Sending a Follow-up WhatsApp Message After 3 Days Using Zendesk Automations and the Zendesk WhatsApp Connector

Customer engagement is crucial for building lasting relationships. A well-timed follow-up can ensure customer satisfaction and demonstrate your commitment to support. Using the Zendesk WhatsApp Connector, sending a follow-up WhatsApp message after 3 days can be seamless. Here’s how to do it:

1.- Create a WhatsApp Template using the Zendesk WhatsApp Connector

First, create your follow-up message template using the Zendesk WhatsApp Connector. See how to do it in this link.

Example Message:

Hello {{1}}, we hope your issue has been resolved. If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out. We're here to help!

2.- Create an Automation in Zendesk

Automations in Zendesk can check conditions periodically and perform actions when those conditions are met. To create a 3-day follow-up automation:

1. Navigate to the Zendesk Admin Center.
2. Go to Automations and click on Add Automation.
3. Set up your automation with the following conditions:
   • • Ticket: Status is less than Pending (to ensure unresolved tickets receive follow-ups).
     • Ticket: Channel is WhatsApp
     • Ticket: Hours since requester update (Is calendar) is 72.
4. Add an action to send the WhatsApp message using the Zendesk WhatsApp Connector API and a Zendesk Webhook. If you don't have this set up already, here is how to do it.

The Webhook must send a POST request with the following data:

You need to enter the following data:

• ticket_id: {{ticket.id}}
• language: is a 2 letter language code, that corresponds to the language of the template you want to use. For example, ES is Spanish, EN is English, FR is French. Use exactly the same language; if for example you create your template as ES_MX, use that as parameter, not just ES.
• template_name: It is the Facebook name of the template you entered in the WhatsApp Connector in step 1. It must be lowercase, with no spaces.
• messages[0][phone]: {{ticket.requester.phone}}. The phone number the WhatsApp message will be sent to.
• messages[0][ri_body_param_1]: The value of the variable in the body of the template, in this case the requester name.

You can optionally include the parameter add_to_queue: "true" if your trigger or automation may send many notifications all at once to your customers; if you don’t include it, you might get system errors and your users will not be notified.

You can see all the parameters that can be used by looking at the technical documentation here.

Some things to consider

• Always make sure to use blocks of 1 day (24, 48, 72,92...) for the calendar hours. You don´t want your customer to receive your message late at night.
• Your template must obviously be approved by WhatsApp.
• Be sure to always include the user´s country code in all phones.
• You must adapt the Notify Webhook action to suit your template language and parameters. If for example your template does not include the requester name, do not include the messages[0][ri_body_param_1] line.
• You may also add tags within your actions if you want your message to be sent just once.
• You can check if the automation is working under the Activity tab in the Webhooks section of your Zendesk administration center.
• If you have your template already created in the WhatsApp Administrator at Facebook for Business, just skip step 1.

Contact us

Contact us if you have queries about setting up this notification workflow, or any other question related to WhatsApp, Zendesk, or our app.