25 WhatsApp Greeting Message Examples (Copy & Paste)

The first message a customer receives from you sets the tone for everything that follows. A warm, useful WhatsApp greeting message makes a small business feel professional and responsive — even at 2am when nobody's watching the phone. A cold or missing one makes people wonder if anyone's home.

Here are 25 greeting message examples you can copy and paste, grouped by type and industry, plus a 60-second setup guide and how to make your greeting do more than just say hello.

What makes a great WhatsApp greeting message

Before the examples, the formula. A high-converting greeting does three things in two sentences:

• Welcomes the customer by your business name so they know they reached the right place.
• Sets an expectation — when will they hear back? "Within an hour" beats silence.
• Invites the next step — ask for the detail you need (service, date, order number) so the conversation moves without a back-and-forth.

Keep it short, sound human, and use one emoji at most. Now the copy-and-paste examples.

General welcome greetings

1. "Hi there! 👋 Thanks for messaging [Business]. Tell us what you need and we'll get you sorted right away."
2. "Welcome to [Business]! We're glad you reached out. How can we help you today?"
3. "Hello! 😊 Thanks for getting in touch. Share a few details about what you're looking for and we'll reply shortly."
4. "Hi! You've reached [Business]. We usually reply within an hour during business hours — what can we do for you?"
5. "Thanks for messaging us! 🙌 Let us know how we can help and we'll be right with you."

First-time customer greetings

6. "Welcome! 🎉 Great to meet you. Since it's your first time here, tell us what you're after and we'll point you in the right direction."
7. "Hi and welcome to [Business]! We'd love to help. What brings you in today?"
8. "Hello! Thanks for choosing to reach out. Let us know your question and we'll make sure you get the right answer."

Greetings that set a response time

9. "Thanks for your message! ⏱️ We typically reply within 30 minutes during opening hours. What can we help with?"
10. "Hi! We've received your message and will respond within the hour. Feel free to add any details while you wait."
11. "Got it — thanks! Our team replies Mon–Sat, 9am–7pm. We'll be with you shortly. 😊"

Restaurant and café greetings

12. "Welcome to [Restaurant]! 🍽️ Reply with your date, time, and party size and we'll get your table booked. Menu here: [link]."
13. "Hi! Thanks for messaging [Café]. Looking to order, book a table, or ask about the menu? Just let us know!"
14. "Hello and welcome! 🍕 Tell us what you'd like to order or when you'd like to visit and we'll take care of the rest."

Running rooms rather than tables? The same patterns work for reservations — see WhatsApp for hotels and guesthouses.

Salon, spa, and clinic greetings

15. "Hi! 💇 Welcome to [Salon]. Tell us the service you'd like and your preferred day, and we'll find you a slot."
16. "Hello! Thanks for reaching out to [Clinic]. Let us know the treatment you're after and we'll check availability for you."
17. "Welcome to [Spa] 🌸 We'd love to pamper you. Which treatment are you interested in, and when suits you best?"

(Health businesses have extra rules around what a chat may say — our WhatsApp for pharmacies guide covers the careful version.)

Retail and e-commerce greetings

18. "Hi there! 🛍️ Thanks for shopping with [Store]. Ask us anything about products, sizes, or delivery and we'll help you out."
19. "Welcome to [Store]! Looking for something specific? Send us the product name and we'll check stock for you."
20. "Hello! 😊 Thanks for messaging. For order updates, tracking, or a new purchase, just let us know how we can help."

Service business greetings (trades, agencies, consultants)

21. "Hi! Thanks for contacting [Business]. Tell us what you need done and where, and we'll send you a quote."
22. "Hello! 👋 Welcome to [Business]. Describe the job briefly and we'll get back to you with availability and pricing."
23. "Thanks for reaching out! To help fast, let us know your location and what service you're after."

If your work is dates and deadlines — weddings, events, launches — the greeting should capture the date first: see WhatsApp for event planners.

Short and friendly greetings

24. "Hey! 👋 Thanks for messaging — how can we help?"
25. "Welcome! We're here and happy to help. What do you need? 😊"

How to set up a greeting message on WhatsApp Business

1. Open WhatsApp Business → Settings → Business tools → Greeting message.
2. Toggle Send greeting message on.
3. Paste one of the examples above and swap in your business name and links.
4. Under Recipients, choose everyone, everyone not in your contacts, or specific people.
5. Tap Save.

The greeting fires automatically for new contacts and for anyone who returns after 14 days of silence. Pair it with a good away message for nights and weekends, and you've covered both ends of the day. (Full walk-through in our auto-reply setup guide.)

What happens after the greeting

Here's the catch every owner hits about a week in. A greeting welcomes the customer. It cannot answer them.

Watch the same conversation twice — same barbershop, same customer, Saturday evening.

With a greeting message alone

Customer, 8:12pm: how much is a fade

Automatic, 8:12pm: "Hi there! 👋 Thanks for messaging Duarte's Barbershop. Tell us what you need and we'll get you sorted right away."

Customer, 8:13pm: a fade 😅 and are you open sunday?

(nothing)

Customer, 8:21pm: ?

You, 9:40am Sunday: "Hi! A fade is $35 and yes, we're open 10–4 today 😊"

The greeting did everything right. Warm, instant, on-brand. It also asked her for the thing she had just told it, and then left her waiting thirteen hours for a two-line answer she needed that night. She got a haircut on Sunday. Not from you.

That's the real cost of a greeting-only setup, and it doesn't show up anywhere you can see it. No angry review, no complaint — the enquiry just quietly stops.

With an AI receptionist behind the greeting

Customer, 8:12pm: how much is a fade

8:12pm: "Hi! 👋 A skin fade is $35, or $45 with the beard trim. We're open Sunday 10am–4pm — want me to find you a time?"

Customer, 8:13pm: sunday 11 if you have it

8:13pm: "11am Sunday works. What name should I put it under?"

Customer, 8:14pm: Jazmín

8:14pm: "Thanks Jazmín — 11am Sunday, skin fade, $35. I've passed it to the team to confirm and they'll come straight back to you. 👍"

8:14pm, your phone: 📅 Booking request — Skin fade, Sun 11:00, Jazmín.

Two minutes instead of thirteen hours, and you were at dinner for all of it. In the morning you tap Confirm and she gets the confirmation in the same chat.

Notice what the AI receptionist did not do: it didn't invent a price, and it didn't tell her the slot was booked. It quoted the $35 because $35 is in the price list you gave it, and it said the team would confirm because a request isn't a confirmation. That restraint is the difference between automation you can leave running and automation you have to watch.

It answers in whatever language they wrote in

You'll have noticed every template on this page is in English. If a good share of your customers message in Spanish, the greeting-only approach means writing and maintaining a second set — and you still can't answer the follow-up question in Spanish at 8:13pm.

An AI receptionist reads the incoming message, works out the language, and replies in it. Spanish in, Spanish out. If they sent a voice note instead of typing — which plenty of people do, especially when the request is complicated — it listens to that and replies with a voice note back. (More on that in turning WhatsApp voice notes into text.)

You don't have to throw away your greeting

This is the part people assume they'll lose. You don't. The greeting stays exactly as you wrote it — it's still the opening line, still your voice, still your business name. The difference is what comes after it: instead of dead air until you pick up the phone, the next message is a real answer.

So pick your favourite from the 25 above, keep it, and let something answer the second question.

What that costs

A human answering your messages evenings and weekends is a receptionist service, and those run about $109 to $300 a month — Ruby is roughly $235, Smith.ai roughly $300. That maths only works for businesses with a lot of margin per customer.

ChatMunshi starts at $19 a month, flat, with the AI included and no per-message markups — the full breakdown is on the pricing page. At a $35 fade, one saved Saturday enquiry a month covers it twice over. (If you'd rather test the free tools first, we've rounded up the free ways to automate WhatsApp replies.)

See how an AI receptionist on WhatsApp handles this end to end, or read the auto-reply setup guide if you want to start with the free built-in tools first.

The takeaway

Pick the greeting that matches your business, personalise it, and set it live in two minutes — you'll instantly look more professional and lose fewer first-time enquiries. It's genuinely worth doing, and it's free.

Just be clear-eyed about what it is. A greeting buys you about sixty seconds of goodwill. What you do with the second message is what decides whether that customer books with you or with whoever answered first. (New to the whole platform? Our complete guide to WhatsApp for business covers everything in one place.)