How do I set up WhatsApp Business properly for a small business?

Set it up by installing the official WhatsApp Business app, verifying the shop number, and filling the profile with the name, hours and address a stranger already expects. That is the free start. A bot is a later spend.

A salon in Greater Kailash and a restaurant in Khan Market already take bookings on chat. The app is how those chats look like a shop, not a personal name. I will not tell you the app books the colour for you.

What WhatsApp actually published

WhatsApp’s Business app page says the app is free to download, and names tools such as a business profile, lists, and quicker replies. Their setup page walks through download from the official store, verifying the phone number, and adding profile details.

I will not add steps those pages do not list. I will not paste a third-party “hack”. Use the links. If the store page and the FAQ disagree on a button name, trust the FAQ you opened today.

The cheapest thing that actually works starts with this app and the Google listing. Salon WhatsApp bookings is the chair week. WhatsApp chatbot or website chatbot is when the pile outgrows quicker replies.

What “properly” means for a Delhi shop, in plain words

• One number the listing already shows. Do not split the shop across a personal chat and a Business chat unless you like losing threads.
• The name on the board, not a nickname. Hours that match the door, including the day you shut.
• A catalogue or a pinned note only if you will keep it true. A stale colour price on a catalogue is a fight at the desk.
• Quicker replies for the lines you already type: hours, deposit, parking, Jain. Write them once.
• Labels if more than one person reads the phone. Who owns the 2pm thread.

A Greater Kailash salon that still chats from a personal name looks like a friend, not a shop. Move the Saturday pile onto the Business profile, put this season’s hours on it, and save three quicker replies before you talk about a bot. A Khan Market restaurant that prints one number on the card and answers a different personal chat will lose the 8:30 table in the gap. One number. One profile. Hours that match the door.

I will not tell you how many extra bookings a complete profile creates. I have no such study. I will tell you a profile with last year’s Sunday wastes the same evening a listing does.

What the app will not do

It will not answer while you are washing colour. It will not read Instagram. It will not write the slot into a diary you never open.

An AI chatbot on WhatsApp is the later job: usual questions from a list, a booking if you have a rule, the odd thread handed to you. Floor Rs 15,000 on pricing. Do not buy that on the afternoon you install the app.

The Greater Kailash chair can live on quicker replies for a long time if the pile still gets a human line the same evening. The Khan Market floor should not buy a bot to hide a number that nobody picks up. Fill the profile. Then count the threads that sat overnight. The bot is for that count, not for the install day.

I will not publish Meta’s Cloud API rates here. Those change on their site. If you later need that API, read their price page the week you buy. I will not guess it.

Honest downsides

The Business app on one phone is a single point of failure. If that phone is at home, the shop is silent. A shared tablet is a decision, not a feature I will romanticise.

Moving from a personal account can be messy. Read WhatsApp’s own migrate notes on the setup page before you wipe anything. I will not invent a migrate time.

A catalogue you never edit is a second listing with last year’s keratin price. Skip the catalogue until someone in the shop will own it. A pin with a stale fee is a fight I will not manage from here.

Greater Kailash colour prices change. Khan Market dal prices change. Write the new rupee on the profile the same day you change the board. A bot will not save a stale pin.

What to do tonight

Install from the official store. Verify the number. Fill hours. Save three quicker replies.

Write only if the pile is still the week after that. Bring three threads that sat overnight. I will say the app is enough, or I will name the chat floor for a list that can speak while you are with a customer.