WhatsApp auto replies: an AI assistant on your own number

Most of the questions your customers send on WhatsApp come back every day: how much is it, is it in stock, what does delivery cost, when are you open, is there a slot tomorrow? Answer an hour late and the customer has already gone elsewhere. On Tansik the WhatsApp assistant answers these questions from your own number, using your site’s information, and leaves you the chats that really need you.

It works on your own number

You don’t need a new number or another app. Link your WhatsApp number by scanning a QR code with your phone, just like WhatsApp Web, then turn the assistant on for your site. From then on it:

• Replies in the customer’s language, Arabic or English.
• Waits a few seconds before answering, because customers often split a question over several short messages, and answers them together.
• Writes short replies in the style of a WhatsApp message, with plain links.
• Understands text only; if a customer sends a photo or a voice note, it politely asks them to type the question.
• Stays out of groups, and ignores numbers that have opted out of your messages.

What does the assistant know?

The assistant doesn’t make its answers up. It reads from your site every time, and you choose the topics it covers:

• Your business: name, phone, email, address, opening hours and social accounts.
• Products: prices, sale prices, whether in stock and the product page link, from your online store or your product catalogue.
• Policies: delivery fees and zones, free delivery, pickup and the ways to pay, plus the text of pages such as privacy and terms.
• Appointments: free times over the next days from your bookings, with the booking page link. The assistant doesn’t book by itself; it sends the link so the customer picks their time.
• Orders: the customer’s own orders, as below.

You can also write it notes: facts that aren’t on your site, how you like it to answer, or a greeting to open the chat with.

A customer’s orders, kept safe

When a customer asks “where is my order?”, the assistant asks for their five-digit customer code, shown on their order page and in their order email. Once it checks out, it shows their latest orders, the status, payment and shipment tracking of any of them, and their loyalty points balance if you use points.

Some rules never change, whatever a message says:

• It only shows the orders of the customer whose number is writing.
• It never repeats the code back, and never asks for card numbers or passwords.
• It doesn’t cancel, refund or change anything; it explains how the customer can do it, or passes the chat to you.

When does it hand the chat to you?

The assistant doesn’t replace you for everything. It passes the chat to your team when:

1. The customer asks for a person with a word such as “agent” or “human” (or their Arabic equivalents). You can change these words.
2. It doesn’t know or isn’t sure, so it hands over instead of guessing. You can turn this automatic hand-off off.

On a hand-off it tells the customer your team will reply, you get a WhatsApp alert, and the assistant stays quiet in that chat for 12 hours so you can answer from your own WhatsApp. In the dashboard you see the chats, and you can take over any chat or give it back to the assistant whenever you like.

If your team answers by itself at certain times, set quiet hours when the assistant stays silent.

Tokens and limits

The assistant’s replies use your plan’s AI tokens. If they run out, customers get a short message once a day saying your team will reply soon, and you get an alert to top up. There are also hourly limits on messages per chat and per number, so a flood of messages can’t drain your tokens.

When you want to start the conversation yourself, with an offer or a reminder, that’s the job of email and WhatsApp campaigns; the article on email and WhatsApp campaigns explains how.

Get started

Open your site in the Tansik dashboard, link your WhatsApp number, then turn the assistant on, pick its topics and write your notes, and try it with a message from another number. The WhatsApp assistant and how many numbers you can link depend on your plan; see the plans. If you take appointments, read the online bookings guide too.

Questions