Using the WhatsApp Sub-Account Model

About the Sub-Account Model

Before you can distribute your survey through WhatsApp, you will need to complete some preliminary setup steps. This page goes over those steps for customers on the sub-account model. This model is the default one offered, and is recommended if your company doesn’t have an existing Twilio relationship and would like to leverage the help of the Qualtrics team while getting onboarded. See a comparison.

The steps on this page should be completed by Brand Administrators. The Qualtrics representative you should be in contact with is your XM Success Manager.

Estimated Onboarding Timeline for the Sub-Account Model

Below is a list of timeline estimates based on each step of the process.

1. Approval of a WhatsApp sender number: About 1 week.
2. Verification of a Facebook Business Manager account: About 1-2 weeks.
3. WhatsApp message template approval: About 1-2 days.
4. (Optional but recommended) Upgrading to a WhatsApp Official Business Account: About 1-2 weeks.

Creating and Verifying a Twilio WhatsApp Profile

Step 1: Create a Facebook Business Manager Account

Your organization must have its own Facebook Business Manager account in order to be approved for WhatsApp access. This is used by WhatsApp to identify your business and associate your phone numbers.

If your organization doesn’t already have a Facebook Business Manager account, you can create one at business.facebook.com. See Facebook’s instructions for setting up this account.

Find your Facebook Business Manager ID by following the steps listed here on Facebook’s support site and write it down. You need this for the next step, when you enable your Twilio numbers for WhatsApp use.

Step 2: Have your XM Success Manager set up a Qualtrics Twilio sub-account and WhatsApp profile

Contact your Qualtrics XM Success Manager and provide them with the following information. Once they have this, they can create a dedicated Qualtrics Twilio sub-account and WhatsApp profile for you.

• Qualtrics brand identifier (brandID)
• Business display name
  Qtip: See Facebook’s support pages for display name guidance.
• Company name
• Company address
• Company email
• Website
• Link to the company logo. Must meet the following requirements:
  • Image is at least 640×640 pixels in size
  • JPG is the preferred (not required) format
  • PNG format cannot have a transparent background
  • Square aspect ratio
• Business HQ country
• Facebook Business Manager ID
  Qtip: Find your Facebook Business Manager ID by following the steps listed here on Facebook’s support site.

Step 3: Allow Twilio to send messages on your behalf

Follow the steps described in Twilio’s documentation to approve Twilio in Facebook Business Manager, allowing them to send messages on your behalf.

Step 4: Verify your Facebook Business Manager account

If you have not already verified your Facebook Business Manager account, see Twilio’s documentation.

Wait until Twilio completes the registration process. This usually takes a few days. You will receive an email confirmation that Twilio has finalized the registration of your profile.

When that happens, you should see Approved next to your profile in Programmable messaging > Senders > WhatsApp Senders.

Creating a WhatsApp Template Message

Although WhatsApp opens up new communication possibilities, they also carry a set of protective requirements regarding consent. Before you can distribute surveys in WhatsApp, you will need to create messages meeting WhatsApp’s consent guidelines, and submit these templates to your XM Success Manager so they can get approval from Twilio.

Step 1: Template Message Requirements

Here are some guidelines for drafting your message template:

• Message templates should avoid the word “survey.” Instead, we recommend that you ask respondents to “share their experience” or “give feedback.”
• Please keep in mind that you may have different language versions of the message template to distribute and they need to be approved separately.
• If you modify the template, you must have it approved again. Distributions sent with unapproved messages will fail.
• Invite templates must include survey and opt-out links as Piped Text.

2-way templates must be written in the form of a question that explicitly asks for yes/no answers (e.g., 1 – yes; 2 – no). Additionally, your message must include a third option to unsubscribe.

Step 2: Convert the message from Qualtrics to Twilio format

Before you submit the template to Twilio, you need to change the formatting for placeholder values – in a Qualtrics message template these are piped text elements, e.g.  ${l://SurveyURL} or ${l://OptOutURL}. Twilio does not recognize this format and uses double curly braces instead: {{TextHere}}

Converting between the two formats is very simple. Just replace every ${<piped text>} element with {{<number>}}.

Here are the examples for the survey invite and 2-way interactive templates we’ve used before:

Step 3: Submit the message template to Twilio and wait for approval

Send the message templates you created to your XM Success Manager. They will submit them to Twilio on your behalf.

Wait for the approval before proceeding to the next step.

Step 4: Uploading a Message Template to the Qualtrics Library

Once your messages have been approved, you can upload them to Qualtrics so you can quickly reuse them every time you send a WhatsApp distribution.

1. Create a message in your library.
2. Set the Message Type to WhatsApp Message Templates.
   
   Qtip: You need the Use WhatsApp Distributions permission to create WhatsApp templates in your library.
3. Type out your message, explaining how the respondent can consent, refuse to take the survey, or opt out of all future WhatsApp surveys.
4. Set the language of the message.
   Qtip: Every translation of the message has to be separately approved by WhatsApp.
5. Name the message.
6. Click Save.

Upgrading to a WhatsApp Official Business Account

Although not required, we recommend this step because it adds legitimacy to your WhatsApp distributions and lets respondents know your business can be trusted. For specific steps, see Upgrading to a WhatsApp Official Business Account.

Distributing through WhatsApp

Once you have completed the steps on this support page, you are ready to distribute your survey through WhatsApp. Please see WhatsApp Distributions for more details on how to import WhatsApp numbers, 2-way and survey link distributions, viewing past distributions, and more.