Customers here will message a business on WhatsApp before they will fill in a contact form, and often before they will phone. Fighting that preference is pointless. The work is in handling it properly so that enquiries do not vanish.
The failure mode
The standard pattern is that WhatsApp enquiries land on the owner's personal phone. This works until it does not. Messages get buried under family chats. Nobody else can answer when the owner is driving to Walvis Bay. When a staff member leaves, the conversation history leaves with them.
There is no record of what was quoted, no way to see how many enquiries came in last month, and no way to follow up on the ones that went quiet.
Setting it up so it survives
Use a dedicated business number
Separate from anyone's personal number. It stays with the business when staff change. This is the single most important step.
Install WhatsApp Business, not standard WhatsApp
It is free and gives you a business profile, catalogue, quick replies, labels and away messages.
Complete the business profile
Address, hours, website, category, short description. This is what a new customer reads before deciding whether you look real.
Write three quick replies
Pricing, availability, and where you are located. These three questions will be most of your inbound volume.
Set an away message with a real time
We reply within one working day is honest and useful. We will get back to you shortly is neither.
Use labels as a pipeline
New enquiry, quoted, waiting on customer, closed. This turns the inbox into something you can actually manage.
Linking from your website
Use a click to chat link so the customer does not have to copy the number. The format is wa.me followed by the number in full international form with no plus sign and no spaces. For +264 81 341 1522 that is wa.me/264813411522.
You can prefill the message, and you should. A link from your pricing page that opens with a message already referring to pricing tells you where the customer came from and saves them typing on a phone.
Prefill a different message on each page. It costs nothing and it tells you which page is actually generating enquiries.
