WhatsApp Lead Follow-Up Sequence for restaurants

What is included in the setup

• 5-step follow-up sequence written for your business
• Lead capture from forms, ads and WhatsApp
• Reply detection stops the sequence
• Weekly conversion report

What you need before the call

• The accounts the setup connects to (WhatsApp, Google or Meta)
• Your services, prices, timings and address
• Who receives alerts and reports
• Approval for the content the setup will send in your name

A normal day at a restaurant with this setup

1. 9:30 AM: Front desk opens the tablet and checks overnight enquiries from Google Ads, Instagram form and the WhatsApp Business number — anyone who messaged after closing gets the first automated reply already sent by the bot at 10 PM last night.
2. A customer fills the 'reserve a table' form on the website for Saturday dinner. Within 2 minutes the bot sends a WhatsApp message confirming party size, time slot and asking if it's a special occasion.
3. Lunch rush, 1 PM: front desk is busy seating walk-ins and can't answer calls. Missed calls and unanswered WhatsApp menu queries trigger step 2 of the sequence — a photo menu PDF and today's specials, sent automatically.
4. A lead replies 'do you have parking' — reply detection sees the incoming message and stops the sequence immediately so front desk can answer directly instead of the bot sending step 3 on top of it.
5. 4 PM lull: manager checks the weekly conversion report — how many enquiries became confirmed bookings, how many went cold after step 4, and which source (Zomato ad vs Instagram vs walk-in form) is converting best.
6. Evening, festival weekend (Diwali/New Year): sequence includes a step asking if the guest wants the festive set menu, timed to go out 3 days before the booking date.
7. Sunday night: care plan check-in — Bharat AI Saathi reviews the week's drop-off points with the manager and adjusts message timing if too many leads are going cold between step 2 and step 3.

Rules and platform limits it works within

WhatsApp Business policy: automated messages only go to customers who messaged first or filled a form on your own website/page — the sequence never cold-messages a phone number it wasn't given directly, so your WhatsApp number stays in good standing.

DPDP Act 2023: phone numbers and names collected from forms and WhatsApp are used only for this follow-up sequence and the weekly report, not shared or sold, and the setup does not add customers to any other list without their message first.

24-hour session window: WhatsApp Business API restricts free-form replies to within 24 hours of the customer's last message — the sequence is timed within this window, and reply detection ensures no message goes out after the customer has already responded.

This is not legal advice — please confirm your own compliance obligations separately.

What the leak costs: a worked illustration

Assume your restaurant gets 6 missed enquiries a day — calls not picked up during lunch/dinner rush, or WhatsApp menu questions left unanswered overnight. If even 2 of these 6 would have converted into a table booking, and average bill value is Rs 1,200 for a table of 3-4, that's Rs 2,400 a day in bookings that quietly leak away, or roughly Rs 72,000 a month.

The setup fee is a one-time Rs 10,000, and the care plan is Rs 2,000/month to keep the sequence tuned and read the weekly report with you. Even recovering 3-4 extra bookings a month covers the ongoing cost. This is an illustration only — your actual missed-enquiry count and average bill will differ.

Questions restaurant owners ask

Will this bot take table bookings directly, or just follow up?

It follows up and qualifies — confirms date, time and party size over WhatsApp — but your front desk or the person managing reservations makes the final confirmation. This keeps you in control of table availability and avoids overbooking, which an automated system alone can't safely manage.

What if someone asks a question the bot can't answer, like a custom catering order?

Reply detection stops the automated sequence the moment the customer sends any reply, including an off-script question. It then sits in your WhatsApp inbox as a normal chat for your team to handle — the bot never keeps messaging over a live conversation.

Our menu and prices change with season — does the sequence update automatically?

No, the 5-step sequence and the menu/PDF it sends are written for your business during setup. If your menu or offers change, you send us the update and we revise the sequence as part of the Rs 2,000/month care plan — it's not a self-updating AI.