Customer service on WhatsApp: the 24-hour window explained
· 3 min read
When a customer writes to you on WhatsApp, what Meta calls the service window opens: 24 hours during which you can reply with free text — no templates, no approvals, a normal conversation. It is the service category, and used well it is the best support tool there is: the customer asks where they already are.
The rules of the game
- The window is always opened by the customer. Each message of theirs renews it for another 24 hours.
- Inside the window: free text, images, documents, location.
- Outside the window there is no free text: to pick up a conversation that has expired you need an approved template (usually utility: “we are following up on your incident, is it all right if we call you?”).
- Meta bills the service conversation separately, against your WhatsApp Business account; our platform charges its flat rate per message, the same in every category.
The mistakes we see repeated
- Letting the window die. An unresolved ticket at 23 hours is a utility template tomorrow. Keep an eye on the age of the conversation.
- Replying with marketing in the service window. Being able to write free text does not turn the conversation into a promotions channel: the LSSI still applies and so does consent.
- Not recording the channel opt-in. If the customer wrote to you first, keep that evidence: it is your legitimate basis for continuing the conversation.
Integration without lock-in
The WABA credentials are yours — the number, the templates and the account quality belong to you; our platform connects with them and encrypts them in the database. If you leave one day, you take your number and your quality history with you intact. Compare that with the providers that rent you “their” number.
Inbound webhooks for your CRM, sending through the API for automated replies and a dashboard for the human team.
Set up the WhatsApp Business API · Rates without surprises
Metrics that separate a good channel from a black hole
Time to first reply. WhatsApp creates an expectation of immediacy: if your team takes hours, the channel works against you. Set visible support hours and stick to them — outside them, a utility template saying “we have received it, we will reply tomorrow” keeps the conversation alive and expectations realistic.
Conversations closed within the window. Each ticket resolved within the 24 hours stays a service conversation; each one that slips through forces you to reopen with an approved template, which Meta bills as such. The age of the conversation is the operational metric your team should have in front of them.
Handover to a human without friction. Inbound messages reach your system by webhook: route to an agent whatever the flow does not resolve, with the full history. A customer who has to repeat their problem twice is already writing the negative review.