How it works, step by step
Most feedback surveys follow the same six steps. What changes between businesses is the trigger, the wording and where the results go.
- Something happens in your systemAn order is marked delivered, an appointment is closed, a guest checks out. Your system tells our platform through an authenticated webhook.
- The customer gets a one-tap ratingAn approved template names the order, visit or stay and asks how it went, with three or five reply buttons. The customer taps one. No link, no form, no login.
- Every customer gets a thank-youA short thank-you after any score, with your review link if you want one. See asking for reviews below.
- Low scores also get one follow-up question"What went wrong?" The customer can type or send a voice note. We transcribe voice notes with South African language support, and Claude tags the theme: late, damaged, staff, price, quality or something else.
- Your manager is alertedThe score, the comment or transcript and the order reference go to the person who should act, as a WhatsApp message to their number, an email or a post in your team chat. The conversation sits in the shared inbox, and when someone on your team replies, the automation pauses so they can talk to the customer directly.
- The result goes into your systemEvery answer, good or bad, is sent as one record to a Google Sheet, your CRM, a database or a BI tool, with the score, theme, branch and date.
What the customer sees
Short beats clever. One question with one tap gets you a score for each order. A second question, only when the score is low, gets you the reason. Anything longer belongs in a form.
- Three buttons (Great, Okay, Not good) show in full under the message. This is the simplest choice for deliveries and quick visits.
- Five buttons (1 to 5) work too. Meta allows up to 10 quick reply buttons on a template, but when a template has more than three, WhatsApp shows two and puts the rest behind a "See all options" button. Meta also says templates with four or more buttons can't be viewed on WhatsApp desktop, so the customer is asked to open them on a phone. Test it before you choose.
- Longer surveys go in a WhatsApp Flow: a short form with a few screens that opens inside the chat. Each answer comes back as its own field, which is far easier to report on than chat text.
Source: Meta, Template components (buttons section, opened 26 October 2026).
Systems connected
| Piece | What it does here | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Utility or marketing templates | The survey message itself, sent outside the 24-hour window | Runs (we draft and submit them to Meta) |
| Reply buttons and lists | The one-tap rating | Runs |
| WhatsApp Flows | Longer surveys and the referral form in the lodge example | Build (a Flow per client) |
| Voice-note transcription | Turns a spoken complaint into text, with South African language support | Runs inside a conversation program we write for you |
| Claude | Tags the theme and pulls out details such as the order number or branch | Runs inside the program |
| Outbound HTTP | Sends each result to Sheets, your CRM, a database, a BI tool or n8n | Build (we connect to your system's API) |
| Shared inbox | Where your team reads the complaint, listens to the voice note and replies | Runs |
| Trigger from your system | Delivered, visit closed, checked out | Build (your system calls an authenticated webhook on our platform) |
The conversation logic for each client is a program our engineers write and test. There's no drag-and-drop survey builder: you tell us the questions and rules, and we build them.
Message categories and what Meta charges
Meta charges per delivered message, by category, at the South African rate for +27 numbers. Meta bills you directly and we add nothing to it.
| Message | Category | Meta's SA rate from 1 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Survey about a specific order, visit or stay | Utility, if Meta approves it as utility | US$0.0095 |
| Generic survey, or one with an offer in it | Marketing | US$0.0379 |
| Thank-you, follow-up question and your team's replies inside the 24-hour window | Service | First 1,000 per number each month free, then US$0.0095 |
| Alert to your manager by WhatsApp, when their window is closed | Template; Meta decides the category | Utility US$0.0095 or marketing US$0.0379 |
| The customer's taps and replies | Not charged | Meta charges only for messages from businesses |
The category is Meta's call, not ours. Meta's guidelines list feedback surveys under utility, but only when they're tied to a specific order, transaction or interaction. In Meta's words, "A general/generic survey or request for feedback will not be approved as utility." A feedback survey with promotional content counts as marketing. So we name the order or visit in the template and keep offers out of it. Since 1 October 2026 a utility template is charged even when the customer's window is open.
A rough guide: for 2,000 delivery surveys a month approved as utility, Meta's charge is 2,000 × US$0.0095 = US$19, plus any service messages over your free 1,000. These numbers are an example, not a quote.
Sources: Meta, Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform · Template categorization (both opened 26 October 2026). Rand examples on our pricing page.
Review sites set their own rules on how a business may ask for reviews, so we offer your review link to every customer who answers, not only the ones who scored you highly. Check the rules of the site you use before launch. Your survey results stay your own private data either way.
Opt-in comes first
Meta requires businesses to get opt-in before messaging people on WhatsApp, and the opt-in must name your business. Ask when customers give you their number at checkout, booking or check-in, and say they'll get order updates and a short feedback question. Meta suggests asking for each kind of message separately, such as updates and offers, so customers know what to expect. See Meta's opt-in rules. Our platform sends offers and win-back broadcasts only to contacts who agreed to marketing, and a customer who replies "stop" is opted out of marketing.