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CASE STUDY

WhatsApp Chatbot

No app to install. Help where the conversation already is.

§ PROBLEM

The hardest step in counselling is the first one. Stigma, unfamiliar platforms and clumsy booking flows turn people away before they reach a professional. The fix was not a better app — it was no app at all.

§ THE BUILD

The front door is a WhatsApp thread. It opens bilingually — English or Urdu, chosen by tapping one of two buttons — and gives the crisis line before it asks for anything. A six-item menu, recallable from anywhere by typing “help”, routes between booking, two reading paths and a plain account of the service. Booking itself is a structured intake: for whom, first time or returning, name, gender, age, city, the number to call back on, the concern in the person’s own words, a risk screen, a preferred two-hour slot from the six the helpline runs, and whether they would rather see a male or female psychologist. Eleven answers, every one either a tapped option or a short line of text. It runs on Turn.io over the WhatsApp Business API, so the list menus and reply buttons are the platform’s own rather than a lookalike.

§ OUTCOME

A coordinator opens a complete, triaged record instead of returning a missed call — name, age, city, callback number, presenting concern, risk answer, preferred hours and preferred clinician, all gathered before anyone picks up the phone. The flow does not pretend the queue is not there: it says plainly that the intake is not a confirmed booking and that a slot depends on a cancellation, and outside the Monday-to-Saturday window it names the closure and points anyone at risk to the nearest hospital. The barrier to the first step is one WhatsApp message. What follows is honest about what the service can carry.

FEATURE SET

THE DOOR

01

Two languages, one tap

The first message arrives in both languages and the choice is a button rather than a typed word. Everything after it — prompts, options, closing notices — comes back in the language chosen.

ENGLISH · اردو

02

The crisis line comes first

Before the menu appears, the thread gives the number for immediate support and the hours the service runs. Someone who needs a person now is not made to finish an intake to find one.

MON–SAT · 11:00–23:00

03

A menu you can always get back

Six routes: book, two reading paths, an account of the service, change language, or nothing at all. Typing “help” recalls the menu from any point in the flow.

TYPE “HELP” TO RETURN

THE INTAKE

04

Eleven answers, no form

For whom, first time or returning, name, gender, age, city, callback number, the concern in their own words, risk, preferred hours, preferred clinician. Each one is a tapped option or a single short line.

ELEVEN TURNS, NONE OF THEM A FORM

05

First time or returning, asked second

The second question separates a first session from a continuing one — the same split the practice plans its capacity around, established at the door rather than reconstructed later.

INITIAL VS FOLLOW-UP, AT THE DOOR

06

A risk screen inside the booking

One question in the sequence is not logistics: whether the person has had thoughts of harming themselves or others in the last two weeks. Declining to answer is itself an accepted answer.

YES · NO · PREFER NOT TO SAY

07

Preferred clinician, asked not assumed

Male, female or no preference — collected alongside the time slot rather than negotiated later on the phone, in a context where it often decides whether the session happens.

ASKED BEFORE THE CALLBACK

WHAT IT PROMISES

08

Six slots, two hours each

The preferred window is picked from the six the helpline actually operates, so the record carries a real interval instead of “evenings”.

11:00–13:00 … 21:00–23:00

09

It does not promise a booking

The closing message says the intake is not a confirmed session and that the slot depends on a cancellation. The queue is stated rather than hidden behind a confirmation the service cannot honour.

A COORDINATOR CALLS · THE BOT DOES NOT BOOK

10

Closed hours are named

From Saturday 23:00 until Monday 11:00 the thread says so, holds the message for the reopening, and points anyone experiencing thoughts of self-harm to the nearest hospital.

THE GAP IS SPOKEN, NOT SILENT

SURFACES

SYSTEM ANATOMY

0

APPS TO INSTALL

LANGUAGES — ENGLISH AND URDU

ANSWERS FROM MENU TO COORDINATOR

EVERY INTAKE

CARRIES A RISK SCREEN

NEXT SYSTEM

WordCraft