WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a popular messaging system in many countries and you can use it both for ad-hoc communication (via the Inbox) and for automated messages (through automations). This article runs through how to setup and use the integration.

Linking WhatsApp

Before proceeding you'll need to have either a live website or active Facebook page and to have decided what phone number you would like to use. If you have a virtual phone number for calls/SMS with WodBoard you can use that number. Alternatively you will need to use your own number. With that decided let's get started:

1. Head to Settings -> CRM and click the Facebook Connect button under WhatsApp:

2. A popup from Facebook will appear asking who you want to continue as. You can change your profile in the top right corner if required. Some users of Facebook won't get this in which case jump straight to the next step.

3. You'll be asked to confirm our access to your account. This page shows our legal, not brand, name but you can see our logo in the top left corner still for reassurance. Click "Get Started" to continue

   

4. On the next screen you can choose which business profile you use. There may be multiple options here in which case select the correct one. If you do not have a business profile setup at Facebook yet you can create one here. Press the Next button when done

5. Unless you have used another 3rd party software with WhatsApp before you will need to create a WhatsApp business account and profile. Choose the "Create" option in both dropdowns and press the Next button:

6. Enter a name for the account (will only be used within Facebook for management) and a name that your customers will see (the "display name"). These will often be the same. For the category choose "Other" and then press the Next button

7. Enter the phone number you'd like to use. If you're using your WodBoard virtual phone number that you use for SMS/calls you should verify it via a phonecall not text message. That's because the text messages don't always come through (for reasons we don't fully understand) whereas the phone calls do. Before you do this ensure you have calls enabled by looking for a green dot on the phone icon in the top right corner of the website.

8. A summary page will appear showing details of what you have setup. Click the Continue button

9. A verification setup will take place which will take a few seconds and once completed you'll see a completed screen. Click the Finish button to return to WodBoard

10. When you return to WodBoard you'll need to choose a 6 digit PIN. This is used by Meta incase you want to make changes to your WhatsApp business setup in future. If you used an existing phone number you've previously used with other services you'll need to enter your existing PIN.
11. Finally you'll need to do is add your payment details to Facebook for any conversation charges. You can do that by visiting this page and clicking the "WhatsApp Business Account" header and entering payment details there

Templates

With WhatsApp now linked the next step would be to setup some templates. You can get to these under Settings -> CRM -> WhatsApp Templates (and also from the places you'd use them - the Inbox and Automations pages).

Templates should be setup for messages where you'll be contacting the customer first - for example "Good to meet you today"/"Here's your booking confirmation"/"Following up to see your thoughts" type messages. From our testing Facebook are fairly liberal in what they allow but we've noticed two things that generally get rejected:

1) Using a variable at the start of a message. Eg in the example below using "{{ user.first_name }}, it was good to...". The reason facebook don't like this is you could sub in anything you like there and that could be really long/spam so the rest of the message isn't seen. In reality you can't do that at WodBoard but the facebook approval team don't know that.

2) Excessive use of emojis

If you're unsure you can always create multiple variants and see what's allowed and what's not.

Here's what the creation screen looks like - you just add a name and message:

Once created a template goes to WhatsApp for review. In our experience they're generally approved very quickly (under 15 minutes) and once approved you'll be able to use them in WodBoard.

24 hour conversation cut offs

As mentioned above WhatsApp will make you use a pre-authorized template to contact somebody if the conversation dies down for more than 24 hours. To help avoid this you can setup an automatic message to go out in the hour before the cut off time. To set this up head to Settings -> CRM -> Edit next to your WhatsApp number:

Something clever should be used here that encourages a reply - for example "Sorry for the slow reply - a bit of a busy 24 hours here. Is there a good time to speak?" If the customer replies the 24 hour limit will reset and you continue the conversation without using templates again.

Business details on WhatsApp profile

Head to Settings -> CRM -> Edit next to your WhatsApp number to change your WhatsApp profile photo, description, website and email. Once you've made the changes they seem to come through straight away so you can look at the profile on your phone and make any small adjustments you need after seeing it displayed for real.

Business name showing to new contacts (rather than phone number)

When you first start out your phone number will show to new contacts but you can have this as your business name. There are two ways to do this:

1) Build up a reputation by sending relevant messages (ie ones people don't mark as unwanted). After you have built a sufficiently good reputation your business name will be used automatically. In reality you about 1000 messages for this so it's easier to verify your business (the 2nd option)

2) Verify your business. To do this head to this page and look for the verification section. Follow through the prompts there

Using the integration

WhatsApp messages can be sent from the Inbox or used in Automations. In the Inbox you'll see a WhatsApp option in the message section. If 24 has passed since the last response you'll only be able to reply with a template like shown below:

In automations you can add a WhatsApp step in the same way you can add a Email/SMS step. These must use templates as it won't be know until the automation runs if the customer has messaged in the last 24 hours

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I manage the created WhatsApp account at Facebook?

You can visit this page

How do I change the two factor pin I setup?

Visit this page and click into the settings at the end of the phone number section

How do I delink my phone number?

Head to this page and click the delete icon next to a phone number. Note you will not be able to do this until 30 days after your last paid activity (eg you messaged somebody that incurred a cost)