The number is yours
With your own number, your client sees your firm. The WhatsApp message comes from your own number, with your own name on it, and a reply goes to you, in the thread you already have with that client. No Pingtail number appears anywhere in that conversation.
Everything else stays the same. The message carries the private link for that one request, your client taps it, the upload page opens, and each file is checked on arrival exactly as it is from an email. The chat is a way in, not a second product.
Two ways to run your own number
Which one fits depends on how much you want to type.
- From your own phone. On any request, each contact with a number gets a send button. It prepares the message, with the greeting, the period, what is still missing and the link, opens the chat on your own phone, and you tap send. Nothing to apply for, and the send is recorded on the request so your team can see it went. If you would rather paste it yourself, there is a "copy the message" option.
- On its own. Connect your own WhatsApp Business account and requests, reminders and "please send a better copy" messages go out by themselves, the same way the emails do.
How a client ends up on it
Two ways, and both are the client's to undo.
- You set it on the contact: a number in international form, and a choice of email, WhatsApp from your own number or ours, or both. A contact set to WhatsApp from your own number or ours falls back to email when a message cannot be delivered.
- Your client switches it on themselves. The upload page offers it, they enter their number, and that is recorded as their own confirmation.
To stop, your client replies STOP in the chat or uses the same switch on the upload page. Sending stops at once and that contact goes back to email. Your firm cannot switch it on again for a number that said stop. That is the point: it is their phone. On Pingtail's number, STOP stops messages from every firm that uses it.
What comes back
With your own WhatsApp Business account connected, or on Pingtail's number, your client can answer the chat with a photo of a receipt or a PDF. The file lands on the first item still waiting on their open request, gets the same checks as an upload on the page, and the answer goes back into the chat: "Got it, filed under ...", or what looked wrong and what to send instead. A text reply appears on the request for your team to read. Nothing is filed twice, and nothing skips the check.
The same rules as email
Quiet hours in your client's timezone, the daily cap and any sending pause are applied before a channel is chosen, so a message never goes out at an hour an email would not. Reminders still list only what is still missing, and they still stop on their own. The reminders page has the schedule.
Your own number: what you set up, and what it costs
Sending from your own phone needs nothing but your phone. Automatic sending is your own account with Meta, and it takes an afternoon.
- A Meta business portfolio holding your own WhatsApp Business account, with a number on it.
- Four values copied into your settings: the phone number ID, the account ID, an access token and the app secret. They are sealed when stored and never shown back to you.
- Four message templates created in your own account and approved by Meta: a request, a reminder, a fix and a sign-in code. We give you the exact wording to paste, in the utility category.
- A callback address and a verify token, both shown on the same settings card, pasted into your Meta app so replies reach us.
- A test message to your own number, from the same card, before a client ever sees one.
Meta charges you per message, on your own account, at Meta's rates. We add nothing to that and we never see your bill. Your account, your number, your relationship with Meta.
Where it is available
This channel follows the country in your firm's settings, because the rules and the professional guidance are not the same everywhere. Today it is on for firms in:
- Australia
- Canada
- India
- Ireland
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- South Africa
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
In other countries the settings card, the buttons and the client switch are simply not there, and requests go by email as usual. Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain are not in this first group. On Pingtail's number, your client's phone number has to be from one of these countries too; a client with any other number gets email.
What this is not
- Not a marketing channel. Every message is about your client's own request.
- Not a chat product. Your client cannot start a conversation with a firm that has not written to them, and your team does not answer from inside our app.
- No SMS, and no mobile app.
- No delivery or read receipts. The link open and the upload are the evidence that a message arrived.
- Photos sent in a chat land on the client's newest open request, not on an older one.
The rest of what a client sees is on the client upload page, and the whole tour is on the features page.
Questions
Do my clients need to install anything?
No. A client who has WhatsApp needs nothing else, whether you send from your own number or ours. The Upload documents button opens the secure page in their phone's browser: no account, no password and no app.
Do my clients have to agree?
Messages on WhatsApp from your own number or ours go only to contacts you set to it, or who switched it on themselves from the upload page. Set it only for clients who have agreed to hear from you there. Replying STOP stops it at once, and your firm cannot switch it back on for that number. On Pingtail's number, STOP stops messages from every firm that uses it.
What if a client does not use WhatsApp?
Email carries on. Any contact can stay on email only, and a WhatsApp message from your own number or ours that cannot be delivered goes by email instead. On Pingtail's number the request also moves to email after 12 messages, or when you have no chases left for that client's country, and you are told.
Which countries does it work in?
Your firm's country has to be on the list above, because the rules and the professional guidance are not the same everywhere. On Pingtail's number your client's phone number has to be from one of those countries too; a client with any other number gets email.
What does a chase cost?
It depends on your client's country, because Meta charges by the country of the phone number. A chase for a client with a US or Canadian number is $0.10. Settings shows the price for your clients' countries, in your currency, before you buy a pack.
Can I move from Pingtail's number to my own later?
Yes. Once your own number is connected, it is the one your clients hear from. Until then, Pingtail's number keeps your requests moving.
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