WhatsApp Business for a Small Business: Is It Worth It?
A lot of your customers would rather not ring you. They’d rather take a photo of the damp patch, the dripping tap or the fence panel that blew over, send it, and let you tell them what it’ll take. For plenty of UK trades and small shops, that message arrives on WhatsApp whether you planned it or not. So the real question isn’t whether to use WhatsApp for business. It’s whether the free WhatsApp Business app is worth the ten minutes it takes to switch over from the ordinary one.
For most one-person and small businesses, the answer is yes. Here’s what it adds, what it costs, which number to use, and how it fits with your website.
What is a WhatsApp Business account?
WhatsApp Business is a separate app from the WhatsApp you already have, made by the same company and built for small businesses. Customers don’t need to do anything differently. They message you exactly as they’d message a friend, and it looks the same on their side, apart from a label showing it’s a business account and a profile with your details.
On your side you get a handful of tools that ordinary WhatsApp doesn’t have:
- A business profile. Your business name, what you do, your address or service area, opening hours, email and website. Somebody who’s been passed your number by a neighbour can tap your name and see who they’re dealing with.
- Away messages. An automatic reply when you’re unavailable — outside your hours, or whenever you switch it on. “On a job until 4pm, I’ll reply this evening” does a surprising amount for your reputation.
- A greeting message. Sent to someone the first time they get in touch, or after a long gap. Useful for asking for the things you always need: a photo, a postcode, roughly when.
- Quick replies. Saved answers you can drop in with a shortcut. If you type out your call-out area or your “what’s included in a quote” explanation five times a week, save it once.
- Labels. Tag chats as “new enquiry”, “quoted”, “booked”, “paid”. It’s not a CRM, but it’s a lot better than scrolling.
- A catalogue. A simple list of products or services with photos and descriptions. More use to a shop or a bakery than to a plumber, but it’s there.
What does WhatsApp Business cost?
The app itself is free to download and use for small businesses. There’s no monthly fee for the features above.
You’ll see talk of a paid WhatsApp Business Platform (sometimes called the API). That’s a different product for larger companies that want to connect WhatsApp to call-centre software and send messages at volume. It’s charged differently and it’s not something a sole trader or small shop needs. If someone tries to sell you a WhatsApp package and you’re a one-van business, be sceptical.
| Ordinary WhatsApp | WhatsApp Business app | WhatsApp Business Platform | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it’s for | Personal use | Sole traders, small businesses | Larger companies |
| Cost | Free | Free | Charged — not for our readers |
| Business profile and hours | No | Yes | Yes |
| Away and greeting messages | No | Yes | Yes |
| Quick replies and labels | No | Yes | Via other software |
Which number should you use?
You don’t need a second phone to use WhatsApp Business. You can run it on the same handset as your personal WhatsApp, as long as each uses a different number — and a dual-SIM phone makes that easy. You can also register a landline number; WhatsApp will verify it by calling you with a code.
What you can’t do is have the same number on both apps at once. If you move your existing personal number over to WhatsApp Business, your chats come with it, but your friends and family will then be messaging a business account.
So you have two honest options:
Use your existing number. Simplest. Customers who already have it keep using it. The downside is that work never switches off, and your mates will see your opening hours on your profile.
Get a separate business SIM. A bit of admin, and a small monthly cost from any network. The upside is a clean line between work and home, and a number you can hand on if you ever take on staff or sell up.
Whichever you pick, use the same number everywhere. The number on WhatsApp should be the one on your Google Business Profile, your website, your van and your cards. Consistent contact details help customers trust you and help Google match your listings together — it’s a small but real part of local SEO.
The privacy settings to check first
Here’s the bit people miss. By default, WhatsApp shows your “last seen” time and blue ticks when you’ve read a message. That’s fine with friends. With customers, it means they can see you read their quote request at 7.14am and didn’t reply until the afternoon.
Before you give the number out, go into Settings → Privacy and decide on:
- Last seen and online — most businesses switch this off.
- Read receipts — switch off if you’d rather reply when you’re ready.
- Profile photo — use your logo or a clear photo of you with the van, not a holiday snap.
Turning read receipts off also stops you seeing theirs. That’s the trade, and for most businesses it’s worth it.
Adding WhatsApp to your website
“WhatsApp business website” is a popular search, and most of the time it means one thing: a button on your site that opens a WhatsApp chat with you. That’s just a link. It looks like https://wa.me/447700900123 — wa.me/, then your number in international format without the leading zero, the plus sign or any spaces. On a phone, tapping it opens WhatsApp with a chat to you ready to go.
You don’t need a plugin, a chat widget or a monthly subscription for that. A plain link, labelled clearly — “Message us on WhatsApp” — sitting next to your phone number and email is enough. Put it where people are already deciding to get in touch: the top of the page on mobile, and next to your contact form.
A few cautions. Keep your phone number and email visible as well, because not everyone uses WhatsApp and some customers will never message a business that way. And don’t let WhatsApp replace your website or your email. A chat app is a good way to talk to customers; it’s a poor place to be found, and it’s no substitute for an address on your own domain (here’s why that matters). We’ve covered the wider version of that argument in social media vs a website.
Here’s where we declare our interest: we build brochure websites for new and small UK businesses, free, from your Google Business Profile — and a “Message us on WhatsApp” link is exactly the kind of thing that goes on one. The details are on our free website offer. But you can add that link to any site, built by anyone, this afternoon.
So, is it worth it?
If customers already message you on WhatsApp, yes. It’s free, it takes minutes, and the away message alone will save you a few “did you get my message?” follow-ups a week.
Set it up in this order: decide on the number, install the app, fill in the profile properly, write your away and greeting messages, check the privacy settings, then add the link to your website and Google profile. After that, it’s just WhatsApp — only a bit more organised than before.