Our last post covered the steps for XYZ Medical Supplies to set up their Service Cloud Digital Engagement to allow for inbound Whatsapp messages.
Today’s post is going to outline the slightly more complicated process of setting up the Outbound WhatsApp messages.
Our Developer Helené spent a lot of time understanding this process as there were quite a few challenges along the way that were not readily available in existing Salesforce documentation.
WhatsApp Templates
WhatsApp message “templates” need to be approved by Meta. The integration of WhatsApp templates for clients can only be done once Meta has approved these templates.
The process to follow to get this done is as follows:
- Send an email to “WhatsappEnablement@salesforce.com” stating that you want to create Messaging Templates for the Salesforce org (also provide the ID of the org)
- Make sure the following license has been purchased: “Digital Engagement SKU”. This license is needed to be able to send out the actual messages
- The WhatsApp Enablement team will open a tracker document, usually in Quip
- There are certain conventions that need to be followed for WhatsApp templates as stipulated here. For example, the template name has to be unique, lowercase and no spaces just underscores, no promotional content and no grammar or spelling errors
- There are ten different template categories to choose from as stated in this document to assign to the templates
- In the tracker document you are required to update the status:
- When the template is still being developed, the template status must be “New”
- When the template has been finished, change the status to “Ready for Review”
- The WhatsApp Enablement team will also provide updates on the “status” of the template:
- “Waiting for WhatsApp Approval”, this step can take a few days as Meta now has to approve the template
- “Updated – Live” means that Meta has approved the template and it can now be used. Copy the approved template into Salesforce
- In Setup in the quick find box type: “Messaging Templates” and create your templates
- The WhatsApp Enablement team will also provide access to a website to verify that the template you are copying into the Messaging Templates in the Salesforce org is exactly the same as the templates in the Quip tracker document
You are able to use Process Builder (we do not recommend it as Process Builder is being decommissioned) or Lightning Flow to trigger the sending of the WhatsApp Templates which uses the “Messaging Notification Core Action” where you select the WhatsApp channel.
You should be ready to go now!
Here is a recap of some of the handy tips and tricks we have learnt which could be useful in helping you implement WhatsApp in the Salesforce org:
- The format for the mobile number which receives the outbound messages must always be “whatsapp:+(country code)(mobile number)”
- Double check spelling and grammar in WhatsApp templates. The templates may be approved but spelling and grammar errors may still be present and cause Meta to block the templates
- The Channel-Object Linking option for WhatsApp is a neat Linking Rule, which automatically links contacts or leads to incoming WhatsApp user mobile numbers, or prompts an agent that there is an existing lead or contact as explained in this document
- If using lightning flow to send an outbound WhatsApp template to an object other than “Messaging User”, the “Recipient ID” and “Recipient Phone Number” must be included in the “Messaging Notification Core Action” for more info on this, read this document
How do you find these steps? Did you manage to successfully implement the inbound and outbound Whatsapp messages?
Did you find these tips useful? Do you have any of your own you would like to share?
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