WhatsApp templates are pre-saved message layouts or formats that businesses can utilize to send updates, communications and notifications to their customers. These will be particularly useful for sending messages such as order confirmations, shipping updates, reminders, promotional deals, and offers. These can also save time by reusing approved templates for different campaigns or notifications.
Each template must be approved by WhatsApp to ensure it meets their guidelines and maintains a high standard of user experience.
How can WhatsApp Templates help in SalesIQ?
- Initiate conversations: WhatsApp templates will allow operators to send messages to customers/WhatsApp users even after the 24-hour closing window for channel communications.
- Consistency: Operators can use the same message formats across various customer communications.
- Efficiency: Save time by reusing approved templates for different campaigns or notifications.
WhatsApp Templates Configurations
The following steps need to be followed to use WhatsApp Templates within SalesIQ.
- Creating a template
- Wait for template approval from WhatsApp
- Using the template after approval
Creating a template
- From the SalesIQ dashboard, navigate to Settings > Messaging Channels > WhatsApp and click on Templates on the top right.
- Enter your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) ID. This ID is necessary to associate the template with your account.
- Provide a unique name for your template.
- Choose the category based on the purpose of your template.
- Utility: For transactional or service-related messages.
- Marketing: For promotional or advertising messages.
- Select the language in which the template will be sent.
- Choose the header type you want for your template from the available options.
- None: No header will be included.
- Text: Header will include a text message.
- Media: The header can include media files. Supported file types include image, video, or document.
- If you selected "Text" or "Media" as the header type, enter the Header message or upload the media file respectively. This will appear at the top of the message.
- Write the main message body content for your template. This is the primary message that will be sent to recipients. You can also add dynamic variables to the message body to personalize messages and add more information. The following dynamic variables are supported:
- account.number
- amount
- due.date
- discount
- visitor.name
- visitor.phone
Custom dynamic variables:
- You can also add other custom dynamic variables by adding any values between two % symbols.
- For example, if the requirement was to share free products for different category of purchases, the message would be - 'Avail %product% for free when purchasing clothing and accessories above...'.
- In this manner, you can add custom variables to your templates, as per your business requirement.
- You can also add a footer message to include any additional information at the end of the message, if needed.
- Next, you can choose the button type you want to add to your template from the available options.
- None: No button included.
- Call to action: A button to encourage users to perform a specific action.
- Quick reply: A button that allows users to quickly reply with predefined options.
- If you select Call to Action, you can choose the button type and add the button texts and subsequent CTA info whether phone number or URL as per selection. The Call to Action types available are as follows.
- Phone number: Provides a phone number that users can call.
- URL: Provides a link to a webpage or resource.
- You can add a maximum of two Call to action buttons. Click on the plus symbol to add a second CTA button.
- If you select "Quick reply", you can add the button text that needs to be displayed.
- You can add a maximum of three quick reply buttons to your template by clicking on the plus symbol. You can also delete a quick reply button with the minus symbol to the right.
- Finally, click on Create to add your new template to SalesIQ.
Template approval from WhatsApp
Once your template is created, it will be submitted for approval to ensure compliance with WhatsApp's policies. Check
here for WhatsApp's template approval process.
The template messages will be listed under the templates section along with the status of approval. The templates can have the following status:
- Approved - This indicates that the template has been approved by Meta. Message templates with this status can be sent to customers.
- Pending - This indicates that the template is still under review. Review process can take up to 24 hours.
- Rejected - This indicates that the template has been rejected during Meta's review process or violates one or more of their policies.
Using a template after approval
After your template is approved by WhatsApp, you can start using it to send messages to your customers/WhatsApp users. You can use templates in the following instances:
- During an ongoing chat with a customer.
- To reopen closed WhatsApp chats
- Within 24 hours of chat closure
- After 24 hours of chat closure
During an ongoing chat with a customer
- In the operator chat window, click on Templates at the bottom of the message input box.
- The approved templates will be listed in the operator chat window for the operators to choose and share with customers. Choose the template you wish to use.
- Customize any required dynamic variables by clicking on Update Placeholder Values. Add the values and click on Done.
- Click on Send to share the template with the recipient.
Reopening closed WhatsApp chats
There are two instances for reopening WhatsApp chats that have been moved to closed chats. They can be opened:
- After 24 hours of chat closure
- Within 24 hours of chat closure
After 24 hours of chat closure:
After the 24 hours window, the closed WhatsApp chat can be reopened only using the available Templates.
- Select the closed chat that you want to reopen and click on Reopen > Templates.
- The approved templates will be listed in the new window popup.
- Choose the template you wish to use and customize any variables, if needed, and share the template with the recipient. This will reopen the chat, while sending the template.
Within 24 hours of chat closure:
- If a chat needs to be reopened within 24 hours from chat closure, we can reopen using a 'Text' or 'Template' as needed.
- Choose on the required option and send the message to reopen the chat.
Note:
- In case a functioning WhatsApp channel is being unlinked and then relinked, the user details cannot be fetched and the WhatsApp chats cannot be reopened.
- If a WhatsApp number is being migrated from another BSP, the templates created in that BSP will not be migrated to SalesIQ. User needs to create new templates on SalesIQ to share with customers.
Points to remember:
- A template can only be edited when its status is either Approved or Rejected.
- A template can be edited only once per day and up to ten times per month.
To learn how to set up the WhatsApp channel on SalesIQ, check out our help-guide
here.