In Egypt and across the Arab world, most customers don’t fill in forms or send emails. They send a WhatsApp message. If you are still running your shop’s number on regular WhatsApp, you are missing free tools that can save you hours every week. The WhatsApp Business app is free, and these are the seven things to set up first:
1. A complete business profile
Name, category (restaurant, pharmacy, clinic…), address and a link to your page. A customer opening the chat should know who they’re talking to and where you are without having to ask.
2. Business hours
Enter your real hours. A customer messaging at midnight will see you’re closed instead of thinking you’re ignoring them.
3. A greeting message
The first message from any new customer gets an automatic reply, something like:
Welcome to Al-Nour Pharmacy 👋 Send us the medicine name or a photo of the prescription and we’ll reply within minutes.
One message tells the customer “we’re here” and exactly what to send.
4. An away message
Outside business hours, let the automatic reply say when you’ll answer: “We’re closed right now; we’ll get back to you tomorrow from 10 am.” A clear promise beats silence.
5. Quick replies
The questions you get every day (prices, address, delivery, payment methods): write the answer once and save it as a quick reply. From then on you send it with a couple of keystrokes instead of typing it from scratch.
6. Labels
Label your chats: “New customer”, “Order pending”, “Paid”, “Follow up”. Instead of orders getting lost among a hundred conversations, you see in a second who is waiting for what.
7. The catalog and a short link
Add your key products or services to the catalog with a photo and a price. Then take your direct chat link (wa.me) and put it on your Facebook and Instagram pages, and on the shop door as a QR code. The shorter the path to a message, the more messages you get.
These settings take about an hour. What matters afterwards is keeping replies fast and organized every single day, which is exactly our Replies & Engagement service. Talk to us if you’d like us to set it up for you.