How to build a WhatsApp chatbot for your school

Start from what customers actually send. Parents ask about admissions, fee due dates, transport, timetable changes, holidays, and how their child is doing.

Then look at what goes wrong today:

• Circulars distributed by notebooks get lost. School circular goes in notebook. Notebook stays in bag. Parent never sees it. Event attendance suffers.
• Fee collection calls take a week. Fee clerk calls 200 parents individually. It takes a full week. Many parents say "I didn't know the date."
• Emergency notifications are slow to reach parents. School closes due to heavy rain. Parents are calling each other, calling the school. WhatsApp broadcast in 2 minutes fixes this.

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 class? And the academic year.
2. Child's date of birth — for age eligibility, which the bot checks against your rules.
3. Fees and facilities — the fee structure, transport, meals.
4. Book a school visit or an interaction slot.
5. Documents needed for the application.

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.

Parents who message from their registered number can ask about their own child — fee due, attendance this month, homework, next PTM — and get answers from the school system. Unregistered numbers get general information only. This one rule protects every child's privacy.

Reputoo supports both, and most schools 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 school: keyword flows for the top two or three tasks, AI for everything else, and a person behind both.

"Is school open tomorrow?", "what time is the bus?", "when do exams start?" — the bot answers from the school calendar and transport schedule. Keep them current; a wrong holiday answer causes real problems.

• Any concern about a child's safety, health or wellbeing — to the counsellor or principal's office.
• Fee concessions and difficulty paying — to accounts, privately.
• Complaints about teaching or other children.
• Admission exceptions.

• 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 schools specifically: concerns about a child's wellbeing or behaviour, fee waivers and admission exceptions go to staff.

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 school's own terms.
3. Build keyword flows for the top tasks above. What to connect: A school ERP holds students, parents, fees and attendance; messages should use it rather than a copied contact list.
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.

The bot tells parents what is due, sends the payment link, confirms payment and sends the receipt. It never discusses another family's fees.

Parents can inform the school of a child's leave by message; the bot records it against the child and tells the class teacher, so the absence alert is not sent for an informed absence.

Parents write in many languages. The AI chatbot replies in theirs, which matters for families who find English circulars hard to follow.

• Enquire about admission for different ages.
• Ask about a child from a registered and an unregistered number.
• Ask about tomorrow's holiday and the bus time.
• Raise a wellbeing concern and check it reaches a person.

Parents ask exam dates, syllabus, and when results are out. The bot answers from the published schedule, sends the syllabus PDF for the child's class, and — for registered parents — the child's result once released.

For trips and events, the bot sends the details and consent buttons to each child's parents, records the answer, takes any payment, and reminds parents who have not responded before the deadline.

Practical questions — canteen menu, meal plan fees, uniform sizes and where to buy them — are answered from the school's information. The bot never promotes outside vendors unless the school has an official arrangement.

If a child visits the medical room, the school may notify parents. The bot sends the notice the school approves to that child's parents only and passes replies to the nurse or office. It never gives medical advice.

Parents with several children at the school can ask about each by name; the bot answers for the children linked to their registered number and nobody else.

Handovers go to the right desk — admissions, accounts, transport, counsellor — with the parent's words and the child's class attached. The bot tells the parent who will reply and when.

Watch calls to the office, questions answered without staff, consent forms returned on time and fee payments by link. Read handovers weekly for information to add.

A parent who missed a day's homework can ask "what was the homework today?" and get the class's homework from the school system — only for the classes their registered children are in.

Parents ask which bus route serves their area, the pickup time, and the transport fee. The bot answers from the transport schedule and, for new routes or changes, passes requests to the transport office.

Parents request bonafide certificates, transfer certificates or fee receipts for tax purposes. The bot takes the request, explains the process and time, and notifies the office; the document is sent when ready.

For colleges, the bot answers course eligibility, entrance requirements, fees, hostel availability and important dates, and books campus visits or counselling calls.

Fee reminders carry [Pay now] [Talk to accounts]; PTM invitations carry slot buttons; consent requests carry yes and no. The bot records each answer against the right child and passes free-text replies to the class teacher or office.

Parents ask when the office is open and whom to contact for what. The bot answers from one place — accounts, admissions, transport, counsellor — and books callbacks during office hours.

Parents of children with special needs ask about support, accessibility and inclusion. The bot shares what the school publishes about its support and passes each enquiry to the special-educator or counsellor for a personal conversation. These are never handled by automation beyond the first reply.

The office reads handovers weekly and updates the calendar, fee information and policies the bot answers from — especially around term starts and exam seasons.

When results are published, registered parents can ask for their child's report card and receive the PDF, and book a call with the class teacher if they have questions. Nobody else can request another child's results.

At the start of the year, parents ask for the book list and uniform details for their child's class. The bot sends the lists for the right class and tells parents where the school's official supplies are available, if any.

"My son left his water bottle in class" — small requests are logged for the class teacher or office, and the parent is told when they will hear back. Small things handled well build a lot of goodwill.

The bot answers in the parent's language and can resend the latest circular in the language the family chose at admission. Parents who understand notices do not need to call the office to have them explained.

On a closure or emergency day, the bot answers every "is school open?" with the official notice first — pickup arrangements, online classes, when updates will come — so parents get a consistent answer and the office phone lines stay free.