are currently closed, gives opening hours and the expected time of the reply, and, if useful, points to something they can do now, such as the website, a booking page, an FAQ or an emergency number if one exists; see WhatsApp contact buttons on websites. We prepare versions for holidays and special closures, and a short version for returning customers if the app supports it. In the WhatsApp Business app we set the hours, choose the greeting recipients, such as everyone, new customers only or people not in your contacts, and schedule away messages for custom times. For businesses on the API, we implement the same logic in your automation or platform, with care about the rules for template messages and the twenty-four hour customer service window; see approved template message setup. We test from a phone that is not on your team: first message at a working time, first message after hours, second message in the same day, a message on a holiday and a message with only an image. We check that messages do not repeat annoyingly, do not fire on every reply and do not conflict with other automations, such as chatbots; see lead qualification chatbot. We train your team on how to respond after the greeting and how to update hours when plans change. We also set a reminder to review the wording each season, and we log changes. We cannot control when WhatsApp delivers a message or what happens if the customer’s phone is offline, and automated messages cannot replace a timely human reply, but a clear greeting and a truthful away notice make waiting customers feel looked after.