Adding a WhatsApp Gateway

There are two ways to add a new WhatsApp gateway:

Note: Before you can set up a social media message gateway, your company must have its own social media third-party app.

We can create the app for you or help you create it. See Social Media Message Gateways.

Add the Gateway

  1. In Studio, go to Message Gateway configuration. You see a list of universes. Each universe has an Edit Message Gateway button.

    Note: The list of universes is restricted by your Studio user ID and role. This means you can only see the universes that you have been assigned to.

  2. Choose Edit Message Gateway for your preferred universe. You see the message gateways index page, listing all the existing gateways in this universe.
  3. From the toolbar, add Add a new gateway. You see the Message Gateway settings page.

User interface showing form fields with labels and buttons.

The settings are organized into two sections: General Settings and Universe Settings. Follow the steps below to get started with editing the General Settings.

Edit the General Settings

  1. In Description, enter a description for your gateway.

    Note: This description will be shown to agents at the top of each WhatsApp chat. It should indicate what the chat is about, for example Personal Travel or Business Travel.

  2. From Type of message gateway, select Social Media. You see additional boxes.
  3. In Name, enter a name for your gateway.

  4. For Enable reporting, select Yes to enable reporting for your gateway or No to disable it.

    Note: For information about chat reporting, see Reporting.

  5. In Destination, you need to enter the code used by Syntelate XA to connect to your WhatsApp third-party solution provider. Currently, Syntelate XA supports the solution providers Sunshine Conversations and MessageBird. Enter one of the following codes depending on which provider you use:
    • For Sunshine Conversations, enter SUNC.
    • For MessageBird, enter MBAPI.
  6. In Maximum file size for attachments, enter a file size limit in KB format, for example, 1024.

    Tip: 1024 KB is 1 MB.

  7. In Message expiry time, you can reduce the WhatsApp 24-hour customer service window for WhatsApp messages that are in the Syntelate XA queue. Doing so will ensure agent replies are delivered before the window closes. Enter the number of minutes that you want the 24-hour response window to be shortened to, for example, 1430. (1430 minutes is 23 hours 50 minutes.) See Reduce the Window for more information.
  8. For Route records to the same agent?, select Yes if you want a customer to be passed to the same agent who handled their previous message.
  9. Use Route to last agent window when you choose Route records to the same agent so that Syntelate XA knows which messages will be eligible for routing to the same agent. New messages will be routed to the same agent only if the new message is received by Syntelate XA within the window of time you specify here. Enter a number of minutes as a whole number, for example, 30.
  10. For Allow inbound calls?, choose Yes if you want to prioritize inbound calls over WhatsApp chats; this will result in inbound calls being allowed to interrupt agents who are handling WhatsApp chats.

Next, you need to configure the gateway's Universe Settings.

Edit the Universe Settings

  1. From Universe, select the universe to which this gateway should be added.
  2. From Agent group, select the agent group that will deal with this WhatsApp number.
  3. From Smart text group, select the smart text a sentence or paragraph that an agent can quickly insert into a chat, for example "Goodbye and thank you for contacting us" group that will be available to agents dealing with this WhatsApp number.
  4. From Customer table, select the table that contains your customers’ details, specifically your customers’ WhatsApp mobile numbers.

  5. From Customer table: Lookup field, select the column in your customer details table that contains customers’ WhatsApp phone numbers.

    Note: When a customer starts a WhatsApp chat, Syntelate XA matches against this field in your customer details table. If a match is found, the customer’s record is retrieved. If a match is not found, Syntelate XA creates a new record in your customer details table.

  6. From Lookup type, select Phonenumber.
  7. From Customer table: Customer ID field, select the column in your customer details table that contains unique customer IDs that Syntelate XA should use to match against the INTERACTION_X table.

  8. From Interaction table: Client table ID, select the column in the INTERACTION_X table that Syntelate XA should match against the Customer ID Field.

    Note: Your customer details table contains one record per customer. The INTERACTION_X table, on the other hand, contains one record per customer interaction (in other words, it contains one record for every web chat, phone call, and so on).

    Both tables must contain a column for a unique customer ID. This is the Customer ID Field in your customer details table and the Client Table ID field in the INTERACTION_X table. Syntelate XA uses this unique ID to link each customer interaction (such as a web chat or phone call) to one of your customers.

  9. Save your settings Save. The page refreshes. It shows you the gateway's configuration. It also shows you some additional options.

You are now ready to explore those options. See below for further guidance.

What’s Next?

You’ve now added a basic WhatsApp gateway, but there’s more to do. See the following tasks:

Once you’re happy with how your message gateway is configured, you need to set it to active before it can be used. See Making a Message Gateway Active/Dormant.