As the world’s #1 messaging app, WhatsApp has become an important part of business-to-customer (B2C) communication.
The WhatsApp Business solution enables organizations to send useful, templated notifications to customers and to respond and support those who reach out to them on the channel.
However, the world-renowned chat app recently announced that it will be making changes to its pricing model next year. Read on to learn the details of the new WhatsApp Business pricing model and how it will impact your business.
WhatsApp Business pricing changes
Until now, WhatsApp’s pricing model has been based on charging businesses for the templated notifications they send, while customer-initiated conversations are free of charge for the first 24 hours. From February 2022, WhatsApp will be switching to a conversation-based pricing model globally.
Let’s check out what’s new in this conversation-based pricing model and how you maximize your returns on your WhatsApp Business API number.
For WhatsApp API, Facebook will implement a new conversation-based pricing model for all businesses globally sending WhatsApp messages.
This new pricing model will go into effect on February 1, 2022, and move from a per template/session charge to a complete conversation-based model.
These charges will be applicable based on the initiator of the conversation (either business or end-user).
Note: Tellephant will comply with the changes in the pricing model and check out Tellephants’s WhatsApp API Pricing.
The new WhatsApp Business API (WABA) conversations will fall into two categories that will be priced differently:
Note: These conversations are measured in 24-hour increments, or "sessions", that start whenever the first message from a business is delivered. The first message can be initiated by the business (business-initiated) or a business reply within 24 hours of a user message (user-initiated).
Important points to remember -
1. WhatsApp will charge only once per 24-hour session of messaging between a business and a customer(There will be no per template charges only conversation charge)
2. The charges will be different, depending on who initiated the conversation (the business or the end-user).
The first 1,000 conversations each month will be free, so your business can start to build experiences your customers will love before having to pay. Each WABA gets 1,000 free tier conversations. Free tier conversations can be business-initiated or user-initiated.
It is very clear that Facebook now wants businesses to establish good & fast communication on WhatsApp so that users don’t get unexpected notifications & promotional messages on WhatsApp. With this move, every new conversation will be charged by WhatsApp hence it’ll reduce the number of less relevant conversations. That’ll surely maintain the trust of people on WhatsApp.
Well, it depends upon a business’s use case for WhatsApp Business.
1. If you are into customer support, try to resolve queries as soon as possible. You can use Multi-Agent Dashboard For WhatsApp to manage your customer support efficiently. If your support team has limited work hours, consider building a WhatsApp Chatbot that’ll help in solving basic support queries on WhatsApp.
2. If you are putting your marketing Efforts via WhatsApp Business, now it’s time to revamp your notification strategy. You need to focus on how you can provide more value to the users in the least number of notifications possible. Also, you need to avoid Daily notifications as it may very well result in a permanent ban for misusing WhatsApp Business Account.
In the end, it all comes to the end user’s experience with your WhatsApp Business account. If that’s your priority, you’ll not be much bothered with the new pricing model.
If you want to learn how you can leverage WhatsApp Business API for your business, Join A Demo with our team.
