WhatsApp message templates and how to use them

Today, WhatsApp is the most widely used instant messaging platform on the planet. It is also the preferred method of communication for organizations to stay in touch with their clients. It enables brands to deliver quick and easy support to their customers through the WhatsApp Business API, which allows for real-time chat and conversational commerce. Once you’re up and running with the WhatsApp Business API, you can start utilizing it to its full potential with Session Messages and Message Templates. In this blog post, we’ll dive into how the two types of messages differ in their use cases. And you’ll get some useful tips on how to make the best out of WhatsApp message templates.

To develop an understanding of WhatsApp Message Templates, we first have to separate the two forms of WhatsApp Business API messages. And for this, we need to grasp what the Customer Care Window means. This window is a 24-hour period that begins when your customer first interacts with your company via WhatsApp. In this 24-hour time frame, you can send both Session Messages and Message Templates.

WhatsApp Session Messages

Personalized messages, sent in response to other messages, using the familiar WhatsApp chat capabilities can be sent only inside the 24-hour Customer Care Window. Since the purpose of session messages is to reply to a customer query, it needs to be initiated by the customer and can not be used to send out unsolicited messages.

WhatsApp Message Templates

Pre-approved messages can be sent in and outside of the 24-hour Customer Care Window. These messages are used to provide notifications to users who have expressed an interest in a dialogue with your business. But before you can send them out to your customers, your custom message templates need to be approved by WhatsApp and your service provider. You can come up with your own WhatsApp message templates and send them for approval, or you can opt to use the existing message templates your WhatsApp Business solution provider offers.

You can only send Message Templates if you want to connect with your client outside of the 24-hour Customer Care Window, which means starting a dialogue with a notification (after you’ve gotten the customer’s opt-in). This is to prevent businesses from sending spam messages to customers and to retain WhatsApp’s high value as a tool for customers to communicate with businesses. This is why pre-approval of Message Templates is required.

The many uses of WhatsApp message templates

WhatsApp message templates can be used to send out notifications, shipping updates, payment updates, appointment reminders, and customer service communications, and many more. In fact, you can use these templates in many creative ways to build rapport with your audience and keep them coming back to your app:

• Support: It is critical to have good support to prevent customer churn. You can keep your customers updated on their support tickets in an instant to ensure they are having the best support experience.
• Product updates and launches: When you update a product that your audience is interested in or launch a new product, send out a message template to notify your customers that the latest and greatest product is available. This is a good way to increase sales.
• Shipping updates: This is an important aspect of e-commerce. Consumers like to know when their purchases are being shipped and the delivery date estimations. WhatsApp message templates are a great way to keep them up to date with this.
• Reservation updates: If you have a travel app, you can notify your users of their reservation status. Keep your travelers up-to-date and don’t let them have any negative experiences.

And many more depending on your app’s vertical. The only limit is your creativity.

Things to look out for when coming up with custom templates

There are some things to keep in mind when using custom WhatsApp message templates:

• The approval process varies depending on the template. Some messages can be approved in a matter of minutes, while others may take up to 24 hours. WhatsApp needs to approve all of the templates that you submit to them.
• Your messages may be flagged as spam or untrustworthy if they contain misspellings or grammatical problems. Before you send your templates for approval, make sure to check and double-check for any possible spelling mistakes.
• WhatsApp message templates must also be in the same language as the one you’ve specified. If you send a message in Spanish but the message language is set to English, your message will be automatically rejected. Here is a list of languages that WhatsApp currently supports.
• Misused or erroneous variables can also lead to rejection. Make sure to utilize variable parameters  (e.g., {{1}}, {{2}}, etc.) and that the number of curly brackets is accurate.

Desk360 makes getting started with WhatsApp API and sending your templates easier than ever. We do the heavy lifting in your WhatsApp Business application, and from there, with our multitude of integrations, including Chatbots, we take care of the ins and outs of your customer communication efforts with our CRM solutions, allowing you to focus on your business. Check us out on our website today.