Playbooks for your trade

For a duka, a boutique, a hardware or an online shop, most messages are the same five questions (price, stock, delivery, location, how to pay), and the money is in answering them before the customer buys elsewhere.

• Keyword replies for “bei”, “price”, “location” and “delivery”; a welcome message that lists them. See keyword replies.
• Your catalog on your WhatsApp account, so the team sends products with pictures and prices, and customers fill a cart.
• Ask for payment by M-Pesa in the chat, into your own till. See getting paid.
• Templates: “Your order {{1}} is ready for collection” (utility), and one weekly offer (marketing) sent only to people who agreed.
• Leave to people: complaints, bargaining, anything about a delivery gone wrong.

More on Sema for shops and traders.

For a clinic, a dentist or a pharmacy, WhatsApp is where appointments are booked and missed. Keep patients’ health details out of marketing, and out of AI unless you are sure.

• A flow that books: Ask which service, Ask which day, Ask your system for a free slot if you have a booking system, then Hand over to reception to confirm. See flows.
• Utility templates: an appointment reminder the day before, and “your results are ready, call us”. Never put results themselves in a message.
• Opening hours and an away message that gives the emergency number.
• Roles: reception as agents; the accounts clerk as Billing, who sees money and never a conversation. See roles.
• Keep messages only as long as you need them. Set it in Data & privacy.

More on Sema for clinics.

For a school, the messages go to parents, and they must be able to trust that a message from the school is real.

• Import parents from the admissions spreadsheet, with a tag per class (“grade-4”), and consent recorded when they enrolled. See importing.
• Utility templates: fees reminders with the balance filled in, closing dates, a sick-bay note home. Send them as campaigns limited to a class’s tag.
• Fees by M-Pesa: ask for payment in the chat when a parent replies, into the school’s own paybill, with the admission number as the reference.
• Your school system can send reminders and receipts itself through the API.

More on Sema for schools.

For a SACCO, a microfinance or an insurer, members ask about balances, loans and claims, and every answer must be right and on record.

• Verify codes over WhatsApp for members signing in to your own app or portal. See the API.
• A flow that answers “balance” by asking your core system, only after the member has confirmed who they are in your own system.
• Utility templates: loan repayment due, contribution received, claim update.
• The activity log for who did what, and the Billing role for finance staff. See the activity log.
• Leave to people: disputes, hardship, anything that changes a loan.

More on Sema for SACCOs and insurers.