How to Use WhatsApp Business to Improve Customer Communication
By Reserva
The Channel Your Customers Already Use
WhatsApp is used by more than 30 million people in the UK — making it, for many demographics, their primary messaging platform. For hospitality businesses, this creates a significant opportunity: communicating with customers through a channel they already check frequently, habitually, and often in preference to email or phone.
The open rate for WhatsApp messages is consistently above 95%. For time-sensitive communications — booking reminders, availability notifications, last-minute offers — this is a fundamentally different proposition from email.
WhatsApp Business vs. Regular WhatsApp
WhatsApp Business is a free version of WhatsApp designed specifically for small businesses. It adds features that make it suitable for customer communication at scale:
- **Business profile**: Your business name, address, category, and website, visible to anyone who messages you
- **Automated responses**: A greeting message when someone contacts you for the first time, and an away message outside business hours
- **Quick replies**: Saved responses to common questions (booking enquiries, opening hours, menus) that can be sent with a shortcut
- **Labels**: Organise conversations by status — new enquiry, confirmed booking, VIP customer — to manage them efficiently
For businesses handling moderate volumes of enquiries, WhatsApp Business is often sufficient. For higher volumes, the WhatsApp Business API (accessible through third-party platforms) enables automation and integration with booking systems.
Common Use Cases in Hospitality
Booking confirmations: Sending a WhatsApp confirmation alongside or instead of email reaches more customers more reliably. Many customers prefer a messaging app confirmation to an email they have to find later.
Reminders: A WhatsApp reminder sent 24–48 hours before a booking outperforms SMS in open and response rates and provides more space for information — including a link to manage or cancel the booking.
Enquiry handling: Many customers prefer to message a business rather than call. WhatsApp enables natural, conversational enquiry handling that feels personal and prompt.
Post-visit follow-up: A WhatsApp message thanking a customer for their visit and inviting feedback arrives in a warm, conversational context — very different from a formal survey email.
Last-minute availability: When a late cancellation creates an unexpected slot, a WhatsApp message to waitlisted customers or your regular customer list can fill it within minutes.
Getting the Tone Right
WhatsApp has an inherently conversational tone — more informal than email, more personal than SMS. Your messages should reflect this. A WhatsApp reminder that reads like a formal notification feels jarring in the context of a messaging app.
Write WhatsApp messages as if you're a person from your business talking to a customer you know. Warm, brief, and clear. "Hi Sarah, just a reminder that your table for four is booked for Saturday at 7pm. We're looking forward to seeing you — let us know if anything changes!" performs better than a corporate-formatted alert.
Privacy and Opt-In
Messaging customers via WhatsApp requires their consent. When collecting contact details at booking, make clear that you may send reminders and follow-up messages via WhatsApp (or SMS), and give customers the option to opt out.
Most customers are happy to receive WhatsApp messages from businesses they've actively booked with. The key is setting clear expectations at the point of data collection.
The Competitive Gap
Hospitality businesses that communicate via WhatsApp are still a minority — meaning that businesses which do so effectively stand out. A customer who receives a warm, personal WhatsApp reminder rather than a generic email has a better impression of the business before they've even walked through the door.
As WhatsApp adoption continues to grow across all age groups, the gap between businesses that use it well and those that don't will widen. The time to build this capability is before it becomes expected, not after.