WhatsApp Business API: A beginner's guide to growth

1. Directly via Meta (WhatsApp Cloud API)

Meta offers the WhatsApp Cloud API to help you build and customize communication flows and respond to customers easily and quickly.

2. Through a Business Solution Provider (BSP)

BSPs like Gallabox offer ready-to-use platforms, integrations, and support.

Here are the steps to set up WhatsApp Business API:

Verified business profile

When your customers see a green tick verification checkmark beside your business profile, it creates a sense of trust and credibility that they are interacting with a legitimate business. 

A verified badge makes your brand stand out and instill confidence among customers.

Chatbots

With WhatsApp Business API, you can automate responses to common queries and provide instant support to your customers through WhatsApp chatbots.

Additionally, as your team will not need to answer repetitive queries, they can focus their efforts on handling other complex inquiries, improving efficiency.

Shared team inbox

A shared team inbox in the WhatsApp Business API platform ensures multiple agents can access a single interface to respond to customer queries. This ensures efficiency as there will be no need to switch between platforms, so no missed messages and increased customer satisfaction.

Session and template messages

Session messages help you communicate with your customers in freeform, meaning you can communicate with them for 24 hours after they have sent the last message.

With templates, you can create pre-approved communication flows, allowing you to send messages beyond the 24-hour window. These templates are ideal for transactional updates or re-engagement campaigns.

Interactive messages

Using interactive messages, you can make the conversations more dynamic. With buttons, quick replies, and list menus, you can simplify interactions. Your customers can take quick action, be it placing an order or making a payment.

Broadcast and bulk messages

Reaching a wider audience is seamless with bulk and broadcast messaging. You can send updates, promotions, and announcements to multiple customers at once, while keeping a personal touch.

This ensures efficiency as you won't need to send messages to one customer at a time. Additionally, there will be fewer chances of missing a potential lead.

Personalizing is the key

When you personalize messages for your customers, your customers feel as if they are having a one-on-one conversation with your brand.

So, find out what your customer wants based on any previous chats and orders, and personalize the messages.

Maintain relevance

Bombarding the inbox with messages can frustrate customers. Instead of sending too many messages, send messages that provide value. It could be personalized recommendations, offers, promotions, and product demos to persuade the customers to explore. The possibility of a purchase increases by 144% if the customers get to see a product video.

Use rich media

Just text messages won't help you grab a customer's attention. Campaigns with rich content have a 80% conversion rate. So, to attract your customers, use a mix of texts, images, videos, and files that provide information and make the customer want to try your products and services.

Implement chatbots

Your customers need a quick response, but it is not possible to ensure the availability of human agents at all times of the day. To solve repetitive queries, use WhatsApp chatbots, so your customers do not have to wait for common queries such as pricing, product features, and more.

Additionally, you can also integrate the chatbot with your internal tools, so the chatbot can solve specific queries like order tracking, placing an order, and more.

Set up automation

To ensure consistency in communication, use automation to send reminders, order updates, and personalized messages.

Use catalogs creatively

To persuade the customers to make a purchase, using just static images in the catalog won't do much.

Try to use a mix of customer testimonials, demonstrations, descriptions, and order booking links to ensure a seamless purchase journey.

Create WhatsApp Groups and Broadcasts

Around 78% of customers want a brand to connect with people using social media channels. You can leverage this by creating exclusive WhatsApp groups for your customers to discuss and share feedback. Additionally, you can share personalized offers and promotions to multiple customers at once using WhatsApp groups and broadcast lists.

Analyze the performance

To see if your campaigns are running successfully and generating the targeted results, you should analyze the response rates, open rates, delivery rates, and other metrics to find out what is working and where you need to optimize, along with what type of messages your customers prefer the most.

Global reach

WhatsApp has active users in 180 countries, and therefore, you can get a global reach using WhatsApp Business API. You can connect with customers across countries, ensuring a consistent brand presence.

Advanced automation

With WhatsApp Business API, you can run advanced automation to solve repetitive queries and order-related updates. This frees up the customer support team for other complex tasks and ensures efficiency in providing customer support.

Scalable support

Using one WhatsApp number, you can text customers across the globe. This allows you to maintain a record of the chats for analytics. There will be no missed messages, providing a seamless customer experience.

WhatsApp Business API integration with backend systems

WhatsApp Business API lets you integrate your CRM, order management, or ticketing tools, allowing you to get user history, send personalized messages, and trigger workflows without switching between platforms.

End-to-end encryption

To ensure customer privacy, WhatsApp provides end-to-end encryption, keeping customers' chats secure. This helps you to build customer trust as they will feel confident in interacting with your brand.

Customer service automation

WhatsApp Business API helps you automate customer queries, ensuring that your customers do not have to wait a long time for replies or experience frustrating back-and-forth email threads.

You can build smart workflows to offer instant support for queries such as FAQs, order tracking, refund requests, and more.

Onboarding and post-purchase support

After customers make a purchase or sign up, you must constantly make efforts to keep them as loyal customers.

With WhatsApp Business API, you can automate the initial touchpoints:

• Send welcome kits, guides on product use, and onboarding flows.
• Order completion messages with the instructions on the next steps to follow.
• Share demos or product setup help.
• Ask for feedback post-purchase, provide support, or ask for documentation.
• Trigger automated messages for warranty registration.

Appointment reminders

When your customers have an appointment date coming up, reminding them is essential to reduce no-shows and avoid resource waste. Additionally, if they are not available, your customers can even reschedule the appointment to a later date.

Sending deals and offers

Customers feel encouraged to purchase if they find an offer or discount, specifically if they are personalized. You can run marketing campaigns and send exclusive offers to certain customers, keeping the customers engaged with your brand.

Automated updates

You can connect WhatsApp with Razorpay, Shopify, Zoho, HubSpot, and Google Sheets to update customers about order confirmations, payment alerts, and shipping updates.

• Sending payment receipts and order confirmations.
• Providing shipping updates with tracking links.
• Sending webinar or demo reminders.
• Sharing appointment confirmations.
• Nudging customers for abandoned carts.

Product recommendations

Customers prefer it when brands take the effort and send personalized product recommendations. With WhatsApp Business API, you can send personalized product recommendations and deals using previous purchase history, chats, and customer preferences.

Set up your team

• Assign roles and access levels (e.g., manager, support, marketing).
  
  
• Invite team members accordingly.
  

Import contacts

• Import customer data individually or in bulk.
  
  
• Use Gallabox connectors for Google Sheets, CRM, etc.
  
  
• Filter and segment your contacts for better targeting.
  

Use the Shared Team Inbox

• Access all customer chats in one interface.
  
  
• Assign chats and leave internal notes.
  

Configure WhatsApp templates

• Create templates for general updates, like reminders and alerts
  
  
• Personalize messages using dynamic variables and media.
  

Launch marketing campaigns

• Create chatbots using a no-code builder.
  
  
• Set up drip marketing campaigns on WhatsApp.
  
  
• Use WhatsApp Flows to collect structured data via interactive forms.
  

Integrate with your tech stack

Connect with CRM, e-commerce, logistics, spreadsheets, payments, calendars, and more. You can use the built-in connector or request a custom integration through APIs and generic webhooks.

What is a Conversation?

A conversation is a 24-hour messaging session between your business and a customer. It starts when a message you send is delivered. The type of message sent determines the category of the conversation and its charges.

There are four conversation categories:

How Conversations are opened

Marketing, Utility, and Authentication conversations are opened when you send a template of that category, and only if a conversation of that category isn't already active.

Service conversations are triggered when a non-template message is sent and no other conversation is open.

Each conversation lasts 24 hours from the time it is opened.

Free  entry point Conversations (72 hours)

Suppose a customer messages you via a Click to WhatsApp Ad or a Facebook Page CTA, and you respond within 24 hours. In that case, a Free Entry Point conversation starts and lasts 72 hours, during which you can send unlimited messages (template or not), without any extra charges.

Rates

Rates vary by:

• Conversation category
  
  
• WhatsApp provides regional rate cards in different currencies.
  

WhatsApp messaging limit

WhatsApp enforces a daily cap on the number of unique customers a business can initiate conversations within a rolling 24-hour period.

The default limit is 250 Business-Initiated Conversations per Day.

This is the starting code for all new business phone numbers. However, WhatsApp allows this limit to scale automatically, based on your behavior and performance.

Here is the criteria to increase the messaging limit:

Examples of how Gallabox helped brands boost customer interaction

Here’s how Gallabox helped brands to drive meaningful conversations and improve customer experiences:

Sattvic Store: 25% RTO to onboarding over 2000 customers in a month

Sattvic Stores by Kabir Innovations is an online marketplace that offers organic health supplements and herbal products, sourcing directly from rural startups and women entrepreneurs. However, the brand faced a 25% return-to-origin (RTO) rate due to mismatched orders, relied on manual customer support, and had to spend heavily on marketing to reach their niche audience.

To address these challenges:

• Gallabox introduced a WhatsApp chatbot tool that transformed their operations. The bot engaged customers in real-time, counselling them based on their needs and significantly reducing RTOs.
• Customer queries and preferences were collected and stored in a shared database accessible to the entire team, streamlining customer service and personalizing product recommendations.
• Gallabox’s WhatsApp broadcast and labelling features allowed Sattvic to target niche segments with product-specific updates, leading to effective cross-selling and upselling while slashing marketing costs by 30%.

The results?

• Within just 30 days, Sattvic saw a 10% drop in RTO and onboarded over 2,000 customers in two months.
• The chatbot also saved 10,000 minutes of human effort and cut manual agent workload in half.

LivingStone Stays: Scattered communications to organized interactions and an increase in direct bookings

LivingStone Stays set out to redefine leisure travel by offering experiential holiday planning through a unified platform. However, scattered communication systems hindered their growth.

Teams lacked a centralized inbox, relied on multiple phone numbers, and manually drafted messages, leading to confusion and inefficiencies across customer, partner, and property owner interactions. IVR-based communication failed to provide the intuitive support for effective lead qualification and travel planning.

To resolve this, LivingStone Stays adopted Gallabox’s WhatsApp Business API.

• With a shared, multi-agent WhatsApp inbox, teams could manage all conversations from one number, removing confusion and boosting collaboration.

• Gallabox also built a rule-based chatbot to capture qualifying leads, enabling agents to step in only when needed.
  
  
• Pre-approved WhatsApp templates replaced manual messaging, saving significant time and effort across departments.
  
  
• Integration with Zoho CRM made broadcasting campaigns seamless and data-driven.
  
  

The transformation?

• The team’s communication became faster and more coordinated, leading to increased direct bookings.
  
  
• Managers gained visibility into conversations across all touchpoints, ensuring better oversight.
  

Is it possible to obtain the WhatsApp Business API without incurring costs?

Yes, you can access the WhatsApp Business API for free through Meta’s WhatsApp Cloud API. However, charges apply when sending messages; Meta uses a conversation-based pricing model. If you go through a Business Solution Provider (BSP), they may also add platform or service fees.

Is it possible to set up the WhatsApp Business API without a registered company?

No, a registered business is required. Meta mandates business verification through a Meta Business Manager account.

Can I use the WhatsApp Business API to send promotional messages to customers?

Yes, but only using pre-approved message templates. Meta now allows promotional content, provided it complies with their policies. These templates must be informative, relevant, and provide value to the customer.

Can multiple team members use the WhatsApp Business API to manage customer interactions?

Yes, platforms like Gallabox offer shared team inboxes that allow multiple users to manage conversations, assign chats, and collaborate with notes.

Is it necessary to use a Business Solution Provider (BSP) to access the WhatsApp Business API?

No, it's not strictly necessary. You can use Meta’s WhatsApp Cloud API directly. However, a BSP simplifies the process with dashboards, tools, integrations, and support, ideal for businesses seeking an easier WhatsApp Business API developer setup.