Tutorial: welcome message, away message and a main menu bot

🎯 Goal

Every customer gets an instant, helpful answer, day or night. Your team only handles what needs a person.

🧰 What you need

• A connected number
• Your opening hours, website link and the 3 most common questions

Step 1: set business hours

Automation → Hours & teams → Business hours: switch on, time zone Asia/Kolkata, Mon–Sat 10:00–19:00, Sunday Closed, and add your holidays. Save.

Step 2: build the main menu bot

1. Automation → Templates, then Classic starter flows (below the gallery) → Main menu. It opens in the builder. Prefer a menu already filled in with your details? Use the Welcome + main menu template instead: start from a ready-made chatbot template.
2. Click the Trigger card → Match keyword: hi, hello, menu, start, Match: Exactly.
3. Click the Reply buttons step and edit it on the right:

   Hi {{first_name}} 👋 Welcome to Sharma Sweets! How can we help?

   Buttons: Products, Order status, Talk to us.
4. Each button has its own output. Click + beside an output to add the next step from Bot actions. Products → Send message with your website link. Order status → Ask question “Your order number?” → order_id → Notify agent (or the order-status bot). Talk to us → Business hours check → open: Human handoff; closed: message “We’re closed now; we’ll reply at 10 am.”
5. Optional: + beside typed something else → message “Please tap a button 🙂” → Go to step (the menu). Left empty, the flow simply ends there.
6. Test with hi, click Check, then Publish.

Step 3: welcome message

Automation → Built-ins → Welcome message:

Hi {{name}}, welcome to Sharma Sweets! 🍬 Send "menu" any time to see what we can do.

Then continue in (optional): Main menu. Switch it on and click Save.

Step 4: away message

Built-ins → Away message: “Thanks for your message! We’re closed right now and will reply from 10 am. Meanwhile, send “menu” for quick answers.“ At most once every 12 hours per customer. Switch it on and click Save.

SSharma Sweets✓

hi

Hi Ravi 👋 Welcome to Sharma Sweets! How can we help?

ProductsOrder statusTalk to us

Talk to us

We’re closed now; we’ll reply at 10 am. 🙏

Message

A new customer at 9 pm.

Step 5: try it from your phone

Send hi from a phone that never wrote to the number before (or ask a friend). Then try it after hours. Check the Inbox: bot messages are marked, and handed-off chats are assigned.

Tip

Watch Stats in the builder after a week. If many people drop at a step, simplify that message or add a button.

Common mistakes

• Two flows on “hi”: only one runs. Keep a single menu flow.
• The keyword “hi” set to Contains: it fires on “this” or “which”. Use Exactly for short words.
• No business hours: the away message never sends, because the number counts as always open.

What’s next

Tutorial: AI bot on your PDF →Answer free-text questions.Triggers →More ways to start flows.