How to build a WhatsApp chatbot for your home services business

Start from what customers actually send. Customers ask whether a technician can come today, what a visit costs, when the technician will arrive, and whether the work has a warranty.

Then look at what goes wrong today:

• Booking by phone is slow and often missed. Customer calls for AC service at 1 PM. You're on another job. Missed call. They call a competitor. WhatsApp bookings never miss.
• Customer doesn't know when technician arrives. "I waited 3 hours and nobody came" — because you didn't send an ETA. A simple WhatsApp saves the job and the customer.
• Calls go unanswered while technicians are on site. Your team is under a sink or on a ladder. The phone rings, nobody picks up, and that job goes to whoever answers first.

Each of these is a conversation with a predictable shape — a question, a lookup, a confirmation. That shape is what a chatbot handles well.

1. Which service? Cleaning, AC, plumbing, electrical, pest control, appliance repair.
2. What is the problem? A few buttons — not cooling, leaking, deep clean, routine service — and an optional photo.
3. Address — shared location or typed, checked against your service area.
4. Slot — the windows you have free.
5. Price — the visit charge and the estimate, with what may change it.
6. Confirm — and pay an advance if you take one.

Notice what the business side does: it answers with the specific detail (time, reference, next step), it asks for one thing at a time, and it gives the customer a one-word way to reply. Those three habits matter more than how clever the bot is.

A photo of a leaking pipe or the error code on an AC tells the dispatcher which technician and parts to send. The bot asks for one when it helps and attaches it to the job, so the technician arrives with the right tools the first time.

Reputoo supports both, and most home services businesses end up using both:

• Keyword flows — a fixed menu or trigger word ("MENU", "BOOK", "STATUS") leads down a set path. Predictable, easy to audit, right for anything with a fixed answer.
• AI chatbot — reads the customer's own words and answers from your knowledge base (website, price list, policies). Right for the long tail of questions nobody wrote a menu item for.

A sensible start for a home services business: keyword flows for the top two or three tasks, AI for everything else, and a person behind both.

The most common question on the day is when the technician will arrive. The bot answers from the job's status — assigned, on the way, running late — and shares the technician's name and photo. Dispatchers stop spending their morning answering the same question.

• Complaints, refunds and anything where the customer is upset.
• Anything involving money the bot cannot see — a disputed bill, a custom quote.
• Health, safety or legal questions.
• Any customer who asks for a human. Do not make them ask twice.

For home services businesses specifically: quotes for larger jobs, complaints about work and damage claims need a person.

Handover on Reputoo moves the chat into the shared inbox with the conversation so far, so staff never ask the customer to repeat themselves.

1. Connect your WhatsApp number to Reputoo (official API; takes minutes).
2. Add your website and documents to the knowledge base so the AI answers in your home services business's own terms.
3. Build keyword flows for the top tasks above. What to connect: A job-scheduling tool or dispatcher sheet with technicians and slots.
4. Choose who gets handed-over chats, and during which hours.
5. Test from a personal phone, then share the number or a QR code with customers.

Customers outside your area should know before they book. The bot checks the address or pin code against the areas you serve, and tells anyone outside it politely, rather than taking a booking that has to be cancelled later.

Customers ask what a visit costs. The bot shares the visit charge, standard service prices and what can change the final bill, such as parts or extra units, from your price list. It never gives a firm price for work a technician has not seen.

Customers who need to move a visit can pick a new slot in the chat. The bot applies your cancellation policy and frees the old slot for another booking.

When an AC service, purifier filter change or pest-control treatment is due, the reminder carries a button to book. The bot shows the next free slots and confirms in a few taps.

The bot sends payment links with the invoice and confirms receipts. It never asks for card numbers, PINs or OTPs.

• Quotes for renovations, large cleaning jobs and multiple units.
• Complaints about work.
• Damage claims.
• Anything unsafe — gas smell, sparking wiring — gets an immediate safety message and a person.

If a customer mentions a gas smell, sparks, smoke or flooding near electrics, the bot tells them to follow basic safety steps — switch off the mains if safe, leave the area, call emergency services where needed — and passes the conversation to a person immediately. It never tries to guide a repair.

Customers write in many languages; the AI chatbot replies in theirs, which matters for households where the person at home is not the person who booked.

• Book an AC service at an address inside and outside your area.
• Ask where the technician is.
• Report a gas smell and check the safety reply and handover.
• Rebook from a service-due reminder.

Watch bookings completed without a call, technician-status questions answered without a dispatcher, and service-due reminders that turned into bookings. Read handovers weekly.

Cleaning jobs need a few extra details: home size, rooms, bathrooms, whether the home is furnished or empty, and add-ons such as sofa, kitchen or balcony cleaning. The bot asks for these with buttons, calculates the price from your list, and tells the customer how long the team will need and how many cleaners will come. Customers know what to expect before anyone arrives, and the team arrives with the right equipment.

Pest-control treatments often need preparation — clearing kitchen shelves, covering food, keeping children and pets away for a time. The bot sends your preparation guide with the booking and a reminder the evening before, so the technician does not arrive to a home that is not ready.

When the bot passes a conversation to a person, it includes the service, the problem, the address and any photos, so the dispatcher never asks the customer to repeat themselves.

Technicians lose time at gates and lifts. The bot asks whether the society needs a visitor pass, where to park, which floor, and whether there are pets at home, and adds the answers to the job. The technician arrives knowing what to expect, and the customer is not called from the gate.

Customers on a maintenance plan can check visits remaining, book the next one within the plan and ask when the plan renews. The bot answers from the plan record and passes plan changes and upgrades to a person.

Households notice problems in the evening and at weekends. The bot books the next free slot at any hour and, if you offer emergency visits, explains the charge and alerts the on-call technician.

A day after the job, the bot asks the customer to rate the visit. A low rating goes straight to the manager with the job and technician attached, so someone calls the customer the same day; a high rating receives your review link. The bot never argues with a complaint or offers compensation — it apologises, records the details and hands over.

Addresses, phone numbers and photos from inside homes are sensitive. The bot shares a customer's address only with the assigned technician, never with other customers, and follows your retention policy for photos.

When a repair waits for a part, the bot tells the customer the expected date from the job record and offers follow-up slots as soon as the part arrives.