Introduction

With 2 billion WhatsApp users around the globe, and its availability in 180 countries and 60 different languages, it is a widely used app for communication. Given its wide reach, WhatsApp has an option for use in the business space i.e WhatsApp API which can ensure scalable and engaging conversations with customers.

The WhatsApp for Business Account (WABA) was launched in early 2017 and businesses were quick to adapt and improvise on their current messaging strategy. WhatsApp as a platform has become a critical and inseparable part of our online lives nowadays. From Businesses to Consumers, everyone now wants to be a part of faster, engaging, and secure communication that is agnostic to distance between the communicating parties.

Types Of WhatsApp Messages

Business Iniated messages / Template messages- These are business-initiated messages which are delivered to the end user provided the user has opted in. These messages are trigger based and sent using Netcore API.
User Initiated / Conversational messages- Theses are session messages which a business can send to a user if the conversation is user initiated. A session lasts for 24 hours from the last message sent by the user to the business.

Types of Business Iniated messages / Template messages

The WhatsApp Business API allows enterprises to send multiple types of notification
messages. All message templates are reviewed by WhatsApp for approval.

Three types of message templates

Text Message: Text message templates are message formats for common reusable notifications a business may want to send.
Media messages: Send Images/Documents/PDF using the media message templates.
Interactive Buttons: Send interactive button elements like the CTA button and Quick Replies to capture user input or redirect them outside the WhatsApp Interface.

There are two types of predefined buttons:

Call-to-Action: With the help of Call to Action (CTA) button businesses can
redirect the user to a URL.

Dial A Phone Num
Visit Website
1. Static URL
2. Dynamic

Quick Reply: It allows end-users to simply tap on one of the reply options
provided and submit their response.

Types of User Initiated / Conversational messages

Text messages: The type of message to be sent to the customer. Depending on ‘type’, the relevant parameters must be sent as part of the request payload. By default, type is TEXT unless otherwise specified.
Media Messages: The method for sending a media attachment message in response to a customer’s inbound/Conversational messages, we support the below media formats.
- image- image/jpeg, image/png (5MB)
- video- video/mp4, video/3gpp (16MB)
- audio- audio/aac, audio/mp4, audio/mpeg, audio/amr, audio/ogg (only opus codecs, base audio/ogg is not supported (16MB)
- document- pdf (100MB)
- stickers-image/webp (Static stickers: 100KB,Animated stickers: 500KB)
Contact messages
Location messages
Interactive messages: List messages, Reply button messages, and Single and Multi Product Messages.

List Messages – Interactive

List messages provide a simpler and more consistent format than text-based lists for people to find and select what they want from a business.

Lists are applicable to only 2-way messaging; List messages are a way to allow users to easily choose from up to 10 options.
They can be populated dynamically, based on a customer’s responses, so can be used for personalized bot use cases.
Lists messages do not require a template or pre-approval and are currently made available for Text messages (media and location not supported)

List Messages are best for presenting several options, such as:

A customer care or FAQ menu
A take-out menu
Selection of nearby stores or locations
Available reservation times
Choosing a recent order to repeat

Dynamic Reply Buttons – Interactive

Similar to templates with quick-reply buttons, reply buttons allow users to make a quick selection from up to
three options when talking to a business in the 24-hour response window. Reply buttons do not require a preapproved template.

A message cannot contain more than three reply buttons.
Reply buttons do not offer additional context for each option.
Users can only select one button from the menu at a time, although they can go back and reuse a previous menu.
Reply buttons are supported for message types: text, image, video & document

Single & Multiple Product message - Interactive

Multi-Product Messages: Messages containing a selection of up to 30 items from a business's inventory.

Single Product Messages: Messages with a single product item from the business's inventory. The product is displayed in a Product Detail Page (PDP) format.

Opt-in Management

Opt-in is the consent given by your customer agreeing to receive messages from your
business on WhatsApp. As per WhatsApp’s policy, businesses are required to get opt-ins
from customers before sending a WhatsApp message to them.

These WhatsApp opt-ins can be collected on a third-party channel or WhatsApp itself by
leveraging the 2-way conversational flow.

This requires your business to collect the opt-ins via an existing channel of communication - for example, SMS, Missed call, Website, In-App notifications, IVR, email, or via a WhatsApp thread.

Quality Rating and Messaging Limits

Quality Rating

Your quality rating is based on how messages have been received by recipients over the past seven days and is weighted by recency. It is determined by a combination of quality signals from conversations between businesses and users. Examples include user feedback signals like blocks, reports and the reasons users provide when they block a business.

The phone number status, quality rating, and messaging limits for your WhatsApp business account are listed in the Setting tab in Netcore WhatsApp dashboard.

Your quality rating is a rating based on the recent messages that your customers have received over the past 7 days. This rating is determined by the feedback from your customers, such as the reason to block your phone number and other reporting issues.

You can find the quality rating below the Phone Numbers tab in your Meta WhatsApp Manager. The Quality Rating column displays the quality states, including:

Green: High quality
Yellow: Medium quality
Red: Low quality

When the user blocks your business, they can select a block reason, including No Longer Needed, Didn’t Sign Up, Spam, Offensive Messages or No Reason.

If your quality rating is medium or low, you can hover over the rating in the WhatsApp Manager to view the insights into the block reasons if they're available. This can help your businesses understand the details around user block reasons, avoid continuing to send low quality templates and mitigate the risk of more customers blocking your phone number.

A phone number’s status is changed to Flagged or when this Flagged Status is removed.
There is a change to a phone number’s messaging limits.

To maintain high quality & Improve Quality Rating:

• Make sure messages follow the WhatsApp Business Policy.

• Only send messages to users who have opted into receiving messages from your business.

• Make the messages highly personalized and useful to users. Avoid sending open-ended welcome or introductory messages.

• Be mindful of messaging frequency; avoid sending customers too many messages a day. Be thoughtful of informational messages, optimizing for content and length.

•Always share user relevant messages i.e., the nature of the message sent to the users must be the ones they signed up / opted-in for. For example: If a customer has opted for financial updates on WhatsApp while registering over the bank app. Now, if the customer has initiated a conversation for a query, the 24-hour window for conversations must not be used to upsell and cross sell bank offerings and products.

•Implement a human escalation matrix which provides the end-user a mechanism to get in touch with the brand via methods such as email or contact center support.

•Always specify a method for OPT-out i.e., option must be clearly specified on how the end user can opt out from receiving messages from the brand over WhatsApp.

•Alert emails for change in the Quality Rating status are sent to the concerned POC for the Brand /Account. It is suggested to closely monitor the status and make changes to any recently sent templates which have a lower template Quality Rating status or response message sent to user-initiated conversations.

•Follow the WhatsApp Business Policy. Do not send promotional content.

Connection Status

When the quality rating reaches low quality, your phone number status changes from Connected to Flagged. If the quality doesn't improve over 7 days, the status returns to Connected. However, the messaging limit will decrease to the next level. For example, the phone number that used to have the 100,000 messaging limit now has the 10,000 messaging limit.

Connected: You can send outgoing messages within your set messaging limit.
Flagged: This status occurs when the quality rating reaches low quality. Businesses can't upgrade messaging limit tiers while the status is Flagged. If the quality rating:
- Improves to a high or medium quality by the 7th day from when your status was changed to Flagged, the status will return to Connected and your messaging limit tier will remain unaffected.
- Does not improve to a high or medium quality by the 7th day from when your status was changed to Flagged, your status will return to Connected. However, your messaging limit will decrease to the next level.
Restricted: This status occurs when you reach your messaging limit, regardless of the quality rating. While the status is Restricted, you can’t send any outgoing messages until 24 hours have elapsed. You can still respond to any messages that customers initiate.

Messaging limits

Messaging limits determine the maximum number of business-initiated conversations each phone number can start in a rolling 24-hour period. A business-initiated conversation starts when the first message is delivered to a customer and ends 24 hours later. A conversation can’t end before then.

If you reach the messaging limit, you can start more conversations when one or more active conversations end. Remember that messaging limits don’t apply to the user-initiated conversations.

There are 4 levels of messaging limits applying to businesses that have completed the business verification:

Tier-1 Allows your phone number to have 1,000 business-initiated conversations (with 1,000 unique customers) in a rolling 24-hour period.
Tier-2 Allows your phone number to have 10,000 business-initiated conversations (with 10,000 unique customers) in a rolling 24-hour period.
Tier-3 Allows your phone number to have 100,000 business-initiated conversations (with 100,000 unique customers) in a rolling 24-hour period.
Tier-4 Allows your phone number to have unlimited business-initiated conversations in a rolling 24-hour period.

Note: A business starts with 1,000 business-initiated conversations per phone number when it completes the business verification.

Upgrading To Next Tier/Increasing Your Limit

All phone numbers with an approved display name and a verified business start with 1K business-initiated conversations with unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period. If you reach your messaging limit, you can start more conversations as soon as one or more active conversations end. For example:

Checking Your Limit: You can check your current messaging limits in the Netcore Dashboard > Setting: Tier status

The business will be upgraded to the next tier if:

Each time you initiate a new conversation with a unique customer we will determine if your limit should be increased. This determination is based on the following criteria:

your phone number status is Connected
your phone number quality rating is Medium or High
in the last 7 days you have initiated X or more conversations with unique customers, where X is your current messaging limit divided by 2

If you meet all conditions, we will increase your messaging limit by one level in 24 hours.

Examples

Decreasing Your Limit

Each time you initiate a new conversation with a unique customer we will check your phone number quality rating. If the rating has been Low for the last 7 days, we will immediately decrease your messaging limit by one level.

Types of Business Accounts

Business Account: By default, any account using the WhatsApp Business Platform or WhatsApp Business App is a business account.

Business Verification: Businesses can start messaging customers immediately and only need to complete Business Verification when they’re ready to scale business-initiated conversations or request to become an Official Business Account (OBA). For more information, see Start Messaging Customers on WhatsApp Business Platform.

Official Business Account: WhatsApp verifies authenticity of a brand for every account on the WhatsApp Business Platform. If the account has completed Business Verification, the name of the business is visible even if the user hasn't added the business to their address book.

Official Business Account

An official business account has a green checkmark badge in its profile and chat thread headers. See Official Business Account for more information.

Discovery

Once your WABA Approval is in place and your Business Phone Number has been verified, you can help customers discover your business and grow your brand presence on WhatsApp. Discovery that leads to customers initiating a conversation with your business on your WhatsApp Business Phone Number, can be accomplished with the following tools:

Click-to-Chat web links

Publish these web links on your website or in your direct-to-customer communication channels like SMS, email, etc. and automatically redirect customers into a conversation with your business on WhatsApp Web.
The web link format is: https://wa.me/<BusinessPhoneNumberinE.164Format>?text=
For example, if your Business Phone Number is +91 7834811114, your deep link can be https://wa.me/917834811114?text=Hi%20there

Click-to-Chat deep links

Embed these deep links in your mobile app or mobile ads to automatically redirect customers into a conversation with your business on WhatsApp.
The deep link format is: whatsapp://send?phone=<BusinessPhoneNumberinE.164Format>&text=
For example, if your Business Phone Number is +91 7834811114, your deep link can be whatsapp://send?phone=917834811114&text=Hi%20there

Facebook Ads that Click-to-WhatsApp (CTWA)

Facebook and Instagram Ads that Click-to-WhatsApp are an effective way for businesses to get discovered and for customers to chat with them on WhatsApp.
This feature allows people to easily start a message thread in WhatsApp directly from Facebook or Instagram.
When a person taps on an ad that clicks-to-WhatsApp, they will be transferred to a pre-filled WhatsApp chat where they can message your business quickly. Learn how to get started with this feature here.
We recommend that you register the same Facebook Business Manager ID (through which you run your Facebook/Instagram ads) during the WABA application process. This feature will then become available to you.

WhatsApp Dashboard Login URL

Non EU/US: https://cpaas.netcorecloud.com

Use Email Id/ Panel name & Password to login to your Account

WhatsApp API Postman Collection

https://www.getpostman.com/collections/5dd40054c049672b31fa

Incase You are Facing Any Issue, Feel Free to write to us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])