Hot to set up rules for your WhatsApp Chatbot

Beyond the Knowledge Base, Navi has a dedicated Whatsapp Setup area where you control how the WhatsApp assistant behaves: what it's allowed to do, how it sounds, and what happens when it can't help. This article walks through each section in the order you'll typically set them up:

1. AI WhatsApp Chat – turn the assistant on and choose what it can handle
2. Brand & Voice – define how it represents your restaurant
3. Communication Rules – set guardrails for tricky situations
4. Super Admin Config – advanced, admin-only fine-tuning

AI WhatsApp Chat

This is the master switch for the feature. WhatsApp Chat lets guests make reservations and share their details straight through WhatsApp, with Navi answering questions along the way using your Knowledge Base.

• ON / OFF toggle — Turns the assistant on or off for your restaurant's WhatsApp number entirely. When you first activate it, you'll see a confirmation banner: "WhatsApp Chat activated — building your knowledge base now."
• Test a booking yourself — Once activated, you get a ready-made WhatsApp link (wa.me/...) pre-filled with a sample reservation message. Use the Copy Link button and send it to yourself from your own phone to see exactly what a guest will experience, before you tell anyone it's live.
• Capabilities — Choose which types of reservation requests your WhatsApp AI bot is allowed to act on:
  
  
  
  Unchecking a box doesn't turn off the conversation, it just means the chatbot will hand that specific type of request to your team instead of completing it automatically. This is useful if, for example, you want a human to review every cancellation.
  
  

Brand & Voice

This section shapes the personality guests experience. Since the AI is representing your restaurant directly, in your restaurant's own WhatsApp conversation, getting this right matters more than it might for a generic settings field.

• Brand name (required, max 35 characters) — What the AI calls your restaurant when introducing itself or referring to your business in messages.
• Persona (max 35 characters) — A short description of the tone you want, for example concierge, friendly host, fine-dining maître d', or playful café. This steers the overall feel of every response.
• Refer to yourself as — Choose whether the AI speaks as We ("We'd be happy to seat you at 8 PM") or I ("I'd be happy to seat you at 8 PM"). Pick whichever matches how your team already talks to guests.

• Communication Tone sliders — Four sliders let you fine-tune voice along a spectrum rather than picking from a fixed list.
  
  There's no right answer here, it should match your venue. A fine-dining restaurant might sit closer to Formal/Calm/Luxury, while a casual café might sit closer to Casual/Energetic/Approachable.
• Writing Style checkboxes — Additional style constraints you can switch on

Communication Rules

This section sets guardrails for the situations Navi can't (or shouldn't) fully resolve on its own.

• Send this to guest when the agent cannot handle a request — The fallback message the chatbot sends when it hits something outside its capabilities, for example, "Sorry, I could not complete that right now. I am connecting you with our team." This is the message guests see right before a handoff to your staff, so it's worth making it reassuring rather than abrupt.
• Acknowledgment text (max 100 characters) — A short, friendly line the bot can use to confirm it heard the guest, e.g. "You're welcome! Let us know if you need anything else."
• Share payment and reservation terms — Controls when (if ever) the AI proactively shares your payment policy or reservation terms with a guest:
• Suggest alternative time slots — When toggled on, if a guest's requested time isn't available, the chatbot will proactively suggest nearby open slots instead of just saying no.
• Escalate to human after failures — Set the number of failed attempts (for example, 2) after which the AI stops trying and transfers the conversation to your team. This applies specifically to reservation creation failures, so a guest who keeps hitting a wall isn't left going in circles with the bot.

Super Admin Config

This section is for advanced, fine-grained control and is only visible to admin-level users.

• Forbidden phrases — A list of words or phrases that should never be used in a guest conversation. The placeholder examples give a sense of what belongs here: things like "I can't," competitor names, internal terms, or even the words "Eat App" itself if you'd rather guests only ever see your brand name.
• Custom prompt injection (Admin only) — A free-text field for additional instructions to the AI assistant, beyond what the structured settings above cover. This is the most powerful and most easily misused field on the page, so treat it as a precision tool rather than a first stop: start with Brand & Voice and Communication Rules, and only add custom instructions here for edge cases those settings can't express.

Putting It Together

A sensible order for setting this up the first time:

1. Turn on AI WhatsApp Chat and confirm your Capabilities.
2. Fill in Brand & Voice so it sounds like your restaurant from the very first message.
3. Set your Communication Rules, especially the fallback message and escalation threshold, so guests are never left stuck.
4. Use Test a booking yourself to run through a real conversation.
5. Only reach for Super Admin Config if you have a specific behavior the other settings can't capture.

Once everything is configured, pair it with a well-filled-out Knowledge Base (see our separate guide on the Knowledge Base Editor) so the AI can handle both bookings and common guest questions end-to-end.