WhatsApp Chatbots are Easy and Powerful with SnatchBot

 

Billions of people are using WhatsApp and the tool is becoming more and more popular as a quick and easy way to form groups and share information. For businesses, it is vital to be a part of the WhatsApp ecosystem and that means having WhatsApp chatbots. The scale and volume of activity on WhatsApp means that only that automation of communication between a company and its users over WhatsApp makes sense. With WhatsApp chatbots you can scale your messaging to billions of people and, even better, have genuine conversations with your users rather than bombard them with spam.

With SnatchBot’s ‘broadcast’ feature, you can reach out to your users on WhatsApp, having filtered them to receive the exact news that they are interested in. Better still, the chat is a two-way experience for the user, where he or she can steer the conversation and follow up on your offers or announcements in a very personal way.

SnatchBot is the best tool for building WhatsApp chatbots, because we have all the features you need to create smart, AI-driven conversational experiences with your users, thanks especially to our proprietorial Natural Language Processing engine. Our WhatsApp chatbots can understand users with human-like accuracy and integrate with your backend to automate processes like taking orders, payments, bookings, issuing tickets, managing your CRM, etc.

As WhatsApp chatbots are still at the BETA stage, you need to be a business to create them and to make an application to do so. WhatsApp will assess whether you meet their criteria for access to the WhatsApp Business API. With SnatchBot, the process of getting access to WhatsApp chatbots is quick and you have a better chance of obtaining approval when you work with us. This is because SnatchBot are a certified WhatsApp partner and can act as a managing intermediary for you. Already, thousands of WhatsApp chatbots have been built on our platform, exchanging millions of messages.

What are the requirements for making a WhatsApp chatbot?

Firstly, you need to have a Facebook Business Manager account.

Secondly, you need a SnatchBot ProPlan for your WhatsApp chatbot, starting at the $79 a month level.

Thirdly, you need a phone number. Ideally, this is one that is not already registered with WhatsApp or WhatsApp for Business. If you need to migrate a phone number from the WhatsApp for Business App to get the WhatsApp for Business API, this is possible although note you cannot import your contacts and you must delete the phone number from the Business App. Here’s how to manage the migration with our help: https://support.snatchbot.me/docs/phone-migration.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating your WhatsApp Chatbot

The First Step in creating a WhatsApp chatbot is to create your chatbot. It doesn’t need to have every detail of the conversation flow worked out but have sufficient interactions to test the features you intend to use. To start your WhatsApp chatbot register here.

As a Second Step, open the channels page for this chatbot on the SnatchBot dashboard, there you will see the WhatsApp option.

For Step Three, click the Go To form in order to register your phone number with WhatsApp. You can also complete this step by using this link. https://hub.360dialog.com/lp/submit-waba/N8q9EFPA

When you complete the form, make sure you adhere to the WhatsApp policies, you can read about them here:

https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-solution-terms and https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-solution-terms and especially https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/commerce-policy/

Having submitted the details of your phone number and business, you’ll be shown a screen on which you accept the terms of use for 360Dialog and Facebook Client.

Step Four involves logging in to 360Dialog, where you can see a draft version of your WhatsApp account. All you have to do is simply wait for this draft to be reviewed by us and by Facebook. Assuming the review is successful, it is via this 360Dialog hub that you will find your API Key. Of course, we do our best to ensure every business working with us passes the review, but ultimately this is decided by WhatsApp.

Step Five. After approval, go to your Facebook Business Manager account and log in. Choose Business Settings and then open Requests. There you will find a Received option, which has a request to allow ‘messaging on behalf’. Click Approve.

Step Six is the completion of your Business verification. Here’s all you need to know from Facebook about that: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2058515294227817 . There are some documents needed, which will be reviewed by Facebook, who will then confirm your business verification with an email and via your Business Manager account dashboard.

Step Seven involves finishing your registration at the 360Dialog Hub. Having verified your business and number, you’ll see a message REGISTRATION_READY in your account. Clicking on Trigger Registration will allow you to collect a 6-digit PIN, which you can also obtain via a phone call or SMS. When you have the code, click Finish Registration and you’ll be promoted to enter it. Let us know if you use an Interactive Voice Response system and we’ll provide you with two numbers for taking the voice verification call.

All these steps take time, but they are not too challenging. With our hope you should progress towards verification fairly smoothly. And now that you can retrieve the crucial API key, the final step is very quick.

Step Eight is the retrieval of the D360-API-KEY which can be found in your 360Dialog Hub. You should also see a green dot inside the WhatsApp Account and Phone Number boxes, these indicate that the number is ready for use by the WhatsApp Business API.

Copy this API key and paste it in the appropriate line having opened the WhatsApp channel box in the SnatchBot Channels dashboard.

You’re finished! You can now send a message to your registered phone number and your chatbot will respond. Congratulations on your WhatsApp Chatbot.

Get started with your WhatsApp chatbot and register here.

Read more about SnatchBot's WhatsApp solution here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I still work with WhatsApp Business App after migrating to API?

No, the old WhatsApp Buiness account must be deleted in order to apply for API access. Once the migration to WhatsApp Business API is complete, the conversation can be handled only from Inbox and via automated bot's messages.

What do I need to connect my bot with WhatsApp?

You must apply to get your phone number and display name approved by Facebook (https://support.snatchbot.me/docs/whatsapp) in the Channels tab.
Approval for this might take up to several weeks and we may reach out to you to confirm some details and guide you along the way. We are hosting the entire infrastructure on our side and you will not have to pay any extra fees for the migration or the customer volume, except for your regular Pro Plan package.
Note that previously existing WhatsApp accounts associated with the submitted phone number will be removed.

What are the requirements for a business to be approved?

Make sure your use cases are compliant with WhatsApp policies and are use cases that respect WhatsApp guidelines. WhatsApp requires compliance with:

• WhatsApp Business Solution Terms,
• WhatsApp Business Solution Policy
• Commerce Policy.

What are possible reasons why my business might not get pre-approval?

a) You offer or sell
Illegal, prescription or recreation drugs, including marijuana
Tobacco products and related paraphernalia
Unsafe supplements
Weapons, ammunition or explosives
Animals
Adult items or services
Alcohol
Adult health items
Real money gambling services
Goods, items, or posts that we determine may be or are fraudulent, misleading, deceptive or offensive
Items or products with overtly sexualized positioning
Products or items that facilitate or encourage unauthorized access to digital media which do not comply with Facebook's policies.
b) Your audience might be younger than 16.
c) You request a phone number for countries or regions where WhatsApp/Facebook do not operate, such as the Crimea region.

Can I upgrade from a mobile WhatsApp consumer number or a mobile/landline WhatsApp for Business client number?

Yes, sure! Just read our migration guide.
Technically we can set up existing numbers if they are linked to the WhatsApp for Business client (or with some more effort numbers linked to a regular WhatsApp consumer client), BUT we cannot migrate numbers that have been set up by another Business Solution Provider. This is not possible from a technical point of view.

What are the possible reasons for the failure of a registration of a number?

a) A client is installed (a WhatsApp consumer client or WhatsApp for Business client)
b) Your WhatsApp for Business profile is still linked to the WhatsApp for Business client. Make sure that your profile gets deleted first which might require that you reinstall an already uninstalled WhatsApp for Business client before you can delete the profile.

Can I change my phone number?

This can be achieved by setting up a new phone number and by phasing out the old phone number. New phone numbers will start again at the lowest quality tier and will be automatically upgraded to higher tiers as more messages with a high quality are sent.

Can I use location sharing?

WhatsApp for Business API supports location sharing, but real-time location sharing is currently unsupported and will result in “Message type is unsupported”.

Can I use the WhatsApp business mobile app to view conversations?

No, this is not possible after the migration.

Can I send broadcasts to anyone I want?

Cut-off control prevents messages from being delivered to users outside of certain conditions. Here's a summary of the requirements:

• Regular text messages or media messages (i.e., any non-Template Messages) can only be delivered within the 24 hour period after the customer sent a message to your business.
• Template Messages do not have this restriction and should be the preferred way of reaching a customer.
• Business account should be eligible for payments
  If a message does not meet any of these requirements an error code is sent and the message is not delivered.

Will I loose data during the phone migration?

Deleting the WhatsApp account on your Android or iPhone will cause any incoming messages to be queued by the WhatsApp servers and then subsequently delivered upon successful registration.

Can I import my backup using the WhatsApp for Business API?

There is currently no option to import previous conversations.