Zoho Desk's Licensing Model for WhatsApp - An Overview

Zoho Desk's Licensing Model for WhatsApp - An Overview

Introduction

Strong omnichannel functionalities is one of the main pillars of Zoho Desk. Zoho Desk's integration with WhatsApp cements this pillar more strongly in the customer support landscape and brings more convenience to your support operations. 

However, the current integration with WhatsApp is not a direct one; it is enabled by Twilio, a third-party cloud communications provider. Therefore, Twilio charges two recurring fees to power the integration: a monthly fee for the WhatsApp phone number, an ad hoc fee for sending messages to customers. 

You can make both payments right from within Zoho Desk. All that you need to do is make sure the mode of payment for your Zoho Desk subscription is Credit Card. This is the most important requirement in the licensing model. 
You will be able to use this integration only if the mode of payment of your Zoho Desk subscription is Credit Card.

Monthly Recurring Fee for Phone Number

As of now, you cannot retain your current WhatsApp phone number in this integration. This provision will be available in the near future. So, for the time being, you need to purchase a phone number from Twilio. With that being the case, the first recurring charge in the licensing model is the subscription fee you pay for this number. 

Twilio charges a nominal monthly fee (along with a 3% value-added fee) for this, and at Zoho Desk's back-end, we try to renew your subscription every month and keep it going smoothly. If a phone number is not renewed within a month, Twilio releases the number into its pool of numbers available for purchase. Therefore, we try to renew your number three times every month: on the 28th, 29th, and 30th days of your monthly subscription cycle. 

What We Do at the Back-End

If the transaction is successful on the first attempt (on the 28th day), there is nothing you need to worry about. You will be able to retain the number for one more month. 

If the transaction fails, an automated mail alert is sent to you and the second attempt at renewal happens the next day, which is the 29th day of the monthly cycle. The same cycle is followed on the 29th and 30th days as well. If the transaction fails on the 30th day too, you will not be able to retain the phone number the next month and it gets released into Twilio's pool of numbers available for purchase. 

Therefore, as a best practice, as soon as you receive the first alert, please check from your end if there is any payment-related modification that you need to make at your end. Timely action on this front can help you retain the phone number and eliminate the need to purchase a new one again.

Purchasing a Phone Number

To purchase a WhatsApp phone number, perform the following steps:
  1. On the upper-right side of your Zoho Desk screen, click the Setup icon. 
  2. On the Setup screen, under Channels, click WhatsApp.
    The WhatsApp configuration screen appears. 
  3. Click the Configuration tab.
  4. On this tab, click the Buy Number button. 

    The Buy Phone Number form appears. 
  5. In this form, choose the values required:
    1. Country: Country to associate with the phone number
    2. Type of Phone Number: Type of phone number you want to purchase. The options vary according to the country you choose. 
    3. Phone Number: WhatsApp phone number through which customers can contact you for support


  6. Then, click the Submit button. 
    The phone number is purchased successfully.

Ad Hoc Fee for Sending Messages

The next recurring fee is the ad hoc fee that Twilio charges for sending messages to customers. Twilio uses a credit-based system for this purpose, wherein each credit you purchase will enable you to send a particular number of messages to your customers. So, the more credits you purchase, the more messages you can send. 
  1. Credits are common for all the phone numbers configured in your portal. 
  2. The 3% value-added fee is applicable for credit purchases too. 

At Zoho Desk's end, we have made it easy to automatically refill credits when the number of credits left goes below a specific limit set by you. 

Let's say you initially purchase 15 credits and you use up about 13 of them, you will be left with only 2 credits, which is a tiny number. If you send more messages, there is a possibility of your exhausting the remaining 2 credits too, and end up without any credits available for sending messages. So, to avoid such a situation, you can set the auto-refill to happen such that 10 more credits are purchased when only 2 credits are available. This way, you can keep refilling credits automatically as and when they get used up and make sure that your customer support through WhatsApp keeps running smoothly. 

Here's how you can set the auto-refill limit for purchasing credits.

Configuring Auto-Refill of Credits

To configure auto-refill of credits for your WhatsApp phone numbers, perform the following steps:
  1. On the upper-right side of your Zoho Desk screen, click the Setup icon. 
  2. On the Setup screen, under Channels, click WhatsApp.
    The WhatsApp configuration screen appears. 
  3. Click the Configuration tab. 
  4. On this tab, click the Add more credits button. 

    The Buy Credits pop-up appears. 
  5. In the Add Credits drop-down list, select the number of credits that must be purchased automatically. This value must be greater than 1.

    The Auto-refill credits toggle button is enabled and a drop-down list appears. 
  6. In the drop-down list, select the auto-refill threshold. This refers to the number of credits that must be left in your portal when more credits must be purchased automatically. 
  7. Then, click the Submit button. 
Auto-refill of credits is now configured. The next time the number of credits in your portal touches the auto-refill threshold, more credits are purchased automatically.