Help Customers in WhatsApp
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Exchange WhatsApp messages with customers from the Service Console.
- Send messaging components in an enhanced WhatsApp messaging session.
- End or transfer an enhanced WhatsApp messaging session.
Activate Your WhatsApp Channel
Maria knows her channel is ready for business. It’s time to activate it so that Ursa Major Solar’s support team can start helping customers over WhatsApp. Here are the steps she takes.
- In Setup, go to the Messaging Settings page and click the channel’s name.
- At the top of the page, click Activate Channel.
- Click View Checklist and verify that all channel setup steps are complete.
- Click Activate.
Accept a Customer’s WhatsApp Message
It’s a big moment in the Ursa Major Solar office. Maria sits down with an experienced support agent, Jessica Tanaka, to test out their new enhanced WhatsApp channel. Maria will be sending messages to Ursa Major Solar from her personal WhatsApp account, and Jessica will respond from the Service Console.
First, Jessica goes online in Omni-Channel so that she can accept incoming messages. Here are the steps she follows.
- Click
and select the Service Console app.
- Click Omni-Channel in the footer of your screen to expand the Omni-Channel utility.
- Click the dropdown menu and select your status. Jessica selects Available—Messaging. When a green dot appears next to the status, you’re ready to chat with customers.
Maria sends a WhatsApp message to Ursa Major’s WhatsApp number. She receives the auto-response prompt to opt into receiving messages, and sends the keyword. Maria’s messaging session then appears in the New tab in Jessica’s Omni-Channel utility. Jessica clicks the checkmark to accept the message, and the messaging session is active!
Now, let’s experiment with sending different types of content in the channel.
Send Messages in WhatsApp
To create a stellar customer experience, Maria wants Jessica and the rest of the Ursa Major Solar support team to be familiar with the many types of content that they can send and receive in enhanced WhatsApp channels. Here’s how they test out the channel.
Send Text and Emojis
Sending text works exactly how you’d expect. To send an emoji, click the emoji icon.
Send Quick Text
To send a quick text snippet, click the quick text icon and search for the snippet you need.
Send Images, Videos, and Files
To send an image, video, or other type of file, click the paperclip icon. Select the file, then press Send.
Send Voice Messages
Give your web browser access to your microphone. Then, click the microphone icon (1) and start talking. Click the stop icon (2) when you’re done. At that point, you can play back (3) or discard your message (4). When you’re happy with it, send it to the customer (5).
Send Messaging Components
To send a messaging component with static content, like the Contact Reason component that Maria created, click the messaging component icon in the messaging window. Then, click Send.
Optionally, use the filter at the top to show only components of a certain type. Select your component in the list, and then click Send.
When the customer clicks an option, it’s sent as a response.
To send a messaging component with dynamic content, like the Order Selector component that Maria created, find the corresponding Flow component and run the flow to insert the component into the message field. Then, click Send.
When the customer clicks an option it’s sent as a response message.
Get Help from a Supervisor
To get help from a supervisor without the customer being aware, click the flag icon and enter your question. Supervisors are alerted in Omni Supervisor and can “whisper” an answer. Click the icon again to lower your flag. Jessica’s particularly excited about this feature, which will give their remote agents an easy way to get help from a supervisor who’s in a different location.
Tip: Admins can also use Einstein Conversation Intelligence to automatically raise an agent’s flag whenever an agent or customer sends a certain word or phrase.
Transfer or End Your Messaging Session
After perfecting the WhatsApp customer service experience, Jessica decides to say goodbye (to the customer, that is). Agents can wrap up a WhatsApp messaging session in several ways.
Mark the Session Inactive
Sometimes customers stop responding to messages, and agents aren’t sure why. Possible reasons include boredom, distraction, drowsiness, and passing ice cream trucks. Regardless of the reason, here’s one way to mark a messaging session inactive to free up your capacity.
- Click the dropdown menu in the messaging window.
- Select Customer Inactive.
If the customer sends a message after the session is marked inactive, the session is rerouted to the next available agent. Inactive sessions are automatically ended after approximately one day.
Transfer the Session
If you aren’t able to help a customer, don’t leave ’em hanging. Transfer them to another agent, queue, or Omni-Channel routing flow to get their issue resolved.
- Click the transfer icon
in the lower-left corner of the Conversation component.
- Search for and select an agent, flow, or queue. The transfer window shows up to five transfer recipients in alphabetical order. Agent status isn’t shown.
When the selected agent accepts the transfer, the original agent is removed from the conversation.
End the Session
If you resolved the customer’s issue…awesome! Just click End Chat in the messaging window and close the session tab.
With a successful WhatsApp test complete, the Ursa Major Solar customer support team is ready to help customers over WhatsApp. Jessica records a quick training video for the rest of the support team, and Maria prepares a plan to publicize the WhatsApp channel on the website and in outreach materials. Next step: solar market domination. Well done, Ursa Major Solar, and well done, you!
Resources
- Salesforce Help: Message with Customers in the Service Console
- Salesforce Help: Send Messaging Components in Enhanced Messaging Sessions
- Salesforce Help: Transfer a Messaging Session
- Salesforce Help: Lifecycle of a Messaging Session in Service Cloud