WhatsAppUpdated 5 days ago

The Gorgias integration with WhatsApp allows you to manage WhatsApp messages as tickets, see and respond to them directly in Gorgias, and link customer profiles for personalized support. 

Let your shoppers talk to you as they do with friends using WhatsApp. 🎉

How it works

The WhatsApp integration allows you to answer inbound customer inquiries from your Gorgias help desk, without switching tabs! 

Offer your shoppers the most popular channel, seamlessly integrated with your workflows.

If the customer reaching out has data in your Shopify store, Gorgias will automatically link the person to their data, so you will be able to see all of the information in your sidebar.

Provide exceptional support through WhatsApp as well! Handle WhatsApp messages as you do for chat, email, or IG DM of Facebook Messenger. Same inbox, same macros, same context, same efficiency! You will be able to provide worldwide support seamlessly. 🎊 

First response time matters. The Gorgias WhatsApp integration allows you to automate work with personalized macros and rules to help you support your customers in the fastest way possible.

With Gorgias + WhatsApp, you can:

• Send and receive texts, audio clips, videos, and PDFs
• Connect multiple WhatsApp Business accounts and phone numbers to a single Gorgias account
• Answer to user-initiated messages (inbound)
  • Receive all incoming WhatsApp messages in your helpdesk and reply using custom answers or macros
  • WhatsApp tickets are like any other ticket (email, chat). You can use them in rules and you can apply macros and tags.
• Match a customer's WhatsApp number with their Shopify profile
  • Gorgias matches the phone number from the WhatsApp message received to match the ticket with the right customer.
  • It allows having the full customer context right to the WhatsApp ticket, with all the date coming from Shopify and other integrations.
  • It helps agents to answer faster without leaving a message.
• Use the same or different numbers for Voice, SMS, and WhatsApp
  • Keep things simple for shoppers with 1 number for all of your phone-related support, or set up custom workflows based on phone number ownership.
• Sent, delivered, and read receipts
  • Keep visibility on when your messages are delivered and when they are read by your shoppers

Setup instructions

If you're using a Gorgias phone number, make sure to follow these steps first.

For regular phone numbers, you can follow the steps below:

1. Start the Whatsapp integration creation process by visiting Settings → Apps & Integrations → Whatsapp, click the Add Whatsapp Integration, and then Login with Whatsapp

2. After clicking Login with WhatsApp, a Facebook-branded tab will be opened in a separate tab.

*Note: make sure you do not close this tab until you have successfully connected WhatsApp.

If the tab does not appear, turn off any ad blockers you have running. In the rare instances you still can’t access it, then try using a different browser.

3. Sign in to your Facebook account associated with your Meta Business Account.

4. Select Get Started then Confirm. 

5. Select the Meta Business Account that you want your integration associated with (or create one if you don’t have one yet).

6. Next, create your Whatsapp Business Account (or select an existing one)

• You will be asked to submit your Display Name, Category, and Business Description

7. Submit your Whatsapp Business Number for verification. Submit the phone number that you plan to use as your Whatsapp Phone Number. Please note that it must meet the following requirements.

• If you are registering a phone number hosted through Gorgias, you must follow these steps to ensure you can verify the number. 

8. Receive your verification code through SMS or Voice Call and submit it in the Facebook creation flow.

9. After finishing the integration creation flow, your integration should be created. Return to the Gorgias tab and wait.

After the integration is completed, you will be able to see your phone number on the integrations page.

How to verify a WhatsApp integration using a Gorgias phone number

*Note: Gorgias phone numbers cannot typically receive 2FA text messages or phone calls, which are required for creating a Whatsapp integration. As such, you will need to forward the call with your verification code to a different device, as described below.

1. First, if you haven’t, create a standard voice integration for the phone number you are using. This voice integration can be deleted after the verification process.

If you have an IVR set up for that number, you will need to temporarily convert it to a standard number by deleting the voice integration and recreating it with the function field set to standard phone number.

2. Ensure that calls are routed to you:

• Suggested method → Temporarily remove any other agents from your phone team and add yourself to the team if you aren’t there already.

3. Set up call forwarding to route calls to your mobile device or landline.

• Open your profile settings by selecting your name on the bottom left of the page and then clicking Your Profile
• Turn the Enable call forwarding toggle to on

4. Start the WhatsApp integration process as explained above (here).

5. When verifying your phone number in the Whatsapp Creation process (this step), you must select the Voice Call option.

6. The verification call will come in. It may not ring your mobile device but a ticket will be created and once the call has ended, you should receive the verification code as a voicemail.

That's all!

Now, same as with any other integration in Gorgias, a view will be automatically created for WhatsApp in your right-hand sidebar. You can modify it further if you wish.

Requirements for a phone number

The phone number for your business must be a valid phone number that meets the following criteria:

• Owned by you
• Has a country and area code, such as landline and cell numbers
• Able to receive voice calls or SMS
• Not a short code
• Phone number must not be associated with another WABA Integration
  • You may delete your phone number from an existing WABA integration, but you will lose all data, templates, etc. from your old integration when migrating.

If you currently have an existing WABA account through the Whatsapp Business app, you must delete the existing Whatsapp business account before you can integrate through Gorgias

*Note - If you migrate from the Whatsapp/Whatsapp Business App, you will only be able to access that account through Gorgias. You will not be able to have the account on both the App and Gorgias simultaneously.

WhatsApp Macros and Rules

Now that you've created your new integration, let's go over some examples of how you can create a macro and a rule for WhatsApp.

Here's an example of a macro:

Now, we will utilize this same macro to create an auto-reply rule for WhatsApp tickets:

Of course, you can further modify the rule to your preference, assign these tickets to certain agents or teams, snooze them, or auto-close them.

How to change WhatsApp Business Account settings (photo, description etc)?

1. Visit Facebook Business Manager’s Whatsapp Settings Console and select Overview in the nav bar, which can be opened by scrolling to the left side of the page.

Note → If you have multiple Facebook Business Accounts, make sure to set it to the right business account

2. Select the specific Whatsapp phone number you want to edit to open that Whatsapp phone number’s settings page.

3. Under Settings → Profile, you will see an editable settings page where you can change your profile picture, description, and contact information.

Raising Business-initiated Conversation and Phone number limits

To learn more about Meta’s Business Verification process, you can follow this guide.

FAQs

Is WhatsApp free for Gorgias customers? 

Yes, WhatsApp is free for Gorgias customers right now. WhatsApp tickets will be handled like all other helpdesk billable tickets and count toward the same total.

Usage costs are incurred through WhatsApp, but Gorgias is paying for them. If these costs exceed our estimations, we may reassess this decision in the future. If we do decide to pass these costs off to our customers, we will give our customers ample warning.

Can I use the same phone number on multiple WhatsApp tools?

Unfortunately not, you cannot have one number be on the native WhatsApp app/another tool and Gorgias simultaneously.

WhatsApp only allows a number to be on a single WhatsApp account. If your number is integrated to WhatsApp via Gorgias, you can only use that number in Gorgias. 

If your number is being used on the WhatsApp Business app, you would need to remove it from the account that is being used on the app before you would be able to integrate it with Gorgias.

Can I integrate a phone number that I've used for a different WhatsApp Business account? 

Yes, you can, but you will lose all previous conversation history on the other WhatsApp Business Account.

To integrate a phone number used on the mobile app, you must delete the number from the account using the following steps:

Open the Whatsapp App/Whatsapp Business App on a mobile device

• Navigate to Settings → Account

• Select Delete My Account

• Follow the steps described to delete the Whatsapp account. Please note it may take up to 3 minutes for the disconnected number to become available.

  Once the number has become available, the customer can undergo standard Whatsapp onboarding.

For numbers that have been used on a different third-party WhatsApp integration, such as Zendesk’s WhatsApp integration, 360Dialog, Twilio, etc., you can integrate these numbers by deleting them from your WhatsApp Business Manager profile. 

By doing some, you will lose all associated WhatsApp templates, your verification tick (if you have one), and your quality rating/messaging limits. 

We are building a migration process to allow you to retain this information and should have it available soon.

Can I initiate conversations with shoppers on WhatsApp? What is the 24-hour conversation window?

Not yet. Currently, our integration only allows you to respond to customer-initiated conversations on WhatsApp.

To initiate outbound conversations, we need to build a feature to send message templates, which are predefined formats of messages merchants can use to send notifications or customer care messages.

These message templates can also be used to restart the 24-hour conversation window in an existing ticket.

What is the 24-hour conversation window?

WhatsApp allows you to answer customers with custom messages (without WhatsApp Message templates) within a 24-hour response window from the last message sent by the customer. Every new message sent from the customer restarts this 24-hour window and you can reply with any message in that 24-hour period.

When the response window expires, you can re-engage with the customer only through WhatsApp template messages. 

This is a limitation on Meta's side, and it's reflected on Gorgias as well. 

💡 There is a workaround you can use to engage with your customers after they reach out via WhatsApp, and it's to create an auto-reply rule that will target these messages specifically:

Note that the rule won't extend the conversation window directly, but the goal of the rule is to have a higher chance to keep the conversation window open by inviting your customers to engage and send an additional message. Also, the tickets would have to be updated manually, which can be done in a bulk, in order for the rule to trigger. 

If you have any further questions or concerns, please reach out to [email protected]