Integrations: SMS, WhatsApp and email

Steps

1. Go to Customer experience → Settings → Integrations (managers).
2. Bulk SMS: connect Africa’s Talking, or Safaricom, MTN, Airtel or another gateway (its send address, sign-in and message body); choose which one sends, the cost per SMS part, and give the provider the delivery reports address. Send a test SMS.
3. WhatsApp: connect WhatsApp Business (the phone number ID and access token from Meta). To take complaints in, tick Turn WhatsApp messages into tickets and, in the Meta app (WhatsApp → Configuration), enter the webhook URL and verify token shown, subscribed to *messages*.
4. Email: tick Turn complaint emails into tickets, then either read a mailbox (e.g. [email protected] - IMAP server, user and an app password; checked every 5 minutes, or Check the mailbox now) or forward emails from Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark, Cloudmailin or Zapier to the address shown.
5. Under Tickets from WhatsApp and email, choose the category, priority and owner of the tickets they open, and Save channels.

Good to know

• A customer writing again within 14 days - or quoting the ticket number (e.g. “Re: CX-00012”) - adds to their open ticket (shown as *From the customer*), and a ticket waiting for the customer goes back to work. The same message is never taken twice. WhatsApp free text reaches only people who wrote to you in the last 24 hours; to start a conversation WhatsApp needs an approved template. Credentials are stored encrypted - the same connections as in the API center.