Answer Job and Order Status Questions on WhatsApp with Smartsheet
This recipe answers “how is my job going?” in chat by reading the customer’s row in Smartsheet, and records anything new they tell you. Part of connecting Smartsheet to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What happens today
A customer messages on WhatsApp to ask when their installation is booked. The person who sees it opens the sheet, scrolls for the customer, reads the status and the date, and replies. On a busy day the same question comes in many times, and each answer takes someone away from the work itself.
The flow that works
- AeroChat asks for the order number, or uses the customer’s phone number.
- It searches your sheet and finds their row.
- It reads the status and date columns and replies with the message you set for that status.
- If the customer adds information, it adds a comment to the row.
- If it cannot find the row, or the customer is unhappy, it hands over to your team.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks about the status of their job, order or request, follow these steps.
- Ask for their order number. If they do not have it, use the phone number they are messaging from.
- Search the Customer Requests sheet (example) for that value. If more than one open row matches, list them by request type and date and ask which one they mean.
- Read the Status and Scheduled Date columns of their row (example columns).
- Reply with the matching message: New means “we have your request and will confirm the date soon”, Scheduled means “your job is booked for” followed by the scheduled date, In Progress means “our team is working on it now”, Done means “your job is complete, reply here if anything is not right” (examples).
- If they give new information, such as a gate code or a change of contact number (examples), add it as a comment on their row and tell them it has been passed to the team.
- If they want to change the date or are unhappy, hand the conversation to our team with the row number.
Only share the details of the row that matches the customer. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the sheet name, column names, status values and messages to the ones your sheet uses before you paste it.
What to connect
- Smartsheet. Generate an access token under Personal Settings, API Access, using an account that can view the sheet and add comments to it. Paste it in when AeroChat asks.
After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist: connect Smartsheet, then switch it on. If it built the connection from Smartsheet’s public documentation, the checklist asks you to check it once against the current docs.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Which columns AeroChat reads, and what it says for each status.
- How it identifies the customer: order number, phone number or both.
- Which questions always go to your team.
The result to expect
Customers get a status answer in the chat straight away, from the same sheet your team keeps up to date. Your team answers fewer “any update?” messages, and new details from customers land on the right row.
Measure it with your own numbers: status questions answered without a person, and time your team spends on them, for a month before and after.
Next: turn chat requests into Smartsheet rows.
Works on every chat channel
This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, the chat on your website and email, with the same Smartsheet connection behind it. See what each channel does on the Smartsheet integration page.
Answer your first status question from Smartsheet
Paste the recipe, add your Smartsheet token, and ask your own chat about a test row.