WhatsApp for tradies, with every chat on a job card

Why so many jobs start on WhatsApp

A customer can send a photo of the leaking tap, a pin for the address and a "yes, go ahead" in under a minute. That makes WhatsApp handy for both sides.

The trouble starts when it runs on the owner’s personal phone. Work chats sit between family groups, nobody else can answer, and when a staff member leaves, their customer chats leave with them. There’s also no link between the chat and the job, so details get copied by hand.

How WhatsApp works in Karya Falak

• During setup you connect a Meta business account and a phone number you control.
• Messages, photos and files arrive in the shared inbox beside email and web form enquiries.
• Each conversation becomes a card on your board, with a reference you can say on the phone.
• Anyone on the team replies as the business. The customer never sees a personal number.
• Send a quote or an invoice from the card, and it goes into the chat as a PDF document.
• Saved replies fill in the customer’s first name, and every reply records who sent it.

Meta’s 24-hour rule, handled for you

WhatsApp has a rule businesses often trip over. Meta calls it the customer service window. When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens, and each new message from them resets it. Inside the window you can reply normally. Outside it, you can only send a template message that Meta has approved.

Karya Falak keeps track of this so your team does not have to:

• Each conversation shows how long is left in its window.
• Your team is told when a window is about to close, so a reply goes out in time.
• A normal reply is stopped once the window has closed, with your approved templates offered instead.
• Templates sync from your Meta account on their own.
• Quick replies to the same person are spaced out, so Meta does not block them for sending too fast.

Opt-outs and consent

The Spam Act 2003 covers commercial electronic messages, and that includes WhatsApp as well as SMS. Karya Falak checks before every send:

• A customer who replies STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE or a similar word is opted out of WhatsApp and SMS from your business. START brings them back.
• A marketing template needs a recorded marketing consent for that contact.
• Each consent keeps the wording shown, where it was given and when.
• An opted-out contact shows a clear label, and the reply box is switched off for them.

WhatsApp Business app or WhatsApp in Karya Falak?

Meta’s free WhatsApp Business app is a good start for a sole trader. It suits one person on one phone. Once more than one person answers, or you want chats tied to jobs, a shared system makes more sense.

What WhatsApp costs

WhatsApp comes with both Karya Falak plans: Starter at A$49 a month and Growth at A$99 a month, GST included. There is no extra Karya Falak fee for the channel.

Meta sets its own WhatsApp charges. Its pricing page says messages from customers to businesses are free and businesses are charged only when a message is delivered, with the rate depending on the kind of message. Karya Falak shows how many messages each number has used this month so there are no surprises.

Getting set up

Start a trial, connect your Meta business account and number, and set up your board, price book and saved replies. From then on, WhatsApp chats land in the same place as email and web form enquiries.

For a plain-English walk through setting up WhatsApp Business as a trade, read our WhatsApp Business guide for tradies.