Many businesses use WhatsApp to communicate with potential customers and promote their products or services. However, there are several rules governing how we communicate with these people on the WhatsApp Business platform, especially when we initiate the conversation or make the first contact. In this article, I will explain what explicit consent is in WhatsApp Business, which is a mandatory requirement for contacting people on this platform.
Explicit Consent
To start conversations on WhatsApp, we must have explicit consent from the user. On WhatsApp, you can only contact a person if they have given you their phone number and if you have obtained their explicit consent to receive messages or calls. Consent in WhatsApp Business must have the following characteristics:
–Active: The customer must perform a clear action (check a box, type “Yes,” “I agree,” tap a button, etc.). Implied consent is not valid, for example, when only a phone number is provided for a purchase.
–Informed: It must be clear that the user is agreeing to receive WhatsApp messages from the company (the business name must be mentioned).
–Voluntary: Consent must be given without pressuring the user or being conditional on another service.
–Verifiable: It must be possible to demonstrate when and how such consent was given.
Responding
The first point to keep in mind is that on WhatsApp Business, we can only “respond” to what users ask us. This means that a business cannot contact a user or initiate a conversation on WhatsApp. In this case, the user, interested person, or potential customer must initiate the conversation. If the user initiates the conversation, it is legal (at least initially). If a business wishes to initiate a conversation on WhatsApp, it must have the user’s explicit consent. However, there are some exceptions to this rule:
Exceptions to the rule
When a company or business uses Meta’s official paid products, it does not need explicit consent to initiate a conversation on WhatsApp Business. These official Meta paid products are:
– Targeted WhatsApp Message Ads: In this case, the user sees an ad (on Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp) and, upon clicking on it, a chat window appears where the user can send us a message via WhatsApp. In this case, the user is initiating the conversation.
– Targeted Lead Ads: In this case, consent is obtained through the lead form provided by Meta when creating the ad. When someone sees an ad (on Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp), clicking on it displays a pop-up form (predefined by Meta) where the user can enter their personal information to be contacted. It is important to note that this form already includes explicit consent.
–Paid WhatsApp Business Templates: A paid tool that allows you to send a message (pre-approved by Meta) to initiate conversations or send notifications outside the 24-hour customer service window. It’s an ideal format for resuming conversations.
Best practices for obtaining explicit consent
The following are some best practices for obtaining explicit consent in WhatsApp Business:
-Users should “expect” the messages or calls they will receive. This means that users should know in advance that they will be contacted through this channel.
-Consent should cover the different categories of messages that will be sent, such as order updates, relevant offers, and product recommendations.
-Separate consent should be obtained to initiate a call (audio or video) to a user.
-Separate consent should be obtained for each specific message category (which mitigates the risk of users blocking the business because they receive unsolicited messages).
-Clear instructions should be provided on how people can opt out of receiving messages from specific categories, and such requests should be respected.
-We must ensure that the consent and opt-out flows are clear and intuitive for users.
-The value received upon receiving this information must be clearly communicated.
The CRM Problem
It’s important to keep in mind that using a CRM or external program to manage WhatsApp chats does not guarantee compliance with WhatsApp Business rules. The fact that a CRM program states it complies with explicit consent rules does not mean those rules are actually followed. Regardless of the action taken, the business or company, not the CRM program, is always directly responsible for compliance. Therefore, we must be very careful when following CRM program recommendations, as we will ultimately be directly responsible for any violations and will receive the corresponding penalty from WhatsApp (while the CRM program will not).
What are your thoughts on this topic? Have you had any issues with WhatsApp Business’s rules regarding obtaining explicit consent?
If you need help with WhatsApp Business’s rules, you can contact me by visiting the following link.