Cómo configurar su tienda en el software de alquiler de Hubtiger

Next, you’ll need to set up your shop profile, which includes key details that customers will see during the booking process.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

 

Process:

Fill in the following fields:

Finally, click “Update Profile” to save all your changes.

 

Top Tip: Make sure your country and address are entered correctly in your shop profile. Accurate location details are essential for enabling key Hubtiger features, such as seamless location sharing through WhatsApp, integrations and in-app payments.

At this stage, your next step depends on whether you have a POS system. If you have one, you’ll link it to Hubtiger for automatic syncing. If not, you can add products individually or import them using an Excel sheet, making the process simple and efficient. Let’s walk through both options.

One of the most powerful features of Hubtiger is the ability to integrate your existing POS system, which allows for seamless inventory management and easy transaction processing.

• Maximum Outgoing Rentals Per Day: Set a limit on how many rentals can go out per day to manage inventory effectively and prevent overbooking.
• Maximum Rentals Per Pickup Slot: Define how many rentals can be scheduled for pickup at the same time, ensuring your staff can handle the load.
• Pickup Time Intervals: Set the time intervals between each pickup (e.g., every 15 minutes) to prevent congestion at your store. This ensures a smooth experience for customers while helping your staff manage pickups efficiently without added stress.
• Buffer Time Between Rentals: Add buffer time between rentals to allow for cleaning, maintenance, or setup, ensuring each product is in top condition before it’s rented again.
• Allow Fixed Length Reservations: Toggle this option if you offer fixed-length rentals, like hourly or daily bookings.
• Allow Flexible Reservation Durations: Toggle this option to allow customers to book for flexible time frames, such as multi-day or long-term rentals.

• Add a Booking Fee: Choose whether to add a booking fee, either as a percentage or a fixed amount. Enter the booking fee value and link it to a SKU to ensure it’s visible on the rental quote.
• Send Rental Notification on Reservation: Enable this option to automatically notify your team whenever a new rental is booked.
• Add a Rental Waiver: Include a rental waiver to protect your business by outlining the risks and responsibilities, releasing you from liability in case of any harm or damage during the rental. This ensures customers acknowledge the risks involved and agree not to hold your business accountable for incidents that may occur.
• Cancellation Policy: Add any applicable cancellation policies to clarify what happens if a customer cancels their booking. This can help reduce last-minute cancellations and protect your revenue.

Top Tip:

Configuring custom pickup slots is a great way to manage peak periods efficiently and prevent too many customers from arriving at the same time, reducing wait times and ensuring a smooth handover process.

Choosing the right rental duration configuration is crucial for optimising your rental store’s operations. Hubtiger offers two types of rental durations: Fixed and Flexible. Each option caters to different types of customer needs, allowing you to align your rental durations with the nature of your business.

This option works well if your business operates with a set schedule or high-demand items where bookings need to be controlled within specific timeframes. Customers can book rentals for predetermined periods, such as hourly or daily.

 

Best suited for:

 

• Short-term rentals, such as bikes for leisure rides or quick equipment hires.
• Scenarios where you need strict control over rental turnaround, ensuring items are returned promptly for the next booking.

Example Scenario:

If you’re renting out mountain bikes for casual riders, you might offer bookings in time blocks like 2 hours, 4 hours, or a full day. The fixed duration ensures a steady stream of turnover, allowing you to service multiple customers per day.

Flexible rentals provide customers with more freedom to choose the rental period, which is ideal for long-term or multi-day rentals. With this setup, you can charge customers based on their usage over an extended period, offering more convenience for those who need items for longer durations.

 

Best suited for:

 

• Long-term rentals, such as road bikes for commuting, where customers need the product for several days or even weeks.
• Situations where offering discounts for extended bookings could increase customer loyalty and booking value.

 

Example Scenario: Flexible bookings allow for a scalable day rate, where the longer the rental, the lower the daily cost. For example, for rentals of 1-5 days, the daily rate is $80, but for rentals of 6-8 days, the rate drops to $70 per day.

Important:

If you leave an SKU blank for a rental duration, the customer will not be able to book that duration for the item. If you don’t have an SKU for a particular rental duration, you can create a new one under POS products, provided you don’t have a POS linked to Hubtiger.

 

For POS-linked accounts: Create a new SKU on your POS system, then return to the Hubtiger portal and link the SKU to the relevant price group. If the SKU doesn’t appear, navigate to POS products and click the refresh icon (located at the top right next to the search bar) to sync the new SKU data from your POS.

 

Example:

For mountain bikes, you could allow customers to rent for up to 24 hours, setting an hourly rate for short bookings and a daily rate for full-day rentals.

Price Group Configuration:

 

Similar to fixed rentals, you’ll need to create price groups for flexible durations. This ensures that your rental categories are linked to the correct pricing.

 

• Click “Add Price Group” and name it appropriately, such as “Flexible Road Bikes” or “Long-Term Road Bike Rental”. Remember it is best to name it after the category that it corresponds to to avoid confusion.
• For each time unit range (e.g., 1-10 days, 11-20 days), assign the appropriate SKU that corresponds to the price for that duration.
• Important: If you leave any SKU fields blank, customers will not be able to book the duration of the item.
• If you don’t have an SKU ready for these durations, create one in POS products (if you don’t have a POS linked to Hubtiger).
• For POS-linked accounts: Add a new SKU to your POS system for the rental durations and prices, then return to Hubtiger. If the new SKU does not appear, navigate to POS products and click the refresh icon next to the search bar to sync the new data from your POS system.

 

Example:

A road bike could be rented for flexible periods, with the daily rate decreasing after 10 days. For example, the first 10 days could be charged at $20 per day, and days 11-20 could drop to $15 per day, offering value to long-term customers.

Top Tip:

Consider using a combination of fixed and flexible durations based on the product type. For high-demand items like e-bikes, fixed durations ensure availability throughout the day, while long-term rentals for commuting or specialised equipment can benefit from flexible pricing models. Balancing both can increase your store’s booking volume while satisfying various customer needs.

Process:

 

• In this section, you can add new rental products, new rental accessories and link products to accessories.
• Use the tab at the top to swap between these three sections.
• Rental Products: Under the rental products tab, you can add or import rental products by clicking the corresponding button. Insert the information for the product you would like to add.
• Accessory Categories: You can create separate categories for accessories to better organise them (e.g., helmets, pedals, protective gear). This makes it easier for customers to select what they need during the booking process.
• Linking Products to Accessories: At the top of the page, you’ll find a tab called “Link Products and Accessories.” Here, you can drag and drop your rental products (e.g., bikes, kayaks) into the relevant accessory categories (e.g., helmets, pedals, baby seats).
• By linking an accessory to a specific product, that accessory becomes automatically mandatory when a customer selects the product.

 

Example: For a bike rental business, you can link a budget-friendly helmet with an affordable bike or a premium helmet with a high-end bike, and these accessories will be required when booking those items, ensuring safety and proper use of rental gear.

Top Tip:

Linking accessories to main products not only improves the customer experience by offering everything they need in one booking but also increases revenue through upselling. Forcing certain essential items, like helmets, can also help reduce liability concerns and ensure compliance with local safety regulations.

Adding custom rental questions helps gather specific information from customers, improving the booking process and ensuring they get the most suitable products. These questions are particularly useful for rentals where additional data (such as height, weight, or experience level) is necessary for rental item preparation.

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Custom Rental Questions

Process:

 

• Drag and Drop Controls: You can create custom questions by dragging controls (e.g., text inputs, text areas, or checkboxes) from the “Control Templates” section on the left.
• Configure Your Questions: After dragging the desired control, you can configure the question by entering the text you want to ask the customer (e.g., “What is your weight?” for setting bike suspension).
• Add a Hint: Provide hints to guide the customer, such as “We need this information to set the bike suspension correctly.”
• Mandatory Question: Toggle this option if the question must be answered before completing the booking.
• Link to Categories: You can link each question to specific product categories (e.g., linking weight questions to mountain bikes or road bikes).

Top Tip:

Custom rental questions improve customer experience and help ensure that the products are tailored to the customer’s needs. For example, knowing a customer’s weight for a bike rental helps set up the suspension correctly.

Communicating effectively with your customers is key, and Hubtiger offers various messaging options, including email, SMS, and WhatsApp. Setting up message templates will allow you to send automated notifications and updates, keeping customers informed about their reservations and store policies.

 

Navigate to Settings > Messaging > Message Templates

 

Process:

 

You will see three options: Email, SMS, and WhatsApp. You can customise templates for each type of message.

 

Email Setup:

• Toggle email notifications on or off.
• Customise email templates by adding text, buttons, headings, dividers, and images.
• You can also configure the layout, colours, and fonts to match your brand’s style.
• Add links or menus to help customers navigate directly to bookings or reviews.

 

SMS Setup:

• Toggle SMS notifications on or off. Note that SMS messaging requires purchasing SMS bundles.
• The template is limited to 160 characters, so be concise. Add merge tags to personalise the messages (e.g., including customer names or booking details).

WhatsApp Setup:

WhatsApp integration requires an additional $10 per month per store, with separate charges from WhatsApp.

• To set up, update your Hubtiger plan by adding WhatsApp. Navigate to Settings > General > Manage Subscription and add WhatsApp.
• Go to Settings > WhatsApp Integration, log in via Facebook, and follow the prompts to connect your WhatsApp Business account.
• You can customise WhatsApp messages, which have no character limit, and include merge tags, headers (optional), and CTAs (Call-To-Actions).

 

Top Tip:

Automated messaging improves customer communication and reduces manual admin tasks, keeping customers updated throughout the rental process. For more details on WhatsApp setup, check out our Step-by-Step Guide to WhatsApp Integration.

If you work with affiliate partners, Hubtiger makes it easy to manage them. You can offer affiliate-specific coupons and track reservations linked to affiliates, ensuring they get commission payouts based on the rental bookings they refer.

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Affiliates

 

Process:

 

Click on “Add Affiliate” and fill in the following fields:

• Affiliate Name: The name of the affiliate business.
• Contact Person: The name of the person managing the affiliate.
• Contact Email and Phone Number: This is so that communication with the affiliate is streamlined.
• Affiliate Physical Address: Add the affiliate’s business address.
• Commission Settings: Toggle Pay Commission to enable commission payouts for this affiliate.
• Set the Commission Percentage: This defines how much of the reservation total is paid as a commission to the affiliate.
• Payout Cycle: Choose between weekly or monthly payouts. Weekly payouts occur every Monday, while monthly payouts happen on the 1st of every month. Hubtiger will generate a commission report, but it is your responsibility to make the transfer.
• Notifications: You can add user email addresses to receive notifications when a new rental is made through the affiliate’s widget.

Top Tip:

Affiliates help expand your business network, and this feature allows you to manage partnerships with ease. You can monitor rentals made via affiliates and streamline commission payments.

One of the key advantages of using Hubtiger is the ability to offer online bookings through a customised widget that you can easily embed on your website. The booking widget allows customers to browse and book rentals directly on your site, saving both time and admin effort.

 

Navigate to Settings > Plugins > Rentals Widget

 

Process:

• Theme Configuration: You can customise the widget’s appearance to match your branding by configuring:
• Color primario: El color principal utilizado en el widget.
• Color del texto principal: El color del texto utilizado para la información principal.
• Color del texto secundario: El color del texto para la información secundaria.
• Fondo de la tarjeta: Establezca el color de fondo de las tarjetas de producto que se muestran en el widget.
• Fondo de página predeterminado: El color de fondo general de la página del widget.
• Radio del borde de la tarjeta: Ajuste la redondez de las esquinas de las tarjetas de producto para que se adapten a la estética de su diseño.
• Fuentes personalizadas: Si desea que el widget utilice una fuente específica, puede configurarla aquí.
• Integración de Google Tag Manager: Si utiliza Google Tag Manager (GTM) para realizar un seguimiento del comportamiento de los visitantes en su sitio, ingrese aquí su ID de GTM para supervisar las interacciones de los widgets. Si necesita ayuda para configurar Google Tag Manager, puede encontrarla en Instrucciones aquí.
• URL de widgets: Una vez que configure el widget, se le proporcionarán dos opciones:
• Copiar enlace URL: Utilice esto para generar una página independiente donde se alojará el widget de reserva.
• Copiar iFrame: Copie este código para incrustar el widget directamente en las páginas de su sitio web.
• Opción de Entregas/Recogidas: De forma predeterminada, si ofreces entregas, el widget incluirá opciones de entrega. Sin embargo, puedes desactivar esta opción si quieres que el widget excluya el paso de entrega.

Top Tip:
Ofrecer un widget de reservas facilita el proceso a los clientes, ya que les permite reservar alquileres en cualquier momento, y su integración con su sitio web fomenta más reservas en línea. Si necesita más información sobre los widgets de reservas y cómo pueden beneficiar a su negocio, lea nuestro blog “Impulsar el crecimiento: cómo un widget de reservas puede beneficiar a su negocio”.

Los descuentos y cupones pueden ser una excelente manera de aumentar los alquileres al ofrecer promociones a sus clientes. Hubtiger ofrece varias opciones de cupones personalizables que le permiten adaptar las promociones a productos, días o grupos de clientes específicos.

 

Vaya a Configuración > Alquileres > Cupones

 

Process:

 

Puedes crear diferentes tipos de cupones, como:

• Descuentos porcentuales:Ofrezca un porcentaje de descuento (por ejemplo, 10% de descuento).
• Descuentos en artículos de alquiler: Aplicar descuentos a todos los artículos de alquiler o categorías de productos específicos (por ejemplo, todas las bicicletas de montaña).
• Descuentos en accesorios: Ofrecer descuentos en accesorios, ya sea en toda la tienda o para categorías específicas (por ejemplo, cascos).
• Cupones específicos para afiliados:Genere códigos de cupón únicos para cada socio afiliado, que se pueden usar en el widget de reserva en su sitio web.
• Especiales del día de la semana: Fomente más reservas ofreciendo descuentos para alquileres realizados en días específicos de la semana.
• Fecha de caducidad: Establezca una fecha de vencimiento para el cupón, lo que le dará control sobre cuánto tiempo es válida la promoción.
• Límites de uso: Controlar el número de canjes permitidos por cupón (por ejemplo, limitar el descuento a los primeros 50 clientes).
• Uno por cliente: Restrinja el uso de cupones a uno por cliente, fomentando nuevas transacciones.
• Número de productos para calificar: Requerir que los clientes reserven una cantidad mínima de productos (por ejemplo, 3 bicicletas) para calificar para el descuento.
• Gasto mínimo: Establezca un requisito de gasto mínimo para que se aplique el cupón (por ejemplo, $100 mínimo para obtener 10% de descuento).
• Generación de código de cupón: Hubtiger puede generar códigos automáticamente o permitirle ingresar códigos personalizados para sus cupones.

Top Tip:

Los cupones son una excelente manera de fidelizar a los clientes, aumentar las ventas y aumentar el volumen de reservas. Experimente con distintos tipos de promociones para ver qué funciona mejor para su negocio. Si desea obtener más información sobre cómo usar cupones para su negocio de alquiler, lea nuestra publicación del blog 'Cómo utilizar cupones para aumentar la rentabilidad de su negocio de alquiler de equipos'

Hubtiger simplifica la logística permitiéndote gestionar las opciones de entrega y recogida de tus vehículos de alquiler. Puedes definir zonas de entrega, fijar tarifas, asignar vehículos y configurar franjas horarias para entregas y recogidas.

 

Vaya a Configuración > General > Entregas y recogidas de alquiler

 

Process:

• Habilitar entregas y recogidas: Active estas opciones si su tienda ofrece servicios de entrega o recogida.
• Zonas de entrega/recogida: Haga clic en el signo más para agregar nuevas áreas. Puede dibujar áreas de entrega personalizadas en un mapa y ajustar el tamaño y la forma según sea necesario.
• Asignar nombres y SKU a cada área: Establezca una tarifa de entrega y recogida para cada área vinculando la tarifa a un SKU o creando un nombre personalizado para ella.
• Vehículos de reparto: Agregue cada vehículo utilizado para las entregas haciendo clic en el signo más. Proporcione un nombre para el vehículo (por ejemplo, “Van 1”). Especifique el número máximo de artículos de alquiler que el vehículo puede transportar. Vincula cada vehículo a las áreas de entrega apropiadas.
• Franjas horarias de entrega/recogida: Configure los horarios de entrega y recogida seleccionando el día de la semana y las horas de inicio y fin de cada horario. Puede vincular vehículos y áreas específicos a cada espacio, lo que garantiza una programación eficiente.
• Días de buffer: Establezca una hora límite para las reservas (por ejemplo, los alquileres deben reservarse con un día de anticipación).
• Ranuras personalizadas: Si necesita cambiar el cronograma de entrega para una fecha específica, puede crear espacios personalizados que anulen los predeterminados.
• Fechas no disponibles: Bloquee fechas en las que las entregas o recolecciones no estén disponibles, como durante vacaciones o períodos de mantenimiento.

Top Tip:

Ofrecer servicios de entrega y recogida puede mejorar significativamente la satisfacción del cliente, y el sistema de Hubtiger garantiza que pueda gestionar estos servicios con precisión y eficiencia.

Instalar una tienda de alquiler en Hubtiger puede presentar algunos desafíos ocasionales. A continuación, se presentan preguntas y problemas comunes que enfrentan los usuarios, junto con soluciones claras para ayudarlo a resolverlos de manera efectiva.

Eliminar una categoría puede afectar a veces a los precios, pero esto depende de cómo gestiones el proceso de eliminación. A continuación, te indicamos qué hacer en diferentes situaciones:

 

Eliminé una categoría accidentalmente: si elimina accidentalmente una categoría y sus precios dejan de funcionar, simplemente vuelva a agregar la categoría y sus precios deberían funcionar como se espera.

 

Dejar de alquilar una categoría: si decide dejar de ofrecer una categoría en particular, como bicicletas de montaña, siga estos pasos:

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Products and Accessories

 

Process:

• Encuentre el(los) producto(s) bajo la categoría que desea eliminar.
• Haga clic en “Editar”, desplácese hasta la parte inferior y seleccione “Producto de alquiler retirado”.
• Una vez que se hayan retirado todos los productos vinculados a esa categoría, puedes eliminar la categoría de forma segura sin afectar los precios.

¿Aún tienes problemas con los precios? Si los precios siguen sin funcionar después de volver a agregar o eliminar categorías, comunícate con nuestro Equipo de Experiencia del Cliente para obtener más ayuda.

Si un producto está configurado como "Borrador", no aparecerá en el widget ni estará disponible para reservar. A continuación, le indicamos cómo solucionarlo:

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Products and Accessories

 

Process:

 

• Amplíe las categorías relevantes y verifique el estado de cada producto.
• Si un producto está marcado como “Borrador”, haga clic en “Editar”, desplácese hasta la parte inferior y cambie el estado a “Disponible”, luego haga clic en “Guardar”.

Opciones de estado:

1. Borrador: El producto no está disponible para reserva.
2. Disponible: El producto se puede reservar.
3. Reparación necesaria: El producto no se puede reservar y requiere reparaciones.

Top Tip:

Una vez reparado un producto, no olvides actualizar su estado a “Disponible” para que pueda aparecer en el widget y los clientes puedan reservarlo.

Para procesar pagos en línea a través de Hubtiger, necesitarás conectar Stripe o Paystack, según tu ubicación.

 

Para usuarios de Stripe:

 

Asegúrate de tener una cuenta de Stripe. Si no, puedes Regístrate aquí.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > In-App Payments

Process:
Haga clic en “Conectar Stripe”, inicie sesión con sus credenciales y conecte Hubtiger con su cuenta de Stripe.

Para usuarios sudafricanos (Paystack):

 

Si no tienes una cuenta Paystack, puedes Regístrate aquí.

Navigate to Settings > General > In-App Payments

Process:
Haga clic en “Conectar Paystack”.
Si la opción Paystack no aparece, verifica que la ubicación de tu tienda esté configurada en Sudáfrica:

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

 

Establezca su país en “Sudáfrica”, haga clic en “Guardar” y regrese a la sección Pagos dentro de la aplicación. Actualice su navegador si es necesario y ahora debería aparecer el botón Paystack.

Top Tip:
Si continúa experimentando problemas para conectar su proveedor de pagos, actualizar su navegador o comunicarse con el soporte debería ayudar a resolver el problema.

Vincular la URL de Google Reviews es una forma eficaz de generar confianza y mostrar los comentarios de los clientes directamente en el perfil de tu tienda. Al mostrar las reseñas, permites que los clientes potenciales vean las experiencias positivas que han tenido otras personas, lo que puede mejorar significativamente la credibilidad de tu tienda.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

Process:

Desplázate hasta la parte inferior, donde encontrarás campos para agregar tu URL de Google Reviews y la URL de Trustpilot.

¿Pero qué pasa si aún no tienes una URL de Google Business Reviews o una cuenta de Trustpilot?
Aquí te explicamos cómo empezar:

 

Cómo obtener una URL de reseñas de Google

Para generar un enlace de Reseñas de Google, necesitas un Perfil de Google Business. Si aún no tienes uno configurado, sigue estos pasos:

 

Crear un perfil comercial de Google:

 

1. Vaya al Perfil comercial de Google.
2. Inicia sesión con tu cuenta de Google y haz clic en “Administrar ahora”.
3. Siga los pasos para ingresar los detalles de su negocio, verificar la ubicación de su negocio y reclamar su perfil comercial de Google.

Obtenga su enlace de reseñas de Google:

 

1. Una vez que tu perfil esté verificado, ve al panel de tu perfil comercial de Google.
2. Haga clic en Inicio o Información, según el diseño.
3. Desplácese hacia abajo hasta la sección Obtener más reseñas y encontrará la opción "Compartir formulario de reseña".
4. Copie la URL y péguela en el campo URL de Reseñas de Google en la configuración del perfil de la tienda de Hubtiger.

Consejo: Displaying this link makes it easy for customers to leave a review and see what others have said about your store.

 

How to Create a Trustpilot Account

If you prefer using Trustpilot for customer feedback, or if you want to use both platforms, setting up a Trustpilot account is simple.

 

Sign Up for a Trustpilot Business Account:

 

1. Go to Trustpilot.
2. Click “Create Free Account” or “Get Started.”
3. Enter your business information, including name, website, and contact details.
4. Trustpilot will guide you through the process of setting up your profile.

Share Your Trustpilot Review Link:

 

1. Once your account is set up, you can find a review link by navigating to your Trustpilot Business Dashboard.
2. Copy this URL and paste it into the Trustpilot URL field in Hubtiger’s shop profile settings.

 

Top Tip:

Having both Google Reviews and Trustpilot linked on your profile increases the avenues through which customers can leave feedback, giving your business greater exposure. By setting up and linking both your Google Reviews URL and Trustpilot account, you’ll provide customers with multiple trusted platforms to share their experiences, boosting credibility and encouraging new customers to engage with your business.

If new technicians aren’t appearing in your account, this may be because you’ve reached the technician limit set by your subscription package. To verify this, go to Settings > General > Manage Subscription and check the Tech Limit for your current package. If you’ve reached the maximum, consider upgrading to allow more technicians to be added.

Changing your language settings can make the platform more accessible for you and your team. Hubtiger supports multiple languages.

 

Navigate to: Click on your profile name in the top right corner of the dashboard.

 

Process:

 

• Select My Profile.
• Change your preferred language from the dropdown menu.
• Click Update Profile, and the portal will automatically update to the new language.

Supported Languages: Dutch, English (UK and US), Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

Top Tip:

Switching the language makes Hubtiger user-friendly for international staff or customers, allowing for smoother operations across different regions.

Free text merge tags allow you to customise communications and personalise your messages for customers.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

 

Process:

 

• In the Free Text Merge Tag section, add a custom message (up to 50 characters). For example, you can add a sign-off like:
• “Thank you, Hubtiger Cycles.”
• You can modify the text by adjusting the size, adding links, inserting images and more.

Using Free Text Merge Tags in Message Templates:

 

• Navigate to: Settings > Messaging > Message Templates
• When customising a message template (for SMS, email, or WhatsApp), insert the tag $Partner.FreeText$ in the relevant location.
• Once triggered, the system will automatically replace the tag with your custom text. Don’t worry if you don’t see the final version in the preview—when the message is sent, the tag will be updated with the custom text.

Top Tip:

Free text merge tags are a great way to personalise customer communications, making your messages feel more engaging and professional without needing manual updates for each individual message.

If you’re seeing an error, ensure a valid payment method or card is linked to your Meta account, as this is necessary for WhatsApp integration. Without this, your WhatsApp messages won’t be sent, and the system will default to SMS.

 

How to Add a Payment Method:

 

1. Access Billing and Payments: Click this link to open a new tab and go to the billing and payments section of your Facebook Business Account on Meta.
2. Add or Verify Payment Method: If you don’t already have a payment method linked, follow the prompts to add one. If a card is already linked, check that the details are current to avoid interruptions.
3. Fill in Payment Details: Enter your country/region, currency, and time zone, then click ‘Next.’
4. Select and Save Payment Method: Choose your preferred payment option, click ‘Next,’ then add your card details and click ‘Save.’
5. Keeping your payment information up to date ensures that WhatsApp integration functions smoothly, allowing you to reach customers reliably through WhatsApp.

To enable direct messaging, you’ll need to set up a secondary WhatsApp account specifically for this purpose. This keeps your primary account separate, ensuring it remains unaffected while allowing you to manage customer communications smoothly from the dedicated account.

WhatsApp templates must be approved by Facebook Meta. After customising your templates, they are sent for approval, which can take a few minutes as templates are reviewed individually. While awaiting approval, the WhatsApp icon next to the template will appear red. Once approved, it will turn green, indicating that the template is ready for use.

 

To quickly check the status of your templates, navigate to Settings > Messaging > WhatsApp Integration. Here, you’ll see all approved and pending templates, and you can click on each one to make changes if needed. Check back in a few minutes and refresh the page to see if your templates have been approved.