WhatsApp Business app vs the WhatsApp Business Platform
The WhatsApp Business app is free and lives on a phone. It is fine for a single person, but it does not give a team a shared inbox, a safe way to automate messages, or connections to your other systems. The WhatsApp Business Platform (often called the API) is what CRMs such as TripSarthi connect to. It lets several agents answer from one number and lets software send messages on your behalf — within Meta’s rules.
The 24-hour customer-service window
When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it you can reply with ordinary free-form messages: text, images, PDFs, payment links. Every new message from the customer restarts the window. Once it closes, you cannot send free-form messages any more. To reach out again you must use a pre-approved template message.
For a travel agent this matters most at three moments: sending a quote, chasing a quote that went quiet, and reminding someone about an instalment.
Template messages
A template is a message whose wording Meta has approved in advance, with placeholders for details such as the customer’s name or booking reference. Meta sorts templates into categories — for example marketing, utility and authentication — and the category affects both approval and price. Useful travel templates include a booking confirmation, a payment reminder, a document request before departure and a quote follow-up. Meta decides the final category, so write templates that really are what they say they are: a payment reminder should remind about a payment, not sneak in an offer.
Opt-in and opt-out
- Message people who have given you their number to be contacted — an enquiry form, a click-to-WhatsApp ad, or a message they sent you.
- Do not upload bought lists.
- If someone says “stop”, stop. Make sure your automations honour it.
What does it cost?
Meta charges for messages according to their category and the country, and its pricing model changes from time to time. Check Meta’s current price list rather than relying on a blog post. A good CRM adds no markup of its own — with TripSarthi, Meta bills your own account directly.
A follow-up routine that respects the rules
- Reply within minutes. The first reply sets the tone. Ask for dates, number of travellers and budget.
- Send the quote while the window is open. A link to a day-wise quote page beats a long message.
- Follow up inside the window. A short “any questions on the itinerary?” a few hours later is free-form and costs nothing extra.
- After the window closes, use a template. A quote follow-up template after two or three days of silence.
- Automate payment reminders with utility templates. Three days before, on the due date, and after.
- Stop at opt-out or when a human should take over.
How TripSarthi helps
TripSarthi shows the 24-hour window on every conversation and chooses between free-form text and an approved template for you. Its travel automations — quote follow-up, booking confirmation, payment reminders, pre-departure checklist — check the window before every send and create a task for your team if no compliant message is possible. See the WhatsApp CRM for travel agents page for details.
