Let a bot answer WhatsApp enquiries

The enquiry bot lets one of your WhatsApp lines answer customers’ questions by itself. A WhatsApp line is a business number connected to Mesy. The bot needs the Customer chat bot add-on, an extra part of Mesy your business can have turned on. See Add-ons.

Your admin turns the bot on for each line. Anyone who can see a conversation can take it over from the bot.

Check what the bot can answer

The bot answers general questions using your Business Profile. That’s the page where your business describes itself. It uses the Identity details on that page and the Knowledge library, which holds your questions, answers and business terms. It can only answer what you’ve written there, so fill it in first. See Fill in your Business Profile.

The bot can’t book appointments, check availability or change anything in Mesy. It hands a conversation to your team when it gets:

• a customer asking to talk to a person
• bookings, order status and complaints
• questions your Business Profile doesn’t answer
• photos or voice notes sent without any text

When the bot can’t answer, it tells the customer: “I’m pausing automated replies so a team member can help with this question.” It writes this in English, Chinese, Malay or Indonesian, to match the customer.

Turn the bot on for a line

You need to be an admin to do this. The line must already be connected to Mesy. To connect one, see Workspace settings, channels and email templates.

1. In the sidebar, click Admin.
2. Click the Workspace Channels tab.
3. Find the WhatsApp Business card for your line. Under its title, the card says whether it’s a team line or who it’s assigned to.
4. In the card’s Customer-facing bot section, click Enable enquiry bot.
5. The section now reads “Bot channel · Automatic replies enabled”.

Customers don’t see a bot label on the bot’s messages. To tell them it’s a bot, say so in the number’s WhatsApp business profile.

The bot answers in one person’s name. On a team line, which everyone on your team can see, that’s the admin who last turned the bot on. On an assigned line, which only one person sees, it’s that person. In Mesy, your team sees each bot answer with that name and the label “assistant”.

If you change who a line is assigned to, or change its Phone Number ID, the bot stops. Click Enable enquiry bot again to restart it.

Pause the bot for a whole line

1. In Admin › Workspace Channels, find the line’s card.
2. In Customer-facing bot, click Pause bot replies.
3. The section now reads “Bot channel · Replies paused”.

To start the bot again, click Enable enquiry bot.

To stop using the bot on this line, click Use as human channel instead. The section then reads “Human channel”, and your team answers every conversation.

On a bot line, Mesy doesn’t suggest replies in its conversations, even while the bot is paused. See Get reply suggestions in customer chats.

See who’s answering a conversation

Open a conversation on a bot line in Inbox › WhatsApp. A bar above the messages shows one of these:

• “AI bot is answering this conversation” means the bot replies to the customer’s next message.
• “Bot paused · Human takeover” means your team answers. Mesy often shows why under it, such as “A team member took over.”
• “Bot replies are disabled” means the bot is off for the whole line. Your admin paused it, or the line has a problem (see If something doesn’t work).

Take over from the bot

1. Open the conversation in Inbox › WhatsApp.
2. Click Take over. The bar now reads “Bot paused · Human takeover”.
3. Reply to the customer as usual.

The bot also hands the conversation to your team by itself when:

• someone on your team replies from Mesy
• someone replies from the WhatsApp Business app on the same number. The bot stops once the customer writes again.
• the bot can’t answer (see Check what the bot can answer)
• Mesy’s AI isn’t available, in which case the bot hands over without messaging the customer

When the bot hands a conversation to your team, Mesy marks it unread so someone picks it up.

Once your team has a conversation, the bot never takes it back by itself. If your team replied to a conversation from Mesy before your admin turned the bot on, the bot leaves that one to your team too.

Hand a conversation back to the bot

1. Open the conversation in Inbox › WhatsApp.
2. Click Resume bot.
3. The bar now reads “AI bot is answering this conversation”.

If the customer wrote in the last 24 hours and is still waiting for a reply, the bot answers straight away.

If something doesn’t work

• If a line’s card has no Customer-facing bot section, your business doesn’t have the Customer chat bot add-on yet. See Add-ons.
• If clicking Enable enquiry bot shows “Connect an active bot line before enabling replies”, the line isn’t ready. Its card may show “Inactive”, “Not registered yet” or “No access token”. Fix that on the card (see Workspace settings, channels and email templates), then try again.
• If the section warns that the line or its members are inactive, the bot has stopped. Check that the line still works. Check that the admin who turned the bot on is still an active admin, and that the line’s assigned person is still active. Then click Pause bot replies, then Enable enquiry bot.
• If Resume bot is greyed out, the bot is paused or not working for the whole line. Ask your admin to check the line’s Customer-facing bot section.
• If the bar asks you to check the conversation in WhatsApp before resuming, Mesy couldn’t confirm the bot’s last answer arrived. Check whether the customer got it. Then click the button that starts Reviewed in WhatsApp, where Resume bot usually is. Mesy won’t send that answer again.