- Gnatta
- Jack Barmby
- Abbey Brown
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This article will help you get started using WhatsApp with Gnatta, including submitting a verification bundle and setting up a brand new WhatsApp number. As WhatsApp is part of the Meta family, you’ll need a Facebook Business account in order to proceed.
This channel incurs additional usage charges above your Gnatta license cost, as it requires a telephone number. Before proceeding, be sure to check our current rates: Telephony Rates
Overview
WhatsApp in Gnatta is available for inbound and outbound messaging purposes, including attachments and autoresponders - just like other channels.
However, WhatsApp operates a strict 24-hour time limit for responding to customer messages. In order to send a message to a customer after this time, you must send a pre-approved template. Typical template examples might look like:
Sorry we've not been able to get back to you. If you still need help, please reply to this message - we're ready to answer.
or:
We've got an update about your order - are you available to chat now?
You can also use templates to send rich media, buttons, cards and website links to customers. We’ll cover creating templates later in this article - but first, you’ll need to create a WhatsApp account.
About Regulatory Bundles
Before you can setup a WhatsApp number in Gnatta, you must submit a verification bundle. The information you’ll need to provide includes:
Business address
Emergency address (physical address where emergency services can send help)
Business website address
Authorised representative information such as name, phone number, and work email
An excerpt from the commercial register if the business is not registered with the UK Companies House
Bundles are generally approved by our telephony partner within 3 working days - although often much quicker, so check back often!
Bundles must be submitted for each WhatsApp account you need to add. If you have multiple accounts/numbers, you’ll need to submit a bundle multiple times, even if the information is the same or similar. You can find out more on how, and why, right here: About Regulatory Bundles
Once your bundle has been approved, you’ll be able to get started with your WhatsApp account setup.
Getting started
This channel is currently in Beta - please get in touch to have our new WhatsApp signup process enabled for your domain.
Once your Regulatory Bundle has been approved, navigate to WhatsApp under the ‘Advanced channels’ section of the menu, and click + Add to create a new account.
You’ll be able to select your approved bundle here, and then a number from the list.
Once you’ve selected a number, click Proceed and provide a name for your WhatsApp account. Then click Get started. You’ll be prompted to login with your Facebook (Meta) account.
Once you’ve logged in, follow the steps to give Meta the relevant permissions and information to create your account.
Once you’ve completed the stepper, you can close the popout windows and return to your Gnatta browser tab. Select your new number from the list of WhatsApp accounts.You’ll see a Pending Approval banner displayed on the media account. Click Check Status to refresh the connection to Meta. The banner will disappear once the account has been approved.
As soon as the banner has disappeared, your account is connected and ready to use.
Connect to a team
Before moving on from the account management area, don’t forget to map a team to the account by switching to the Teams tab. It’s critical you select a Team, because this is how Gnatta determines:
Who is allowed to respond - for security purposes, only users who are in a team mapped to the account can respond to those interactions, regardless of whether they’re assigned on their radar.
What availability there is - based on the opening hours schedule of the team(s) associated to the account. If an interaction is received after hours, you can create workflows to handle it differently
After adding your account
Once your account has been added, you can pre-emptively create the relevant queues and hook up your automatic routing flows.
The agent experience
WhatsApp messages will be presented to the agent in the interaction radar. Agents can compose messages and send and receive images and attachments, just like on other channels.
However, if the interaction is older than 24 hours, a warning banner will be displayed and the reply box will be unavailable - instead, agents will be offered any simple text templates that have been approved on the account.
To use a template, click the template name (Template 1 or Template 2 in our example). This will re-open the editor. Agents can switch template by clicking the templates icon in the toolbox below the editor.
About automations on WhatsApp
If you’ve configured an automated message to be sent via WhatsApp, the workflow will only execute correctly if the last inbound echo (i.e. from the customer) was less than 24 hours ago.
If the last inbound message was more than 24 hours ago, and the event is triggered, then:
As a Workflow Admin, viewing the relevant Workflow logs will display an error;
As an advisor, you will see that no message has been sent to the customer;
The customer will not receive the auto response.Â
WhatsApp Simple Templates
WhatsApp operates a strict 24-hour time limit for responding to customer messages. In order to send a message to a customer after this time, you must send a pre-approved template. Typical simple text template examples might look like:
Sorry we've not been able to get back to you. If you still need help, please reply to this message - we're ready to answer.
or:
We've got an update about your order - are you available to chat now?
You can setup plain text templates below the Streams in the account summary panel. To add a template, select the Add button.
You’ll need to provide a Name for your template (100 character limit) and the Message Body (500 character limit). You will be able to save once values have been added to both fields. Once you click save, the template will appear on the list in the media account.
Due to the strict approval process operated by WhatsApp, you cannot edit templates once they’re created. Deleting a template should remove it from the list. Once two templates have been added, you will no longer see the Add button as you have reached the maximum number of templates allowed.
WhatsApp Advanced Templates
You can setup plain text templates below the Streams in the account summary panel. However, WhatsApp is also capable of sending a wide range of advanced rich media templates, such as:
Images
Quick reply buttons
List pickers
Cards
Authentication codes
Product catalogues
Each of these rich media templates needs to be configured manually for your domain to ensure it meets Meta’s strict approval policies - if you’d like to explore these advanced options for your quick reply journeys, please get in touch via Service Desk where the Gnatta Support team will help craft your templates.
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