WhatsApp Business for tradespeople: set-up

Say an electrician has her mobile number on the side of the van. On a Wednesday evening a landlord sends that number a photo of a scorched socket and asks whether she can come this week. The message lands on her own phone, under the school parents' group. She reads it on Friday. By then the landlord has booked someone else.

The WhatsApp Business app gives messages like that a number of their own and an automatic reply. I read every step below in WhatsApp's English help centre on 12 October 2026, in the Android version. Some buttons are worded differently on an iPhone.

Which WhatsApp a trade business needs

WhatsApp Messenger is the app on your phone. The WhatsApp Business app is a separate, free app that WhatsApp says was "built with the small business owner in mind". The WhatsApp Business Platform is the API, which WhatsApp aims at medium to large businesses. A firm that answers its own messages from one phone needs the app.

Setting up WhatsApp Business step by step

WhatsApp's download page gives these steps:

Download the WhatsApp Business app from the Google Play Store on Android, or from the Apple App Store on an iPhone, and open it.
Read the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service and tap "Agree and continue".
Verify your phone number. Choose your country, enter the number without the 0 at the front, and tap "Done".
Enter the 6-digit registration code that arrives by SMS or phone call.
Follow the app through the business profile. It asks for a business name, up to three categories, business hours, a photo, an address and a description.

WhatsApp says a number can't be linked to both apps at the same time, so give the business its own number.

WhatsApp Business with a landline number

You don't need a second SIM card. WhatsApp's registration page says you can register "a mobile phone or a landline (fixed) number that you own". For a landline, tap "Call me". The office phone rings and an automated voice reads out the code.

An extension can't be registered, so use the main number. And VoIP numbers are on WhatsApp's unsupported list. The page doesn't say whether an office number on a broadband line counts as VoIP, so you find out by trying.

Business profile and opening hours

You can change the profile later in the "Tools" tab under "Profile". Under "Business hours", choose "Open for selected hours" and enter the hours in which somebody reads messages. They control the away message.

Away and greeting messages

The away message is the setting I would switch on first. WhatsApp's steps are:

From the "Tools" tab, tap "Away message".
Turn on "Send away message".
Under "Away message", tap the message to edit it, then tap "OK".
Tap "Schedule" and choose "Always send", "Custom schedule" or "Outside of business hours".
Tap "Recipients", choose who gets the message, and tap "Save".

"Outside of business hours" only appears once the profile has business hours. WhatsApp says the device needs an active internet connection to send away messages, so leave the work phone on over the weekend.

The greeting message is in the "Tools" tab as well. It goes to anyone who messages you for the first time, and again after 14 days of inactivity in the chat. Use it to ask for a postcode and a photo of the job.

WhatsApp Business away message examples for a trade business

Tell the customer when a person will reply and what to do if the job can't wait. Replace the parts in brackets.

Evenings and weekends:

Hello, this is [business name]. We read messages [Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 5pm] and will reply by [9am] on the next working day. A photo and your postcode help. For a burst pipe or no heating, please ring [emergency number].

On a job, for a one-person firm:

Hello, this is [business name]. I'm on a job and check messages at [12.30pm and 5pm]. Send a photo and your address, and I'll come back to you then.

Closed for a holiday:

Hello, this is [business name]. We are closed until [date] and will read your message on [date]. If it can't wait, please contact [name of the firm covering for you].

Over Christmas, put the same dates in your email auto-reply, voicemail and Google listing. The Christmas closure message templates cover each one.

Write in only the reply times you will keep.

Quick replies and labels

Quick replies are saved messages. In a chat you type "/" and pick one. You create them under "Quick replies" in the "Tools" tab, and WhatsApp stores up to 50. Two worth saving:

/photo "Could you send a photo of the problem and one of the label on the appliance?"
/visit "We can come on [day] between [8 and 10] or on [day] between [1 and 3]. Which suits you?"

WhatsApp's labels page allows up to 20 labels and notes that "Labels are now lists". It is rolling out lists gradually, so your phone will show one or the other. Start with "New enquiry" and "Quote sent". A chat keeps "New enquiry" until somebody has answered it.

Out-of-hours messages: who reads them, and when

The away message buys you time. It doesn't answer the customer.

Name one person and fix the times. If the owner reads messages at 7.30am and 4.30pm, the away message should say so. The article on answering a weekend enquiry within minutes covers what a first reply should contain.

Send emergencies to the phone. WhatsApp is a poor channel for a burst pipe, so give a number to ring. Conditional call forwarding moves an unanswered call to a second phone, and a missed call text back tells the caller you will ring back. The call-forwarding guide takes its examples from a German carrier and a German router, so confirm the codes on your own network's help page. The text-back guide's section on consent describes German law. The UK rules for marketing messages follow below.

Then put the number where customers look, starting with the Google Business Profile they see before your website. Google's help page says a verified profile can add a WhatsApp option, though chat options are "currently available for select regions".

What UK data protection law asks of you

This section is not legal advice. It reports what the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator, said on its own pages on 12 October 2026. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 amended the UK GDPR and PECR, and the ICO has marked some of the pages linked below as under review because of it.

The basics

The ICO's advice for small organisations says data protection law covers businesses "from sole traders and people who work for themselves through to large global corporations". Names and phone numbers are personal data, and a WhatsApp chat holds both.

The ICO also says a business that holds personal data needs a privacy notice. Its example is a cake maker who links to his in email replies. The WhatsApp greeting message is a comparable place.

Answering an enquiry is not marketing

PECR, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, set the rules for marketing by "electronic mail". The ICO's guidance says the term covers "any electronically stored messages", and its list includes in-app messages. It doesn't mention WhatsApp by name. I would treat a WhatsApp message as covered until the ICO says otherwise.

The same guidance says messages sent "purely for administrative or customer service purposes" aren't direct marketing if they "do not promote anything". The ICO's marketing page for small organisations has an example from the trades. A text saying "Our engineer will be round to service your central heating system at 10am on Tuesday" is a service message. Add "You can save money on your service by signing up to our Home Care plan" and it counts as direct marketing.

A message confirming Thursday's visit sits on the service side. The ICO's detailed guidance adds that marketing someone specifically asked you to send needs no consent.

Marketing messages and the soft opt-in

An autumn boiler-service offer sent to past customers is marketing. The ICO's guide to PECR states the rule as "You must not send marketing emails or texts to individuals without specific consent", with a limited exception for your own previous customers, often called the soft opt-in.

The detailed guidance, updated on 28 April 2026, lists five requirements for the soft opt-in. All five have to be met:

You obtained the contact details directly from the person.
You did so while selling or negotiating to sell. Requesting a quote counts.
You market only your own similar products and services.
You offered an opt-out when you collected the details.
You offer it again in every later message.

Look hard at the fourth. If nobody offered the customer an opt-out when they first messaged you, the soft opt-in isn't available, and you need consent. The 2025 Act added a second soft opt-in, for charities only.

The address book question

WhatsApp's page on contact upload says that, with your permission, the app uploads the phone numbers in your address book, "typically daily". It calls the feature optional and says you control it from the device's settings.

A search of ico.org.uk on 12 October 2026 turned up no ICO page on whether a business may upload its customers' numbers this way. The ICO's Q&A for employers says a company that uses platforms such as WhatsApp for business purposes is "the controller for the information processed on those pages". And its advice for small organisations says of any platform, "You have to assess and respond to the risks as you see them and decide for yourself".

I won't give a verdict the regulator hasn't given. Two steps make the question smaller. Run WhatsApp Business on a work phone whose address book holds only customers, or refuse the app access to contacts in the phone's settings.

If you work in Ireland

Ireland's regulator is the Data Protection Commission. Its FAQ on consent says electronic direct marketing generally needs "clear, affirmative consent". Its exception for existing customers has a condition the UK list lacks. The first marketing message has to go out within 12 months of the original sale.

And the phone

WhatsApp Business covers the customers who write. The ones who ring still reach voicemail while you are up a ladder. Our AI receptionist answers those phone calls. It tells the caller from the first sentence that they are talking to an AI, takes the name, address, callback number and what the job is, and books a slot in your calendar if you want it to.

Start with the away message. It is five steps, and the next landlord with a scorched socket will know the same evening when to expect a reply.