Your WhatsApp, answered by AI day and night

When a customer messages your business on WhatsApp, Vocenya’s virtual assistant replies within moments, day and night. It answers from the business knowledge you set up in Vocenya: your services, hours, service area, prices and policies. It only talks about your business, and it always offers a person.

A few details that matter on WhatsApp:

• Voice notes are transcribed, and the assistant answers what the customer said, in text.
• Photos and documents go to your inbox, and the assistant offers the customer a person to look at them.
• Languages: the assistant replies in your assistant’s language, and when a customer writes in another language it can use, it switches to theirs.
• STOP and START are handled for you. A customer who sends STOP gets no more follow-ups until they send START.

If you also use website live chat or the AI receptionist, all three answer from the same knowledge, so a customer gets the same answer on the phone, on your site and on WhatsApp.

The assistant hands the chat over when a customer asks for a person or when it should not answer alone. The customer is told the team will reply right there on WhatsApp, and your team gets a notification that a chat needs a reply.

WhatsApp chats land in the same shared inbox as website chats, in the Vocenya portal and the owner app. Anyone on your team can pick a chat up, see the whole conversation, and reply. If you have GH Live agents, an available agent can take the chat first.

WhatsApp allows free-form replies for 24 hours after the customer’s last message. After that, the inbox lets your team send one of your approved templates instead, so you can still reach the customer.

When you connect your number, Vocenya submits three utility templates to Meta for approval on your WhatsApp account:

1. Follow up on an inquiry: checks in with a customer about their recent request.
2. Appointment reminder: reminds a customer of the date and time of their appointment.
3. Missed call follow-up: tells a caller you missed their call and invites them to reply on WhatsApp.

Templates only go to customers who agreed to WhatsApp messages. Customers can agree on your hosted lead form, by telling the AI receptionist yes on a call or in website chat, or by sending START. Every template ends with how to opt out.

Replies inside Meta’s 24-hour customer service window are free. Meta charges for template messages sent outside it and bills those fees directly to your own WhatsApp Business account, not through Vocenya.

Yes, if you use the AI receptionist with the WhatsApp add-on. Switch on the missed-call follow-up, and when a caller hangs up before anyone answers, Vocenya sends them the missed-call template on WhatsApp. Their reply goes to the assistant like any WhatsApp message.

WhatsApp goes first only for callers who opted in to WhatsApp messages and have not sent STOP. Everyone else gets your text-back instead, if you have texting switched on. A caller never gets both.

Open WhatsApp in Vocenya and select Connect with Meta. Meta’s own signup window opens. You sign in with Facebook, pick or create your WhatsApp Business account, and verify the number with the six-digit code Meta sends by text or call. It takes about five minutes.

You’ll need:

• A Facebook account that can manage your business.
• The phone with the number, to receive Meta’s code.
• Your business name as customers know it. Meta reviews the display name.
• A payment method in Meta, for template messages.

You can connect a mobile or landline number you already use, and keep the WhatsApp Business app on it if you choose. On a receptionist plan you can instead put WhatsApp on your Vocenya number, so customers call and message the same number; Meta’s code then appears in Vocenya. One WhatsApp number is connected at a time, and you can send yourself a test message once it is live.

Step-by-step help is in the WhatsApp help article.

No. WhatsApp is not available in HIPAA mode or for healthcare businesses, and Vocenya blocks it for them. Meta is not a Business Associate, and WhatsApp is not HIPAA compliant, so nothing from a healthcare client’s WhatsApp number is stored or answered. Turning HIPAA mode on disconnects WhatsApp.

Healthcare practices can use the HIPAA AI receptionist for calls instead.