Send a WhatsApp message through an ZendeskConnect automation using MessageBird

You can use ZendeskConnect automation to send messages to your customers using WhatsApp via MessageBird.

In this article:

• How it works
• First steps in MessageBird
• Next steps in ZendeskConnect

Take note

• The ZendeskConnect Support team cannot help you troubleshoot any issues with the MessageBird or WhatsApp portion of this setup. For assistance with troubleshooting issues with MessageBird or WhatsApp, please visit MessageBird Support
• This setup requires an ZendeskConnect account, a MessageBird account, and a WhatsApp account
• You will need to integrate your MessageBird account with your WhatsApp account to use this solution
• You can only send WhatsApp messages to contacts who have a phone number with a country code. This must be stored in the standard phone field in ZendeskConnect

How it works

Once you integrate your WhatsApp account with your MessageBird account, you can send WhatsApp messages to contacts from ZendeskConnect.

This is done by first creating WhatsApp templated messages in MessageBird, then building a flow triggered by a webhook using their Flow Builder. This is where you will create and customize your message to your contacts. Once that's complete, MessageBird will provide you with the webhook URL. Once this URL is presented, you will need to copy that URL to your clipboard.

After copying the webhook URL from MessageBird, you'll then need to create an automation in ZendeskConnect that uses the Webhook action. In this action, you will paste the URL that MessageBird provided.

Once the automation is saved and made Active, contacts can start to enter it. Each time a contact passes through the Webhook action in your automation, their information will be sent to MessageBird through the webhook, then MessageBird will send the WhatsApp message to that contact.

First steps in MessageBird

In this section, we'll show you how to set up a MessageBird account and create a custom work flow.

As a reminder, you will need to reach out to MessageBird Support for any assistance with MessageBird and their WhatsApp integration.

1. Sign up for a MessageBird account.

• Request WhatsApp channel access
• Follow the steps to become a verified WhatsApp business

2. Create WhatsApp templated messages in Messagebird.

• Templates must be transactional
• WhatsApp must approve all templates
• To use variables within a template, use {{1}}, {{2}}, {{3}}, etc. The curly brackets are numerically based and denote a variable

3. Create a new custom flow in Messagebird.

• The custom flow needs to be triggered by a webhook
• Add a variable for the recipient's phone number 
  • The phone number must include a country code, or it will not be associated with a WhatsApp end-user

4. Add webhook variables for each variable inside the WhatsApp templated message.

• Use the following format for your variables:  contact[field_name], including contact with square brackets [] and the field name inside the square brackets
• One variable must be contact[phone] so that a contact's phone number within ZendeskConnect is associated with their WhatsApp account

5. Add a step to send a templated WhatsApp message.

• Under the channel menu, select the verified WhatsApp account 
• Set the recipient as the contact[phone] variable
• Select the approved WhatsApp templated message
• Populate variables for the WhatsApp templated message using the variables defined from the webhook

6. Publish your custom flow in Messagebird. 

To help with your MessageBird setup process, check out these MessageBird help resources:

• WhatsApp Deep Dive
• Getting Started with WhatsApp (quickstart)
• WhatsApp Business step-by-step onboarding
• WhatsApp Message Templates
• Troubleshooting WhatsApp

Next steps in ZendeskConnect

To send WhatsApp messages from ZendeskConnect, you need to create an automation that uses a Webhook action. The Webhook action will send data from your ZendeskConnect account to your MessageBird account. 

For more information on webhooks, visit Working with webhooks.

To get started: 

1. Create a new automation. 

• Learn how to create an automation from scratch, or
• Use an automation recipe from the ZendeskConnect Marketplace

2. Add the Webhook action to your automation. To do so:

• Click the node (+) in the Automation Builder, or 
• Drag the Webhook action from the right-side panel

This action is located under "Conditions and Workflow":

3.   The Webhook action will open in the Automation Builder. Add the webhook URL from MessageBird into the field provided. 

4.    Click the "Save" button.