Proactive Support

“Inbound peaks are often predictable: a courier delay, a payment-gateway outage or a monthly bill date sends hundreds of customers to the inbox at once, all asking the same thing. Sending one clear alert to the affected customers costs a template each, but it can remove many agent conversations, shortens the queue for everyone else, and builds trust because the business spoke first. On WhatsApp the alert lands where the customer will see it, and their reply opens a service window for any follow-up.

1. 1

   Find the predictable questions

   Tag inbound conversations for a month and list the top reasons. "Where is my order", "Is the service down" and "When is my payment due" are typically near the top, and each has a system event behind it.

2. 2

   Wire the trigger

   Connect the event — a shipment status change, an incident in your status page, a billing date — to a sending job, filtered to the customers actually affected.

3. 3

   Write a utility template

   Keep it factual and specific to the customer: what happened, what it means for them, what happens next. Mixed or promotional content is treated as marketing, so leave offers out.

4. 4

   Give a way to respond

   Add quick-reply buttons such as "Reschedule" or "Talk to an agent". A reply opens the 24-hour service window, so the follow-up conversation needs no further template.

5. 5

   Measure prevented contacts

   Compare inbound volume for that reason before and after, for affected customers versus a holdout group if you can. That difference is the real result.

Message type

Business-initiated template outside the service window

Usual category

Utility, if non-promotional and about the user's own order or account

India utility rate

₹0.19 per delivered message

Billing basis

Per delivered message by category since 1 July 2025

Reply effect

Customer's reply opens a 24-hour service window

Utility template TTL

Default 30 days; customisable 30 s to 12 h

• Alerting everyone about everything

  An outage notice sent to the whole base worries customers who were never affected and invites blocks. Target only the customers the event touches.

• Adding an offer to the alert

  "Sorry for the delay — here is 10% off" turns a utility message into marketing, at a different rate and with per-user marketing limits. Send the apology as utility and any offer separately, with consent.

• Sending an alert nobody can act on

  If the message says "delayed" with no new date or next step, customers message support anyway. Include the new time, a reference and a button.

• Late alerts

  An alert that arrives after the customer has already called adds a contact rather than removing one. Set a short time-to-live on time-sensitive templates so stale alerts are not delivered hours later.

• Start with your single biggest "where is my…" reason and prove the drop before adding more alerts.
• Send an all-clear message when an outage ends; it closes the loop and prevents a second wave.
• Use the customer's language preference for the template where you store one.
• Respect quiet hours for non-urgent reminders.