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  • Updates – WhatsApp Business Conversation

    Starting November 1, 2024, Meta is simplifying and reducing WhatsApp Business Platform fees to help businesses connect with customers more affordably and efficiently.

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    Updates on WhatsApp Business Conversation pricing: Effective Nov 01, 2024

    Starting November 1, 2024, Meta is simplifying and reducing WhatsApp Business Platform fees to help businesses connect with customers more affordably and efficiently.

    Key Highlights of Meta’s New Pricing Structure

    Starting November 1, 2024, Meta is excited to announce that service conversations will be completely free! Businesses can now respond to an unlimited number of inbound inquiries at no cost, as long as the customer initiates the conversation within a 24-hour window.

    Previously capped at 1,000 free service conversations per month, this change offers businesses the freedom to scale support without additional charges. This flexibility is especially beneficial during peak seasons or promotions, allowing you to enhance customer service without worrying about rising costs. Seize this opportunity to provide responsive and accessible support at no extra expense!

    Example of a Service Conversation

    • Hour 0: A WhatsApp user messages you outside of your business hours. This opens a customer service window, so you are now able to send any type of message to the user for 24 hours, not just template messages.
    • Hour 0: Your bot automatically responds with a text message informing the user that a customer service agent will respond by 9am the next day.
    • Hour 12: A customer service agent responds to the user with a text message.

    What to Expect in the Upcoming Months

    • February 1, 2025: New international authentication rates will roll out across seven additional markets, coupled with reduced rates in existing markets.
    • April 1, 2025: Utility templates will be available for free within the 24-hour customer service window, and businesses will shift to a per-template message charge instead of the previous per-conversation model.
    • July 1, 2025:strong> All businesses will be charged per message for template message as part of the second phase rollout.

    Per-Message Pricing

    With per-message pricing from April 1, 2025, businesses will be charged:

    • Per message for each marketing template
    • Per message for each authentication template
    • Per message for each utility template sent outside of a customer service window

    For example, if you send a marketing template and then two utility templates to a WhatsApp user, that will incur 3 charges (1 marketing, 2 utility). If the 2 utility templates are sent while a customer service window is open between you and the user, however, it would only incur a single charge (1 marketing).

    Customer Service window

    Whenever a WhatsApp user messages your business, a 24-hour timer called a customer service window starts (or refreshes if one has already been started). When a free-form message is delivered by the business in response, with no open conversation of any other category open between your business and that user, a service conversation is opened.

    Conversation types and how they apply to your pricing

    Businesses can initiate a conversation using a template message outside the customer service window. The category of the template message used will define the conversation type.

    Marketing, utility, and authentication conversations can only be opened with template messages. Service conversations can only be opened with free-form messages.

    Four Conversation Types

    There are three business-initiated conversation types (all of which require customer opt in) and user- initiated conversation are renamed to align with the primary ways businesses and people are messaging on Whats App. The new conversation type is determined by the template category of the message used to initiate the conversation. WhatsApp divides template categories into 4 types:

    Utility – Business-initiated conversations relating to a transaction, including post-purchase notifications and recurring billing statements to customers who have opted in.

    Authentication – Business-initiated conversations that enable businesses to authenticate users with one-time passwords at multiple steps during the login process, such as account registration, account recovery, and integrity challenges.

    Marketing – Business-initiated conversations to market a product or service to customers, such as relevant offers to customers who have opted in. Any business-initiated conversation that does not qualify as an authentication or utility conversation would also fall under this category.

    Service – User-initiated conversation, such as to resolve a customer query.

    How is the 24-hour customer service window applied for each template category?

    Conversation charges are based on template category. Each template category will start and have its own separate 24-hour conversation window and incur separate charges. For example, if a business sends a customer a utility message, they will be charged the utility conversation fee, but if 4 hours later, they send the customer a marketing message, they will also be charged the marketing conversation fee, and start a separate 24-hour window for marketing messages. However, if they send additional utility messages, they will not be charged again until 24 hours have passed and a new 24-hour window begins.

    The exception to this is free entry point conversations. During the free window, businesses can send multiple templates of different categories, and no new conversation will be opened.

    Charges for conversations are based on the user’s country code. A user here is defined as the customer that your business is communicating with. Rates for different conversation types based on template category vary by country or region.

    Pricing calculator for utility, marketing and authentication conversations: Effective Nov 01, 2024

    Utilize our Pricing Calculator to choose your specific market and conversation type, enabling you to accurately determine the WhatsApp conversation fees applicable to your business.

    Free Entry Point Conversations

    Conversations are not charged when users message businesses using call-to-actions buttons on Ads that Click to WhatsApp or Facebook Page call-to-action buttons.

    With the launch of per-message pricing, free entry point conversations will behave the same but reflect messages instead of conversations. If a WhatsApp user messages you via a free entry point surface, you can respond with any type of message for free within 24 hours; this opens a free entry point customer service window that lasts 72 hours. You can continue to message the user using any type of message while this window is open, at no charge.

    Standard pricing applies for Ads that Click to WhatsApp. The conversation that initiates from the ad is free, but not the ad itself.

    Free Utility Templates in the Customer Service Window

    Starting April 1, 2025, utility templates sent within a customer service window are free for all businesses. Utility templates sent outside a customer service window will continue to be charged the utility rate.

    Example

    If a WhatsApp user sends you a message asking when the package they ordered will be delivered, you can respond within the customer service window with a text message or utility template message, and neither incurs a charge.

    To learn more about Conversation pricing updates , see Meta’s pricing documentation here.

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  • Template Messages on WhatsApp Business Platform

    A business initiated conversation with your customers must use a template message, once they have opted-in and given you the permission to send them messages. Templates must be approved by WhatsApp before you can use them to send notifications.

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    Template Messages on WhatsApp Business Platform

    A business initiated conversation with your customers must use a template message, once they have opted-in and given you the permission to send them messages. Templates must be approved by WhatsApp before you can use them to send notifications.

    Think of your template message as a conversation starter; the goal is to convert this initial message into a two-way conversation when the customer replies. Two-way conversations are considered higher value because you are engaging with your customer. In addition, they reduce your spend because WhatsApp does not charge for outbound messages within the 24-hour session.

    Template messages are dynamic messages that contain variables inside double curly braces () when the message is sent. In the example below, numbers indicate variables that are automatically filled in from your database.

    Template Message should be submitted as follows:

    Name: account_registration

    Hi 1! Your login code for 2 is 3.

    Your customer will receive:

    Hi Sara! Your login code for EOcean is 6545.

    Template messages are used for the following reasons:

    1. Initiate new conversations with customers
    2. Send broadcasts
    3. Restart the session after the 24-hours have expired

    Once the customer replies, a session is started and businesses can begin communicating with their customers on WhatsApp during the session.

    What are the different categories of template messages?

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  • Setup WhatsApp Business Profile

    You can setup your Business Profile within Digital Connect which will be visible to your customers within their WhatsApp application

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    Setup WhatsApp Business Profile

    You can setup your Business Profile within Digital Connect which will be visible to your customers within their WhatsApp application

    To setup your Business Profile, simply follow these steps.

    • Login to Digital Connect as an administrator.
    • Click on Profile Settings.
    • Add or Edit your business profile details such as Organization name, business email, business description etc.
    • Click Save to save your business profile.

    Your profile will now be visible to your customers within their WhatsApp application.

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  • Setup Out of Office reply

    In Digital Connect, you can set up an auto responder to reply to incoming conversations from customers outside your organization’s business hours

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    Set up Out of Office reply

    In Digital Connect, you can set up an auto responder to reply to incoming conversations from customers outside your organization’s business hours

    There are two types of out of office replies:

    • Weekdays replies send responses to customers outside your business hours
    • Weekend replies send responses to customers on weekends (see setup opening hours)

    To setup weekdays out of office reply:

    • Click on Settings > Out of office and then click on weekdays tab
    • Click on WhatsApp icon and configure the Outside Business Hours Message in the text box below and click save

    To setup weekend out of office reply:

    • Click on Settings > Out of office and then click on weekend tab
    • Click on WhatsApp icon and configure the Weekend Message in the text box below and click save
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  • Setup Opening hours

    Opening hours define the hours when your support team is available to serve customers. By defining your opening hours, you can setup automated messages to be sent to customers when customers interact through a channel outside your business hours

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    Setup Opening hours

    Opening hours define the hours when your support team is available to serve customers. By defining your opening hours, you can setup automated messages to be sent to customers when customers interact through a channel outside your business hours

    • Click on Settings > Opening hours and select either All days or Per day.
    • Define your opening hours and click save

    Once you have setup your opening hours, you can now setup automated response to be sent to customers when they contact your agents via WhatsApp outside the business hours.

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  • Setting your agent status

    The agent’s status is a helpful way to show your entire team whether you are free to take a conversation.

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    Setting your agent status

    The agent’s status is a helpful way to show your entire team whether you are free to take a conversation.

    By default, Digital Connect includes the following statuses.

    • Available: You are logged in and available to take new conversations.
    • Busy: You have more than one conversation in progress
    • Away: You are away from your computer and cant be assigned new conversations but other agents and team supervisor can send you private notes and forward conversations.
    • Unavailable: You are not logged in and unable to receive any conversations.

    Manually assign a conversation

    Keep in mind that you’re setting a status for yourself as an agent and not for all agents.

    You can change your agent status by clicking on the icon at top right corner next to notifications icon.

    When your status changes to unavailable, your team members logged in to Digital Connect will not be able to tag you in private notes.

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  • reply to specific messages in a conversation

    Agents can reply directly to specific messages in a thread, ensuring clear, contextual communication. This helps recipients quickly identify which part of the conversation the response relates to, providing better clarity.

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    How to reply to specific messages in a conversation?

    Agents can reply directly to specific messages in a thread, ensuring clear, contextual communication. This helps recipients quickly identify which part of the conversation the response relates to, providing better clarity.

    How it works?

    • Access any customer conversation within the chat manager by selecting it. Once you have the conversation open, move your cursor over the desired message and click on the vertical icon menu that appears and click Reply button.
    • The quoted message will load in the message box. Type your reply and click Send message icon.




    If you don’t want to reply to it anymore, click the ‘X’ button to delete the reply from the message box.



    You can only reply to a single message at a time using this method.

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  • Remove an agent from a team

    In certain cases, you will need to reshuffle agents from one team to another team due to multiple factors.

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    Remove an agent from a team

    In certain cases, you will need to reshuffle agents from one team to another team due to multiple factors.

    In order to remove an agent from a team, simply apply the following steps.

    • Click on Teams in left navigation menu and then navigate to Edit (green) icon under Action.
    • Remove agents listed under Remove assigned agents by selecting agent name in the list box and then clicking on (>>) to move agent name to list box on the bottom right. Click Save to complete the process.
    • You can add the agent again by cl
    • You can also add previously removed agents by selecting agent names in the list box on the bottom right and then clicking on (<<) to move agents back to the list box on the bottom left. Click Save to complete the process.
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  • Reauthorize your Facebook Messenger account

    Digital Connect may at times lose connection to your Facebook Messenger account. This may happen when you change your account password, but it could also happen randomly due to API problems at Facebook’s end.

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    Reauthorize your Facebook Messenger account

    Digital Connect may at times lose connection to your Facebook Messenger account. This may happen when you change your account password, but it could also happen randomly due to API problems at Facebook’s end.

    You can apply the following steps to reauthorize your account:

    • Follow the same steps as described in this article. The only exception would be to add new login credentials when prompted and you’re done!

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  • Organize your agents by Teams

    Teams are a great way for agents to work together in Digital Connect. Agents can be assigned to a particular team based on their expertise for a timely and effective resolution of customer queries.

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    Organize your agents by Teams in Digital Connect.

    Teams are a great way for agents to work together in Digital Connect. Agents can be assigned to a particular team based on their expertise for a timely and effective resolution of customer queries.

    • Login to Digital Connect as an administrator or a team supervisor.
    • Click on Teams > Add Team.
    • Enter the name for your team under Team Name and then select Team Supervisor from drop-down list under Team Supervisor and finally click on icon (>>) to add Agents or (<<) to remove Agents from the new team and click Submit to complete the process.

      After you have successfully created a team and assigned agents to the team, list of teams with details will show up as below.

    It is recommended to create agents and team supervisors before creating teams to ensure a quicker team configuration.

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