WhatsApp is everywhere nowadays. It’s being used for casual chats, business, and marketing. WhatsApp marketing has become so popular now that it is outperforming traditional marketing methods like cold calling or email marketing, with businesses of all sizes using it as a gateway for customer communication and marketing. Recently WhatsApp has launched a new feature called WhatsApp Flows.

WhatsApp Flow, in simple terms, is a feature within the WhatsApp Business platform that allows businesses to create structured and guided interactions with users through chat. It serves as a pathway for businesses to design and manage specific workflows or conversations, simplifying interactions with customers on the familiar WhatsApp chat interface.

In BotSailor, our expert developers took this feature to next level by simplifying it and making it more easy to use for our subscribers.

So, now it can simplify the process of appointment booking, feedback collection, and content promotion and many more. It allows for easy collection of customer details, confirmations, and reminders, and integrates with content recommendation flows to drive conversions.

In business conversations, gathering customer data can be a hassle. Previously, we introduced a ground-breaking feature in BotSailor called “User Input Flow." Which can be used for customer data collection.

But now, thanks to WhatsApp Flow, we have developed a more efficient and reliable way of collecting customer data. We are calling it the “WhatsApp Flows Form”.

Forms are essential in business operations for data collection, lead generation, process optimization, enhanced customer interaction, brand promotion, and cost-effective information collection.

Forms make it easy for systematic data collection, enabling efficient decision-making and analytics.

In this blog we are going to learn about how to set-up a WhatsApp Flow Form and real life use case of this feature.

How to Set-up WhatsApp Flows Form in BotSailor?

Setting up a WhatsApp Form is very easy here how you can do it in few steps:

Step 1: Go to BotSailor. Click on dashboard button on the top right corner of BotSailor home page.

Step 2: In the dashboard page click on “Bot Manager” on WhatsApp section.

Step 3: Select a bot account. Then click on “WhatsApp Flows”. After that click on “Create” button to go to WhatsApp Flows Form page for creating a form.

If you have already created a form using WhatsApp business API you can synchronize those forms with your BotSailor Account by simply clicking on “Sync” button.

Step 4: In WhatsApp Flows Form page you can see a lot of options. You can create your form here in this page. You can create any type of form as you wish, for this blog I’m going to create a medical appointment form as an example.

FLOW NAME: In flow name you have to give a unique name for your flow. So whenever you create a new Flow Form keep in mind that all flow name should be unique.

FLOW CATEGORIES: Select which type of form you want to create from this category. Click on this option and a drop-down menu will appear showing you many options.

SCREEN UNIQUE NAME: Here give an unique name without any space. Be careful when you write because keeping space between words will cause error.

FORM TITLE: Give a title of your WhatsApp Flow.

REPLY SENT AFTER FORM SUBMIT: This option is for setting a reply that will be sent after your customer submit the form.

Clicking on this option will open a drop-down menu, where you can select any pre-made bot reply or you can also create a new bot reply as you wish form “Add” button.

If you choose to create a new bot reply remember to click on “refresh” button to refresh the drop-down menu list.

After selecting a bot reply, we have to structure the form elements. We all have filled many forms during our lifetimes due to education or business purposes. What does a form contain?

Some basic questions, checkboxes, fill in the gaps, right? Here's the same case as well. In this part, we will structure the form by dragging elements one by one on the empty board. But first let me explain what each of this elements mean.

Heading: Drag this option into the empty box to write the heading of your form. This heading will be shown at the top of your form.

“Move your mouse pointer to the right of each element, and you will find the Delete, Edit, Copy, Move Higher, and Move Lower options in order.”

Double-click on the element to open the editing option, or you can also select the editing option by moving the mouse pointer to the right of the element.

You can see many options here, like label, type, class, and access.

In the label, write the main title of your form. This will be shown on the top of your form, acting as the title of your form that your customers will see when they open the form.

For the Type and Class option, Type basically means the font size, and Class is for a bootstrap class or any other CSS framework class. If you want to implement it, you can do it.

Text Field: Dragging this option will let you input text. Double-click on the text field to edit. Checkmark the required option in the edit option, and the client will be prompted to fill it up. You can use it to ask general questions here.

Text Area: Text Area is a versatile option that allows users to input and display large amounts of text content. It provides a spacious and expandable field where users can freely type or paste their desired information. This feature is particularly useful when gathering extensive data, such as feedback, comments, or descriptions, as it eliminates the need for multiple input fields and ensures a seamless user experience.

Checkbox Group: It is used to allow customers to select multiple options from a list.

Radio Group: It is used to allow users to select single option from a list.

The date field can be used to collect date-related data from a customer, and finally, adding the submit button lets you collect all the data your customer provided in the form to save in your database. Here’s an example form to help you understand how it works.

Now save the Flow, and you will be back to WhatsApp Flow page.

Step 5: Click on Actions button and you will see Add Webhook, Report Data, Download Report, Preview Flow, Publish, Edit and Delete options here.

Add Webhook: Click on this option to use the webhook. A webhook is a way for an application to provide real-time data to another application. By clicking on this option, you can configure the webhook settings and establish a connection between the two applications, enabling seamless data transfer and communication.

Report Data: To check the analytics or customer data that you gathered you can check it here.

Download Data: Click on this option to download all the data that you collected from the WhatsApp Flows Form.

Preview Flow: You can see the final look of your form in real time in this option.

Publish: You can publish your form by clicking this option. And use it in your bot.

And Finally, you can edit and delete the form also by clicking these options.

So in order to move forward, we must publish the form first. So click on publish option.

Step 6: If you followed all the options, your form must be published by now. Now go to Bot Reply and click on Create button, which will lead you to new visual flow builder.

Step 7: Now set up Start Bot Flow component and connect it to WhatsApp Flows component and set it up then Save the bot flow.

Now your WhatsApp Flows Form is good to go. When your customers message you to your WhatsApp account by trigger word, your bot will automatically reply and start a conversation with them.

Now you can check the customer data analytics or download data from Report Data and Download Data form WhatsApp Flow Page.

Benefits of WhatsApp Flows Form

In BotSailor, we have simplified the WhatsApp Flow feature and given a straight-forward approach. By using the BotSailors WhatsApp Flows Form, customers can get many benefits. The key benefits for businesses are:

Improved Customer Engagement: The intuitive forms within BotSailor enable easy collection of customer information, preferences, and feedback, resulting in higher response rates and more meaningful customer interactions.

Simplified Data Collection: Businesses can create customized forms with various fields to gather customer data systematically for more efficient lead generation and sales processes.

Enhanced Marketing & Branding: By integrating forms into WhatsApp chat flows, businesses can run targeted campaigns to promote their brand, products and offers to drive conversions.

Automated Follow-Ups: After submitting forms, customers can automatically receive customized messages or recommendations through pre-configured chatbot flows improving satisfaction.

Analytics & Insights: Detailed analytics on form response rates, submitted data, and user engagement metrics inform better marketing strategies and customer targeting.

Use cases of WhatsApp Flows Form

BotSailor’s WhatsApp Flows form is a great tool to make personalized and impactful customer interactions therefore providing business growth opportunities on WhatsApp. Here are few use cases of WhatsApp Flows Form that businesses can use:

Appointment Booking: This new feature can be used to collect customer details and appointment slots easily. It can also be used to for confirming something or use as a reminders through flows.

Feedback Collection: User reviews, suggestions and other feedback can be gathered at scale by integrating engaging forms into WhatsApp conversations leveraging flows.

Content Promotion: By linking forms to content recommendation flows, businesses can effectively promote their catalogs, offers to drive conversions.

In summary, BotSailor's WhatsApp Flows forms enable more impactful customer interactions, simplified data collection, personalized messaging, and data-driven decision-making for superior business growth on WhatsApp. These features make BotSailor's WhatsApp Flows a valuable tool for businesses looking to enhance their customer engagement and drive results. By leveraging the power of personalized messaging and data-driven insights, businesses can optimize their interactions on WhatsApp and achieve significant growth in their operations.

Watch the video instructions on how to create WhatsApp flows (form) to collect data with a fully functioning chatbot.