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How to Re-engage Your Customer After the 24-Hour Window Has Closed

  • Updated

  1. Background

  2. Re-engagement Strategies

  3. Best Practices for Collections and Sales Operations

 

Background

The 24-Hour Window (or Service Window) is a business and privacy rule imposed directly by Meta (WhatsApp). It is activated whenever the customer sends a message to the company's number.

  • Duration: Exactly 24 hours from the last message sent by the customer.

  • Permission During the Open Window: The company can send free-form text messages, files, audio, and active interactions through an agent (Blip Desk) or chatbot without format restrictions.

  • Window closure: If 24 hours pass without the customer sending a new message, the window closes.

The 24-hour limit is strict and defined by Meta (the owner of WhatsApp). No service platform (including Blip) or API has technical permission to extend this period. This is not a limitation of Blip, but a global compliance rule for the WhatsApp Business API. 

For more information, see Meta's official documentation.
 

Re-engagement Strategies

How the flow from an active message send to the response works:

  1. Sending the Active Message (Template): When the company sends a message template approved by Blip (whether through Growth or Blip Desk), WhatsApp delivers the message to the customer. 

  2. Waiting for the Response: The sent template remains delivered in the customer's WhatsApp indefinitely (until they read or interact with it).

  3. When the Customer Responds: The 24-hour window is only started/reopened at the exact moment the customer responds to the message. Sending the template alone does not open the free-form text conversation window. The customer must always respond for this window to open.

    • Attention to Transfer: If the customer takes too long to respond and exceeds the expiration time configured in the flow, the conversation will not return directly to the agent. The customer's response will enter the standard transfer queue in Blip Desk (or the bot's triage), ensuring correct routing according to the operation's rules.

  4. When the 24-hour window has expired/closed, regular messages configured in Desk or bot flows will not be delivered by the API. Re-engagement must be performed exclusively through Message Templates pre-approved by Meta.

Steps for Re-engagement in Blip:

  1. Resending through Blip Desk (Human Support):

    • Make sure the Active Message Sending option is enabled in the General Support Settings.

    • The agent must use the active message sending icon in Desk (the "paper airplane" icon), select the appropriate message template, and send it.

    • The customer's response after receiving the active message may be automatically and directly routed to the agent, depending on how the flow and routing were configured. To understand the response behavior on the platform in detail, see the guide on Sending Active WhatsApp Messages in Blip Desk.

    • Response Time: It is important to check whether there is an expiration setting in the flow that blocks or prevents the support conversation from restarting if the customer takes too long to respond.

  2. Resending in Bulk/Automatically (Growth Module or API):

    • Send collections or sales re-engagement campaigns through the Growth > Active Messages module by selecting the target audience.
       

Best Practices for Collections and Sales Operations

  • Visual Alerts on the Screen: Use time counters and on-screen notifications in Blip Desk to alert operators when the 24-hour window is about to expire.

  • Direct Reactivation Templates: Create specific follow-up templates.

    • Example of a Collections Template: "Hello, {{1}}. We noticed that your negotiation is still pending. Can we continue our conversation here?"

  • Quick Reply Buttons: Include interactive buttons in the re-engagement template (e.g., "Yes, I want to continue"). When the customer clicks the button, a new 24-hour window opens instantly, and the conversation can return to human support or the bot flow.

 

Need more help? Explore our content on Blip Academy or Blip Community, watch tutorials on our YouTube channel or get your questions answered through our support channel 😃

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