WhatsApp for estate agents

Business, not personal

KeyAccess talks to WhatsApp Business. Personal chats are not a supported connection, and browser login is not a back door around that. The Business account, the number and any template the platform requires are set up in WhatsApp, not invented in a prompt. If your process uses a provider such as a shared inbox in front of WhatsApp, connect that provider only if it is the one in your directory and you understand what it can send. Some connectors can list contacts and still cannot send.

Tell clients which number is the agency. A negotiator’s private phone, full of family chats, should not become the system of record.

What to send

Confirmations, “I’m outside”, feedback requests, and short answers to a question they asked. The first sentence should make sense on a lock screen. Do not paste a 400-word email. Do not include key safe codes unless that message is the channel your firm has chosen and a person has approved this particular text.

Voice notes the client sends you are still client data. A transcript can be turned into a note. The audio does not need to be forwarded to the whole branch.

Approval and templates

Anything that sends waits for approval unless you have set a policy that says otherwise. WhatsApp also has its own rules about template messages outside a live conversation. If a message will not send because it is outside the session window, the failure should be shown to you, not quietly dropped or rewritten as an SMS.

Marketing blasts are a different product from a conversation with someone who enquired. If you run those, they belong in a tool built for campaigns, with consent you can explain. Do not scrape a CRM and message everyone because a model drafted something friendly.

Alongside email

Many people start on a portal email and continue on WhatsApp. Keep both threads pointing at the same applicant. The CRM note should say which channel the last reply was on, so a colleague does not email a question that was answered in chat an hour ago.

Price, status and viewing time must match the email and the portal. A WhatsApp that says “still available” while the board says SSTC is how you get a complaint. Read the status from the file before you approve the send.

Questions