At Times Mobile, we help businesses improve customer engagement through our AI-based chatbot that works across platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and RCS. Our chatbot has been designed for efficiency, personalization so you can deliver outstanding customer service while cutting down on support costs. 

Why Your Business Needs an AI Chatbot

90% of customers expect an immediate response to their service inquiries. That means whether it’s a late-night question about a forgotten password, a weekend panic about a delayed delivery, or a morning rush before a big sales event, they want help now.

Traditional customer service methods just can’t keep up. Humans need breaks, shifts, and time to respond. But on the other hand, there are AI chatbots that work around the clock, handle multiple conversations at once, and never need to rest. They’re revolutionizing customer service by offering the kind of support that’s both affordable and always on.

Benefits of AI Chatbots for Your Business

1. Instant, Efficient Responses

AI chatbots provide instant, real-time responses with no human involvement. This speeds up response times and enables your customers to get help right away. Whether your customer is asking a simple question about product availability or whether they are dealing with a more serious inquiry, your chatbot can handle both the easy and difficult requests efficiently, resulting in a better experience while saving you time and money!

2. Always-On, 24/7 Availability

Chatbots do not have set hours and breaks like a human agent, meaning your customers will always receive a rapid response whenever they contact you, day or night. You also won’t have to worry about days when you miss inquiries from customers, such as on weekends and holidays, or after hours. Since a bot is answering their inquiry, no customer is left waiting.

3. Cost-Effective Customer Service

Human support agents can be expensive, especially when they do repetitive duties like answering frequently asked inquiries or providing basic support. AI chatbots can automate monotonous tasks. This means that the chatbot can replace a human agent for tasks like answering frequently asked inquiries, monitoring order statuses, and offering basic troubleshooting without requiring additional human resources. This results in lower staffing costs while still offering high-quality service.

4. Multilingual Support

One of the best things about AI chatbots is their ability to communicate in multiple languages. Language barriers can always be a problem when interacting with clients from around the world. The best thing about chatbots is that they can recognize language on their own and reply in the language that the user prefers. This increases your potential audience and makes your business more accessible without requiring you to hire multilingual employees!

5. Scalable Support

As your business expands, so do your customer service requirements. But hiring more agents can get expensive.  AI chatbots simplify the process of scaling customer service by providing an affordable solution that can handle thousands of conversations simultaneously without hiring more agents. Regardless of how many clients you have 100 or 10,000, a chatbot can manage the workload and offer reliable assistance without raising prices.

How Times Mobile’s AI Chatbot Boosts Your Business

Times Mobile has a powerful AI chatbot that connects to WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and RCS, so you can be where your customers are located. Here is how it works for you: 

• Omnichannel Presence: Connect to your customers on WhatsApp, Instagram and more, providing a seamless experience.

• Personalized Discounts & Coupons: Give individualized discounts based on customer behaviour to increase conversion. 

• Service Desk Automation: Automate simple queries and route complex issues to human agents, improving efficiency.

• Feedback & Assessments: Gathers feedback from customers following every interaction to keep your services getting better.

Why AI Chatbots Are the Future

AI chatbots are quickly becoming the backbone of customer support. They meet the growing demand for instant support. As customer expectations continue to increase, companies that only offer customer support through people will struggle to keep up.

Using Times Mobile’s chatbot, you can lower support costs, improve customer satisfaction, and increase conversions. With the global chatbot market on the rise, now is your chance to get ahead of the game and invest in advanced, AI-driven customer service.

WhatsApp automation succeeds at scale in India because the audience is already present. More than half a billion Indians use the app, and engagement levels stay high. Messages are read within seconds, replies often land in minutes, and the Cloud API supports structured, interactive content like templates, buttons, lists, catalogs, and payments. When chats are customer-initiated, replies remain free for 24 hours, and when they start from Click-to-WhatsApp ads, that window extends to 72 hours. Combined, these features make WhatsApp automation the most efficient route for precise targeting, faster resolution, and revenue that can be directly measured.

What Are Automated WhatsApp Messages?

Automated WhatsApp messages are pre-programmed, real-time communications sent to customers without manual intervention. These could include order confirmations, reminders, alerts, and personalized offers. Businesses can automate WhatsApp messaging to engage customers across various touchpoints, from inquiries to post-purchase follow-ups, making communication faster and more effective.

Entry points shape your cost curve. Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram trigger a free 72-hour session once the user sends the first message. Website widgets and QR codes work the same way, opening a free 24-hour service window, with unlimited replies in-window at zero cost. Once those windows close, you must use approved templates in marketing, utility, or authentication categories, each billed per message. The smartest acquisition strategy nudges users to start the chat, keeps more interactions inside the free window, and cuts down on paid messaging.

With WhatsApp automation, businesses can maintain consistent interactions, ensuring timely and relevant messaging—something customers appreciate in today’s instant gratification era.

Automation on WhatsApp is not bulk blasting it is rule-driven conversation design. Templates handle compliant outreach, interactive messages remove friction with tap-based choices, product and multi-product messages bring the catalog into chat, and flows collect structured inputs for service or sales. Payments complete orders inside the thread. Quality ratings protect deliverability, and messaging limits expand as customers keep responding. This is how automated WhatsApp messaging becomes a reliable customer communication engine for support, marketing, and sales.

Why Automated WhatsApp Messages Are Essential for Business Growth

Instant Customer Engagement at Scale

WhatsApp customer service automation begins with instant responses and finishes with a smooth handoff. The bot welcomes users, verifies identity, and handles routine queries through buttons and lists. When judgment is required, agents join the same thread with full history for context. Session rules ensure replies stay free, while SLAs keep response times within minutes. The outcome is reduced ticket load, quicker first-contact resolution, and stronger CSAT — all while maintaining full control.

With automated messages, businesses can respond to customers immediately, providing relevant information such as order confirmations or appointment reminders. Timely responses enhance the customer experience and reduce the chance of losing potential leads.

Seamless Personalization for Higher Conversions

Automated WhatsApp allows businesses to personalize messages at scale, such as sending customized offers based on purchase history. Personalization enhances engagement, builds trust with customers, and leads to higher conversion rates.

24/7 Availability and Customer Support

Automation ensures that your business is available to respond to customer queries round-the-clock. By combining AI chatbots with WhatsApp automation, businesses can manage high volumes of inquiries, ensuring zero delays in response times.

Reduce Operational Costs with Automation

With automated WhatsApp messages, businesses reduce the need for manual follow-ups, minimizing human errors and operational costs. Automate WhatsApp tasks such as abandoned cart reminders or payment follow-ups to enhance efficiency and free up resources for high-priority tasks.

WhatsApp API pricing in India is clear in 2025, service replies stay free within the 24-hour window, marketing templates cost around ₹0.79, and utility or authentication templates cost about ₹0.115 per delivered message. Enterprise volume tiers unlock better publish rates, while Click-to-WhatsApp ads move more conversations into free sessions. By designing automated WhatsApp messages with the right entry points, businesses reduce cost per conversation and increase conversion per rupee.

Better Campaign Performance with Targeted Messaging

Automated WhatsApp marketing works when the message is timely, relevant, and simple to act on. We use approved marketing templates with clear value, attach a single call-to-action or a short list, and route any high-intent reply to a human in seconds. Personalization is handled with variables in the template and with catalog messages where the product card does the selling. This approach raises reply and click rates and turns automated offers into predictable revenue.

Segment customers and automate personalized campaigns, driving better results. Automated WhatsApp messages can target users based on behavior, geography, or engagement history, making your campaigns more relevant and impactful.

How Businesses Use WhatsApp Automation to Drive Results

Abandoned Cart Reminders

Automated WhatsApp messages help recover lost sales by reminding customers to complete their purchases. These reminders are triggered based on customer behavior, nudging them back into the sales funnel.

Order Updates and Delivery Tracking

Sending real-time order updates via automated WhatsApp messages ensures transparency. This builds customer trust and reduces support queries about order status.

Event or Appointment Reminders

Businesses in industries like healthcare, education, or hospitality use automated WhatsApp reminders to reduce no-shows and ensure smoother operations.

Customer Feedback Collection

Post-purchase, automated WhatsApp surveys help businesses gather feedback quickly, improving services based on real-time input.

Promotions and Loyalty Programs

Businesses can automate promotional campaigns with personalized discount codes or loyalty rewards, encouraging repeat purchases and boosting customer retention.

Advanced Features & Messaging Tactics

While automated WhatsApp messages are powerful on their own, businesses can unlock far greater engagement by leveraging advanced features and smart messaging strategies. These not only make conversations more interactive but also help brands stand out in a crowded digital space.

1. Rich Media Messaging

Go beyond plain text by using images, videos, documents, voice notes, and emojis. For example, an e-commerce brand can share a product demo video along with a limited-time offer, while a healthcare provider can send appointment reminders with an attached prescription or map link. Rich media helps explain information faster and drives higher engagement.

2. Interactive Buttons & Quick Replies

WhatsApp Business API allows you to create clickable buttons and quick replies, making conversations smoother and more action-driven. Instead of asking customers to type responses, you can provide ready-made options like “Track Order,” “Reschedule Appointment,” or “Talk to Support.” This reduces friction and boosts conversion rates.

3. Message Templates for Consistency

• Save time by setting up pre-approved message templates for common interactions such as:
• Payment confirmations
• Order/shipping updates
• Feedback requests
• Seasonal promotions
  Templates ensure your messages comply with WhatsApp’s policies while maintaining a consistent brand voice.

4. In-Chat Payments & Commerce

With WhatsApp’s in-chat payment feature (available in select regions), businesses can enable customers to browse, add to cart, and complete purchases without leaving the chat window. This turns WhatsApp into a full-fledged sales channel, reducing cart abandonment and making checkout effortless.

5. Automated Conversational Flows

By designing multi-step journeys, businesses can automate processes like onboarding, surveys, or product recommendations. For example, a financial services provider could guide users through a loan eligibility check entirely within WhatsApp, while a salon could automate booking confirmations and reminders.

6. Personalization with Dynamic Variables

Leverage customer data to personalize messages dynamically. Instead of sending “Your order has been shipped,” use “Hi Priya, your order #4521 has been shipped and will arrive tomorrow.” Personalization builds trust and improves engagement by making interactions feel one-to-one, even at scale.

7. AI-Powered Chatbots & Smart Routing

Advanced AI chatbots can answer FAQs, recommend products, or escalate queries to human agents when needed. Smart routing ensures high-priority messages (like payment issues) reach support staff instantly, while FAQs are handled automatically. This balances efficiency with customer satisfaction

Sales Impact of WhatsApp Automation

● 50% higher open rates compared to traditional SMS or email campaigns.
● 35% improvement in cart recovery rates with automated reminders.
● 24/7 engagement leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
● Lower operational costs due to automation of routine tasks.

With these results, it’s clear that automating WhatsApp messages offers an unbeatable edge in building customer relationships and driving revenue growth.

WhatsApp sales automation turns interest into action with minimal typing. Product messages show price and image  reply buttons confirm size or color  lists route to the right collection and an agent steps in if the cart stalls. Catalog browsing and carts happen inside chat, and service messages keep post-purchase care in the same thread. This is how WhatsApp sales automation shortens the path from discovery to purchase for D2C brands and marketplaces.

How to Get Started with WhatsApp Automation

Choose the Right Integration Platform

Integrate your business with a WhatsApp Business API provider like Times Mobile, offering end-to-end solutions for automating WhatsApp messages.

Set Up Personalized Flows

Design automated workflows for common customer interactions—such as order confirmations, feedback requests, or appointment scheduling. These flows ensure seamless interactions at every stage of the customer journey.

Leverage AI-Driven Chatbots

Enhance your automation with AI-powered chatbots that can manage inquiries and escalate complex issues to human agents when needed.

Monitor Performance with Analytics

Use analytics tools to track open rates, response times, and conversions. This allows you to optimize automated campaigns for better engagement and higher ROI.

Unlock the Power of Automated WhatsApp Messages with Times Mobile

At Times Mobile, we provide comprehensive solutions for WhatsApp automation, helping businesses automate, engage, and convert seamlessly. Whether you want to send personalized campaigns or recover abandoned carts, our platform ensures consistent and meaningful customer interactions.

Conclusion: Engage Smarter, Sell Faster with Automated WhatsApp Messages

Businesses today need to engage customers proactively and efficiently. Automated WhatsApp messages offer the perfect blend of real-time engagement and personalization, empowering brands to stay connected, enhance loyalty, and drive sales effortlessly. By automating routine communication tasks, businesses can reduce costs, increase conversions, and deliver a superior customer experience.

Ready to automate your customer communication and boost sales? Partner with Times Mobile and unlock the true potential of WhatsApp automation today.

WhatsApp, after its launch in 2009, has grown rapidly across the world. It’s grown at an average pace of 30.5% annually in India over the last 5 years. Despite this rapid rise of WhatsApp, SMS continues to be the largest channel for customer communications in India. SMS can reach every mobile number, while WhatsApp enables richer engagement and two-way conversations. For marketing and service, businesses should use WhatsApp first, with SMS as a backup when data is low or numbers are on DND. WhatsApp’s read receipts and buttons improve click-throughs, while SMS remains the fastest option for OTPs and urgent alerts. The right approach is not choosing one over the other, but using both in coordination.

This article seeks to re-iterate the reasons to strike a balance between SMS and WhatsApp for enterprise customer communications.

SMS vs WhatsApp: Core Features and Business Impact

Ubiquity

WhatsApp, first introduced in 2009, is now available in 60 languages across 180+ countries. It has over 2 billion users who spend roughly 195 minutes per week on the platform. To use this application, a user requires a basic smartphone.

SMS was first introduced in the early 1990s. It was designed to run on basic feature phones. As a result, with 5.1 billion users, it reaches almost 67% of the global population. While facing competition from the feature-rich WhatsApp and other similar messaging apps, SMS remains a requisite channel for business communication, especially to ensure inclusivity.

Times Mobile offers both WhatsApp for Business (WABA) and SMS platforms and accompanying APIs to enterprises to integrate these channels into their key business applications and processes.

Features

SMS is limited to 160 characters per message, whereas WhatsApp can deliver up to 4096 characters per message. SMS can only deliver text messages (although most SMS reading apps today recognize simple features such as a clickable URL). In contrast, a WhatsApp message can contain images, videos, carousels and interactive buttons in addition to text.

A2P SMS in India is limited to one-way communication. WhatsApp facilitates interactive, two-way communication. Times Mobile’s WhatsApp for Business platform enables two-way communication with chatbots as well as live agents in a seamless manner.

It’s also worth noting the evolution of SMS into RCS (Rich Communication Services), which bridges this gap. RCS adds app-like features to the Messages app on Android, such as rich cards, carousels, verified sender, and read receipts. In India, most private operators already support RCS, and Apple has started a small Jio-only pilot for iPhone, though wider iOS support is still limited. Our advice: test RCS with Android-heavy audiences where branding and rich replies matter, use SMS as a fallback, and keep WhatsApp for high-intent conversations and service.

As a forward-thinking partner, Times Mobile is equipped to guide businesses through this evolving landscape, ensuring your communication strategy is always ahead of the curve.

Branding

WhatsApp for Business lets companies present a fully branded storefront inside the chat list. An official profile shows the business name (instead of a phone number), a logo, catalog, description, and operating hours, and, once verified by Meta, the coveted green check mark that signals authenticity. Message templates can include imagery, video, emojis, and clickable buttons, so every interaction carries the brand’s visual identity and tone of voice.

Conventional SMS, by contrast, permits only an alphanumeric sender ID of up to 11 characters and plain-text content. There is no logo, brand colour, or verification badge, so messages often appear to arrive from an unfamiliar number. This limitation makes trust-building harder, lowers recall, and forces marketers to rely solely on copy to convey brand personality.

Times Mobile simplifies brand-safe messaging across both channels. It provisions verified business profiles on WhatsApp, designs media-rich templates that meet Meta’s guidelines, and integrates product catalogues so each outbound or conversational message reinforces the brand. For SMS, it helps configure consistent sender IDs and branded short-links, ensuring even text-only campaigns carry a clear, recognisable identity.

Personalization

WhatsApp Business makes it easy to send messages that feel personal. You can drop in each customer’s name, refer to their last order, or even mention their city, then add photos, videos, or quick-reply buttons so the chat feels like a one-to-one conversation. Automated flows can change what a person sees based on what they click or the stage they’re at. Whether it’s a welcome note, a “your package is on the way” update, or a gentle nudge to leave feedback.

SMS doesn’t offer the same flexibility. You can usually merge in a first name, maybe an order number, but that’s about it. Every text is plain and static, so customers can’t tap a button, browse a catalog, or see dynamic content. Because the experience is identical for everyone, it’s harder to make recipients feel the message was written just for them.

SMS is billed on a per-message basis and, in many markets, incurs higher tariffs for images, international delivery, or messages that exceed 160 characters (which are split and charged as multiples). Regulatory surcharges such as India’s DLT fees or U.S. carrier pass-through costs further add to the total. Because each outbound or inbound text triggers a separate charge, large-scale two-way campaigns can become expensive quickly.

Performance and Tracking

Enterprises want their customer communications to be read. Both SMS and WhatsApp perform well on message opens with 90% and 98% of messages being opened, respectively.

Enterprises also want their customer communications to be engaged with. Given the text-only nature of SMS, its click-through rate is anywhere between 1-6%. WhatsApp on the other hand, scores well here, with a click-through rate of around 40%. This is unsurprising since WhatsApp offers the ability to use media, whereas SMS is limited to static text.

Both offer the ability to track the delivery of the message. However, WhatsApp offers the ability to track read receipts as well, which SMS does not. WhatsApp also can track clicks. SMS doesn’t have a native click-tracking ability. Times Mobile, however, offers a comprehensive URL tracking capability for its A2P SMS solution. In addition, for enterprises using our click trackers, we also give a map of the enterprise’s audience against TIL’s audience segments.

For campaigns that demand clicks and replies, WhatsApp consistently outperforms SMS thanks to media, buttons, and list menus. We instrument UTMs and webhook events on WhatsApp and branded short-links on SMS, then unify reporting so your team evaluates delivery → read → click → conversion cleanly across channels.

Security Measures

WhatsApp emphasizes strong security with end-to-end encryption. Messages are scrambled on the sender’s device and can only be decrypted by the recipient’s device. In addition, WhatsApp offers features like two-step verification and screen lock to enhance security.

SMS lacks in-built encryption. Messages travel in plain text, making them vulnerable to interception by anyone with access to the network infrastructure. However, Times Mobile works with telecom operators that implement significant security measures to secure SMS.

SMS in India requires DLT registration of your Entity, Headers, and Templates as per TRAI rules, and any non-compliant messages get blocked. You must also respect DND and use transactional routes for critical alerts. WhatsApp needs explicit opt-in from users, captured through your web, app, IVR, or CTWA, and we maintain opt-out hygiene and template quality to protect sender trust. Under India’s DPDP Act, both SMS and WhatsApp need clear consent and purpose limitation.

Furthermore, at Times Mobile, we elevate this security baseline. As a SOC2-certified platform, we ensure that every interaction, whether on WhatsApp or SMS, is handled within a framework of rigorous security and data protection protocols, giving you and your customers complete peace of mind.

Commercials

SMS pricing in India is in the range of ₹0.12-0.15 per message, and WhatsApp for Business pricing today is in the range of ₹0.35-0.75 per 24-hour session, depending on the application (utility/service or marketing respectively).

WhatsApp Business (WABA) in India now follows per-message pricing: ₹0.78 for marketing, ₹0.11 for utility, ₹0.12 for domestic authentication, and ₹2.30 for international authentication (from an India WABA). Customer-initiated replies are free within 24 hours, and ads, QR codes, or website entry points give 72 hours of free conversations. High-volume utility and authentication messages also get tiered discounts.

SMS (domestic A2P) is still priced per message. At scale, enterprise rates are usually ₹0.14–₹0.20 for promotional and ₹0.12–₹0.16 for transactional, plus DLT charges of ₹0.025 per SMS and 18% GST. The final route rates depend on your message volume and compliance.

Conclusions

We recommend the following use cases based on the differences highlighted above –

• WhatsApp is well suited for customer support as it is a good two-way channel. Also, multiple demographics across languages in India are comfortable chatting on it. Times Mobile’s WhatsApp for Business Services can work with you to implement a full solution that integrates chatbots and live agents into an optimal support experience. 
• WhatsApp is also well suited for marketing applications given its rich messaging capabilities and high click-through rates. At the commercials and click-through rates illustrated above, the effective cost per click for SMS is around ₹5 whereas for WhatsApp it can be as low as ₹1.9.
• SMS is great for one-way notifications in which there is relatively less interactivity, e.g. delivering OTPs or transactional updates. Times Mobile’s SMS solution can ensure high delivery rates, open rates, and low latency.

Finding Your Perfect Mix

Ultimately, the most powerful strategy isn’t about choosing SMS or WhatsApp—it’s about leveraging the unique strengths of both. The right balance depends entirely on your audience, goals, and specific use cases.

Don’t navigate these choices alone. Contact us today for a personalized consultation. We’ll help you design a secure, cost-effective, and highly engaging communication strategy that drives results.