Messaging customers
Channels and fallback
Five ways to reach a customer, with very different reach, cost and reliability. Out of the box a customer gets a WhatsApp message first and a text only if the WhatsApp didn’t land, so the important messages get through without paying for two messages every time.
The five channels
Sent first. WhatsApp only allows a business to start a conversation with wording WhatsApp has approved in advance, so these go out as Queue Join’s own approved messages, in English, from Queue Join’s WhatsApp business account. Unlike a text, WhatsApp tells us whether the message arrived — which is what makes the text a genuine backup rather than a duplicate.
- Reaches
- Customers with WhatsApp, except on US and Canadian numbers
- Costs
- Counts against your allowance
Text message (RCS or SMS)
The backup to WhatsApp, and the only message for customers WhatsApp cannot reach. For customers outside North America it goes as a rich RCS message where the phone supports it and as an ordinary SMS where it doesn’t — one message either way, never both. Customers with a US or Canadian number get a plain SMS.
- Reaches
- Any mobile phone
- Costs
- Counts against your allowance
Web push
A browser notification, instant and costing nothing. Most visitors never enable them, so it is a welcome extra rather than something to rely on.
- Reaches
- Only customers who allowed notifications
- Costs
- Free
Good for confirmations, details and receipts. Poor for urgency: nobody watches their inbox for their turn in a queue.
- Reaches
- Anyone whose address you hold
- Costs
- Free — does not touch your allowance
Voice
An automated call reading the message out. Offered only on the messages that mean “you should be here now”, and always in addition to the text, never instead of it.
- Reaches
- Any phone
- Costs
- A voice call pack, on paid plans — not your messaging allowance
How a message chains
For a given message, every channel you have switched on is used — push and email go out alongside everything else. The interesting decision is the text, because it is the one most likely to duplicate something the customer already has. Each message decides when its text is sent, from four conditions.
Only if WhatsApp is not delivered (the default)
The WhatsApp message goes first, and the text is held back while WhatsApp reports whether it arrived:
- Delivered or read — the text is never sent.
- Failed — the text goes the moment WhatsApp reports it, usually within seconds.
- No answer either way — after about a minute the text goes anyway. Silence usually means the phone doesn’t have WhatsApp.
- WhatsApp couldn’t be sent at all — a customer with a US or Canadian number, a message with no WhatsApp version, or WhatsApp switched off for that message — the text goes straight away, with no wait.
Always send
The text goes out straight away, whatever happens on WhatsApp. Customers who have WhatsApp get the message twice.
Only if the push was not delivered
The text is skipped when a push notification got through. Since most customers never turn notifications on, in practice this sends the text to nearly everyone.
Only if the push was not tapped within a minute
The text is held for a minute. If the customer opened the notification, it is dropped; if not, it is sent. This tests something real — whether a human actually saw it — at the price of a delay.
A held text is dropped once the alert has been seen
Whatever the condition, a text that is being held back is only ever a backup. If, by the time it is due, the customer has tapped the push notification, read the WhatsApp message or had their status or booking page open, it is not sent. On the waitlist, the same applies if they are served or cancelled in the meantime.
Limitations worth knowing
A push has no delivery receipt
When a push service accepts a notification, that is the last thing anybody hears about it. The phone may be switched off, the browser may have been uninstalled, the notification may be silently dropped — and none of that comes back.
So for the push conditions, “not delivered” means definitively not delivered: the customer had no subscription, every endpoint was gone, or the send was refused. Where the push was accepted, it is treated as delivered. WhatsApp does report delivery, which is why the default waits on WhatsApp instead.
About a minute can mean up to six
A WhatsApp failure releases the held text immediately. Everything else that waits — no WhatsApp receipt, or a push that wasn’t tapped — is checked by a job that runs every five minutes, so that text goes out somewhere between one and six minutes later. Anything more than ten minutes stale is dropped rather than sent, because “it’s your turn” arriving that late is worse than not arriving.
Choosing per message
The default suits almost every message, and there is rarely a reason to change it. It sends one message to each customer — WhatsApp where it lands, a text where it doesn’t — and customers without WhatsApp get the text with no delay.
- Always send is for a message you want on both WhatsApp and text, and are happy to pay for twice.
- The push conditions are for a location that has switched WhatsApp off and wants to save texts for customers who don’t use notifications.
- Switching a message off — on every channel — is the cheapest option of all, and the right one for messages your customers don’t need, such as follow-ups.
Conditions are set per message, under customer messages.
Voice calls
An automated call is the strongest signal available and the most intrusive. It suits businesses whose customers are not looking at a phone screen — a garage waiting room, an older clientele — and the single moment of being summoned rather than the running commentary.
Which messages can ring
- It’s your turn and Booking running late — voice is on by default.
- Next in line — available, off by default.
Nobody is called until your account holds a voice call pack, which any paid plan can add. Calls come out of the pack, then out of your overage balance if you have overage switched on, and stop when neither can cover them. They never touch your messaging allowance. See add-ons.
When it rings
By default a call waits to see whether it is needed: “Call only if the customer hasn’t seen their message”. The message goes out as normal, and after a delay you choose — 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes, 2 unless you change it — the call is placed only if the customer still hasn’t seen it. The call is dropped if, by then, they have:
- opened their status page or booking page,
- tapped the push notification or read the WhatsApp message,
- been marked as arrived or served, or otherwise moved on.
A text has no read receipt, which is why the “it’s your turn” text carries a link to the status page: opening it is how a customer who only has the text says “seen”. The other option, “Always call”, rings straight away alongside the message.
What the customer hears
- The message read out twice, naming your business. If the call goes to voicemail, it is left after the beep.
- At most one call per visit for each message, however many times the button is pressed.
- If they ring the number back, they are told which business called them and to check their text or go to the counter. The number doesn’t take calls.
Which number it comes from
Texts and calls go out from a number chosen by where your customer’s phone number is from, not where you are — a customer with a US number receiving a text from a UK number is both more expensive and far more likely to be filtered. There is nothing to set. See sender numbers.