The problem with taking claims by phone and email
The most urgent submissions tend to arrive at the worst times. A geyser bursts at night, a windscreen cracks on the N1, a street loses power during a storm. Phone lines jam, and the details that do come through are often incomplete: no policy number, no photos, an address that's hard to find. Someone on your team then has to phone back, and the customer phones again later to ask what happened.
WhatsApp on its own doesn't fix that. Free-text chat is good for questions and bad at collecting a policy number, a date, a description and three photos in the right order. A WhatsApp Flow is a form that opens inside the chat, screen by screen, and hands the answers back as separate, clean fields. With a live endpoint behind it, each screen can show the customer's own policy, account or meter details while they fill it in.
How it works, step by step
- The customer starts the chatThey message your number, tap a link on your website or scan a QR code on a letter or bill. A short menu asks what they need: claim, quote, application or fault report.
- The Flow opens with their details loadedThe Flow calls our endpoint, which looks the customer up in your system by phone number, policy number, account number or meter number. They see their own policy or account and pick the product or fault type.
- They answer only the questions that applyA funeral claim asks different questions from a motor claim. The endpoint decides which screen comes next, so nobody wades through fields that don't apply to them.
- Location and photos go in the same chatAfter the form, the chat sends a location request so the customer can drop a pin, and asks for photos or documents: damage photos, a death certificate, a retrenchment letter, a hospital account. Media they send is saved and visible in the shared inbox.
- We create the record in your systemWhen the Flow is submitted, our platform sends the answers, the pin and the files to your claims, application or fault system via its API, and gets back its reference number.
- The reference comes back in the chatThe customer gets the reference in the chat, with what happens next. If your system can't take the submission automatically, it goes to your team in the shared inbox instead, with everything attached.
- Status updates arrive in the same threadWhen the status changes in your system (assessor appointed, documents outstanding, approved, paid, fault fixed), your system calls a secure webhook on our platform and the customer gets a utility template with the update.
- Your team can step in at any pointStaff reply in the shared inbox and the automation pauses while a person is handling the chat.
Four patterns, with the details that matter
These are common patterns in South African insurance, finance and municipal services. They are not Euphony clients, and we don't quote any vendor's results.
1. Insurance claims intake
For funeral, retrenchment, hospital, motor and home cover. The policyholder confirms the policy, picks the product, and says what happened, when and where, with a location pin. After the form, the chat asks for the documents that product needs: a death certificate and ID copy for funeral cover, a retrenchment letter, a hospital account, damage photos for motor or home. The claim is created in your claims system, the claim number comes back in the chat, and status changes follow as utility templates. Your claims team replies in the same thread when a person is needed.
2. Windscreen and burst-geyser claims, plus policy documents
These are frequent, urgent and simple to describe, which makes them good candidates to move off the phone line. The menu offers: confirm my cover, send my policy schedule, send a border letter, or register a glass or geyser claim. The claim path collects the policy, date, description and photos, registers the claim and returns the number. Policy schedules and border letters come back as PDFs, generated by your system and sent in the chat.
We collect the photos and pass them to your claims system. We do not assess damage or estimate repairs from photos. If you use a damage-assessment engine, we can send the photos to it via its API, but the assessment is that engine's job.
3. An instant insurance quote with the premium inside the Flow
The customer picks "get a quote" and the product (car, home or funeral). The Flow asks for the risk details, sends them to your rating engine through a data_exchange request, and shows the premium on the next screen. They can change the cover amount or excess and see the new price, then accept, ask for an adviser, or save the quote for later. The pricing rules stay in your system; the Flow only displays what your engine returns.
4. Municipal and utility fault reports
A resident says "Hi", picks Water or Electricity and the fault type, and gives a meter, connection or account number. The endpoint checks that number against your billing or customer database before the report goes in, so you're not relying on a typed address. The resident drops a pin, adds a photo of the leak or the fallen line, and gets a reference number straight away. Progress updates follow as utility templates. If your fault system has no API, intake still runs on WhatsApp: reports land in the shared inbox with the pin and photos, and an agent logs them in your system.
Also: loan, funding and service applications
The same shape works for loan and funding applications, quote requests for services, and service call-outs. Meta's own Flows examples include pre-approved loans and insurance quotes. Where the application is mostly about collecting ID, proof of address and payslips, see onboarding and KYC in WhatsApp.
Systems connected, and what runs where
| Part | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Flow | The form inside the chat. Written and published by our engineers for each client | Build |
Encrypted data_exchange endpoint | Loads live data into each screen (policy, premium, account check) from your system, within Meta's 10-second limit | Runs on our platform; the lookups to your system are a build |
| Location request and inbound media | The customer drops a pin and sends photos or documents in the chat; files are saved and shown in the inbox | Runs |
| Your claims, policy, loan or fault system | We create the record via its API and read back the reference number | Build |
| Status webhook | Your system calls it when a status changes; the customer gets a utility template | Runs; wiring your system to call it is a build |
| Voice-note transcription and Claude | Voice notes are transcribed, then Claude pulls out the date, place and claim type for your team or the claim record | Runs inside the conversation logic we write |
| Shared inbox | Your team reads the thread, sees the files and replies; automation pauses while they do | Runs |
Live lookups inside the Flow only read from your system. The claim, application or fault record is created once the customer submits, as a separate call. That keeps the Flow quick, and if your system is slow or down at that moment, the submission isn't lost: we build the logic to try again later or pass it to your team. Meta treats an endpoint request as timed out after 10 seconds and recommends answering in under 1 second, so we keep lookups short and design a fallback screen for when your system doesn't answer in time.
Sources: WhatsApp Flows · Implement endpoints for Flows · Flows error codes (timeout after 10 seconds) · Flows health and monitoring
For the engineering detail on encryption, signatures and the time limit, see how Flows load live data from your system.
Message categories and what Meta charges
Meta charges per delivered message, by category. Messages your customer sends you are free. You connect your own WhatsApp account through Meta's Embedded Signup and Meta bills you directly at its rates. We add nothing to message costs.
| Message | Meta category | Meta's SA rate from 1 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Menu, Flow, location request and reference, while the customer is in the chat | Service (non-template, inside the 24-hour window) | First 1,000 per number per month free, then US$0.0095 each |
| Status updates sent later (approved, documents outstanding, fault fixed) | Utility template | US$0.0095 each |
| A Flow your system starts, such as "please send damage photos" | Template with a Flow button, priced by the category Meta approves it under | US$0.0095 if utility; US$0.0379 if marketing |
Say one claim takes 6 replies from you while the customer is in the chat, and 3 status updates afterwards. Once your number has used its 1,000 free service messages that month, Meta's fees for that claim are 9 × US$0.0095 = about US$0.09. Before the free tier is used up, only the 3 status updates are charged: about US$0.03. Your real numbers depend on how your Flow and updates are designed.
Since 1 October 2026, utility templates are charged even when sent inside an open 24-hour window, so we only send a template when the update is worth it. Meta's volume tiers can lower utility rates at higher volumes.
Sources: Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform · Sending a Flow · Customer service windows. Rand examples are on our pricing page.
Claim HC-48213 update: your assessor, Sipho, will visit on Wednesday between 09:00 and 12:00. Reply here if that doesn't suit you. example
Wednesday is fine, thanks
Documents and POPIA
Claims and applications carry personal information: ID copies, death certificates, payslips, hospital accounts and home addresses. Some of it, such as health details on a hospital claim, needs extra care. POPIA applies to all of it, so we plan document handling with you before we build:
- Ask only for the documents each claim or application type needs.
- Send files to your system as soon as the record is created, and agree with you how copies kept on our platform are handled.
- Tell customers in the chat what you're collecting and why, and link your privacy notice.
- If you need message content kept in South Africa, Meta's Cloud API supports South Africa (
ZA) as a local storage region. Meta requires it to be set before the number is registered, so raise it at the start.
Source: Local storage, Meta for Developers
What we need from you
- Your current form. The PDF, web form or call script you use today, per claim, quote or fault type.
- API access. Documentation and a test environment for looking up a customer and creating a record. If there's no API, we start with intake into the shared inbox.
- Your statuses. The status list your system uses, and which changes the customer should hear about.
- Document rules. Which documents each type needs, where files should go, and your retention rules.
- A WhatsApp number on your own account. You connect it through Meta's Embedded Signup, complete Meta business verification and add a payment method so Meta can bill you. We coach you through business verification.
- People for the inbox. Who on your team picks up chats that need a person.
Codeswop is a Meta Tech Provider. If you already use another WhatsApp provider, you can keep your number and share your WhatsApp account with us; your templates will need to be recreated.