WhatsApp Flows: How to Create and Use it. (With Examples)

What are WhatsApp Flows?

WhatsApp introduced WhatsApp Flows in September 2023. This is a major update that WhatsApp has brought for all the businesses and brands who use WhatsApp for marketing, lead generation, customer interactions, etc. 

Using WhatsApp Flows you can now eliminate back-and-forth conversations for tasks like collecting feedback, scheduling appointments, generating and qualifying leads; and other such tasks. It is an inbuilt / in-app form, like google forms which a brand can send out to its customers or target audience to complete a particular activity without any frictions.

There are so many ways you can use WhatsApp Flows, and benefit from it. In this blog we will talk about the end-to-end process of how to set-up WhatsApp Flows, and how to make use of it to get the maximum ROI from WhatsApp. Keep your reading glasses on, as we dive deep into the topic further. 

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Benefits of WhatsApp Flows?

1. Stay in “The Flow” of Conversations

WhatsApp Flows keep users engaged within the chat, allowing seamless, interactive experiences without the need to switch to external portals. This reduces friction and businesses can efficiently address customer needs in a single conversation flow.

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2. Increased Efficiency

Previously, complex interactions required numerous messages or links. Now, businesses can build personalized experiences using modular building blocks, or “Components,” that help users complete actions like signups, bookings, and inquiries swiftly.

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3. Enhanced Customer Experience

The customizable design allows brands to deliver smooth, hyper-personalized interactions that cater directly to each customer’s preferences and past behavior. This enhances customer satisfaction and ease of use.

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4. Higher Conversion Rates

By embedding promotions, appointments, feedback forms, and more within the WhatsApp interface, users can view offers, review details, and complete actions within the same screen. This simplicity makes users more likely to convert.

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5. Better Personalization Experiences

WhatsApp Flows enable businesses to send highly tailored content that responds to customer demographics, preferences, and past interactions, fostering loyalty and stronger connections with the brand.

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6. Increased Customer Retention

Through instant support, proactive notifications, and tailored offers, WhatsApp Flows contribute to customer retention, helping businesses build long-term relationships and nurture brand advocates.

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These benefits make WhatsApp Flows a versatile tool for any business. With WhatsApp Flows, businesses can improve interaction quality, streamline communication, and drive growth.

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Some ways businesses are using WhatsApp Flows to their benefits are:

1. Seamless Promotions and Rewards

WhatsApp Flows make it easy for businesses to offer interactive promotions and reward sign-ups directly in the chat, allowing users to redeem offers or discounts without switching apps or remembering promo codes.

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2. Customer Feedback Collection

With built-in forms, WhatsApp Flows simplify gathering customer feedback, assigning case numbers, and instantly responding to inquiries, making it convenient for users to share valuable insights.

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3. Frictionless Appointment Booking

Customers can book appointments or make reservations within the chat itself. This eliminates the need for phone calls or external booking sites.

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4. Simplified Product or Quote Requests

Businesses can offer personalized quotes by guiding customers through simple questions, ensuring quick, customized responses.

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5. Enhanced Support with Chatbot Integration

When combined with chatbots, WhatsApp Flows allow for swift, automated responses to FAQs and common queries. All these without any need of customer service agents, leaving them for more complex issues.

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Types of WhatsApp Flows

1. WhatsApp Flows Without Data Exchange

These flows don’t require external data integration. They’re designed to guide users through tasks or answer basic questions within the chat.

Example: Imagine a restaurant using WhatsApp to streamline table bookings. A customer initiates a booking flow, selects their preferred date and time, and confirms. All within WhatsApp, without needing an external database connection. This offers users a simple, frictionless experience that boosts customer satisfaction.

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2. WhatsApp Flows With Data Exchange

These types of WhatsApp Flows integrate with external systems to offer more dynamic, personalized experiences by exchanging data in real-time. This could include pulling customer-specific details or syncing with CRM systems for personalized recommendations.

Example: An eCommerce business uses a data-exchange-enabled flow to recommend products based on user purchase history stored in their CRM. When a customer asks for product recommendations, WhatsApp accesses CRM data to provide personalized suggestions. This personalized interaction enhances customer engagement and can lead to higher conversions.

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Use cases of WhatsApp Flows 

Here are some common use cases businesses can use WhatsApp Flows for:

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1. Booking and Scheduling Appointments

WhatsApp Flows help you in online appointment booking and streamline appointment management by allowing customers to view available slots, book, and receive confirmations instantly within WhatsApp. This is especially valuable for industries like healthcare, salons, and hospitality.

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2. Generating Leads

Businesses can use flows to qualify leads by collecting information through structured forms. For example, potential customers can be guided to enter details like their preferences, helping the business segment lead more effectively.

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3. Conducting Surveys

With customizable flow options, businesses can run quick surveys directly in the chat. This is useful for gathering customer feedback or market research, as users can complete surveys without leaving the app, boosting response rates.

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Below we have discussed examples of some industries and how they can make use of WhatsApp Flows.

1. Retail

Retailers can use WhatsApp Flows to allow customers to track orders, inquire about stock availability, or receive product recommendations. Customers simply input their order ID and get real-time updates directly in the chat.

Example: A customer wants to track their latest order. Using a flow without data exchange, they can access status updates quickly within WhatsApp.

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2. Healthcare

Healthcare providers can leverage flows to simplify appointment bookings, rescheduling, or cancellations. This reduces phone traffic and provides a convenient way for patients to manage appointments.

Example: A patient comes on WhatsApp and intends to book an appointment. The automation and WhatsApp Flows are already in place and thus the process initiates. Patient selects a date and time, and receives an instant confirmation, streamlining the process and keeping everything in one platform.

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3. Events

For event management, WhatsApp Flows can simplify registration processes, confirmations, and reminders. Attendees can use the flow to register, choose ticket types, and confirm attendance within a single interface.

Example: An event attendee registers through a flow with data exchange, enabling personalized ticketing information and event details.

Each of these use cases demonstrates “how to use WhatsApp Flows” across different industries to streamline operations and enhance customer experience. Let me know if you'd like additional examples or details!

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How to create a WhatsApp Flow

Requirement: 

• WhatsApp Business API 
• FBM Account (connected to the same WhatsApp Business API)

Step 1: Go to WhatsApp Flow Playground.

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Step 2: Create the form as you want. It’s a simple drag and drop task.

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Step 3: Once you are done with creating your form, click on “Copy Flow JSON” to copy the JSON code.

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Step 4: Now go to your Facebook Business Manager (FBM) and click on the 3 horizontal lines on the sidebar at the left hand side.

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Step 5: Go to “WhatsApp Manager” under “Manage”.

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Step 6: Go to “Flows” under “Account tools”.

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Step 7: Click on the blue button on top right corner named “Create flow”

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Step 8: Fill in the details then hit “Create” in the bottom right corner.

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Step 9: Now you will see a code written under “Editor”. Replace this with the earlier copied JSON code. Hit “Run” to test the flow. 

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[PS: If you are familiar with JSON, feel free to make changes here on your own.]

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Step 10: Once checked, save the WhatsApp Flow by clicking on the “Save” button on the top right side then hit “Publish”.

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Step 11: Once the flow is published, it can be added to template messages used for your broadcasting campaigns or can be utilized directly in your WhatsApp automation journeys.

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Step 12: Your WhatsApp Flow is now created. You can see the published flow in the “Flows” section under “Account tools”.

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Now it’s time to deploy the WhatsApp Flow. If you want to send this to a bulk audience, you should have a third party service provider. This is because WhatsApp Flows cannot be sent to a bulk audience directly from your WhatsApp app. It needs API calls to send, and third party platforms enable you to send bulk API calls. 

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There are many options available, one of which is Engati. Engati is one of the easiest and smoothest Conversational AI platforms for your WhatsApp Automation, WhatsApp marketing, broadcasting and WhatsApp flow deployment.

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Benefits of using Engati to deploy your WhatsApp flow 

1. Get WhatsApp Message Template Free For Lifetime

With Engati, you get lifetime access to a library of WhatsApp Message Templates which are ready to use. All you need to do is tweak them a little as per your requirements.

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2. eSenceGPT 

eSenceGPT is a proprietary NLP of Engati. With Engati’s intelligent AI-driven responses, you can enrich your conversation and customer engagement to better experience.

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3. Easy to set up backend (one click integration) 

Engati has a user-friendly back-end, making it super easy for you to integrate anything. All you need to do is just one click on the WhatsApp Flow integration and your work is done.

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4. OneView Inbox

Engati has a feature called OneView Inbox. It enables you to access all customer interactions in a single view, streamlining communication management.

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5. Easy Data Management

Manage customer data and analytics seamlessly to optimize engagement strategies.

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Deploy WhatsApp Flow with Engati

Deploying WhatsApp Flow with Engati is really easy. There are two ways you can send out your WhatsApp Flows:

1. Send out direct broadcast
2. Send it through your automated journey

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Let me take you through the steps.

1. Send via direct broadcast

To make the process simple for your understanding I am breaking it down to two phases. 

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Phase 1: Get template approval from META

To seamlessly deploy your flow via your WhatsApp broadcast you have to get your flow approved as a template from META. It’s a very simple process. 

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Step 1: In your Facebook Business Manager under WhatsApp Manager, go to “Message templates” then click on the blue button on the top right corner named, “Create Template”.

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Step 2: Under “Set up template” select “Marketing” then tap on “Flows”.

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Step 3: Name your template and then under “Flow setup” click no “Use existing”.

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Step 4: Select the flow you created and submit.

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Step 5: Now you can customize the message that a user will see before they click on the button and go to the flow. You can play around to customize the message, button, etc. and once done Submit it for review by clicking on “Submit for review button”

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Then click on "Confirm"

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[Usually the template gets approved within a few minutes.]

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Phase 2: Send out your broadcast with Engati

Once your template is approved it is now a matter of time to get your WhatsApp Flow deployed to your audience, and with Engati, it’s even simpler.

If you do not have an account on Engati yet, you can try Engati for free.

Since everything is in place now, let’s send out your WhatsApp flow via WhatsApp broadcast.

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Step 1: Login to Engati then go to “Marketing Campaigns” from the side bar on the left. Then tap on “Create new broadcast”, a red colored button on the top right corner.

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👉 Recommended read: Step-by-step guide to send WhatsApp broadcast with Engati.

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Step 2: Fill in all the details like; broadcast name, target channel, broadcast objective. Now under Broadcast type select “Send template message” and under Select template, select the template that we got approval from META in phase 1.

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Step 3: Fill in rest of the details, decide whether you want to send it immediately and schedule it for later and hit “Publish”

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⭐ Pro tip: Use Auto-retry feature to avoid delivery failures due to Frequency capping.

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2. Send WhatsApp Flows through automated journey

With Engati you can create automated whatsapp journeys and WhatsApp chatbots within minutes. You can deploy your WhatsApp flow within this automated flow as well. 

Before we begin lets understand how it is useful for you, with an example:

Let’s say you run a CTWA campaign in META. The users land on your WhatsApp after clicking on the ad and land on your WhatsApp. An automated flow  is triggered taking a user to a  seamless journey answering all the user queries and at the end they decide to book an appointment. Now, as soon as the clock on “book an appointment” , the WhatsApp Flow you created for the booking appointment will be triggered making it easy for both the user and you to book and receive the appointment. 

Similarly, it can be used for taking feedbacks / surveys or many other use cases.  

Let’s dive into how you can deploy your WhatsApp flow in a live WhatsApp Chatbot or WhatsApp automation. It’s super easy and can be setup with a few clicks. 

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Prerequisites:

1. An account in Engati
2. WhatsApp Flow created in FBM (refer above steps to create one)

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Step 1: Go to Engati portal to created WhatsApp Chatbot.

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Step 2: Click on “Builder” in the sidebar located on the left side.

(for explanation purposes, I am taking a blank bot builder canvas)

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Step 3: Add the automation message you want to add before you want to trigger the WhatsApp flow. (you can also choose any existing path and follow further steps if you want to deploy it in your existing automation).

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Step 4: Click on “Add node” to add a new node on the canvas.

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Step 5: Inside “Data input” you will see an option for “WhatsApp Flows”

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Step 6: Under “Select existing flow” a drop down will occur, where you can see the name of the WhatsApp Flow you have created on your FBM account. 

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Step 7: Setup rest of the fields as per your need then click on “Save”

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Viola, your WhatsApp Flow is now deployed. 

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Here is a glimpse of how it will look in practice.

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Well that was it. The entire process of how to create and deploy WhatsApp Flow. In my opinion this is a really good feature introduced by META which simplifies user journey as well as enhances the engagement. With a good third party platform like Engati, you can make good use of this feature.  

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By the way, there is much more you can do with Engati to transform your WhatsApp marketing. Our clients have seen significant results like 3x ROI in a few months. 

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Curious what Engati can do for your business?

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