How do I take bookings on WhatsApp?

What does WhatsApp Business give a small business?

WhatsApp Business is WhatsApp's own app for businesses. It is listed at $0 in Apple's App Store,² and it gives you:

• a chat with each customer
• a catalogue of what you sell or offer
• QR codes that open a chat with you
• away messages, sent for you when you cannot answer
• broadcasts to many customers at once, in some countries

Those come from WhatsApp Business's own list of features.¹ Since 3 June 2026, Meta's AI agent for WhatsApp Business has also been available worldwide: it answers customers for you and can book them in.³

So a booking can start and finish in WhatsApp. What matters is how those bookings fit together: a chat holds one conversation, and your week has to hold all of them.

How do customers start a chat with me?

They need your WhatsApp number, and a way to reach it with one tap. The usual ways are:

• a WhatsApp button or link on your website or business page, which opens a chat with you
• a QR code on your van, your window or your counter, which WhatsApp Business can make for you
• the same link in your social bios, your email signature and your quotes
• your number written out in full, for anybody who would rather type it

If you have no link to hand, our WhatsApp link maker can make one. Type your number and a first message, and get a link and a QR code that open a chat with you.

It helps to say what to send. A line such as “Send a photo of the problem and your postcode” beside the button saves a round of questions, and you can often give a time in your first reply.

Whichever you use, test it from somebody else's phone before you print it or put it on your van, and check it opens a chat with the right number.

What goes wrong when bookings live in a chat?

A chat is good at the conversation and less good at the diary. The usual problems are not WhatsApp's fault: they come from keeping bookings in many separate conversations.

• Back and forth. “Have you got anything Thursday?” “Morning or afternoon?” A booking can take several messages, often while you are on a job.
• Two people, one time. Offer the same Thursday slot in two chats, and both may say yes before you notice.
• Messages at night. People write when it suits them, so questions arrive after you have finished for the day, and wait until morning.
• Details that get lost. The address, the job and the time are spread through a long thread, and are hard to find again on the day.
• Changes that miss the diary. A customer who needs to move a booking says so in the same thread, and the change has to reach your diary too.
• Bookings that get forgotten. A time agreed two weeks ahead is easy for either of you to forget; a short message the day before helps.

None of that means you should stop taking bookings on WhatsApp. It means a few habits: keep one diary for every booking, however it arrives; write each booking into it the moment you agree it; confirm in writing with the day, the time and the address; and set an away message for the hours you cannot answer, saying when you will reply.

How do I let customers pick a time?

Some customers would rather see which times are open and choose one, without a conversation, especially late in the evening. A booking page does that. Look for one that:

• offers times from your own opening hours, so nobody is offered a time you are closed
• stops offering a time once somebody has asked for it, unless you take several customers at once
• lets you say yes or no to each request, so nothing lands in your diary that you cannot do
• asks for what you need to know: a name, a phone number and what the job is
• keeps a notice period, so nobody books a time that starts while you are driving to the last job
• sends the customer a confirmation with the time and your number when you say yes

Before you switch it on, decide how long a typical job takes and how much time you need to get from one to the next, so the times it offers are ones you can keep.

Put the booking page beside the chat, not instead of it. A customer who wants to ask a question first can still message you, and one who already knows what they want can ask for a time without waiting for a reply.

What should a booking confirmation say?

Whichever way a booking arrives, send one message that settles it. It should give:

• the day, the date and the time
• the address, or where you will meet
• what the job or appointment is
• the price, or how it will be worked out
• how to change or cancel, and your number

An example you can copy and fill in: “Thanks, you're booked in for [day and date] at [time], at [address], for [the job]. If anything changes, reply here or call [your number].” Send it the moment you agree the time, while you both remember the details, and keep it short enough to read at a glance.

WhatsApp or a phone call?

Offer both. Some customers ring and some write, and the same customer may do each at different times: a call when something is urgent, a message when they are planning ahead. Make each one a single tap, and say on your page what each is for, for example “Ring for emergencies, WhatsApp for quotes”.

If you cannot pick up while you work, a message is easier for both of you, because it waits. If a job is urgent, a call is quicker to sort. Neither suits everybody, which is why it helps to offer both, and to say on your page when you usually reply.

And when you miss a call, a short message back, such as “Sorry I missed you, I'm on a job: how can I help?”, gives the customer an easy way to carry on in writing.