A WhatsApp chatbot that answers customers and books appointments

It reads the customer’s message, works out what they want even when it’s written in Saudi dialect, and answers from the business details we give it: services, prices, opening hours and policies. When someone asks for an appointment, it checks the calendar, books and confirms. When a question goes past what it should handle, it hands the chat to a person with a short summary, so the customer never has to repeat themselves.

1. Customer message
2. Understands it
3. Checks the calendar
4. Books and confirms
5. Hands over if needed

An auto-reply sends the same fixed text whatever was asked. An agent reads the question and acts on it: it offers two free slots, asks for the name and the service, writes the booking into your system and sends the confirmation, all inside the chat the customer started.

WhatsApp describes the Business app as being for small businesses that personally manage their conversations, and the Business Platform (the API) as being for medium and large businesses talking to customers at scale through programmatic access1. The page for Meta Business Agent says it is “available to eligible businesses in select markets” without naming them, and Saudi Arabia was not mentioned on the day we read it3. We don’t recommend it until we’ve confirmed it is available on your account.

Rates change, so we explain how the charge works and link you to Meta’s own page4. What it said when we read it:

• Meta charges per delivered message from the business to the customer; messages from customers to you are not charged. The rate depends on the message category and the country code of the number receiving it4.
• Messages you start must use approved templates, in three categories: marketing, utility (an appointment confirmation, say) and authentication4.
• When a customer writes to you, a 24-hour customer service window opens and resets with each new message from them; only inside it can you reply in free text instead of a template4.
• Since 1 October 2026 each number gets 1,000 free service messages a month; beyond that they are charged, and utility templates sent inside an open window are now charged too4.
• Meta says it only changes pricing on the first day of a quarter4.

In practice the message bill follows how many customers you have and how you talk to them, while the build cost follows what the agent has to do. On the discovery call we estimate your message volume and mix before proposing anything, and the quote separates our work from what you pay Meta directly.

1. Discovery call: we collect the questions you actually get, your hours and the systems you use, and decide together whether the app is enough or you need the API.
2. We set up the WhatsApp Business API account: we register the number and verify it with a code sent by SMS or voice call, submit the display name for Meta’s review7, and prepare the message templates (confirmations and reminders).
3. We build the agent, connect it to your calendar or booking system and your CRM, and write its limits down: what it answers and what it passes to a person.
4. We test it on your customers’ real questions, in formal Arabic and in dialect, and fix what it gets wrong before launch.
5. We launch with hand-over to a person, then review the first conversations with you and tune the replies.

We have direct experience of this: we built the booking bot for our own business, SiyanaBox, on Telegram. Telegram allows bots directly; WhatsApp needs the Business API for the same thing. That is why our first question is always which channel your customers really use.

• Your customers’ real questions: screenshots of recent WhatsApp chats or a list of what people ask most, with names and numbers removed.
• Your approved business details: services, prices, hours and policies (cancelling, rescheduling, payment). The agent answers only from these.
• How you book today: a calendar, a booking system or a spreadsheet, and who can give us access to connect to it.
• Who takes the hand-over: the person or team that receives the chats the agent passes on, and when they are available.
• The number it will run on: your current number or another number you choose, so we can plan its move to the WhatsApp Business API without cutting your customers off.

The clearer these are, the more accurate the agent is from day one. Whatever you don’t know yet, we work out together in the first session.

Chats hold names, mobile numbers and appointments: personal data. The hosting is yours, it can be inside the Kingdom, and we set it up for you. If the system needs a service abroad, such as a language model, sending personal data outside Saudi Arabia is governed by Article 29 of the Personal Data Protection Law, which among other conditions limits it to the minimum personal data needed6; SDAIA’s transfer regulation sets out the detail, including a risk assessment for some transfers5.

What that means in our design: the model only receives what it needs to answer, chats are kept no longer than you need them, and you get a written map of where each piece of data goes.