Reply in sixty seconds. Qualify in five minutes.
Speed to first contact is the most reliable predictor of whether an enquiry converts, and it is the thing almost nobody does well — because doing it manually means someone waiting by a screen at all hours.
Free PDF. No email required.
At a glance
What is automated lead follow-up on WhatsApp?
Automated WhatsApp lead follow-up sends a first reply within seconds of an enquiry, asks a short set of qualifying questions, and routes the answers. Sales-ready leads reach a person or a calendar; the rest enter a nurture path. The lead never waits for office hours.
Key takeaways
- The first reply does not need to be human. It needs to be immediate and useful.
- Two or three qualifying questions is the ceiling — this is a conversation, not a form.
- Route on the answers, not on lead volume.
- Measure speed to first contact separately from contact rate.
Why this leaks revenue today
01
Leads arrive outside office hours
Enquiries do not follow your roster. The ones submitted on a Friday evening are often the most motivated and the most likely to be lost.
02
Batching kills the moment
Working through the enquiry list at 4pm means competitors have already replied to half of it.
03
Your team spends the day on unqualified leads
Without a qualifying step, the good enquiries and the tyre-kickers get the same expensive attention.
The signal ConvoHut acts on
The journey only starts when all of these are true. Getting the entry conditions right matters more than the message.
What has to be connected
The journey
Built once, then it runs unattended. Every branch has a defined outcome, and the journey stops the moment the goal is met.
Trigger
Lead created
Message
Send within 60 seconds
Conversation
Ask 2 qualifying questions
Condition
Score the answers
Then it branches on what the customer does
Qualified and ready
Book into the calendar or hand to sales
Interested, not ready
Enter a lighter nurture sequence
Not a fit
Close politely and stop
Goal: Meeting booked or qualified handoff — journey stops
A journey without a stop condition is a journey that gets your number blocked.
The messages, and why each one exists
Starting points, not scripts. You rewrite them in your own voice and approve every message before it goes live.
Within 60 seconds
Acknowledges instantly and asks one question. Speed matters more than polish here.
On reply
Timing is the single most useful qualifier. It separates a live opportunity from a browser.
On qualification
Names a person and offers specific slots. Open-ended 'when suits you' loses momentum.
What it looks like to the customer
This is the part a broadcast tool cannot do. The customer replies, the question gets answered from real data, and the journey continues — in one thread.
If the AI reaches the edge of what it has been approved to answer, it escalates to your team with the full history attached. The customer sees one continuous conversation.
Illustrative conversation. Not a customer transcript.
What to measure
Pick one primary metric before launch and agree how it is calculated. Everything else is secondary.
Speed to first contact
Time from enquiry to first message. The one metric worth reporting weekly.
—
Contact rate
Enquiries that produce a real reply from the customer.
—
Qualification rate
Enquiries that reach a defined qualified state.
—
Booked appointments
Meetings, inspections or calls created by the journey.
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How we keep this honest. The attribution window is agreed before launch. Direct and influenced conversions are reported separately. Where volume allows we hold out a control group. We do not claim every order that happens after a message.
Set it up
- 1
1. Connect your form or CRM
Every lead source must post into ConvoHut, including paid ad lead forms.
- 2
2. Capture WhatsApp consent
Add an explicit opt-in at the form. Without it the journey cannot run.
- 3
3. Write two qualifying questions
Not five. Choose the two that actually change what happens next.
- 4
4. Set the routing rules
Define what qualified means, and where those leads go.
- 5
5. Test end to end
Submit a real enquiry yourself and time the reply before you go live.
Then tune it
Cut a question before you add one
Every extra qualifier costs completion. Three is usually one too many.
Always ask about timing
Across lead-driven businesses it separates live opportunities faster than budget does.
Watch the handoff, not just the reply
Fast automated replies are worthless if a qualified lead then waits two days for a human.
Questions this raises
Should the first reply be automated or human?
Automated. A useful reply in sixty seconds beats a perfect reply in six hours, and the customer cannot tell the difference at that stage of the conversation.
How many qualifying questions should I ask?
Two or three. This is a conversation, not a form. Ask only what changes the routing decision.
What happens when someone asks something the AI cannot answer?
It escalates. The AI operates inside approved knowledge only, and hands off to your team with the full thread and context intact.
Can it book directly into a calendar?
Booking is part of the journey design. Confirm current calendar integration status before you promise it to a client.
Does this replace my sales team?
No. It replaces the waiting. Your team gets the same leads, qualified, with the context already gathered.
What about compliance in regulated industries?
Consent, record-keeping and message content all need review against your obligations before launch. Bring your compliance requirements to the pilot scoping call.
Related use cases
Free download
The Lead follow-up Playbook, as a PDF.
Everything on this page in a document you can send to your team or your client: entry conditions, journey logic, the messages with the reasoning behind each one, the metrics and the setup steps.
No email required. Take it and build the journey somewhere else if you want to — the logic is the useful part.
Your customers are already showing intent.
Turn those moments into automated conversations that move customers toward conversion. We work with a small group of early access customers and set the first journey up with you.