Skip to main content

Hello all,

We’re currently testing Manychat to see whether it will meet our requirements, but we are encountering a few scenarios where the 24-hour messaging window is a challenge.  For example:

We operate from 9:00  a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. So, in some cases, we may receive a message at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and cannot respond appropriately until Monday morning. 

We often engage and initiate conversations with our contacts outside of this window with follow-up messages. For example, five days after the initial conversation, we might send "Hi Simon, just to let you know we will deliver your laptop tomorrow at 1 PM" or "Hi Simon, I was wondering whether you had a chance to do Y."

We occasionally send a WhatsApp message to a new customer after speaking with them on the phone (we initiate a conversation).  For example, "Hi Simon, it was great talking to you on the phone. When you have a chance, could you send me X detail and some photos of your office?"

We may initiate a conversation requiring an IT partner to order equipment for us: "Hi IT partner, could you please reserve this laptop?"

Summary:

Some of our messages are not easily templated (e.g., "I was wondering if you had time to look at X" or "Can I order X laptop?"). 

We often start conversations ourselves (non-marketing). 

Many of our conversation replies fall outside the 24-hour messaging window.

I would be grateful for any advice on how to overcome these challenges. We are impressed with the platform and would like to give it a chance to succeed.

Many thanks,

Simon

Hey ​@simon-cizict how are you?

So this limitation is actually a Meta limitation. If you’re going to use the API, then you’ll have this limitation, whether you use Manychat or something else.

There are a few options:

Create templates with your most used scenarios

This is probably the easiest solution. Think of the most common reengagement scenarios, create templates for them, and use these.

Templates with User Fields

You can have templates with User Fields, where you fill in dynamic info on them.

For example, we use this to notify salespeople on the road of new leads through WhatsApp (sorry it’s in Spanish):

 

Another option (it’s the best, but probably not for you): Use CoExistence

Now it’s possible to connect an existing WhatsApp business app number to Manychat, and keep the app running on the phone AND have the automations run on Manychat. With this scenario, the follow up messages could be sent manually through the WhatsApp Business App.

However, this is not yet available for Europe and a couple other countries. And I see that you’re in Ireland. :(

 

If you need any help setting these up or discussing the best strategies, feel free to look me up at https://gusboregio.com - you’ll find my WhatsApp number there ;)

 

Hope this helps!

Hi Gustavo,

I’m well thank you!  Hope you are doing good too! 

Thank you for your prompt reply!

While we can create templates to cover most scenarios, there are a few scenarios that might be difficult to accomodate.  

Have you experience of using placeholders in templates that will allow us to enter information at the time of sending?  A simple example might be a message asking whether a customer is available at a specific time.  For example:

Hi {{First Name}}, are you available at {{1}}l3 PM] today?

Where we {{1}} is the placeholder that will allow us to type in the time (e.g. 3 pm) when we go to send the template.

Catering for periods (i.e. weekends) when we are not in the office is also something that i am trying to accomodate.  For example, if we get a query at 4pm on Friday but are unable to answer until we are back in the office on the following Monday.  If anyone works with a similar scenario i would be welcome to ideas on how to approach!

What is the typical time to approve a template in your experience?

Thanks again,

Simon

​@simon-cizict yes, you do that using User Fields as I showed you ;)

You’d have to set the fields first, then send the flow with the template, and that should work.

Templates usually get approved in a couple minutes.

Except when they don’t (I’d say maybe 10% of the time or when we’re making too many chances) - in which cases they get approved in a couple hours.

Reply


Community Terms & ConditionsCookie settings