Create WhatsApp Templates

WhatsApp Templates make it effortless to send automated, personalized booking updates straight to your guests. To ensure no traveler gets left behind, built-in SMS fallback instantly delivers the message as a standard text if they don't have WhatsApp. No missed connections, just smooth travels and a seamless guest experience.
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Start off by clicking on "Messages" and then "WhatsApp Messages"

Next click on "New Template"

Start off by adding the title to your template in the "Template title"

Next choose the purpose of your message, it can be a Reminder message, Tour Start, Follow up message or Other. lets click on "Reminder message"

Next you can add a Description of the template.

The next step is to add the Template Content. You can add up to 1036 alpha numeric characters to the template. Keep in mind that you can´t start or end a template on a personalisation tag.

To add personalisation tags, you can type an "@ sign" and choose a variable. Then a drop down appears where you can choose a variable.

If you type in "PaxPortal Booking Link" you can add a magic link to your template, when your customer clicks on it, their booking will open up on PaxPortal - no need to log into PaxPortal.

you will get a warning about the message cannot end with a personalisation tag

Manual fields allow you to add custom text to a WhatsApp template that isn't available as booking data. Unlike standard variables (such as customer name or departure date), these fields are completed manually each time the template is sent.

Once the template has been approved by Meta, you can reuse it as many times as needed without submitting it for approval again. Simply enter different values into the manual fields before sending the message.

Note: Manual fields are required. Before a WhatsApp template can be sent, all manual fields must be completed. If SMS fallback is enabled, the text entered into these fields will also be included in the SMS message.

To add a manual field, enter a Field label. This is the name of the field that the sender will see when preparing the message, for example Meeting Point, Weather Update, or Pickup Instructions.

Enter an Example for approval. This example is only used when Meta reviews your WhatsApp template and should contain realistic sample text that represents the type of information you intend to send.

Click Add field to insert the manual field into your template. You can add multiple manual fields if additional custom information is required.

The newly added field will appear in your template as a variable. When sending the template, you will be prompted to enter the text for each manual field before the message can be sent.

Manual fields are useful when you need to include information that changes from one message to the next, such as:

Templates that contain Manual fields cannot be used in automations. Because the sender must enter custom text before the message is sent, these templates can only be sent manually.

When a template includes one or more manual fields, the Automation option is automatically disabled, ensuring that all required information is entered before the message is delivered.

Note: If you want to send a WhatsApp template automatically, use standard variables (such as @Customer First Name or @Product Name) instead of manual fields. Templates that require manual input must always be sent manually.

since we want this template to be automatic let's remove the manual field.

you can always just add the personalization parameter for Product Vendor Name in the template.

By clicking the checkbox by "Enable SMS fallback" you will activate the SMS fallback for the WhatsApp message, this ensures that your customers that don´t have WhatsApp will receive a SMS message instead.

Once you are happy with your message you can move on to Automation Settings, slide the toggle for "Automations" if you want to automate the message.

Set up the automation for the template, this article goes through the steps of automating a template. If you don´t want to add any automations, you can always do that later. To save the template click on "Create"

When you create a WhatsApp template it needs to be verified by Meta. this should only take a few minutes. The template will be "Pending" until approved

Once the template has been approved the status will change to "Approved"

Click on "Actions" and then click on "Activate" to make the template active.

And then your WhatsApp template is active and ready to send.

To view your template, click on the title of the template - or click on "Actions" and "Edit"

Then you can see your WhatsApp template - keep in mind you cannot edit WhatsApp templates. You can however edit the SMS fallback message and the Automation Settings.