At Orla Spa in Lekki, part of the front desk is called Orla.
She’s the AI assistant we built into the spa’s website. She answers questions about treatments and helps people book, at hours when the human front desk has gone home.
Most businesses don’t need an Orla yet. They need to fix the front desk they already have.
Where’s your company’s real front desk? For a lot of Nigerian businesses, it’s a phone. Often it’s one staff member’s phone, sitting in a handbag, on silent, during a meeting.
Mary Poppins could pull a hat stand out of one carpet bag. Plenty of businesses try something similar with that phone. The customer list, the quotes, the payment confirmations and the complaints, all in one handbag. It’s where customers ask prices, send photos of what they want, negotiate, confirm orders and send payment receipts. Yet it gets run like a personal account. No business profile. No catalogue. No labels to separate orders from enquiries from complaints. And whether anyone gets a reply depends entirely on whether that one person is free.
The free WhatsApp Business app already has tools that fix most of this. Everything here applies to the free app. The WhatsApp Business API, used for automation, many agents at scale and CRM integrations, is a different product covered in the WhatsApp automation guide. Most small businesses should master the app first, and many never need more.
A Profile and Catalogue That Look Like a Business
Your business profile is what customers see when they tap your name. It’s your shopfront inside WhatsApp, and a half-finished one looks like a side hustle, which costs you trust. Fill in every field. Your real trading name, exactly as it appears on your website and social profiles. Your logo, sized so it’s clear in the small circular crop. The most specific category that fits. One or two plain sentences on what you sell, who it’s for and what makes you worth choosing. Your real address if customers visit, or your service area if they don’t. Accurate hours, so customers know when to expect a reply. And both your email and website, so customers can check you’re a real business.
Use a dedicated business number, never someone’s personal line. When a staff member leaves, the number and every customer conversation on it should stay with the business.
Then build the catalogue. It lists your products or services, each with photos, a price, a description and a link, so customers can browse without asking “how much?” for every item, and you can drop a specific item into any chat in two taps. Include prices wherever you can, because “DM for price” creates friction and signals that prices vary depending on who asks; if you can’t publish exact prices, use a starting price. Use clear, consistent photos (the smartphone photography guide shows how to get professional-looking results without a studio). Write descriptions that answer the usual questions about sizes, materials, what’s included and delivery time. Group items into collections by category or occasion. And keep it current, because an out-of-stock item in the catalogue produces a disappointing conversation.
Greeting, Away Messages and Quick Replies
The greeting message goes out automatically when someone messages you for the first time, or after a long gap. Use it to acknowledge them instantly and set expectations.
Hello, thanks for contacting [Business]! We’ve received your message and will reply within [timeframe] during business hours ([hours]). To help us assist you faster, tell us what you’re looking for, and you can browse our catalogue here: [catalogue link].
The away message goes out when you’re closed or unavailable, so customers don’t assume they’ve been ignored.
Thanks for your message! We’re closed right now and will reply when we open at [time]. If it’s urgent, please call [number].
Automated messages buy you time. They can’t stand in for a real reply. The speed to lead guide explains why fast human responses matter so much.
Quick replies are saved messages you insert by typing a forward slash and a shortcut, like /prices or /delivery. They turn your most-typed answers into one-tap responses, which makes replies faster and more consistent across staff. Start with the questions you answer most often.
| Shortcut | Content |
|---|---|
| /prices | Your price list or starting prices, with a catalogue link |
| /delivery | Delivery areas, costs and timelines |
| /payment | Accepted payment methods and account details, with a note to always confirm account details with you directly |
| /location | Address, landmark directions and a map link |
| /hours | Opening hours |
| /order | How to place an order, step by step |
| /thanks | A thank-you after purchase, with a review request |
The follow-up message templates give you ready wording for many of these.
Labels Turn Chaos Into a Pipeline
Labels let you tag chats and filter by them, and they’re the most underused feature in the app. Without them, a busy WhatsApp account is one long, unsorted list where orders, enquiries and complaints get lost. A simple label system turns it into a working pipeline.
| Label | Use for |
|---|---|
| New enquiry | First-time contacts not yet answered in full |
| Awaiting reply | Chats where you owe the customer an answer |
| Quote sent | Prices sent, waiting for their decision |
| Awaiting payment | Order agreed, payment not yet confirmed |
| Paid / processing | Payment confirmed, order in progress |
| Completed | Delivered and closed |
| Follow up | Chats needing a check-in later |
The labels mirror the stages in the sales pipeline template, which is your next step if you outgrow them. Run the day around them. At opening, reply to what arrived overnight, then filter by “Awaiting reply” and “New enquiry”. At midday, confirm payments in the bank app, update labels and send the quotes you owe. In the afternoon, follow up on “Quote sent” and “Follow up”. Before closing, clear “Awaiting reply” and make sure the away message is on.
The app lets the same business account run on more than one linked device, so a small team can share the work instead of passing one phone around. Agree simple rules about who handles which chats, how labels are used, and who covers when someone is away. If several people reply without rules, customers get contradictory answers.
Getting People to Message You
The app gives you a short link that opens a chat with your business, and you can add a pre-filled message. Put it on your website, Instagram bio and email signature. It can also generate a QR code for packaging, receipts, flyers and your shop counter. And every page of your website should carry a clearly visible WhatsApp button, tracked as a key event so you know how many enquiries it produces. Where a link sends people to your website first, add UTM tags with the UTM builder.
The app can’t tell you which marketing brought each customer, but a simple trick fixes that. Use a different pre-filled message for every place your link appears. “Hi, I found you on Instagram and I’d like to know more about…” in the Instagram bio. “Hi, I’m on your website and have a question about…” on the website. “Hi, I scanned your QR code…” on flyers and packaging. “Hi, I found you on Google…” on your Google Business Profile. When a message arrives, you know its source at a glance. Add a source label, or a column in a simple spreadsheet, and within a month you’ll know which channels bring conversations and which bring customers. If someone deletes the pre-filled text, just ask how they found you.
Broadcast lists send one message to many contacts, and each person receives it as a private message. In the app, only contacts who’ve saved your number receive your broadcasts, which is a built-in safeguard against unsolicited messages. Use them sparingly, and only for people who’ve agreed to receive updates. Send too many promotions and people start blocking or reporting you, which damages your account. The consent wording guide covers how to ask properly. Status updates are gentler. They’re seen by contacts who’ve saved your number, vanish after a day, and are a good place for new stock, behind-the-scenes moments and offers.
Protect the Business and Your Customers
Turn on two-step verification in the app’s settings, so nobody can take over your number with a stolen code. Warn customers about impersonation, because scammers copy business names and photos; tell them you’ll only ever use your one official number. Limit who can access the account, since customers send addresses, phone numbers and payment receipts, and be clear in your privacy notice how you use WhatsApp data. The NDPA guide covers your obligations. And back up your chats so order history isn’t lost with a phone.
Payments are where WhatsApp selling most often goes wrong, for businesses and customers alike. Confirm payment in your bank app, never from a screenshot. Fake transfer screenshots and fake credit alerts are a common scam, so don’t release goods or confirm bookings until the money has arrived. Send your account details from one saved quick reply, because typing them fresh each time invites mistakes and a consistent message makes changes stand out. Never change account details casually; if you do change accounts, announce it on every channel, and tell customers you will never ask them to pay into a different account in a chat without confirming it by phone. Consider payment links from a reputable provider, which give customers a familiar checkout and confirm payment automatically, removing the screenshot problem entirely. And issue a receipt or confirmation for every payment.
Five Numbers Every Week
- New enquiries received
- Enquiries that became orders or bookings
- Typical time to first reply
- Orders by source
- Chats still marked “Awaiting reply” at the end of the week
Together they tell you whether WhatsApp is working as a sales channel. The second divided by the first is your conversion rate. The third is often your biggest lever. The fifth tells you whether things are slipping through the cracks.
The sales usually leak away in the same few places. Replying “DM for price”, or asking customers to call instead of answering the question. A catalogue so out of date that customers ask for items you no longer have. Promotional broadcasts sent too often. An account on a staff member’s personal number, so the customer history leaves when they do. And quotes that never get followed up, when many sales are won on the second or third message, as the follow-up templates show.
The app works well while a small team can keep up. Look at the WhatsApp Business API when several people need to answer at once at volume, when you want chats logged in your CRM automatically, or when you need automated flows and approved message templates. The WhatsApp marketing guide covers the strategy side.
Out of the Handbag
Set up the profile, the catalogue, the labels and the quick replies this week, and your front desk stops depending on one person’s phone battery and one person’s mood.
If orders are still disappearing somewhere between the first message and the payment, the free 2-minute diagnostic will show which of your four walls is weakest. WhatsApp leaks usually show up under Convert.
P.S. Spend ₦1M or more a month on marketing and you also qualify for a free 30-minute Leak Check. Book it on WhatsApp if you like. We’ll reply quickly, because we’d never hear the end of it otherwise.
WhatsApp Business app features and limits change over time and may vary by device and region, and this guide reflects the app at the time of writing. Marketing messages need customers’ consent, so take qualified advice on your NDPA obligations.
This article covers one part of a bigger system. Our guide to digital marketing in Nigeria shows how the four walls fit together, and the order to build them in.
