Customer messages arrive in WhatsApp Inbox. Anyone on your team with access can answer, so a message does not sit unread because one person is off.
Answering
Open the conversation, type, send. The customer sees it as a normal WhatsApp message from your business number.
You can send a picture, a video, a document, your location or a contact from the same box.
The 24 hour rule
This is WhatsApp's rule, not ours, and it surprises everybody the first time.
You can reply freely for 24 hours after a customer messages you. After that you can only send an approved message until they write again.
If the box will not let you type, that is why. The conversation has gone quiet for more than a day.
The Can reply filter shows only the chats you are still allowed to message freely, which saves opening ones you cannot answer.
Pick a ready made message to reopen the conversation. Once they reply, you can type normally again.
Keeping the list under control
The filters above the conversation list are:
- Unread, nobody has opened it yet
- Unresolved and Resolved, if your team marks chats as dealt with
- Can reply, the ones still inside the 24 hours
- Failed, messages that did not arrive
Marking a chat as resolved is a team habit rather than something the customer sees. Turn it off under More, then Inbox settings, if it is not how you work.
Starting a conversation yourself
Use New chat. You can pick a customer, or type a Phone number with country code for somebody who is not saved yet.
Because they have not messaged you first, you have to send an approved message rather than typing freely.
If a message failed
A failed message almost always means the number is wrong. Check it is saved with the country code. A number without one will not reach anybody.