Why WhatsApp comes first
For most Nigerian customers, WhatsApp is where a question starts. They send a voice note from the bus, a screenshot of a failed transfer, or a photo of a damaged parcel, and they expect the business to answer in the same chat.
That makes WhatsApp a customer service channel whether you planned it or not. The question is whether you run it from one phone at the front desk, or as a proper channel with a team, records and rules.
The Business app or the API?
Meta offers two products, and they suit different businesses.
- The WhatsApp Business app is free and runs on a phone. It suits one person or a very small team. It has quick replies, a greeting and an away message, but no real shared inbox, no assignment, no tickets and no reports.
- The WhatsApp Business Platform, usually called the WhatsApp Business API, is used through a provider such as Texa Desk. Many people answer from the same number, each conversation has an owner, and you can connect your own systems, automate answers and measure what happens.
To use the platform you need a Meta business portfolio, a phone number to connect, and a display name that Meta approves. Verifying your business with Meta is what lets you message more customers each day, so do it early.
Avoid tools that automate the ordinary WhatsApp or Business app outside Meta’s platform. They break WhatsApp’s terms, and the usual result is a banned number with your customers’ chat history on it.
The 24-hour customer service window
This is the rule that shapes everything else. When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it you can reply freely: text, photos, documents and voice notes. Every new message from the customer starts the 24 hours again.
Once the window closes, you can only start a conversation with a message template that Meta has approved. You can’t send an ordinary message, however urgent.
In practice this means two things. Answer quickly, while the window is open, which is where automatic answers help most. And for problems that take days, such as tracing a failed transfer, prepare a template for the update before you need it, for example “Update on your complaint PIL-1030: …”.
Message templates
Templates are messages you write once, submit to Meta for review, and fill in with details such as a name or a reference. Meta sorts them into three categories:
- Utility: about something the customer already has with you, such as an order update, a payment reminder or a complaint update.
- Marketing: offers, announcements and anything meant to sell.
- Authentication: one-time codes.
Meta charges for templates per message, at different rates by country and category, and it changes those prices from time to time. Check Meta’s current rate card before you plan a large send. In Texa Desk, Meta bills templates to your own Meta account; Texa doesn’t add a charge when your team sends a template in a conversation, and campaigns have their own published rate on the pricing page.
Write templates the way you would speak to a customer: say who you are, what happened and what they can do next. A utility template that reads like an advert may be classed as marketing.
Permission, limits and your quality rating
Before you message a customer first, they should have agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp, for example with a tick box when they open an account or at checkout. Make stopping easy, and respect it straight away.
Meta watches how customers react. If many people block or report your messages, your quality rating drops, and Meta can stop you messaging new customers or pause a template. Sending fewer, more useful messages is the only reliable fix.
There is also a messaging limit: the number of different customers you can start conversations with in a rolling 24 hours. New businesses start low, at 250 customers, and the limit rises as you verify your business and keep your quality high. It applies to all the numbers in your business portfolio together, and replies inside an open 24-hour window don’t count towards it.
Texa Desk’s campaigns check opt-outs and quiet hours before every send, and check the do-not-disturb list for SMS and calls.
Answering as a team from one number
Once more than one person answers, a few habits keep customers from being passed around:
- One owner per conversation. Everyone can see the chat, but one person is responsible for it.
- Internal notes, not side chats. Discuss the case inside the conversation, where the next person can read it.
- Tickets for problems that take days. Give the customer a reference, send updates on WhatsApp, and close the ticket only when the problem is solved, not when the chat goes quiet. See inbox and tickets.
- Promised times. Decide how quickly each kind of request gets an answer, and tell customers when the answer will take longer.
Voice notes, photos and languages
Many customers would rather talk than type, and many write in Pidgin. A good WhatsApp setup handles both. Texa transcribes voice notes word for word in the customer’s language, reads screenshots and receipts, and replies in English, Pidgin or Hausa, so your team can read a voice note in a second instead of playing it in an open office.
Never ask a customer to send a card PIN, an OTP or a full card number on WhatsApp, and tell them you never will. Texa Desk masks card numbers, PINs, BVN and NIN before anything is stored. See security.
A setup checklist
- Verify your business with Meta and choose your display name.
- Connect your number to Texa Desk and add the people who will answer.
- Fill in your profile: hours, address, website and a short description.
- Write your away message and the three or four templates you’ll need most: order or complaint updates, payment reminders, appointment reminders.
- Give Texa your approved answers and processes, and set promised times for each kind of request.
- Start Texa in shadow mode, where it drafts and your team sends. Read our guide to using AI safely.
- Every week, read a sample of conversations and fix what went wrong.
