A customer taps your ad and writes: "Weekend batch hai? Online bhi chalega?"
Your team is busy. Software could reply. But you are worried.
"Galat jawab de diya toh?"
That worry is fair. The reply goes out in your business's name. A wrong date, a wrong promise or a guessed answer is hard to take back. So the question is not "should I use a chatbot?" It is: what should it know, and what should I approve first?
For the trust questions to ask any provider, read questions to ask before AI talks to your WhatsApp customers. This article is the other half: the facts you prepare yourself.
Why do wrong answers happen?
Because software with no approved facts fills the gap with a guess.
Ask it about a batch, a trip date or an appointment slot, and if nothing is written down for it, it may produce something that sounds sure and is wrong. It isn't being rude. It has nothing to stand on.
This is the reason to prepare facts, not a measured pattern. The fix sits on your side: write the facts, approve them, and decide what is off-limits.
What goes on the approved facts list?
Write it in your own words, as if briefing a new person on your front desk:
- What you offer. Trips, treatments, properties or courses, one line each.
- Where and when. Locations, timings, seasons, batch or slot patterns, as you want them stated.
- What a customer needs to share to move ahead. Dates, location, budget range in their own words, preference, who else decides.
- What the next step is. A visit, a call, a booking form, a counselling session.
- What you do not offer. This saves wasted chats.
Keep it plain and short. If a fact would take you a minute to explain on a call, it needs a line here. If you are unsure of a fact, leave it off the list and mark it for a person.
Which customer questions should you write answers for?
Take the last few weeks of real chats. List the questions that keep coming up, and write your approved answer next to each.
Look for the plain ones: timings, location, how a first visit works, what to carry, who the person is. Write the answer once, properly, in the voice you want.
One warning. An answer alone doesn't move a chat forward. A customer can get ten correct answers and still not book. Each answer should end on an easy next question. For why chats get stuck answering the same things, read FAQ loop vs next step. For how to reply to an ad lead in the first place, read how to reply to Click-to-WhatsApp ad leads.
What must it not answer?
This list matters as much as the facts. Write it down and keep it short:
- Money questions. No figures from a bot. They go to a person at your business, or to a demo.
- Clinical or medical questions. Symptoms, suitability, medicines, outcomes. These go to a doctor or clinic staff.
- Legal or document questions. Anything that needs a person who knows.
- Promises about results. Nobody can promise sales, admissions, bookings or outcomes.
- Anything you haven't approved.
One rule covers all of it: when unsure, ask a person. A short, honest line like "I don't have that detail, a person from our team will help you" is better than a confident guess.
When is a chat ready for a person?
A person at your business should step in when:
- the customer asks for a visit, a call or a booking
- the question can only be answered by a person
- the customer asks to speak to someone
- the chat touches something on your off-limits list
For the moment a lead says "call me later", read what to do when a WhatsApp lead says call me later. To see when a chat should go to a person, read when a WhatsApp chat should go to a human. For what to find out before a person picks up, read how to qualify a WhatsApp enquiry before sales.
How should it talk?
Decide this once, in writing:
- Language: Hindi, English, Hinglish, or the language the customer writes in
- Tone: formal or friendly
- Greeting: one line you like
- "I don't know": the exact words, for when a person needs to help
Then write a few sample replies yourself and approve them. If a reply sounds wrong in your mouth, it will sound wrong from your number.
What should you approve before going live?
Run a short test from a spare phone:
- Send the common questions, one by one.
- Send a few tricky ones: a money question, a clinical or legal one, something you did not write down, a message in a different language.
- Read every reply.
- If anything is wrong, change the facts list, not just the reply.
- Test again.
Go live only when you are comfortable reading every reply as your own. There is no deadline here. A chatbot that goes live late with right answers is better than one that goes live early with wrong ones.
Who keeps the facts fresh?
Facts change. Dates move, seats fill, offers end, a doctor goes on leave. When that happens, the facts list must change too.
Name one person who owns it. Give them a simple habit: every time something changes in the business, change it on the list. This is owner advice. A list nobody updates quietly turns into a source of wrong answers.
Example facts sheet (Example data: illustrative)
Example data. A made-up travel business. Not real facts, amounts or dates. Placeholders in brackets.
Approved facts 1. We offer [trip type A] and [trip type B] for families and small groups. 2. Trips run in [season] from [city]. Details by trip are shared in chat. 3. To suggest the right option, we ask for travel month, number of travellers and preferred pace. 4. The next step is a short call with a travel adviser, at a time the customer chooses. 5. We do not offer [item the business doesn't sell]. 6. Language: Hinglish or English, friendly tone.
Off-limits rules 1. Money questions: do not answer with any figure. Say a person will share it. 2. Visa, document or legal questions: do not answer. A person will help.
Person-steps-in trigger 1. The customer asks for a call, a booking or a person, or asks anything off-limits.
Example chat (Example data)
Customer: Hi, family trip ke liye [trip type A] dekh rahe hain. Kitna lagega?
Business: Namaste! Thanks for writing. [Trip type A] runs in [season]. To suggest the right option, can I ask your travel month and how many people are travelling? For money details, a travel adviser will share them properly. Would you like a call at a time that suits you?
Customer: Visa bhi chahiye hoga?
Business: Good question. I don't have that detail. A person from our team will help you with it on the call.
Notice what the reply did. It answered from approved facts, asked one easy question, kept money and visa with a person, and said "I don't know" honestly.
Your check for this week
Pick ten real customer questions from last week. For each one, ask:
- [ ] Do we have a written, approved answer for it?
- [ ] Should only a person answer it?
- [ ] Does the answer end on an easy next step?
Count the blanks. Those blanks are the facts you need to write before any software speaks for you. No benchmark needed. For a wider look at where your enquiries stop, take the 2-minute Leakage Check.
If you want help on that one number
The Wise Parrot is the intelligence layer on WhatsApp for businesses running ads, run as a managed service. On your one WhatsApp number, it replies only from the facts your business has approved, and when a person is needed, it alerts you, the owner. It supports your team rather than replacing it. Nobody can promise sales; closing is still your team's job. To see it on your own enquiries, contact the team. For how this looks in your trade, see the industries page. For how a sales layer differs from a plain chatbot, read WhatsApp sales layer vs chatbot or the side-by-side comparison.
Quick answers
What information does a WhatsApp chatbot need before it replies to customers?
It needs your approved facts: what you offer, where and when, what a customer should share, what the next step is and how you talk. Add the common questions with approved answers, plus a list of what it must not answer.
How do I stop a WhatsApp chatbot from giving wrong answers?
Give it only facts you have approved, and write down what is off-limits: money, clinical, legal and anything unapproved. Test from a spare phone, read every reply, and fix the facts list when something is wrong. When unsure, ask a person.
What should I check before my WhatsApp chatbot goes live?
Send the common questions and a few tricky ones, then read every reply as if it were your own. Anything wrong goes back into the facts list. There is no set time; go live when you are comfortable with every reply.
Should a chatbot answer money questions on WhatsApp?
In this article's approach, money questions go to a person at your business, or to a demo through the contact page. No figures come from the chatbot. Nobody can promise sales; closing is still your team's job.
Where are your enquiries leaking?
Take the 2-minute Leakage Check, or send us one enquiry on WhatsApp and watch the reply.