WhatsApp AI agent for daycare and preschools: enrolment questions and tour bookings answered, children's welfare kept with staff
Parents researching a preschool message at night with the same questions: fees, hours, ratio, curriculum, meals, is there a place. The principal answers the next day, after the parent has toured two other centres. An AI agent answers the enrolment questions and books the tour. Anything about a specific child goes to a person, without exception.
Quick answer
Put a WhatsApp AI agent on your centre's enquiry number with fees, hours, programmes, teacher-to-child ratios, meals and enrolment steps as knowledge. It answers parents in their language, collects the child's age and the preferred start date, and books a tour into real slots. Anything about an enrolled child, a welfare concern, or a health matter is handed to staff immediately. ReplyKit does this from $29 a month.
What the agent handles
Automate
- Programmes by age group, hours, half-day and full-day options.
- Fees, registration, deposits, what is included, sibling discounts as published.
- Curriculum and approach in your own words, ratios, class sizes, languages of instruction.
- Meals, naps, nappies, what to bring, health and vaccination requirements as written.
- Tour booking into real slots, with a reminder.
- Enrolment interest: child's age, preferred start date, parent contact, onto the lead's card.
- Location, pickup and drop-off logistics.
Keep with a person
- Anything about an enrolled child: how their day went, behaviour, incidents, health. Staff only.
- Any welfare or safety concern, from anyone. Immediate handover.
- Medical questions: allergies, illness policy decisions for a specific child.
- Waitlist decisions and fee negotiation.
Children's data and welfare
Two rules. First, the agent collects only what enrolment needs: the child's age and first name, the parent's contact and the preferred start. No photos of children, no health details, no addresses beyond what a tour requires. Second, any message from any sender that touches a child's welfare, safety or an incident is handed to a person at once, with no attempt to answer. Write both into the instructions. Under Malaysia's PDPA and similar laws, children's data deserves extra care, and our Acceptable Use Policy forbids collecting personal data you do not need.
Setup for a centre
- Use a dedicated number. ReplyKit connects your number through Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform: keep the number you already use in the WhatsApp Business app and the agent works alongside it, or add a dedicated number. Personal WhatsApp numbers cannot be connected. Keep your long-standing number out of it; details in Meta's messaging limits explained
- Upload the fee sheet and programme brochure; write requirements and logistics as text.
- Add tours as a service on the days you offer them.
- Write the two safety rules into the instructions, word for word.
- Connect the number through Meta's sign-in and test as a parent asking about a 3-year-old's fees in Malay, then as an enrolled parent asking how their child ate today. The second must hand over.
Frequently asked questions
Can the agent answer questions about my child?
No. Anything about an enrolled child is handed to staff. The agent answers enrolment questions only.
Does it collect children's data?
Only the child's age and first name and the parent's contact, for enrolment. Nothing more, by instruction.
Can it book a tour?
Yes. Set tour slots and it offers real times, books and reminds.
Does it answer in Malay and Chinese?
Yes, in the language the parent writes in.
How much does it cost?
From $29 a month for one number and 1,000 replies. Centres with several branches use the $49 Growth plan.
Book the tour, protect the child
Fees, programmes, tour slots, and a hard line on welfare. 7-day free trial.
Sources and further reading
- Personal Data Protection Department, Malaysia (PDPA 2010)
- ReplyKit Acceptable Use Policy · what we refuse to automate
- Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads (Oldroyd, McElheran, Elkington, 2011) · firms that responded within an hour were about seven times more likely to qualify the lead
- ReplyKit, Will WhatsApp ban my number for automation? · how Meta's messaging limits and quality rating work
ReplyKit is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta or WhatsApp. This article is general guidance for centre administration, not legal advice. Children's data and welfare obligations under the laws that apply to you take precedence.