WhatsApp replies from visitors
Read and answer visitors and guests who reply on WhatsApp about their visit or booking, in the console and the Agoo Workspace app.
Agoo is in early access. This page describes the feature as it ships to early-access organisations; screens are illustrative.
Visitors often reply to their pass or reminder on WhatsApp: they're running late, they ask about parking, or they want to know what to bring. Agoo sends those messages to your organisation, tied to the visit or booking they're about, and your team answers them where they already work.
WhatsApp replies come with every plan that has WhatsApp: Starter, Growth, Pro and Enterprise. On Free, Agoo's own team answers them for you.
What happens when a visitor writes
- They get an automatic reply straight away, saying their message has reached your team.
- Their message appears in Console → WhatsApp, with the visit or booking it's about, the site and the host.
- The host is told, in the Agoo Workspace app first and by email if the app can't reach them. If someone on your team has taken the conversation, they're told instead. While a conversation is unread, nobody is told more than once every 30 minutes.
If a visitor writes without replying to a message, Agoo works out which organisation they mean from their recent visit messages. When two or more organisations have messaged them lately, Agoo asks them in the chat to choose, and their answer sends the conversation to the right one.
Who sees which conversations
| Who | Sees |
|---|---|
| Owners, Admins, Site admins, Security leads, Receptionists | Every conversation at their sites ("Answer WhatsApp messages") |
| The host of the visit or booking | Conversations with their own visitors and guests |
| Whoever a conversation is given to | That conversation |
| Everyone else | Nothing |
Console → Settings → Roles shows which roles may answer. Hosts always see their own visitors.
Answering
Open the conversation
Go to Console → WhatsApp, or tap the notification on your phone. Opening it marks it read, and the visitor sees blue ticks.
Reply
Write a reply, attach a photo or document, quote one of their messages, or react to it. Type / to drop in a saved reply. Colleagues with the same conversation open see that you're replying, and so does the visitor.
Close it, or leave it waiting for them
Once you've answered, the conversation moves to Waiting for them. Close it when you're done. If they write again within 7 days, it opens again.
On a phone, hosts can answer straight from the notification with Reply, after unlocking with Face ID, Touch ID or their passcode (on Android, their fingerprint, face unlock or screen lock).
The 24-hour window
WhatsApp lets businesses write freely for 24 hours after the person's last message. Inside that window, every reply is free and unlimited.
After it, you can only send the follow-up message: "Hello Ama, this is Coastline Consult about the message you sent us on 11 October. Reply here to continue with our team." It always says what it's about: their message and its date, or the visit or booking you're writing about. WhatsApp treats a message that asks someone to reply after the 24 hours as a marketing message and charges more for it, so a follow-up counts as 5 WhatsApp messages (GH₵0.45): from your plan's WhatsApp allowance first, then bundles, then your wallet. The Console and the app say so before you send it. When they reply, you can write freely again, at no charge.
You can also message a visitor or guest first, from their visit or booking: choose Message on WhatsApp. If they haven't written in the last 24 hours, the follow-up goes.
Fair use of a shared number
Your replies go out from Agoo's WhatsApp number, the same number every organisation on Agoo uses. WhatsApp judges that number by how people react to what is sent from it, so a few unwelcome messages from one organisation can affect everyone's. Agoo keeps it safe in three ways.
- Conversations are for answering. Use them to answer what a visitor or guest asked and to sort out their visit or booking. Don't use them for offers, promotions or news; nobody agreed to those, and our acceptable use policy doesn't allow it.
- There are limits on how much you can send. If someone hasn't answered your last messages, or you've written a lot in a short time, Agoo asks you to wait for their reply or to try again later, and tells you which. Follow-ups are limited more tightly than replies: if someone hasn't answered a follow-up, give them time, then call or email them instead. A team answering its visitors in the ordinary way doesn't meet these limits. Reactions don't count towards them.
- Replies can be paused. If several people ask to stop after hearing from your team, or WhatsApp starts refusing your team's messages, Agoo pauses your organisation's replies while our team looks into it. We may also pause them ourselves, or for everyone during a problem with WhatsApp.
While replies are paused
- Your team sees a notice in Console → WhatsApp and on each conversation, and can't send messages, files or follow-ups or start a new conversation. The Agoo Workspace app says the same when someone tries to send.
- Nothing is lost. What your visitors write still arrives and is kept, and they still get the automatic reply. Your team can read every conversation and add notes.
- Your notifications keep going. Passes, reminders and alerts on WhatsApp aren't affected.
- Your Owners and Admins get an email when replies are paused and another when they're open again. To talk it through, reply to that email or write to agoo@ardentafrica.com.
If something can't wait while replies are paused, call or email the visitor from their visit or booking.
Notes, labels, saved replies and who has it
- Notes are for your team only and are never sent.
- Labels (Parking, Directions, Complaint…) help you find conversations later.
- Saved replies are answers your team gives often;
{name}becomes the visitor's first name. People who answer WhatsApp messages keep them in Console → WhatsApp → Saved replies. - Give it to someone who answers WhatsApp messages at that site, or to the host. They're told when the visitor writes again.
STOP
Anyone who replies STOP gets no more WhatsApp messages from Agoo, from any organisation, until they reply START. Their passes and reminders go by text message or email instead, and you can't message them on WhatsApp.
Privacy and how long conversations are kept
Conversations are kept as long as your visit records (Console → Settings → Data & privacy) and are deleted with them. Erasing a visitor deletes their conversations with you. Conversations are part of your full organisation export, and every reply, note and change is in your audit trail (never the words of a message). So is a pause of your replies, and their opening again.
Who a visit is for
Visits for several people, a team or no one in particular, the Needs someone list at the front desk, and visitors for senior people who go through their office.
Front desk and guard mode
Check visitors in and out by hand, use the live on-site register, search and print, look after visitors without a phone, and run the gate in guard mode.