With Interakt’s WhatsApp automation, you can send automated replies to frequently asked questions (FAQs) from your customers. Brands can manage customer conversations better and improve their experience by creating automated replies for FAQs on WhatsApp. These auto-replies are known as Custom Auto Replies.
The following are some of its benefits:
• Manage high volumes of customer conversations efficiently.
• Improve customer experience through smart, instantaneous auto-replies
• Choose from a variety of touchpoints to market and promote your business.
A. Setting up Custom Auto Reply
1. Click on “Automation” on the side panel on Interakt. After that, users can click the “Custom Auto Reply” tab.
2. Users can click on the “Add new Custom Reply” button to set up a new Custom Auto reply. It is this reply that, once set up, appears as a list on the module’s Homepage. Actions such as edit and delete can be performed on each of these replies by clicking on the 3 dot lines.
3. You can also search for older custom replies by typing the trigger keyword
4. When you click on “Add New Custom Reply”, a pop-up appears that allows you to configure automated replies. You can choose from below 3 trigger types. Note that you may also enable ‘AI Intent Matching’ for your custom auto replies. In case the trigger criteria below are not fulfilled for a customer query, we will use AI to check if the query can be matched to any of your custom auto-replies.
1. Exact Match
With Exact Match, you define a specific keyword or phrase as the trigger. The custom reply will only be sent when the customer’s message exactly matches the keyword you’ve set.
For example:
Trigger Keyword: Price
The reply will only be sent if the customer types exactly: “Price.”
2. Contains
With Contains, the custom reply is triggered when the customer’s message includes the defined keyword, even if it appears within a longer sentence.
For example:
Trigger Keyword: Price
The same custom reply will be sent for messages like:
“What is the price?”
“Please tell me the price.”
“Price for this?”
“Can you share the price details?”
As long as the message contains the word “Price”, the assigned custom reply will be triggered.
3. Any Keyword
The Any Keyword option is more generic in nature. The custom reply will be sent regardless of what the customer types.
For example:
Customer: “Hey, I am looking for the XYZ product.”
Business (Auto Reply): “Hey! Please wait while our agent assists you. In the meantime, check out our new shoe collection.”
This is ideal for sending default responses such as wait messages, welcome notes, or promotional highlights.
B. Setting up the Responses
Interakt users can set up primarily 4 types of Custom Auto Replies. These can be Custom replies, Workflows, Multi-product messages, or Product collection lists.
1. Custom Message
Users can set up a custom message in response to an input triggered as part of the FAQ. This custom message can contain a message body within which there are variables, attachments (such as media files), buttons, and much more. The way a custom message is designed is dependent on the Use Case.
In our example, the customer input is “Pricing option available”. The custom message response can be, “Hi {{1}}, Yes, we have different pricing options available based on your needs. Our pricing is fair and transparent. Let us know which pricing plan you are interested in.”
Custom messages can include dynamic variables, media files, and buttons. These ensure that your customer message is catered to your business workflow and customer requirements
2. Multi Product Message
Multi-product messages(MPM) allow businesses the flexibility to select up to 30 products. MPM messages help customers quickly find and purchase specific products. To send out Multi Product Messages, you should have created a WhatsApp Catalog from Commerce Settings
1. Click on the ‘Select Products’ button.
2. You’ll get the below pop-up. Now you can set up the Multi-product message.
Refer to this article for a step-by-step guide
Automated Workflows
Workflows are a versatile tool that enables you to effortlessly create conversational flows, i.e., the Chatbot, guiding your customers through various processes. By utilizing workflows, you can ask sequential questions, capture responses in variables, and export the data for efficient processing.
1. Click on the ‘View Workflow Library,’ and you will see the pop-up with all the workflows you have created. Now, here you can search for the required workflow and select it, then click on Done.
Refer to this guide to learn how to set up Workflows.
Product Collection List Message
Users can trigger a list of Product Collections when an end customer input gets triggered.
As a result, whenever a customer clicks on the collection, the corresponding catalog will be sent. This ensures that customers get to explore your product catalog in an automated fashion.
To set up a product collection list, it is a prerequisite to first set up it via Commerce settings under the WhatsApp Commerce module.
WhatsApp Form
Users can configure a WhatsApp Form to be automatically triggered when a specific customer input is received.
This allows businesses to seamlessly collect structured information, such as feedback, inquiries, or lead details, directly within the WhatsApp conversation.
For example:
If a merchant wants to collect customer feedback, they can assign a Feedback Form as the custom reply for a particular trigger (such as “feedback” or “review”).
To know more about creating WhatsApp Forms, click here.
Once the customer’s message matches the defined trigger, the Feedback Form is automatically sent in the chat. The customer can then fill out the form directly on WhatsApp, making the process quick, interactive, and frictionless.
This helps businesses gather important information without redirecting customers to external links or platforms.
By setting up the right triggers and responses, businesses can reduce manual effort, improve response times, and deliver a seamless customer experience directly within WhatsApp.
With smart automation in place, every conversation becomes an opportunity to engage, assist, and convert more effectively.
1. How to switch off Custom Auto Replies:
– If you want to remove a specific Custom Auto Reply that you have set up, please click on the 3 dots menu beside the specific custom auto reply & click on Delete.
– If you want to stop all Custom Auto Replies instead, you may click on the toggle at the end of the table.
2. What is the difference between Custom Auto Replies and Chatbots/Workflows?
Custom Auto Replies are single-step auto-replies, while the Workflows feature in Interakt helps you create multi-step auto-reply flows with branching, logical flows, API calls, etc.
They also differ with respect to the plan on which they are available:
Custom Auto Replies are available on the Growth Plan, Advanced Plan, Sales CRM Plan, and Enterprise Plan.
Workflows – Growth & Sales CRM plans only support linear workflows (i.e., no branching / logical flows) and do not support API calls. Advanced & Enterprise plans allow all workflow features (i.e., branching, logical flows, api calls, etc).
