Put your WhatsApp on autopilot
Instant keyword replies, tap-to-answer chatbot menus, day-wise drip follow-ups and scheduled broadcasts — and the moment a customer replies, the robot steps aside.
6 min readUpdated 14 Sep 2026
In this guide
What you can put on autopilot
Automations are ready-made answers and follow-ups that WhatsApp sends for you — so a customer asking “what are your hours?” at 11pm gets an answer at 11pm, not the next morning. Open WhatsApp in your dashboard; you'll need your WhatsApp API account connected first — see WhatsApp hub setup.
Keyword auto-replies
Customer texts a word like “price” or “menu” → your saved answer goes back instantly. Auto-replies tab.
Chatbot menus
A keyword opens tap-able buttons — each button sends its own answer. No typing for the customer. Automate tab.
Drip sequences
Day 0, day 2, day 7… automatic follow-ups that stop the moment the customer replies. Automate tab.
Scheduled sends
Write a broadcast now, pick a date and time, and it sends itself. Broadcasts tab.
Keyword auto-replies — instant answers, day and night
A keyword auto-reply is the simplest robot: when a customer's message contains a word you chose, your saved reply goes back within seconds — perfect for the questions you answer ten times a day (price, hours, address, delivery).
Open the Auto-replies tab
In the WhatsApp hub, tap Auto-replies. You'll see a small form: a keyword box and a reply box.
Add a keyword and its answer
Keyword: price. Reply: “Namaste! Our rate list is here: … Reply ORDER to book.” Tap Add auto-reply — it's live immediately. The keyword matches anywhere inside the customer's message, in any letter case.
Watch it work — and switch off any rule anytime
Each rule shows how many times it has triggered. Use the On/Off chip to pause a rule without deleting it.
Three small rules keep auto-replies polite: use keywords of at least 3 letters (shorter ones are ignored so “hi” doesn't fire inside “shipping”); when two keywords both match, the longer, more specific one wins; and each customer gets at most one auto-reply every 10 minutes — no robot spam.
Welcome & away messages
These are greetings, not answers — a warm hello for someone messaging you for the very first time, and an “we're closed, back at 9am” note outside your business hours. Both live at the top of the Auto-replies tab, each with its own switch; for the away message you pick your open hours. They're sent alongside your other automations, so a menu or keyword reply still answers the customer's actual question.
The same card holds Save new enquiries as customers (on by default): when someone new messages your number they are added to Customers as a new enquiry and linked to their chat, so nobody is forgotten in the inbox. Saving someone is not their agreement to receive offers. Switch it off and you add people yourself with Add to customers in the chat.
And Tell me when a customer writes (on by default) sends a notification to the phones and computers where you allowed this dashboard's notifications — to the team member a chat is given to, otherwise to you.
Chatbot menus — tap-to-answer buttons
A chatbot menu turns one keyword into a mini receptionist: the customer types “menu”, gets a message with buttons like Rates, Timings, Location, and taps one to get that answer — no typing, works at 2am. Find it under the Automate tab — your menus are listed first; New menu opens the form.
Pick the trigger keyword and the menu message
Tap New menu. Keyword: help. Menu message: “Namaste! How can we help you today?”
Add your options
Each option is a button label (up to 20 characters) plus the answer it sends. With 3 or fewer options customers see buttons; with more (up to 10) WhatsApp shows a neat pick-list instead.
Save — the menu is live
Tap Save menu. The row shows how many times customers have used it, with the same On/Off chip.
If a keyword has both a chatbot menu and a plain auto-reply, the menu answers first — the customer never gets two robot replies to one message.
Drip sequences — follow-ups that know when to stop
A drip is a series of messages on a schedule — say a welcome on day 0, an offer on day 2, a reminder on day 7 — the follow-up discipline most busy shops never find time for. It's built for warming up leads who enquired but didn't buy.
Build the sequence in the Automate tab
Tap New sequence and give it a name (“New lead warm-up”), then add steps: a day number (0 = immediately, up to day 60) and an approved message template for each step, up to 10 steps, then Save sequence. Only your variable-free approved templates appear in the list — see how template approval works.
Enroll people
Tap Enroll on the sequence and choose who joins: All contacts, Leads, or Customers (up to 5,000 at a time). Someone already in — or already finished — is never added twice. Anyone who has opted out of WhatsApp messages is automatically left out.
Watch the live counts
Each sequence shows active (still receiving) and done (got every step). Switching a sequence Off stops it — anyone whose next message comes due while it's off is taken out, not queued for later. Deleting it (the ✕ on its row asks you first) stops everyone in it.
The rule that makes drips safe: the moment a customer replies, their automation stops. Any reply — a question, even “ok” — instantly ends every active sequence for that phone number, and the chat lands in your Inbox as a normal human conversation. An interested customer never keeps getting robot messages.
Customers can also text STOP at any time — or tap the Stop promotions button on a marketing message, or write it their own way (unsubscribe, band karo, बंद करो and the same in other Indian languages, as the whole message) — we confirm it, stop their sequences, and leave them out of future campaigns until they text START. This is handled for you and protects your WhatsApp number's quality rating with Meta.
Schedule a one-off send
Sometimes you don't want a robot — just one announcement that goes out at the right time, like a sale message at 6pm when people are free. In the Broadcasts tab, write your broadcast as usual, then fill the optional Schedule date and time (a few minutes to 30 days ahead) and tap Schedule broadcast. It shows as Scheduled in your list with a Cancel button — you can call it off any time before it fires. Full details in WhatsApp broadcasts.
Quiet hours — no robot messages at 2 AM
At the top of the Auto-replies tab (with the welcome & away messages) there's a Quiet hours switch: send automated messages only 9 AM to 9 PM. With it on, a drip step, scheduled broadcast or automation message that lands at night simply waits for 9 AM — nothing is dropped, just delayed to a decent hour. Your own replies and anything you send by hand are never held back. It's off by default; most shops switch it on once and forget it.
Why drips and broadcasts need an approved message
WhatsApp has one simple rule that explains everything on this page: when a customer messages you first, you can reply freely for 24 hours — so auto-replies, chatbot menus, and welcome messages can say anything. But when you message first (drips, broadcasts, scheduled sends), WhatsApp only allows pre-approved message templates. Submit yours once in the Templates tab; Meta usually approves within minutes, and after that your sequences run on their own.
If Meta later rejects or pauses a message design that your drips, store notifications or automations use, the hub shows an amber notice naming it, and sends using it are skipped with a clear reason (instead of failing one by one). Edit and resubmit the design in the Templates tab — once it's approved again, sends resume on their own.
Resellers: the same connection powers your Client CRM
If you're a reseller, the WhatsApp number you connect here also serves your Client CRM — the Send via API button on a client's page and the Client CRM's own automations (e.g. “new prospect → send a template”) deliver from this number, replies land in this same inbox, and a client who replies STOP is respected everywhere. Nothing to connect twice.
Quick questions
Short answers to the doubts shop owners raise most before switching automations on.
Does LentloSites charge per automated message? No — these automations carry no LentloSites per-message fee. Messages go out from your own WhatsApp Business API account, so Meta's standard conversation charges apply as usual.
Does an automatic reply mark the chat as answered? A keyword reply, a menu and a welcome or away message are sent for you, but the chat stays under Needs reply in the Inbox until a person replies or taps Mark handled — so a customer the robot could not really help is never hidden. When your AI answers by itself, a reply is no longer owed, but the chat stays Unread until a person has looked.
What if no keyword or menu matches the customer's question? Nothing wrong happens — the message simply waits in your Inbox. If you've turned on AI replies, the AI can step in as a smart fallback for exactly these messages.
Can I put the same person in a drip twice? No — each sequence takes a phone number only once. Enrolling again skips anyone who has ever been in it, so nobody gets duplicate messages.
Will a drip message interrupt a live chat? No. Since any reply stops that customer's sequences, someone mid-conversation with you has no active drips left to fire.
Who on my team can set these up? Menus and auto-replies are part of your setup, so building or changing them needs the Manage staff, attendance, branches & setup permission (owners, Admins and Managers have it by default; an Agent can read them but not change them); drips and broadcasts need the Export / download data permission (owners and admins have it), since they message many people at once.
What if a scheduled send or drip step gets stuck? The platform checks every 15 minutes for scheduled broadcasts and drip steps that missed their moment and retries them automatically. If something can't recover after several tries, it's marked Stuck in your list — tap Resume to try again (a broadcast made 7 or more days ago asks you first, with how many people would get it now).
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