WhatsApp Business API is an assistant that provides a full-fledged communication of the company with its clients with no restrictions on outgoing messages. Users often have difficulties with the connection and configuration of the WhatsApp Business API. Please read the guide through all the required steps and get ready to go straight to validation.
Steps for verification
1. Register an account on FBM — Facebook* Business Manager
2. Create a business page for verification
4. Fill in your company information as required
5. Add the main page to the company information
6. Confirm the domain of your website
7. Add the information to your website
8. Contact your manager and fill out the service provider form
9. Enable two-factor authentication and add additional administrators
11. Confirm the company information
As of May 2022, you don't necessarily need to confirm your company to communicate with customers using WhatsApp Business API.
Simply create an FBM account, link a completed company business page to it, fill in the company information, and confirm the domain. After that, contact your account manager to connect WhatsApp Business API via Chat2Desk. You can start communicating with customers from this point, though there are some limitations. At this stage, you will be able to:
- respond to an unlimited number of incoming dialogs per day,
- initiate 250 outgoing dialogs per day,
- register two phone numbers, which can be assigned to one WABA account or distributed between two different ones.
To increase the available limit for sending messages, you will need to confirm the company or improve the quality of your account. This is covered in step 10.
If you already have a completed Facebook* business account, skip to step 7.
Step one. Register an account on FBM — Facebook* Business Manager
FBM requires the creation of a private account on Facebook*. To start your work with FBM, if you don't already have an account, you'll need to complete a simple registration process.
- Follow the link: https://business.facebook.com *. Press Create an account.
- Fill in all the items with individual information: surname and first name, company name, working email address. To confirm your registration, you will receive an email from FBM.
Step two. Create a business page for verification
You are unable to view a private site, therefore it is necessary to create a business account.
- To do so, navigate to the Menu and select Page.
- From there, provide all necessary information in the site creation field, including the country name, category, and a brief site description.
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Next, start actively filling your business account.
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Step three. Add your page to FBM*
- Sign in to your FBM*.
- Navigate to Accounts > Pages.
- Add your previously created page.
There's a great possibility allowing users to create an unlimited number of pages on Facebook. To pass verification, you must link one or more pages to FBM.
Step four. Fill in the business information as required
Log in to the account for the Business Manager. Then visit Business Information section. There you need to fill in the fields with legal information about the company.
- The name of the Facebook* page and your company name. They may differ, but identical names will facilitate faster verification.
- The phone number shall necessarily be associated to a business or individual that is already approved and verified within Business Manager.
- All submitted documents must undergo verification. Ensure that the company name you provided during registration matches the name on the documents. Individuals should double-check the spelling of both their first and last name.
| Fill in all the fields in your account accurately. Keep in mind that all data on the page must exactly match the documents. This will help registration in the future. Note that the company information should be on your website. It is best to add it to the footer of the site so that you can find it and check it more easily. |
Step five. Add the main page to the company information
After filling in the company information, you need to specify your company's main Facebook page.
Go to the Business Account Info section and fill in the name of your company page in the Primary Page field.
Step six. Confirm the domain of your website
Go to Brand Security > Domains section and carefully follow the instructions provided. After filling it out correctly, you will receive the status Verified. For more details on how to verify the domain of your website read the instructions here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/321167023127050 *
Step seven. Post the information on your website
Place the following information on the home page of the website (most often, such information is placed in the footer):
- Address and postal code
- Company name
- Taxpayer identification number
- Phone number
- The email address in the domain of your website. For example, a website www.chat2desk.com the address must be specified email@chat2desk.com.
| This information must completely match the data that you provided during registration. Companies often fail at the address verification stage, so be careful! You should not edit these details during the verification process. |
Step eight. Contact your manager and fill out the service provider form
To connect WhatsApp Business API, contact your account manager. They will help you fill out the provider form.
Now your number is registered and connected to Chat2Desk and you can communicate with clients, but with limitations. To send messages to more clients and get other features, go to the next step to confirm your company.
Benefits of being a verified company:
- Scalable customer communication: you'll start with 1,000 unique customers per day and can increase that number to 10,000, 100,000, and to infinity with one phone number.
- Unlimited correspondence: you will have the ability to communicate with any number of customers who start the communication themselves.
- Ability to submit a green check mark request. We told you about the possibilities of this chip and how to get it in our article.
- The ability to register additional phone numbers for use within the service.
Another tool that allows you to increase the number of available conversations without the company's confirmation is improving the quality of your phone number. This is something like verification: WhatsApp will realize that you are committed and will not block or disable your account due to inactivity.
Read more about how to increase the rating and the number of available correspondence here.
Step nine. Enable two-factor authentication and add additional administrators
Note that if there is only one administrator at the moment, the verification will not work. To successfully pass the FBM check, we recommend adding another administrator. It is also important that the admin enabled two-factor authentication.
If all the actions were performed correctly, cheers! Your account is fully configured and ready to work.
- After having successfully registered, enable Two-Factor Authentication will be required to be enabled. To do this, go to Security Center and find the Two-factor authentication button.
- After setting up authentication, create a backup administrator: Security Center > Add > Add backup administrator.
Step ten. Confirm the company information
The final stage! The only thing you have to do is the collection of the necessary documents and their submission for approval.
- Prepare documents
What documents are needed for verification:
- Certificate/Articles of Incorporation
- Business Registration or License Document
- Government Issued Business Tax Document: For example, a Tax Certificate. Do not fill the tax documents yourself. This will not work.
- Business Bank Statement
- Utility Bill: However, a utility bill cannot be used to verify the Legal Business Name. For Business Address and Phone number verification, a utility bill is required. The Legal Business Name must be present on the utility bill.
Requirements for documentation:
- PDF file.
- Absence of defects (spots, creases).
- Printing: conventional or digital.
- Visit Security Center and initiate the confirmation process by pressing Start Verification.
- Follow the instructions provided by Facebook*, making sure your information is accurate, press Next.
- Load the necessary documents.
- Press Next button again. In the window that opens, load the documents confirming your company's address.
- Press Next button again. Now you need to choose one of the verification methods: company website, mobile phone number, or email.
Upon completion of registration, make sure that you have entered the current email and telephone number, as a confirmation request is sent only to the specified contacts.
If all the fields were filled in correctly, the application will be sent to Facebook* for verification, the process will be fast and without any difficulties.
Step eleven. Start chatting
As soon as your connection to the WABA is established, start actively interacting with customers, this will help avoid blockages and show WhatsApp that you are active and don't need to be deactivated due to inactivity.
Congratulations, now you are ready to use the WhatsApp Business API!
Important! The next stage includes creating HSM templates in the 360dialog personal account and then sending them via Chat2Desk. Detailed instructions on how to perform these actions are given here.
Note
When you start a correspondence with clients, a 24-hour window for communication opens. It is essential to remember that sending outgoing messages does not extend the period of time allotted for communication with the client.
The fee may be charged under the following circumstances:
- If you are sending an outgoing message (in the form of an HSM template) to a completely new client with whom you have not had a conversation before. If you send an HSM template as part of a conversation in which 24 hours have passed since the last client message. Until your WABA account is verified, the daily limit of 250 outgoing messages remains in effect.
- Responding to a customer's message results in a charge. However, simply receiving an incoming message from a client remains free.
If you have any questions left after reading this article or you would like to test how a chat center will affect conversion rates, contact us via the widget in the bottom right corner of the website.
