If enabled by your administrator, you can add a WhatsApp account to Zendesk Support to communicate with end users about support requests using WhatsApp messages.
This articles includes these sections:
- About adding a WhatsApp account to Support
- About WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule for outbound marketing communication
- Merging user accounts after customers contact you from social messaging channels\
- Viewing lists of social messaging tickets from the social messaging notifier
- Using "Load more tickets" and ticket views to find social messaging tickets
- Replying to WhatsApp tickets from the ticket interface
- The end user experience on mobile devices
- Searching for tickets by WhatsApp number
Related articles:
About adding a WhatsApp account to Support
The Social Messaging add-on and WhatsApp Phone Number add-on allows customers to use a company’s WhatsApp phone numbers to send support requests as WhatsApp messages. The messages become tickets in Zendesk Support, and then replies from agents are sent back to the customer through WhatsApp.
You can’t use the Social Messaging add-on to:
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Send or receive WhatsApp phone calls.
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Send messages proactively to end users through WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has certain rules that prevent us from making proactive messaging possible. We refer to this as WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule and talk about it in more detail later in this article.
Note the following about how the Social Messaging add-on works with WhatsApp:
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WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule affects whether the end user receives your replies. It’s very important that you review the information about how this works.
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If WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule hasn’t been observed, the reply fails and is not delivered to the end user. Error messages about the failure display in the upper-right portion of the agent interface and in the Events log.
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Macros work with this add-on, as long as WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule is observed.
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There are triggers and automations that affect WhatsApp tickets. Check with your administrator to see if your company is using these.
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Pictures and file attachments are allowed.
About WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule for outbound marketing communication
Before you reply to a WhatsApp ticket, it’s important to understand how replies are affected by WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule. This is a WhatsApp rule (not a Zendesk rule) that applies to all WhatsApp accounts (see this article from WhatsApp).
This rule states that:
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You cannot send outbound marketing and solicitation messages (in other words, “proactive messages”) to end users. End user users must reach out to you first.
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You have 24 hours from when the end user’s message was sent from WhatsApp to reply to the message. After that, you can’t reply.
This means that when using the Social Messaging add-on:
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When using the Social Messaging add-on, the starting point for the 24 hour window is when the end user sent the message from WhatsApp. It’s not when the message was received by Support and the ticket was created, for example.
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If the agent fails to reply within the 24 hour window, the agent can’t reply to the end user until the end user sends another message, reopening the 24 hour window. The 24 hour period restarts every time the end user sends a message.
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If the agent replies after 24 hours, the reply is still added to the ticket and appears in the ticket interface, but the end user doesn’t actually receive the reply (meaning a reply in WhatsApp, or a ticket notification in their email Inbox).
Error messages about the failure display in the upper-right portion of the agent interface and in the Events log.
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If you don’t reply within 24 hours, it may be difficult to reconnect with the end user. If this happens, you may want to ask your administrator about whether your company uses the (paid) templated messages feature in WhatsApp.
Merging user accounts after customers contact you from social messaging channels
The first time an end user reaches out to you using a social messaging channel, a new user account is created for them in Support. If your company has multiple social messaging phone numbers, this happens each time each end user uses the phone number for the first time.
If the end user contacted you before from a different channel (for example, Facebook or Twitter), merge their new user account with their old one, so that their tickets are associated with a single account (see Merging a user’s duplicate account).
End user profiles include a field called Social Messaging User Info, which includes all of the user information pushed to Zendesk from the social messaging channels used by the end user to create tickets.
The end user’s social messaging phone number appears in their profile.
Viewing lists of social messaging tickets from the social messaging notifier
You can use the social messaging notifier in Support to view a list of social messaging tickets that are assigned to you, and that haven’t been assigned to an agent yet.
To view a list of social messaging tickets from the notifier
- From Support, click the social messaging icon (
) in the top bar in upper-right corner.
The icon includes a red dot when there are new, unassigned social messaging tickets that need your attention.
- From the Assigned to you tab, review the WhatsApp tickets that are assigned to you (this tab opens by default).
The status of these tickets is New or Open. Tickets continue to appear in this list changes to Pending.
- Click Unassigned to view WhatsApp tickets that haven’t been assigned to an agent yet.
From Unassigned, all unassigned social messaging tickets appear in this list, regardless of their status.
- If you want to view more social messaging tickets, you can click Load more tickets, if it appears.
Load more tickets only appears if there are more than 20 tickets.
Using “Load more tickets” and ticket views to find social messaging tickets
When you click Load more tickets from the social messaging notifier, the notifier closes and a view of social messaging tickets opens in the agent interface. The view depends on what tab you are on when you click Load more tickets. For example:
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From Assigned to you tab: The Your social messaging tickets view opens and displays a list social messaging tickets that are assigned to you, and that have a ticket status of New or Open.
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From Unassigned tab: The Unassigned social messaging tickets view opens and displays a list of social messaging tickets that are unassigned, regardless of their status.
Ask your administrator whether your company has any shared views for social messaging tickets.
If needed, you can create personal views of social messaging tickets using social messaging conditions (see Adjusting business views and business rules for WhatsApp tickets).
Replying to WhatsApp tickets from the ticket interface
Before you reply to a WhatsApp ticket, make sure you understand how WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule affects replies. Also, check with your administrator to find out whether your company uses triggers and automations that affect WhatsApp tickets.
To open a WhatsApp ticket from the social messaging notifier
- Open the social messaging notifier.
- Find the ticket in the list, and then click the ticket.
The notifier closes and the ticket opens.
To reply to a WhatsApp ticket from the ticket interface
- Open the WhatsApp ticket.
- (Optional) Merge the user’s profile with other existing profiles before you reply (see Merging user accounts after customers contact you from social messaging channels).
- Click Reply on Social Messaging and then type your reply into the field.
The reply will be sent from the WhatsApp account indicated here. For example:
If your company uses multiple WhatsApp accounts with Support, you may see different WhatsApp account numbers in different WhatsApp tickets for this reason.
- (Optional) Attach a picture or file.
- (Optional) Apply any macros you want to use.
Macros work with WhatsApp tickets, as long as WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule is observed.
- Submit the ticket with the appropriate status.
If WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule has been observed, the end user receives the reply from WhatsApp.
If WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule hasn’t been observed, the reply fails and is not delivered to the end user. Error messages about the failure display in the upper-right portion of the agent interface and in the Events log.
Note: - Click Conversations under the active comment area, then select Events.
Notice there is a new event that states that the comment was sent to the integration service (WhatsApp). This means that Support attempted to send the comment to the end user through WhatsApp. Whether the reply was actually received still depends on if WhatsApp’s 24-hour rule was observed.
Here’s what the event looks like if there is no failure.
The end user experience on mobile devices
In WhatsApp, a reply is called a message and a chat is a series of messages to a single contact or group.
It’s important to know that if an end user forwards a single message from a chat to your WhatsApp phone number, only that message is forwarded to your Support account. You do not receive all of the earlier messages and attachments in the chat, but your end user may incorrectly assume that you do.
Here’s an example. This is what happens when an end user forwards a message on an iPhone:
- The end user taps on a single message in a chat and chooses Forward.
- The end user is prompted to choose a contact.
This can be an individual contact or an existing chat with an individual or group.
- The end user selects your WhatsApp phone number.
If the end user has never had a chat with you before, a new chat is created and immediately opens. The forwarded message appears at the top.
If the end user has chatted with you before, your previous chat opens. This chat includes all of the messages the end user has sent to your WhatsApp phone number. The forwarded message appears in the chat.
Searching for tickets by WhatsApp number
You can search for end users based on their WhatsApp number, and then see all of the tickets associated with that end user. The search results will include both WhatsApp tickets and non-WhatApp tickets.
For additional information about Search, see the Zendesk Support search reference.
To find an end user’s WhatsApp tickets
- Click the Search icon (
) in the toolbar in the upper-right hand corner.
- In the search field, enter the whatsapp user property keyword, followed by a colon, and then any part of the WhatsApp number in parentheses. For example:
whatsapp:“3211”
It is important to use the parentheses operator (“ ”) around the number to get the best results. If there are any symbols in the WhatsApp Phone Number field (in the user’s profile) you also need to include them.
For example, you can find the phone number +1(123)123-3211 with these searches:
- whatsapp:“+1(123)123-3211”
- whatsapp:“123)123-3”
- whatsapp:“+1(123)123”
- whatsapp:“3211”
However, these searches won’t find this number:
- whatsapp:“11231233211”
- whatsapp:“1233211”
- Press Enter to run the search.
- In the results, click the Users tab.
- Find the end user associated with the WhatsApp number you are trying to find.
Keep in mind that you may see multiple end users in the search results, depending on the numbers you entered. For example, if you entered an area code only, but not the whole phone number.
- Click the end users name to open their profile, and view all of the tickets associated with that end user (including their non-WhatsApp tickets).
23 Comments
Hi Amy, thanks for this. We've just tried creating a follow-up ticket to a closed ticket via Whatsapp, and we noticed a couple of things:
Is this expected behaviour?
Hi Pedro!
Thank you for this feedback. This is the current expected behaviour but I think at the very least linking a closed ticket with it's follow-up ticket could be a great feature to add. I will pass this along.
Does WhatsApp integrate feature is minimum for professional? is there any possibility for a lower subscription? team?
Hey Budi,
At this time there's no plans to make the WhatsApp integration available to lower subscription levels.
I'll be sure to pass your feedback along to the appropriate team.
Cheers!
Whatsapp ticket was closed 24h+ ago. Customer sends me new message via whatsapp. Autoresponder works fine, but message from customer is attached to OLD ticket instead of creating new. Is it expected behavior? I.e. 1 customer = 1 whatsapp ticket?
Hi Taras Savchuk if the ticket is "Solved" but not yet closed, this is expected behaviour. However, if the ticket is in fact "Closed" and you are experiencing this behaviour this is unexpected. If you are experiencing the latter please send a ticket to whatsapp-integration@zendesk.com and we'll do our best to help you.
Hello there!
Does anyone know possible reasons why Whatsapp may not be willing to verify a WA Business account?
Thank you!
Hi Federico Cuelho
This is a very special type of account and our suspicion is this status is only offered to top end brands or brands that do a lot of business with Facebook. However the reality is that the actual criteria is a secret known only by Facebook. With that, we have no influence over their decision to approve or deny a brand. The good thing however, is that this does not change the functionality of the API or what you can do with it in any way.
Thank you for your response.
However I still believe that this situation compromises the image, transparency and trust of our brand.
Our clients see these 2 notifications every time they try to use WA to contact us. One of those claims to provide security and privacy to the conversation. On the other hand, the second one relates to the fact that WA was not able to verify if the phone number and name of the company are related. This is serious as Zendesk arranged a paid contract with us to use WA integrated on Zendesk but our clients dont have much assurance of our identity. The possibility of this denial verification was NEVER informed by sales from Zendesk. Our company is paying for an incomplete and unreliable service from a third party that zendesk is not able to appeal to.
I definitely hear what you're saying. The unfortunate fact is that this is the same case for all WhatsApp Business Solution Providers, we are all subject to the same policies and restrictions. This behaviour that you noted is not unique to Zendesk and not a limitation of our integration but rather just how the WhatsApp API works.
The encouraging thing however is that you can reapply for an official business account if you feel your brand has gained notoriety. Please note however that WhatsApp is extremely selective.
Hi there, our business operates only on the weekdays and sometimes we do have customers sending us whatsapp messages on Friday evenings or on Saturdays. By the time our team gets back to work on Monday, these messages would have passed the 24 hour threshold rule. Is there any way that we can exclude the non-working days (i.e. Saturday and Sunday) from the 24 hour rule?
On a separate note, there are many instances where we depend on the customers to revert back to us (e.g. with follow-up documentation) and if they have taken longer than 24 hours, we can't send them a follow-up reminder to continue the conversation. Is there any other way that we can address this too?
The answer is yes but it costs you more. Ask your Zendesk account representative about templated messages. The solution is also a bit technical.
I looked into it but decided it was simply better to put some basic instructions about only monitoring the system M-F and to write back after the weekend or 24 hours in the autoresponder.
Hi, after an integration is on, can i still using WB on whatsapp web or celphone. i.e, 2 operators on zendesk, 1 on mobile, 1 wahtapp web.
thx
Hi Maximilliano,
The WhatsApp Business app is a completely different thing. Basically, Zendesk will "take over" your WhatsApp messaging. You can't use the WhatsApp app on the phone. The only way, at least as far as I know, to interact with WhatsApp is via the Zendesk agent interface or Zendesk mobile app.
KF
Hi Amy,
We are just starting with Zendesk and Whatsapp and we want to create our custom bots using the HTTP Target extensión and the Zendesk REST API. In our tests that works perfectly with basic zendesk's features. In the article it says that an agent must reply to a customer using the option "Reply to Whatsapp". This means that:
1. Any reply sent through zendesk or the REST API doesn't reach the customer's whatsapp number?
2. If the answer to question 1 is true, Is there any other option to have the customer receive a reply on his/her whatsapp number?
Thanks in the advance!
Hi there,
If i have multiple WhatsApp Business numbers, I've to buy just one time the integration or I've to buy one integration for each number?
Thanks for support!
Hi Ivan Parodi,
You need to pay for the Social Messaging add-on and if you wish to use WhatsApp, you need to pay for each number you wish for us to connect to the WhatsApp Business API. To clarify further, on a per number basis, what you are paying for is for us to host the API client/Enterprise Client.
When a customer writes through Whatsapp and we don't respond within 24 hours, but then we reply and the reply becomes part of the ticket history, and we get an error message indicating the response could not be delivered -- then: when the customer writes again, will our previous reply that didn't make it be transmitted to the customer or will we have to send it again?
Adam Eisenman you'll have to send it again.
Thanks for the info.
I haven't been able if there is a perpetual indicator that tells the agent that the message did not go out to the customer. It appears as if the warning message flashes, and then the message sent (that didn't go through) remains as part of the ticket history but doesn't indicate that it didn't go through or that it needs to be resent.
Is there any mecanism for this?
Hi Adam Eisenman,
If you see the warning message flash when sending a message outside the 24-hour window, it should also be tracked in the ticket event history. However, we know that this isn't always the case and when you don't get the warning, the only way to check if the last message went through is to check the message timestamp and compare it to the message before. We hope to improve this in the future.
Kevin Ford - would be keen to understand how you are managing the weekend with the 24-hour rule. We're in the same boat and only reply to messages Mon - Fri.
Can anything be done with Macros etc?
Billy Stanton there's not much to be done out of the box. Our first solution was to say in the autoresponder that WhatsApp is monitored Monday through Friday and if they messaged us over the weekend to please message us again during those days.
That's obviously not great so we went a more involved route. We have people on call to answer emergencies. So we notify them to deal with the message. It's not great for them, but at least recently it's been fairly quiet due to Covid.
Lastly, WeChat has seemingly also adopted this limitation but it's a 48 hour rule as opposed to 24 hours.
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