How do I set up WhatsApp Business for my clinic?

Most WhatsApp Business setup guides walk through the same screens and stop there. Two details they usually skip change how you should actually write things: the greeting message keeps firing long after a patient's first hello, and a broadcast list quietly ignores anyone who hasn't saved your number. Both are covered below, in the order you'll actually set them up.

How do I set up my clinic's WhatsApp Business profile?

Download the free WhatsApp Business app, verify your clinic's phone number, and fill in your business profile from the app's settings. WhatsApp treats seven fields as your profile, and every one of them is visible to a patient the moment they open a chat with you, so it's worth getting right before you tell anyone the number.

1. 1

   Step 1: Download WhatsApp Business

   Free on the Play Store or App Store. Use a number that isn't already active on the personal WhatsApp app, or move the personal account across first.
2. 2

   Step 2: Verify your clinic's number

   WhatsApp verifies the number by an SMS code or a phone call before the app activates.
3. 3

   Step 3: Open Business tools and fill in your profile

   Business name, category, description, address, hours, email and website, all from the settings menu.
4. 4

   Step 4: Save, then check it as a patient would

   Message the number from another phone to see exactly what a new patient sees.

How do I add my clinic's services to a WhatsApp catalog?

The app's built-in catalog lets a clinic list its services the way a shop lists products, right inside the chat, at no extra cost. Add up to 500 items, each with up to 10 photos, a name, a price, a description and an optional product code.

Every item goes through a WhatsApp review before a patient can see it, usually within a few hours but sometimes up to 24. List consultation types, packages and procedures by name, not individual doctors or success rates: NMC's code treats a doctor advertising their own outcomes as unethical, catalog entry or not.

Source: WhatsApp Help Center: About catalog (checked 17 Sep 2026).

How do I set a greeting message and an away message?

Two automatic messages cover the two moments a clinic most often misses a patient: their very first message, and any message that lands when nobody is holding the phone.

How do I use labels to sort patient enquiries?

Labels are tags you attach to a chat so enquiries don't get lost in one long list. The app comes with five ready-made labels and lets a clinic add up to 20 in total, each in a choice of colour.

Renaming the defaults usually works better than inventing new ones from scratch: something close to New enquiry, Booked, Follow-up needed, Reports pending and Closed covers most of a front desk's week, and a chat can carry more than one label at once.

How do I save quick replies for common questions?

Quick replies are saved answers you trigger with a shortcut, not an automatic reply. Save up to 50, each with a short shortcut typed after a forward slash, and a message that can carry a photo or a document.

Source: WhatsApp Help Center: How to use quick replies (checked 17 Sep 2026).

Save the questions that repeat every week first: timings, fees, address and what to bring for a first visit. Keep clinical questions out of any saved reply; those go to the doctor, not a template.

How do I keep patient chats private?

A clinic's WhatsApp chats carry names, numbers and sometimes health details, so the phone that holds them deserves the same care as a paper file. Lock the phone's screen, don't add patients to a group chat, and don't forward a patient's messages or screenshots outside the clinic.

Labels, covered above, sort enquiries without sharing anything outside your own phone. A broadcast list is different: it only reaches a patient who has already saved your clinic's number, so build the habit of asking patients to save it when they visit, rather than assuming a broadcast reaches everyone on a list.

Source: WhatsApp Help Center: How to use broadcast lists (checked 17 Sep 2026).

What should a clinic never send on WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is an operational channel for a clinic: booking, timings and information. Keep four things off it entirely.

Sources: WhatsApp for Business: Business Policy (checked 17 Sep 2026); National Medical Commission: Code of Medical Ethics Regulations, 2002 (checked 17 Sep 2026).Regulation numbers refer to NMC's 2002 code of ethics.

When does a clinic outgrow the free WhatsApp Business app?

The free app is built for one phone and one person answering, and it does that well. It starts to strain once a second doctor, a second branch or a front-desk computer needs its own login: the app allows the main phone plus up to four linked devices, but every device shares one inbox with no way to assign a chat to one person.

Source: WhatsApp Help Center: About linked devices on the WhatsApp Business app (checked 17 Sep 2026).

That's usually the point a clinic looks at the WhatsApp Business Platform (the API), not a fixed number of patients or messages. Our full comparison of the WhatsApp Business app vs the API for a clinic covers the costs, the limits and what changes if you move your number. If you're still deciding whether your clinic needs an AI receptionist on top of either one, start with what an AI receptionist for a clinic actually does.