WhatsApp for your business

WhatsApp lets your customers get booking confirmations, reminders, on-my-way updates, quotes, invoices and payment reminders in the app they actually read, and reply straight back into your Messages inbox.

Connecting

Go to Settings > WhatsApp and tap Connect WhatsApp. You sign in with Facebook (Meta owns WhatsApp), pick or create your business portfolio, and Gafferly registers your sender automatically. You need your Gafferly phone number first: if you do not have one yet, the page points you to Settings > Phone.

Why the number is separate in the UK

In the UK, the same number cannot sit on the WhatsApp Business app on your phone AND on the business messaging system Gafferly uses. That is Meta's rule, not ours. So WhatsApp runs on your Gafferly number: one number for calls, texts and WhatsApp, and your personal WhatsApp stays exactly as it is.

Choosing what goes by WhatsApp

Still in Settings > WhatsApp, pick WhatsApp or SMS for each message type: booking confirmations, reminders, on-my-way, quotes, invoices, payment reminders, job done and review requests. If a customer is not on WhatsApp, the message falls back to SMS automatically (you can switch that off per type).

Templates and approval

WhatsApp makes businesses send pre-approved message templates for anything that starts a conversation or replies after 24 hours. Gafferly prepares sensible templates for you and submits them to Meta for approval, which usually takes a short while. Inside the 24-hour window after a customer messages you, replies go free-form, so normal chat just works.

What it costs

WhatsApp messages count toward your plan's text allowance, the same pot as SMS (50 free per user each month, then the usual overage). A WhatsApp message typically costs less than a text.

STOP and opting out

If a customer replies STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE, Gafferly flags them as no-WhatsApp and messages go by SMS instead. Customers who message you first are treated as happy to hear back on WhatsApp, and the office can tick consent by hand on the customer record with a reason.

AI drafted replies

When a customer messages you on WhatsApp, the assistant drafts a reply as a card on the conversation, using the same knowledge as the phone assistant: their jobs and status, free slots, quote status, balance and pay links. Nothing sends itself. You tap Approve and send, Edit or Discard, every time. Suggested actions like holding a slot or sending a pay link are buttons that only run when you click them.

For security, account details stay out of drafts until the customer has confirmed their postcode or the first line of their address in the conversation, the same rule the phone assistant follows.